Citrix used its annual iForum global user conference in
Orlando, Florida, this week to launch a number of initiatives to
widen its client/server and business continuity
offering.
The 3,000 attendees at the show heard Citrix chief executive
officer Mark Templeton outline the company’s future product roadmap
and announce a number of partnership initiatives to better deliver
in areas such as customer support, business continuity and
increased employee productivity.
Templeton said, "IT buying growth is at around 5% but fixed IT
costs at firms range from 70% to 80%, showing there is a long way
to go before firms fully adopt our model of software as a service,
but we have the roadmap for companies to follow to allow them to
adopt SaaS."
Templeton said the next version of Citrix’s Presentation Server,
codenamed Ohio, will give administrators new system health
management features, active application provisioning and 2-D
graphics acceleration, as well as efficiently deliver applications
to desktops from a server.
Citrix also has a constellation of Presentation Server
initiatives on the boil to tie in with the forthcoming arrival of
Microsoft’s Windows Longhorn server platform. These include Pictor,
Libra, Gemini and Sagitta.
Pictor will eventually deliver 3-D graphics to Presentation
Server, with Citrix developing the technology with Boeing, which
wants the more powerful graphics to help with its plane design
systems.
Libra will deliver better load balancing of applications, and
Gemini will enable improved policy-based session readings. Sagitta
is designed to deliver improved administration.
Citrix has also launched Project Kent in partnership with IBM, a
business continuity offering to help firms cope with workforce
disruption as a result of natural disasters, pandemics or other
problems.
This initiative will lead to both companies making available USB
tokens packed with basic applications, connectivity to services
such as corporate instant messaging programs and other
communications. This will enable staff to quickly connect to the
enterprise from disparate locations.
Templeton explained that experienced road warriors would always
have a good chance to contact the office and get up and running if
disaster struck, but that firms needed a way to enable less
technically savvy staff to remain productive when away from the
office, which could include customer service agents for
instance.
In another project, Citrix has unveiled its Trinity Dynamic
Desktop initiative, designed to allow companies to deliver "truly
ready-built, optimised, portable, managed, and fully productive
desktops to three different levels of workers". The Trinity Dynamic
Desktop product will be based on three different platforms.
Templeton described the Trinity product as "simple and fast" and
said it will be designed for repetitive tasks, in call centres for
instance. The offering, which is described as "personal and
versatile", will be aimed at workers in areas such as marketing,
sales and finance.
Templeton said it is a "‘high performance and powerful"
product that will be for knowledge-based workers in areas such as
engineering, design, and software development.
Trinity will be based on Windows-based PCs and other access
devices, a Windows OS, and Citrix delivery software.
Templeton said the first Trinity offerings would be ready for
customers next year and would be “always on, used with a single
user password, come with on-demand assistance and be collaborative
in nature.”
Citrix is working with Intel, AMD, Microsoft, HP, Wyse, VMWare
and others on developing Trinity products. The company has also
launched its new MyCitrix website to allow users to get help with
their applications and upgrade them.
Citrix has also begun its Citrix Ready programme which sees its
technology partners outline how their own products are being
integrated with those from Citrix.