Citrix releases new virtual apps 20 May, 2008 By Paul Weinberg

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This is a complementary piece to the vendor's new desktop virtualization solution, XenDesktop, which is also being introduced at the same time, stated John Sloan, a senior analyst at the Info-Tech Research Group.

"Citrix has packaged [XenDesktop] with these gateways and repeaters, and receivers. So the receivers are client sized applications, that make connections with virtual desktops as fast as possible."

The end user can receive a rich desktop experience at a remote location on a virtual machine that is close to using an actual PC and also manages to avoid latency," Sloan explained.

The Info-Tech analyst observed a recent implementation of virtual desktops and delivered applications in a hospital where the nurses "didnt think anything had changed" at their workstations.

"The only thing that had really changed was that the box got smaller."

Citrix has become a contender in the virtualization because it already has its standby application delivery product, Presentation Server, renamed XenApp, which can accommodate virtual desktops.

Sloan told eChannelLine he expects intense competition and a price war between Citrix and VMware with their respective VDI solutions over the numbers of end users that can be hooked up with thin clients.

"So going forward, there is definitely going to be a battle here in terms of the providing not just better experience at the lowest price but also the best manageability. Unlike server virtualization where VMware has had a long standing lead, the desktop side of it is much more open. And like I said, Citrix is with these announcements playing at its strength."

Sanjay Uppal, vice president of product management for Citrix's application networking group, drew an analogy between the delivery of applications to virtual desktops and satellite television communications.

"We are transforming data centers into delivery centers, because we think that applications and users are moving further away from one another, and we are bringing them closer together."

The Branch Repeater augments, amplifies and retransmits the signal of the application from a central location to branch offices regardless of the device or hypervisor, he added.

Also, Citrix Branch Repeater is built on Windows Server which facilitates the consolidation and delivery of native Windows services such as file, print, Active Directory, domain name system (DNS), and dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) plus ISA Server 2006 Web caching. Furthermore, Citrix Branch Repeater relies on its WAN optimization technology to accelerate the delivery of application traffic to and from the branch.

Branch Repeater is available today in three easy-to-deploy appliances designed for small, medium and large sized branch offices with list pricing starting at $5,500 (US) through Citrix authorized resellers.

Microsoft ISA Server 2006 and a Fail-to-Wire Ethernet interface options are also available starting at $1,000.