The live demonstration in the iForum Tech Lab highlighted advanced, first-of-its-kind technology marrying industry-leading application acceleration from Citrix with Windows-based networking and application services from Microsoft.
Based on Citrix WANScaler, Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server, the new solution is designed to make applications faster and more secure for workers in branch offices, reduce branch office infrastructure costs and simplify IT administration.
The branch office is a key point of convergence for end-to-end application delivery infrastructures. More than 50 percent of enterprise employees access mission-critical business applications while working outside of a corporate headquarters location according to independent market research. Delivery of applications over long-distance wide area networks (WANs), often on low bandwidth links, can significantly degrade application performance, lowering productivity for large numbers of employees. Applications that work well for headquarters-based staff with high-speed local area network (LAN) connections often fail when delivered to branch office workers over high-latency WANs.
While traditional WAN Optimization products address the delivery of applications over long distances, they fail to incorporate intelligence on the types of applications and how they are used. Citrix and Microsoft are addressing these challenges for enterprises by combining Microsoft’s market-leading core edge and server technologies and Citrix’s popular application acceleration and WAN optimization products. The joint solution will enable customers to realize immediate cost savings and enhanced information-worker productivity in the branch, while uniquely enabling them to take advantage of the familiarity and manageability of Windows Server, which is already a core component of many customers’ infrastructure.
“Lowering IT costs through data center consolidation is an enterprise IT imperative for many customers,” said Mike Schutz, director of product management for Windows Server networking and Forefront security at Microsoft Corp.
“While removing IT infrastructure from the branch is often initially perceived as a silver bullet, organizations are quickly realizing that many core services, a majority of them Windows-based, must remain resident in the branch office to ensure optimal application performance and availability for remote users. To meet these challenges, we are working with Citrix to deliver a WAN Optimization solution that integrates Windows-based branch office services and leverages our existing management tools to provide a seamless management and end-user experience from the datacenter to the desktop.“
“As data centers consolidate and users become increasingly mobile, there are two emerging needs in the branch office – enhancing end-user productivity and lowering the total cost of ownership,” said Sanjay Uppal, vice president of product marketing, Application Networking Group, Citrix Systems.
“Microsoft is a long-time strategic partner with whom we are working to develop a complete solution fulfilling these needs. Integrating ubiquitous Microsoft software solutions with Citrix’s proven WAN optimization capabilities drives greater application performance, faster data transfers and a better user experience.”
The Citrix branch office solution will be available the first half of 2008. |
