Citrix....not a Fruit

Perhaps you’ve heard System Administrators, Consultants, or even users refer to Citrix as a product they support, use or both on a daily basis. To begin, Citrix is a company offering a suite of products to provide secure and controlled access to applications. This suite offers much more than Microsoft’s Remote Desktop technology (which is based on the Citrix Client) in the way of management and client benefits, as well as cost benefits.

A single server can provide applications to many users. How many users depend on the specifications of the server, the number of users, the number of applications, and the resources consumed by each application. These applications were installed and configured once, on the MetaFrame server, and not many times, on each client workstation. Additional capacity is possible by creating a Farm, a number of servers distributing work.

IT departments are either static or shrinking in today’s climate of budget shortfalls. It becomes critical for IT staff to be as efficient as possible. The server Farm allows just a few installations of a software package to be made available to many users in possibly many locations.

A word of warning. Installing Microsoft Office on 4 MetaFrame servers intended to provide for 100 users does not mean only 4 licenses are required. In this case, it means 100 licenses are required. It depends on the software vendor and their licensing policy, so check carefully to avoid legal issues.

Data security can be realized by using Roaming Profiles and storing user’s documents and other sensitive data on a file server in the data center. This avoids users carrying sensitive data in their laptops, which could be stolen, yet still providing controlled access to all information required. The workstations used by users can be of much lower specifications. Older laptops and desktops perform quite well running various Citrix Clients, which do not require much in the way of resources. There are even specifically designed Thin Clients, low‐end low‐cost computers, to connect directly to MetaFrame servers. Citrix Clients are available for a variety of platforms including Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

Bandwidth requirements are quite modest for the various Citrix clients, both internally and when working remote. Originally designed to work over dial‐up, they perform very nicely when working from home on a broadband connection, over a wireless connection, or even a modem from the hotel room.

Cost benefits can be realized by using lower‐end client workstations. IT staff will spend less time traveling to users to address application issues and install application updates on every workstation. Depending on server capacity and available licenses, new users can simply be added to the system. Typically, adding these additional users becomes more and more cost effective as the numbers increase.

Should a company be considering Citrix as a solution? It takes careful consideration and planning of many aspects to understand the true cost and benefits. Integrated tions has the expertise and experience to help. Enterprise Solutions has the expertise and experience to help.

By: Jeff H. LaButte, Technical Consultant