Citrix takes MetaFrame Access Suite from strategy to reality in repositioning move

Rethink IT, July, 2004 by Caroline Gabriel

The past few years have seen increasingly strong movements towards thin client computing, or server-based computing. While the fully featured PC remains the dominant front end in the enterprise, more and more companies are looking to base at least some of their applications on more cost effective platforms. Harking back to the days of mainframes with dumb terminals, such deployments in the modern age tend to rely on Java-based devices from 'thin' computers to mobile phones, with most applications and data held on the server, and accessed across the network from a browser-based interface.

Various factors are driving the revived interest in thin client architectures:

* A desire to reduce the sums spent on PCs and on desktop applications, only 5% of whose features are often used by the average employee

* The need to incorporate new breeds of devices into the system, notably mobile clients such as PDAs and smartphones

* The increasing flexibility of the workforce, so that employees need to access central systems securely from remote offices and on the move

* The desire of the IT department to re-assert centralized control of applications, user policy and security

These trends are a huge boost for companies that have pioneered the thin client approach, one of the foremost among them being Citrix, the market leader in secure access infrastructure solutions. Its core MetaFrame technology encompasses many architectures and client types, building on its history--with products such as WinFrame--in pushing all the power of Windows to virtually any device over any type of connection and running desktop applications on the server.

Its tools mean that the network can be extended to encompass new devices, whether or not they lie within the direct control of the organization, and, because such an approach makes the web browser the mediator of the application, service delivery is freed from the constraints of proprietary client software platforms. Windows applications can be delivered nor just to Windows clients but to Macintosh, Unix derivatives, and Linux clients. The benefits of this approach are twofold: a broader church for strategic applications and the ability to increase the reach of the corporate network without incurring the usual penalties of inflated cost and increased complexity.

CHANGING TACK

A critical phase in Citrix' history came when it decided in 2003 to reposition itself as a remote access infrastructure provider, rebranding all its products under one label--the MetaFrame Access Suite--to reinforce the change. This is part of its overall strategy of evolving a complete framework to deploy all enterprise applications to all users at all times.

As CEO Mark Templeton explained to investors: "In February 2003, we began repositioning Citrix from the server-based computing market into the much larger access infrastructure market--which we estimate will grow to $8-10bn over the next three to four years. In March, we announced the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite, the most comprehensive access infrastructure solution for accessing any enterprise information resource. By September, we'd shipped upgrades to Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server for Windows and Unix, and three new products, Secure Access Manager, Conferencing Manager, and Password Manager. The Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite had gone from strategy to reality."

SLOW TO CHANGE

However, analysts such as Meta Group's Leif-Olof Wallin believe that, while the vision of a single device independent infrastructure with integrated management, real time application conferencing, user identity management, and security functionality is appealing, for at least two to three more years most organizations will remain focused on tactical deployments rather than sweeping changes of architecture. These deployments will often revolve around Microsoft Windows Terminal Server and Citrix, a combination that is being used widely for increasingly large projects--although Wallin warns this should not be a substitute for "properly architecting new applications with thin clients and multiple device support".

Citrix seems to agree, developing its tactical solutions while integrating them into a coordinated range with a more sweeping vision.

Citrix is embracing alternative clients and particularly sees great potential in the growing mobile enterprise marker. Last month it signed an agreement with Vodafone, the first time that a mobile operator has integrated its cellular data card with the Citrix MetaFrame Access Infrastructure, its key method for remote workers to gain secure access to corporate databases and applications.

CENTRALIZED APPROACH FOR VODAFONE

The solution opens up Vodafone's mobile connectivity products to centralized applications such as salesforce automation, while keeping data behind the firewall.

"When Vodafone UK launched 3G, we said that the changing nature of working habits prompted us to provide full working mobility whenever and wherever it is needed. This partnership is a perfect illustration of what we mean by that," said Jeremy Flynn, head of commercial partnerships at Vodafone UK.