Citrix Systems Inc. announced at this week’s iForum 2000 conference the availability of UNIX versions of Citrix MetaFrame 1.1 for the AIX OS, HP-UX OS and Solaris Operating Environment.
The Citrix MetaFrame 1.1 for UNIX Operating Systems product family extends the reach of business-critical UNIX and Java applications across an enterprise, or from an ASP, to users anywhere, regardless of location, device or connection. MetaFrame 1.1 for UNIX can deliver UNIX applications to any Citrix Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) client, over any connection as an alternative to using PC X Servers to deploy X.11 applications in the enterprise.
These new MetaFrame products are available immediately through selected members of the Citrix Solutions Network, a comprehensive channel of distributor, resellers, system integrators and consultants worldwide.
“It provides added value to enterprise customers and ASPs by enabling access to applications and information regardless of platform. In conjunction with the Citrix NFuse application portal software, users can now have seamless access to both Windows and UNIX applications via a single web portal interface,” said Gary Thomassen, director of product management for Citrix.
Using Citrix ICA technology, Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems enables the deployment of UNIX systems, X.11, text and Java applications across an enterprise, or from an ASP, to branch office and mobile workers who could not have accessed them previously due to bandwidth limitations or device capabilities.
Citrix MetaFrame 1.1 for UNIX Operating Systems supports HP’s HP-UX 11 Operating Environment; IBM’s AIX Version 4.3.3 Operating System on the RS/6000; and Sun’s Solaris 8 Operating Environment on both SPARC and x86, in addition to Solaris 2.6 and 7 on SPARC, and Solaris 7 Operating Environment on x86.
Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems eliminates the need for PC X Servers in the majority of user environments. In addition, MetaFrame for UNIX provides additional functionality and flexibility to allow users to extend business critical UNIX applications further into their environments. MetaFrame for UNIX is not limited to the PC as a client device; it supports an extensive list of client devices, thereby providing a much broader and more cost-effective solution than PC X Servers. Also, MetaFrame is a “thin” solution that requires a fraction of the bandwidth that is required to use PC X Servers. This enables wireless, dial-up and other mobile scenarios to be possible that aren’t practical in a PC X Server environment.
The product offers enterprise management and deployment tools to allow IT departments and ASPs to scale, deploy, manage and support applications from a single location.
Administrators and help-desk employees can monitor, manage and even take control of a user’s session at a remote location by using Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems’ shadowing capability. This feature makes remote support, diagnosis and training easy for UNIX systems and Java applications.
Citrix’s ICA protocol, with SpeedScreen 2, improves network efficiency, accelerating the performance of congested corporate networks and helping to reduce the communication costs of wide-area networks. SpeedScreen 2 also reduces bandwidth consumption, boosting the productivity of remote and mobile users.
Citrix MetaFrame for UNIX Operating Systems is interoperable with MetaFrame for Windows. The MetaFrame family extends applications to virtually any client device, including 286, 386, 486 and Pentium or Celeron PCs, Windows-based terminals, network computers, wireless devices and information appliances. All types of Windows clients are supported, including Windows 3.X, Windows for Workgroups, Windows 95, Windows NTR Workstation and Windows CE. Additionally, non-Windows clients are supported, which
include DOS, UNIX, Linux, OS/2 Warp, Mac OS, Java as well as the Symbian EPOC platform.
