Citrix Systems Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) Tuesday (Feb 13) introduced Citrix MetaFrame XP for Windows, the latest version of its application serving and management platform.
Developed with close customer collaboration and optimized for Windows 2000 and future Microsoft platforms, MetaFrame XP offers IT departments growth and management capabilities for large-scale application serving implementations – designed to support as many as 100,000 users on 1,000 or more servers – that provide users secure access to Windows applications from virtually any device, over any connection. MetaFrame XP will begin shipping this month, and will be available from the more than 9,300 members of the Citrix Solutions Network (CSN).
Offered as a product family with server, advanced and enterprise editions tailored to specific customer needs and computing environments, Citrix MetaFrame XP features enhanced centralized system management capabilities, increased leverage of the “Net” (including LANs, WANs, Internet, extranets and intranets), and more flexible application access.
“Increasing adoption of Windows 2000 and the growing customer demand for Web-based application delivery and access have combined to create an ideal environment for this highly scalable and robust product family,” said David Weiss, vice president of marketing at Citrix. “MetaFrame XP contains a new platform design, integrated platform management and family packaging that allows customers to effectively grow their application serving platform to fit their specific needs.”
As a product family, Citrix MetaFrame XP takes into account customers’ unique computing needs and offers three levels of product functionality that add capabilities as business growth and change dictate. MetaFrame XPs is designed for departmental workgroups to extend the reach of Windows 2000 Servers. MetaFrame XPa is an advanced application-serving platform for Windows 2000 Servers designed for growing organizations that need to maximize application availability and manageability across the Net from a single point. MetaFrame XPe is an enterprise application-serving edition that provides the infrastructure for Net-based Windows 2000 environments requiring extensive scalability, rapid application delivery and robust management – enabling unparalleled command and control.
MetaFrame XP Features
Citrix MetaFrame XP provides an architecture that scales to meet evolving customer needs and management capabilities. As the command center for the Citrix MetaFrame XP server farm, the Java-based Citrix Management Console (CMC) provides customers with a graphical method for monitoring and managing all system resources from a single point.
With enhanced integration of Citrix NFuse application portal software, Citrix MetaFrame XP software enables organizations to personalize applications and associated content, and publish them into a single portal view with no application rewrites. Citrix NFuse allows the Web to be utilized as an application infrastructure while retaining the features and benefits of MetaFrame application serving software.
In addition, Citrix NFuse enhances corporate Web portal solutions by enabling inclusion of full-function, interactive applications along with Web content, tools and technology for integrating intranet content.
With Citrix MetaFrame XP, administrators can extend the reach of Windows-based applications to any location in the enterprise, publish applications to a wide array of client devices, support uniform application appearance and performance over any network connection and provide enhanced security with SecureICA 128-bit encryption.
“By allowing customers to manage Windows-based applications across thousands of servers from a single point, Citrix continues to add value to our customers’ Windows 2000 terminal server environments,” said David Hamilton, director, Management Technologies Group at Microsoft. “Wit
h Microsoft’s management technologies, Citrix’s next generation MetaFrame platform can enhance the deployment of Windows-based applications across the enterprise to heterogeneous desktop environments.”
With the release of MetaFrame XP, Citrix has implemented a connection-based licensing model, where the price can be easily stated as a “cost per concurrent connection” regardless of server configuration. Since all connection licenses are priced equally within a given MetaFrame XP family member, the linear pricing model makes it easier for customers to forecast IT expenditures and determine optimal usage of their IT budgets.
