Citrix's Next-Generation MetaFrame Suite Debuts At iForum

The upcoming offering will take a baby step toward the company's vision of providing a fully integrated access infrastructure for on-demand computing.

The software, currently in beta testing, includes the company's new Rave technology and JPEG compression technology for delivering equal application delivery performance on local and remote PCs and support for high-velocity streaming audio and video content.

In addition to the enhanced performance and multimedia support, the next major release will also offer new "Follow Me" roaming technology that will automatically reconnect users to their applications as they move from one device to another, allowing application sessions and automated login to be "pulled" transparently as workers roam, executives said Tuesday at Citrix's iForum conference in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

While most of those improvements are aimed at users of the core MetaFrame Presentation Server, which represents more than 80 percent of the company's $600 million in annual revenue, the Hudson suite will move closer toward Citrix's on-demand vision by offering limited integration of the MetaFrame Access suite introduced earlier this year.

The introduction of a single management console, the Citrix Management Interface (CMI), will provide unified management for the entire suite, executives said. It will plug into Microsoft's Management Console in Windows Server 2003 and give administrators a single view of all their MetaFrame offerings.

Citrix earlier this year launched its first suite of access infrastructure products to complement its flagship MetaFrame Presentation server, including security, Web conferencing and single sign-on products. On Tuesday, the company also unveiled three editions of the MetaFrame Access Suite pricing for new users, existing users of the presentation server that wish to upgrade to the entire suite, and users of MetaFrame 1.8 to the new suite.

Executives would not comment on timing of the new release, but sources expect delivery during the first quarter of 2004. The MetaFrame Access Suite for Windows XP/Windows Server 2003 was delivered last spring. The next-generation suite is also expected to deliver unified management and monitoring of licenses and support for different types of media and user interfaces, including Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP).

During his keynote at iForum, Citrix's top executive focused on the company's high-level plan to make the access suite an essential part of the enterprise infrastructure.

"You need universal access and uncompromised security to run IT as an information utility," said Mark Templeton, president and CEO of Citrix. "On-demand reduces computing costs and makes the security of information bullet-proof, can be more agile and opportunistic and maximize resilience to business interruption and adaptability to technology changes. You need an access strategy."

Templeton invited top executives from Microsoft, SAP and Hewlett-Packard on stage to verify that Citrix's vision is in line with market demands.

The company has registered big wins for its MetaFrame products at Lehman Brothers, John Deere, ABM Industries, the World Food Program and ScotiaBank, Templeton said, because the suite reduces the cost of deploying software to desktops and reduces the complexity of managing application infrastructures.