Citrix has today unveiled its latest desktop application virtualisation play, with an upgraded delivery platform it claims could cut virtual desktop infrastructure costs and bring a new level of richness to the user experience.
Refinements introduced with version 3 of its Citrix XenDesktop system lets it stream desktops to existing standardised PCs on the LAN and could effectively double the scalability of the desktop hosting infrastructure, the company said
Citrix has also introduced various ‘HD-X’ technologies, a term coined to signify the superior sound and visual qualities that the product is going to have – being a contraction of HD (high definition) and THX (the cinema surround sound).
This line of developments stem from the Apollo multimedia virtualisation project underway at the company, which is aimed to improve the end-user experience as graphics and rich media technologies evolve. Apollo has led to the SpeedScreen image acceleration and multimedia acceleration features, as well a bi-directional audio function.
Although the Citrix XenDesktop line is under-pinned by software that allows desktop applications to be virtualised and streamed to chosen endpoint devices, the company insists that virtualisation is not the start and the finish of its proposition.
“It’s a core element, but we have been careful to build a unified management platform that can handle the whole application delivery process from provisioning to data storage, and one that gives a good user experience using a high-definition delivery protocol” Dave Austin of Citrix EMEA, explained.
The XenServer line that makes up part of XenDesktop was designed initially with server operating systems in mind, and this has been optimised for desktop application virtualisation. Austin said that the enhancements made for Version 3 of XenDesktop could reduce the amount of server infrastructure needed for desktop virtualisation by as much as 50% in some cases.
Austin told us: “By improving the density on XenServer we have increased the scalability of the system, which means less hosting infrastructure will be needed than before. We can also make better use of the existing infrastructure, which means a standard PC on the network can be used to stream and execute an image, just as a server in a data centre does.”
XenDestop 3 is the only product on the market that can manage both streamed and host desktops, the company said, and will run on average to around $150 per concurrent user.
Citrix also explained the release would bring improvements in the way the system handles profile management. Personalisation has been made simpler and logon is almost instant, the company claims.
