Citrix 4 Steps

1. Control Applications at their Source

An end-to-end application delivery strategy starts with infrastructure products that are deployed in the datacenter, directly in front of applications – controlling the initial delivery of applications as close as possible to their source.

Web Application Delivery

Web applications tend to be extremely verbose and carry far richer content than client-server applications, creating massive increases in application traffic. They are much easier to exploit thus opening new data security risks. The combination of these factors dramatically slows application performance, driving up the cost of servers and bandwidth, and increasing data security risks. To address the challenges of web application delivery Stack offers integrated application networking products such as the Citrix NetScaler product line which goes beyond traditional load balancing; optimising application traffic over the network by incorporating advanced technologies like compression, caching, and security.

Windows Application Delivery

With Windows applications the issues are much different. The traditional approach is to install each application on every end user’s PC then attempt to manage, upgrade, patch, and maintain them at the endpoints. This model quickly creates huge problems with cost and complexity that grow exponentially as applications and users are added or changed in any way. The Citrix Presentation Server product line offers a far better solution by installing applications one time in the datacenter and delivering them over the network using client-side or server-side application virtualization. This approach dramatically improves the cost, simplicity, and security of managing Windows applications without compromising the end-user experience in any way.

Windows Desktop Delivery

A well-designed application delivery strategy should also incorporate Windows desktops, as they represent the primary operating environment through which employees access their applications. Major technical advances in recent years have made it possible to deliver highly dynamic virtual desktops over the network to office workers with zero compromise in end-user experience. This model can dramatically improve the economics, simplicity, and security of traditional desktop management. The Citrix XenDesktop is one example of a solution Stack offers to address this challenge.

2. Secure Access to Applications

A second key consideration in a successful application delivery strategy is making it easy for users to securely access their applications from any location. Citrix Access Gateway is a next generation SSL VPN that is easy to install and is specifically designed to provide access to the exact application resources each user needs. It goes beyond simple network access, with SmartAccess IT gets control over which actions a user can perform within each application based on his or her unique access scenario. A user accessing a corporate application from an office computer, for example, might be able to use all application functions, while that same user connecting from an untrusted external location might be able to view application data, but not save or print.

3. Optimize Applications over the wide area network

As a result of trends like user mobility, globalization, and outsourcing, more than half of all employees at mid to large sized enterprises now access their applications from branch offices. Traditional networks were never designed to deliver the kind of application traffic they are expected to handle today, especially as companies consolidate datacenters and start pushing applications like voice and video over the network. Stack uses Citrix WANScaler, a WAN optimization product specifically designed to address this problem by automatically optimising all application traffic over the wide area network, an approach that can dramatically improve application performance and reduce bandwidth requirements by as much as 75 percent.

4. Monitor the End-User Experience

The success of any application delivery strategy rests on the ability of IT to truly monitor the experience of end users, especially with regards to application performance. Stack offers Citrix EdgeSight giving IT visibility into exactly what the application experience feels like for end-users making it much easier to maintain service level agreements with business stakeholders, spot bottlenecks before they become issues, and quickly diagnose problems when they do occur.

Unlike a few short years ago, businesses today run on applications. In an increasingly volatile world where you face a dizzying array of changes to applications, users, and business climates, making application delivery a strategic imperative is no longer an option.