Citrix aims to make the world a dynamic workplace

Shivangi Yadav Orlando, Oct 24

The Citrix iForum 2006, held recently in Orlando, kicked off
with a bang, what with cart wheeling dancers and a visibly excited Mark
Templeton, President and CEO, Citrix. Attending his ninth iForum in as many
years, Templeton outlined his vision for the world wherein anyone can work from
anywhere. In his keynote address delivered to more than 3,000 delegates he
insisted that he dreams of an IT eco-system, which delivers applications to
users whenever and wherever they need it.

And to realize that ambition Citrix announced the launch of the
Dynamic Desktop initiative codenamed Project Trinity and Project Kent, its
workforce continuity solution. The project, which gets Templeton most excited,
is the Dynamic Desktop initiative. The project aims to optimize the task of
office workers by making their Windows-based desktop available through any
network on any computer. Elaborating about the things that make the Dynamic
Desktop stand apart Templeton said, "The first characteristic that makes it
stand apart is the fact that it is delivered and not deployed, so that saves a
lot of unnecessary hassles that are associated with deploying solutions
typically. Also it is optimal and portable, which means that it is best for
majority of workforce. While road warriors, laptop-totting workers, are always
mobile this solution will help majority of workers get access to their office
desktops and applications anywhere. It enhances productivity as it empowers
people and also reduces the worries of the management as the entire solution is
delivered through a secure network."

Under Project Trinity, Citrix plans to unleash three types of
Dynamic Desktops-the simple and fast version, the personal and versatile
version and the high-performance version. The simple and fast version that
switches on instantly and leverages on Windows terminal services, is targeted at
the call centers, bank branches and retail outlets. The personal and versatile
dynamic desktop is aimed at people who have non-repetitive work like
administrative workers, and leverages on virtual machines running on virtual
machines. The high performance solution leverages on Blade Servers and PCs in
datacenters and is ideal for complex tasks, which use a wide range of computer
intensive applications. The product is targeted at visualization analyst, design
engineers, software developers and stock exchange traders.

Joining Citrix in this initiative are AMD, Gemalto, Dell, HP,
IBM, Neoware, VMware, Wyse and XenSource.

The other major project that was announced at the iForum was
Project Kent, named after Clark Kent, the intrepid reporter who cloaks up as
Superman to save the world. And like our storybook superhero Project Kent will
help companies in clocking in work and man hours, and basically save million of
dollars every year which are now wasted because of workforce disruptions due to
natural or man-made disasters.

Talking about why the company was so keen on workforce
continuity solution Templeton said, "Having our head office in Florida
means that we are very susceptible to the typhoons which have been pounding the
Florida coast with alarming regularity, especially in the last year. The area
saw four major typhoons, especially Katrina, causing losses to the tune of
several million dollars and also gave sleepless nights to various companies as
they had difficulty in tracking down their employees. In today's world where
there are outbreaks of Avian influenza, typhoons, floods, earth quakes not to
mention terrorist attacks, one of the top two agendas of any CEO or CFO of the
company is how to achieve workflow continuity when disasters strike."

Citing a Gartner report Templeton said that while 70 percent of
enterprises are prepared for datacenter outages, there are only 17 percent
enterprises that have any kind of workforce continuity system in place in case
of disruption.

And to fill this void Citrix in association in IBM is driving
Project Kent that will allow dispersed workers to connect to applications, data
and people even when they can't get to the office. The new solution will not
only track employees but will also help them in connecting to their office
computers and application through the usage of simple USB sticks which will
serve as their connection to the office from any kind of computers. Said Gordon
Payne, VP-Marketing, Citrix's Advan-ced Solutions Group and Product Line
Executive-Emerging Products, Citrix's Virtuali-zation Systems Group,
"According to a Gartner report, 93 percent of businesses who register more
than 10 days of workforce disruption in one year have to file for bankruptcy.
And with the emerging world scenario, wherein work is disrupted either due to
inclement weather, natural disasters or terrorism, finding a way to work despite
such condi-tions becomes imperative. Our workforce continuity solution thus is
ideal, as it not only helps people work from home, but also tracks employee
status. The program has a real time high speed pruning algorithm that keeps
updating employee information, connects them to their office PCs. So in case of
emer-gency not only are the employees accounted for they are also able to work
from home."

A Forrester study indica-ted that a 5,000-person enterprise
would suffer a $1.36 million productivity loss as a result of a three-day
workforce disruption. And, a recent survey of Disaster Recovery Journal readers
reported that it takes up to five days for the workforce to return to normalcy
after an event. In short, a workforce disrup-tion brings about substantial
financial losses. With these two projects Citrix aims to revolutionize the way
the world works.

(The writer was hosted in Orlando by Citrix)