Anypoint access: Shell
With this in mind, when the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies (Shell), one of the world’s most recognisable petrochemical companies, recently announced that they were going to deploy a standardised desktop worldwide to over 80,000 clients as part of a major IT initiative, they searched for a solution that would allow them to deploy standard applications worldwide instantly to thousands of desktops, without the expense of investing in substantial IT support resources. This would allow them to maximize their core business processes and to increase their productivity.
As a result, they settled on the Citrix MetaFrame to provide access to mission-critical applications, including Microsoft Office, SAP, Oracle and in-house applications. Over 15,000 desktops will access applications via Citrix, enabling the company to extend the reach of its applications and command end-to-end gain of the system using MetaFrame’s advanced management tools.
By using MetaFrame, Shell hopes the solution will unify the company’s IT environment and bring its five different core businesses of Exploration & Production, Oil Products, Chemicals, Downstream Gas & Power, and Renewables in line. Shell will be able to deploy core business applications to anywhere in the world regardless of the client device being used as well as manage and deploy applications from a central point, ensuring predictability of cost across the entire IT infrastructure. Shell expects that Citrix Load Balancing Services will enable them to exercise control over the performance and management of the entire network.
“Citrix is delighted to see another world-leading company standardizing its application deployment on MetaFrame,” commented Jane Rimmer, Marketing Director, Citrix Systems. “This implementation demonstrates the way in which MetaFrame complements Windows 2000, allowing enterprises to extend the reach of applications to a global user base while maintaining a centralized IT infrastructure.”