Citrix aims to ease servers' Web 2.0 app pains

Citrix on Tuesday said that it will add Web 2.0 push technology to its NetScaler traffic management and content delivery lineup. Why? Web 2.0 apps are gobbling up server computing power. 

As rich Internet applications proliferate things are becoming much less efficient for data centers because they have to stay connected to servers 24/7 to be useful. Those connections gobble up computing power. Indeed, all of those widgets and Web 2.0 apps may translate in new racks of servers that need to be purchased. 

Citrix said it will add a feature to NetScaler that pushes data to users and Web 2.0 apps to offload the strain on servers. 

In a statement Citrix explained:

While Web 2.0 applications are ushering in a new era of enhanced functionality and responsiveness for end users, they are highly inefficient when it comes to server computing resources. In order to create a rich interactive experience, Web 2.0 applications need to maintain a one-to-one user connection to backend servers for extended periods, which severely taxes datacenter resources and adversely impacts performance and scalability. 

That's an interesting point considering a lot of folks probably haven't pondered how Web 2.0 apps can drain servers. Citrix said its aiming to lower server costs five to 10 times current levels by proactively pushing data to "create the illusion of real-time interaction."