One small step for Citrix MetaFrame
Citrix Systems used its fourth annual iForum user group to launch feature releases of its core MetaFrame for Windows, MetaFrame for Unix and other related middleware programs. These are the first feature releases for these programs to be delivered by Citrix in what will be a reasonably regular update process.
Like many systems and application software suppliers, Citrix has come to the realisation that companies don't like doing software upgrades, which are generally disruptive and costly. This is because the differences in architecture and feature sets in the version of software that a company is using in production are generally considerably older than the latest release from a vendor.
A year ago, as it was rolling out Unix versions of its MetaFrame products, Citrix promised customers that it would shift to a software update model that provided feature releases every 2 to 3 months and platform releases - where the software architecture shifts either a little or a lot - every 18 to 24 months. In addition, Citrix launched a software maintenance program called Subscription Advantage that, for an annual fee covers the cost of future feature and platform upgrades to the Citrix programs that companies use.
Citrix launched its MetaFrame for Unix product line in September 2000 and its MetaFrame for Windows XP products in February 2001. Simply put, the MetaFrame product is a piece of middleware that allows native Windows and Unix applications to be deployed across internal networks and the Internet on PCs, Unix and Linux workstations, and wireless devices without having to change the native interfaces in those Windows and Unix applications.
Increasingly, companies with a mix of Windows and Unix applications are using products like MetaFrame so they can provide a single interface to distributed and incompatible applications to their end users. The feature releases for the Unix and Windows MetaFrame products are the main announcements that Citrix made at iForum yesterday.
On the MetaFrame 1.1 for Unix product, which runs on IBM's AIX, Hewlett-Packard's HP-UX and Sun Microsystems's Solaris, Feature Release 1 (FR1) now includes support for 128-bit SSL encryption. Prior generations of the ICA protocol that Citrix developed to link its MetaFrame server and client software supported a proprietary 128-bit encryption scheme called Secure ICA; this is the first release to support SSL.
The updated MetaFrame client software now allows those clients to poke around on TCP/IP networks and automatically discover MetaFrame servers and their applications. Until now, ICA clients relied on information culled from UDP broadcasts to figure out where the applications were, which ate up a lot of network bandwidth.
The Unix FR1 rev of MetaFrame also supports the Citrix NFuse 1.6 portal, which the company gives away for free to its customers. Citrix has also added persistent bitmap caching algorithms to its software so frequently accessed images are stored on client machines so ICA clients are not always re-downloading these images from server applications.
The improved ICA clients also support enhanced colours and higher resolution screens. Client drive mapping has also been added to the Unix MetaFrame release, which allows files stored on Unix servers to be moved to ICA client machines more easily. Error messages and help screens are now available in German, French or Spanish.
With MetaFrame XP for Windows FR1, Citrix has added 128-bit SSL encryption support, just as it did for the Unix versions. The feature release also includes a new feature called Connection Control, which is effectively a software governor that throttles back the number of concurrent MetaFrame users on a Windows server if loads get heavy. This software is also used to keep the number of concurrent users accessing Windows applications through MetaFrame below the ceilings set by application software providers.
MetaFrame XP for Windows FR1 also has a new CPU prioritisation protocol, which allows strategic applications to be given higher priorities than other MetaFrame applications. Citrix has also added ICA session monitoring to help network administrators allocate bandwidth and a plug-in for Computer Associates' Unicenter systems management programs and for Novell's Novell Directory services. As with the Unix version of MetaFrame, the Windows version now supports the NFuse 1.6 portal.
The Citrix Extranet 2.5 programme, which is a virtual private networking component that plugs into MetaFrame, was similarly updated yesterday with SSL encryption as well as a new Java management client. Extranet 2.5 is supported on Windows 2000 and Unix operating systems, and can run in conjunction with a number of firewall applications on those platforms. It is not supported on Linux.
MetaFrame XP for Windows FR1 costs $90 per connection for customers who have not signed up for Subscription Advantage. MetaFrame 1.1 for Unix FR1 costs $1,295 per server, but is free for those on Subscription Advantage. Companies new to the MetaFrame for Unix product will pay an additional $700 per server for 12 months of Subscription Advantage. Extranet 2.5 costs $30 per connection, and is again free for those on software maintenance.
David Manks, director of product management at Citrix, says that the company has sold approximately 100,000 MetaFrame server licenses worldwide to date. This number probably includes licences sold by Microsoft as part of its Terminal Services feature of Windows 2000, which is based in part on MetaFrame. Manks says that Microsoft intends to license MetaFrame technologies for the future Windows.Net version of its server operating systems.