Citrix aims to make the world a dynamic workplace

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.”

Mark Templeton President & CEO, Citrix Systems showcases how partners and customers benefit from Citrix's innovations in access

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.

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 with 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.

A Forrester study indica­ted 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 disrup­tion brings about substantial financial losses. With
these two projects Citrix aims to revolutionize the way the world works.

Shivangi Yadav

The writer was hosted in Orlando by Citrix