Citrix introduces HDX technology

February 08, 2009 -

Citrix Systems has found a way to make the virtual desktop more of a viable proposition in the enterprise.

Until the vendor's HDX technology came along, virtual desktop technology was not flexible enough to take full advantage of multi media applications at the level of the client device, stated Derek Cheung, lead product marketing manager at Citrix.

HDX technology, he explained, has significantly improved the management and delivery of Microsoft Windows applications containing voice, video and 3-D graphics from the central server to virtual thin clients, full desktops, remote clients and mobile devices on the corporate network without compromising the end user computing experience.

HDX technology is incorporated into two enhanced Citrix products -- XenDesktop 3 and Branch Repeater 5 -- to ensure optimization of the user experience in three different areas of an IT environment.

XenDesktop is the virtual desktop solution while Branch Repeater is designed to ensure seamless access to lots of desktop applications from the server to remote endpoint.

"HDX really gives the channel partner additional flexibility in helping a customer determine where and what is the best scenario to optimize the delivery of the data, whether it is in the data center, the network or in the device," stated Cheung.

HDX also facilitates the provisioning of operating systems and configuration instructions to the client devices within the virtual desktop solution, commented John Sloan, senior research analyst at Info Tech Research.

Citrix is providing the building blocks for a virtual desktop environment that is client device agnostic, he stated.

Sloan observed that the provisioning and delivery elements in HDX originated with a company Ardence that Citrix purchased back in 2006, a little less than a year before the latter bought Xen Source.

"Xen gets all the press but I think Ardence is actually something that Citrix is getting a lot of value out of."

VMware has not introduced anything similar in terms of ensuring a rich media experience at the client level in a virtual desktop solution, Sloan remarked. He added that Citrix's approach means that hypervisors are not built into the end point, in contrast to the VMware VM View (formerly VDI) where virtual machines are streamed to the clients and run locally on a device containing a hypervisor.

As the competition heats up in the virtual desktop, Citrix is seeking to establish "a standard" for managing applications at remote sites via the Branch Repeater, stated Tony Iams, vice president and senior analyst, system software research, at Ideas International.

Up to now the Citrix-Microsoft alliance has been maintained successfully because of Citrix's track record in virtualization technology, he said.

But a "fault-line" might occur as both companies develop competing application virtualization technologies -- which involve streaming applications down to standard full desktops on the same operating system, Iams stated.

"There is no sight of [a conflict between Citrix and Microsoft] yet, but where there is a parallel technology, that is an opportunity for a fault line to arise in the future."

Meanwhile, Andi Mann said he knows of some end users customers that are not undertaking virtual desktop projects in their premises until the economy improves.

"Virtual desktop is a significant and broad change to what people are doing in the enterprise and people are thinking now 'this might not be the time to embark on major project like that,'" stated Mann, vice president of research at Enterprise Management Associates.

But Tony Iams countered that he is very bullish about the prospects for the virtual desktop.

"This is one area where you are less likely to see pullback because the cost savings potential here are quite significant in the expenditure of managing desktop infrastructure."

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