News
Citrix and Microsoft To Collaborate on 'Branch Office Appliance'
- By Stuart J. Johnston
- August 24, 2006
Microsoft and Citrix Systems announced this week they are collaborating to
jointly produce and market a so-called "appliance" aimed at serving
branch offices.
The branch office appliance will be based on Microsoft's Windows Server
2003 and Internet Security and Acceleration Server as well as Citrix wide area
network (WAN) optimization technologies, the two companies said in a statement.
The companies' planned joint solution will provide "a new type
of branch office appliance that combines advanced WAN optimization technologies
with consolidated branch office services in a single, multifunction appliance
that is easy to administer remotely," the statement said.
As far as demand goes, Citrix says its research found that 55 percent of enterprise
employees access all of their mission-critical business applications from a
remote office location.
Citrix's contribution to the collaboration will include WANScalar technology
it acquired earlier this week with the completion of its purchase of privately
held Orbital Data Corp., a provider of solutions to optimize delivery of applications
to branch office users over WANs.
About the Author
Stuart J. Johnston has covered technology, especially Microsoft, since February 1988 for InfoWorld, Computerworld, Information Week, and PC World, as well as for Enterprise Developer, XML & Web Services, and .NET magazines.