The Citrix Systems XenApp 5 product, formally called Presentation Server, is designed to allow IT pros to create virtual desktops. Citrix XenApp 5 can work with the Citrix XenDesktop virtualization suite or Citrix XenApp can work alone. Citrix XenApp 5 allows for the virtualization of Microsoft Windows and Office applications in an enterprise's virtual desktop infrastructure.Citrix Systems is releasing the latest version of its XenApp product as part
of the company's larger push into data center and desktop virtualization with
offerings such as its Citrix Delivery
Center virtualization suite.
XenApp 5 will allow applications, especially Microsoft Windows and Office
applications, to start faster than with previous versions of the product. The
latest XenApp version also works with Citrix XenDesktop for enterprises
interested in creating a virtual desktop infrastructure.
Citrix XenApp is the new name for the company's stalwart Presentation Server
product. The
updated name reflects Citrix's $500 million acquisition of XenSource in 2007,
and its desire to reach deeper into both data center and desktop
virtualization. (The products are based on the open-source Xen hypervisor.)
While virtualization companies such as VMware, Citrix and now Microsoft,
with Hyper-V, have touted the benefits of virtualization in the data center
to help with a myriad of concerns from consolidation to power savings to
disaster recovery, the virtual desktop infrastructure is developing as the next
area where virtualization technology is about to be tested.
At a forum earlier in 2008, IDC
researchers found that interest in virtual desktops and infrastructures was growing
among departments as a way to better secure data and have more control of
desktop images and the corporate fleet. However, concerns about the complexity
and cost involved in this undertaking, including problems with operating system
licensing, are forcing many enterprises to watch from the sidelines for now.
"We have seen a surge in interest and there a lot of people that are interested
in application virtualization and they are evaluating what is out there,"
said Bill Hartwick, senior director of product marketing for Citrix.
The latest version of XenApp
will work within Citrix's broad suite of Delivery Center virtualization
technologies. Since April, Citrix has been talking up Delivery
Center as a way to deliver desktop
images and application for the data center to individual clients in an
enterprise. In May, Citrix detailed another product in the suite called Branch
Repeater, a software appliance that sits between the data center and branch or
remote offices and helps transmit applications from the main data center
facility to these locations.
The key to the suite remains Citrix
XenDesktop, which allows an IT department to host a virtual machine in the data
center. An enterprise can virtualize Windows desktops and deliver them on
demand via the high-speed Web interconnect to office workers in any location.
Besides helping Microsoft applications start faster, the latest version of
XenApp allows individual applications to be packaged and maintained separately
within the data center. At that same time, the applications are linked
together.
While XenApp allows the different applications to be isolated, it also
allows for them to communicate with one another. An enterprise user can then
call up whatever application is needed, while the IT department can patch and
upgrade from a central location.
The newer version of XenApp is also integrated with Citrix Branch Repeater.
In this case, the most frequently used applications are stored closer to the
remote or branch office so the application can be called up faster by users in
that location.
XenApp 5 is also integrated with Windows Server 2008 and 2003.
The cost of Citrix XenApp 5 is $350 per concurrent
user for the Advanced Edition, $450 for the Enterprise Edition and $600 for the
Platinum Edition.
IT Infrastructure 
