Citrix Enhances MetaFrame With Collaboration Capabilities

Users of Citrix Systems Inc.s MetaFrame server-based computing platform will be getting new collaboration capabilities, as well as performance and ease-of-use enhancements.

At its iForum show in Orlando, Fla., last week, Citrix announced Project Pearl, a technology to allow dispersed employees or workgroups using MetaFrame to share access to any published application.

Project Pearl, due in the first half of next year, will enable secure, real-time collaboration on documents in a virtual work space, according to Citrix Chief Technology Officer Bob Kruger. Kruger envisions users in different buildings sharing a spreadsheet in the MetaFrame environment and talking over the phone as they manipulate cells within it.

“It is about sharing applications in real time and setting up ad hoc meetings,” Kruger said. “We are leveraging the capabilities of” the Internet Connection Sharing protocol, he said.

MetaFrame XP Feature Release 3, which was also announced and will be generally available in the first half of next year, adds a new m-license command-line tool that simplifies the job of adding, activating and backing up multiple MetaFrame XP licenses. An upgrade to the Universal Print Driver gives administrators a single driver to use with every server in a MetaFrame XP farm.

Release 3s SpeedScreen Browser Acceleration feature adds performance and usability enhancements for users who connect to applications with embedded images on HTML pages. By adding support for Microsoft Corp.s upcoming Windows .Net Server 2003 operating system in Release 3, IT administrators and users will get new usability features, officials said.

The MetaFrame XP server was also more tightly integrated with Citrixs NFuse Elite portal software.

NFuse Elite itself was upgraded with the release of Service Pack 1, which improves performance of the software by 1,100 percent, according to Kruger, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Citrix in the service pack also introduced dozens of new Content Delivery Agents, which provide customized access to applications.