Citrix Systems Inc. on Tuesday announced that it is building its MetaFrame presentation server out into a portal application suite.
The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company is combining its flagship MetaFrame XP product along with its NFuse Elite portal product into the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite. As part of the announcement Citrix is renaming NFuse Elite as MetaFrame Secure Access Manager.
Citrix is adding two new products to round out the suite. MetaFrame Password Manager provides single sign-on capabilities to applications accessed within MetaFrame, thanks to technology licensed from Passlogix Inc.
And MetaFrame Conferencing Manager allows users to share and edit applications served through MetaFrame.
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Ohio Valley Supply Co. has been using MetaFrame XP and NFuse Elite. Shawn Woodward, MIS manager at the DuPont Corian surfaces distributor, said hes looking forward to having access to more content delivery agents (CDAs) in the upgraded MetaFrame Secure Access Manager product.
"You can custom-build personalized Web sites for departments and small companies," said Woodward, in Cincinnati. "Its so easy to customize and deliver applications."
Woodward said being able to provide users who spend a lot of time away from the home office—about 80 percent of Ohio Valley Supply Co.s workforce—with a consistent Web-based interface to their applications, even when they dont have access to their desktops, is also key.
Woodward said MetaFrame Conferencing Manager would give his organization many of the same benefits of a videoconferencing solution. He foresees the company using it for training seminars.
"It allows you to shadow each other," he said. "You can go through presentations or look at applications and documents together and combine it with audio conferencing without having to use third-party applications. And you can launch it over low-bandwidth connections, you dont require high speed."
The products of the Citrix MetaFrame Access Suite will ship at different times. MetaFrame XP Presentation Server Release 3 will ship in conjunction with Microsoft Corp.s Windows Server 2003, early in the second quarter. Conferencing Manager and Secure Access Manager are expected to ship around the same time, with Password Manager slated to ship by June.
Pricing for MetaFrame Server remains from $290 to $400 per concurrent user license. Pricing for the rest of the suite has not yet been determined.
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