SHIVANGI YADAV

ORLANDO
OCTOBER 26, 2006

The Citrix iForum 2006, which was held in Orlando, this time kicked off with a bang, what with cart wheeling dancers and a visibly excited Mark Templeton, President and CEO, Citrix. Attending his ninth iForum in as many years, Templeton outlined his vision for the world wherein anyone can work from anywhere.

In his keynote address delivered to more than 3,000 delegates, he insisted that he dreams of an IT eco-system, which delivers applications to users whenever and wherever they need it.

And to realize that ambition, Citrix announced the launch of the Dynamic Desktop Initiative code-named Project Trinity and Project Kent, its workforce continuity solution. The project, which gets Templeton most excited, is the Dynamic Desktop initiative. The project aims to optimize the task of office workers by making their Windows-based desktop available through any network on any computer.

Elaborating about the things that make the Dynamic Desktop stand apart Templeton said, “The first characteristic that makes it stand apart is the fact that it is delivered and not deployed, so that saves a lot of unnecessary hassles that are associated with deploying solutions typically. Also it is optimal and portable, which means that it is best for majority of workforce. While road warriors, laptop-totting workers, are always mobile this solution will help majority of workers get access to their office desktops and applications anywhere. It enhances productivity as it empowers people and also reduces the worries of the management as the entire solution is delivered through a secure network.”

Under Project Trinity, Citrix plans to unleash three types of Dynamic Desktops-the simple and fast version, the personal and versatile version and high-performance version. The simple and fast version that is switches on instantly that leverages on Windows terminal services, is targeted at the call centers, bank branches and retail outlets. The personal and versatile dynamic desktop is aimed at people who have non-repetitive work like administrative workers and leverages on virtual machines running on virtual machines. The high performance solution leverages on Blade Servers and PCs in datacenters and is ideal for complex tasks, which use wide range of computer intensive applications. The product is targeted at visualization analyst, design engineers, software developers and stock exchange traders.

Joining Citrix in this initiative are AMD, Gemalto, Dell, HP, IBM, Neoware, VMware, Wyse and XenSource.

The other major project that was announced at the iForum was Project Kent, named after Clark Kent, the intrepid reporter who cloaks up as Superman to save the world. And like our storybook superhero Project Kent will help companies in clocking in work and man hours, and basically save million of dollars every year which are now wasted because of workforce disruptions due to natural or man-made disasters.

Talking about why the company was so keen on workforce continuity solution Templeton said, “Having our head office in Florida means that we are very susceptible to the typhoons which have been pounding the Florida coast with alarming regularity, especially in the last year. The area saw four major typhoons, especially Katrina, causing losses to the tune of several million dollars and also gave sleepless nights to various companies as they had difficulty in tracking down their employees. In today's world where there are outbreaks of Avian influenza, typhoons, floods, earth quakes not to mention terrorist attacks, one of the top two agendas of any CEO or CFO of the company is how to achieve workflow continuity when disasters strike.“

Citing a Gartner report Templeton said that while 70 percent of enterprises are prepared for datacenter outages, there are only 17 percent enterprises that have any kind of workforce continuity system in place in case of disruption.

And to fill this void Citrix in association in IBM is driving Project Kent that will allow dispersed workers to connect to applications, data and people even when they can't get to the office. The new solution which will not only track employees but will also help them in connecting to their office computers and application through the usage of simple USB sticks which will serve as their connection to the office from any kind of computers.

According to Gordon Payne, VP-Marketing, Citrix's Advanced Solutions Group and Product Line Executive-Emerging Products, Citrix's Virtualization Systems Group, “ According to a Gartner report 93 percent of businesses who register more than 10 days of workforce disruption in one year have to file for bankruptcy. And with the emerging world scenario, wherein work is disrupted either due to inclement weather, natural disasters or terrorism, finding a way to work despite such conditions becomes imperative. Our workforce continuity solution thus is ideal, as it not helps people work from home, but also tracks employee status. The program has a real time high speed pruning algorithm that keeps updating employee information, connects them to their office PCs. So in case of emergency not only are the employees accounted for they are also able to work from home.”

A Forrester study indicated that a 5,000-person enterprise would suffer a $1.36 million productivity loss as a result of a three-day workforce disruption. And, a recent survey of Disaster Recovery Journal readers reported that it takes up to five days for the workforce to return to normalcy after an event. In short, a workforce disruption brings about substantial financial losses. With these two projects Citrix aims to revolutionize the way the world works. (The writer was hosted in Orlando by Citrix)

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