Citrix Receiver, Dazzle Provide Published Applications Like Satellite TV Programing
May 6th, 2009 | 
Author: 
Citrix has opened the Citrix Synergy 2009 Conference in Las Vegas, NV this week with a flurry of press releases announcing new products that provide innovative methods for delivering corporate published applications. Adopting a model similar to satellite TV providers, Citrix Receiver, Dazzle, and Merchandising Server provide end users the ability to choose their own applications, and then those applications are available not only on the desktop but from any device, anywhere.
This model offers the potential to lift a huge burden from the IT department when provisioning both physical and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI). At the same time, on demand self service applications also introduce software as a service provided by a company store delivery concept. For example, the IT department can build a standard desktop image or template virtual machine (VM) that consists of just the operating system and basic enterprise applications like anti virus and asset monitoring software. Then, based on familiar and easy to use TV programing -like subscription options, the end user has the control to choose which applications are delivered to their desktop via the combination of Citrix Reciever and Dazzle. These same applications or virtual desktops are also made available from the home PC or the iPhone without compromising administrative centralized security and control. New application choices and version updates are continuously provided via the “company store.”
Apparently, all of these new Citrix products are free. Reciever and Merchandising Server are available today. According to the Citrix press releases “both Receiver and Merchandising Server require infrastructure products from the Citrix Delivery Center product family to complete their operations.”
The following is a summary of links to the official Citrix announcements with some key quotes from each.
Citrix Receiver Makes Accessing Virtual Desktops and Apps Easy as Turning on Your Tv
“In the world of broadcast media, satellite and cable TV receivers are largely transparent to subscribers, silently receiving broadcast signals from head-end controllers, and responding to user requests for content. Their role is simple, yet profound, allowing subscribers to use the TV of their choice, and view standard, high-definition or pay-per-view content from any room in their home, while also giving the provider full control over service delivery. Citrix Receiver functions in much the same way for corporate employees. Following an initial download and installation, Receiver sits quietly in the background and “listens” for signals from the corporate “delivery center”. This allows IT to deliver any app or desktop from Citrix Delivery Center™Citrix® XenApp™ and Citrix® XenDesktop™, to any device with a Receiver installed. Should employees want to access their work environment from a home PC or Mac laptop, they simply go to a URL given to them by IT and download a Receiver for that device as well. As long as Citrix Receiver is installed on a device, IT has complete control over security, performance, and user experience, allowing them to deliver IT services on-demand with no need to manage, own or care about the physical device or its location.”
[omitted]
“Administration is provided by Citrix Merchandising Server, a new server component that manages the initial setup of Receiver for employees, provides centralized management of plug-ins, keeps plug-ins updated on each end point, manages web-based user support services, and offers robust reporting features. Because Merchandising Server is a virtual appliance, it’s easy to provision in any customer environment. Merchandising Server also includes tools for migrating existing Citrix customers from legacy implementations of Citrix software clients and user interfaces such as Citrix Program Neighborhood, PN Agent, and Web Interface.”
Citrix Dazzle Puts the Personal Back in Computing
“Dazzle gives corporate employees 24×7 self-service access to a broad array of applications, desktops and content, allowing them to choose exactly what they need, when they need it. For the more than 200,000 enterprise customers already using Citrix Delivery Center™ products like Citrix® XenApp™ and Citrix® XenDesktop™, Dazzle effectively acts as a storefront to their existing delivery infrastructure. Best of all, Dazzle offers a rich, intuitive user experience that requires no training. If you’ve used DirecTV or Apple iTunes, you already know how to use Dazzle. In short, Dazzle makes self-service IT a reality for the first time ever, giving users simple access to apps and IT services, and bringing the economics of the web to enterprise IT.”
[omitted]
“Dazzle is a user-facing application that runs on any Windows or Mac computer. It essentially acts as a lightweight storefront for all the applications IT has centrally staged in head-end infrastructure products like XenApp. To select an application in Dazzle, users simply browse and search based on application name, description, or type. They can also choose applications based on IT-defined categories such as functional department or group name. Selecting an application is as simple as clicking an icon in Windows, or dragging it into the Applications folder or Dock on a Mac. Organizing selected applications into user-defined “playlists” is equally simple and intuitive, giving Windows users full control over how apps will appear in their Start menu. Apps available for offline use are clearly designated in the Dazzle console, making selection easy for laptop users who need to work while disconnected from the network.”
Related Posts
Posted in citrix, cloud computing, vdi, Xen, xendesktop, XenServer | 
Tags: citrix, citrix dazzle, citrix receiver, citrix synergy, merchandizing server, saas, vdi, virtualization
Pingback: Virtualization Management | Citrix Offer Free Desktop Virtualization Tools | Tek-Tools