Citrix or not to Citrix. That is the question. 1

[BlckJckFrnk]

I have an unusual dilemma. I’m starting a new job with a law firm. One of the problems is that I’m replacing an IT person already there and there is no one in the company that is network computer literate. Here’s the problem. The company wants to have remote access capabilities, why they don’t already is why he current IT person is being removed. They have settled on going with installing Citrix because that what other law firms have.
They currently have a Win NT system, but are going to upgrade to Win 2k once I get there.

My question is is there a better and less costly solution. I’m not familiar with Citrix, but I have read that if you have security concerns as this law firm will, Citrix is the way to go.
Can WIN 2K Terminal Services handle the load and security?
I would appreciate any feed back or suggestions. Thanks

 

[jpa69]

Hi John

I have been running a citrix server to run an M$Access/SQL Server developed app since Y2k. Firstly, let me say that until recently it has been extremely reliable. It is also very easy to manage. At the time of specifying Citrix used a lower memory footprint and printing was managed better, so it was an easy decision.

Like many apps Citrix finds Micro$oft improving the functionality of their product or even including it (Terminal services in W2k), so they have to extend their own functionality.

These days there are many versions of the Citrix client and the licensing model has changed so you can install as many servers as you want, you just pay for each client (up to $400 OUCH). The key differences now are load balancing and management (easier).

Citrix sits on top of W2k and can be added after, so you have two options.

Go to them and say "Look M$ is offering a better product than in the past, so we could save some money by using just terminal services for 3 months and then install Citrix if we find it lacking"

or

Use their money which they seem happy to spend, make sure you have at least two servers for fault tolerence and build up your CV. With multiple servers, we have found that we preferred to put everyone on Citrix as it can deliver an NT/W2k desktop or Single App anywhere but you can manage the session at the server, of course licensing cost is an issue here but large organisations can justify it with savings on management costs.

We are about to upgrade our NT4 TSE to W2k AS with SQL 2000, we will then try W2k Terminal services and see how it copes over our remote WAN and dial-up, then we may opt to save the $5k.