Recently, I have heard many talk about how to deliver better application experience over WAN to branch users with flat or shrinking IT budgets?

Is delivering a better IT experience to branch or mobile users truly "priceless"? Or do you really need to demonstrate ROI?

It usually takes a lot longer than a year for something to become a 'cliche'. But the current global economic recession has created one of the quickest 'cliches' - 'Flat is the new Growth!' - flat revenues, and flat IT budgets alike.

Faced with flat or shrinking IT budgets, many organizations are clearly and rigorously prioritizing the highest ROI projects, focusing on doing more with less. Increasingly, the following lexicon has taken on a new level of significance and has become part of the IT budgeting process - time-to-ROI, payback time, hard or direct ROI, soft or indirect ROI and so on.

WAN Optimization is one of the very few technologies where IT spend is actually growing while spend on many other technologies is shrinking. In earlier blogs, I blogged about how good the user experience can be with the right WAN optimization solution. But if you are an IT decision maker, you are looking for hard dollar ROI to justify those investments.

We recently published a web-based ROI calculator, designed to show our customers the great savings opportunities available with Citrix Branch Repeater for XenApp and XenDesktop customers. Why don't you try out the calculator and let us know your feedback? We are looking to updating this tool soon based on your feedback.

You may cut and paste the URL in your browser: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1858204.

I look forward to your comments or feedback.

Happy ROI!,

Sai

What if you could deliver online (published) apps through XenApp 6 times faster to your branch office workers? Or increase XenApp ICA print throughput by 38 times?

Well, now you can accelerate ICA with Branch Repeater and XenApp. Find out the benefits for yourselves by downloading Turbocharge applications to your branch offices CTX122321 whitepaper. 
Please share with us your experiences, results and thoughts.

Sai

Other relevant blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/saia/

Are you a XenApp customer or partner wondering how to further accelerate the delivery of XenApp to branch office workers? And yet not upgrade your WAN bandwidth? And save a ton on OPEX for WAN services? Well, you can now check out the success story about how Neogen used Branch Repeater to:

• Accelerate XenApp ICA performance by 400 percent at branch offices
• Reduce IT help desk calls by 15 percent
• Raise throughput on existing bandwidth by six times
• Achieve 35 percent savings in operational expenses for WAN services

Happy accelerating!

Sai

I am glad to share with you all the news about our Citrix Branch Repeater 5.5. Building on our momentum with XenApp optimization (via the ICA acceleration feature) released earlier this year, we announced today the availability of our newest Citrix Branch Repeater 5.5. Among the many benefits this release delivers, check out the following key highlights:

•  Microsoft Exchange (MAPI) optimization accelerates Exchange email for branch and mobile users by up to 50X while reducing bandwidth consumption. You also get these benefits if you are streaming Microsoft Outlook with XenApp or Microsoft App-V because streamed Outlook application behaves just like a native application from a network perspective - a streamed Outlook will talk MAPI to the Exchange server in the datacenter.  Here is a sneak peek of email acceleration benefits from an upcoming performance whitepaper (available soon): 
   
  
  
   
• Branch Repeater with Windows Server 2008  enables consolidation of essential branch services with Microsoft's most advanced server operating system - Windows Server 2008. Customers now have a choice of deploying Branch Repeater appliances built on either Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. As before, we continue to offer the non-Windows version of Branch Repeater as well.

• • Of the many powerful capabilities in the Windows Server 2008 operating system, the Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) feature is one I would like to highlight.  RODC allows you to securely deploy Domain Controller in a branch office for faster Windows authentication and login times. This also helps improve the security posture of IT infrastructure in branch offices.
• With the availability of Repeater Plug-in for Citrix Receiver Branch Repeater now provides WAN acceleration benefits for the already easy-to-use Receiver software client. Receiver provides a consistent and intuitive user experience, and simplifies client distribution and updates. For instance, if you want a single client that provides secure access, SSL VPN client and WAN optimization benefits, then Citrix Receiver is a great way to simplify the client distribution and improve the user experience. This now truly provides simple, fast and secure access to applications from anywhere, whether you are working remotely or in a branch office. I encourage you to try it out and share your experiences with us. 
  

Stay tuned for a series of blog posts that explore some of the features in detail.

I encourage you to check out the newest Branch Repeater 5.5 and share your experiences with me at sai.allavarpu@citrix.com.

Sai

Check out the newest Branch Repeater customer case study posted on citrix.com at http://citrix.com/English/aboutCitrix/caseStudies/caseStudy.asp?storyID=1855157
 Lately I have been discussing with partners and customers about how enterprises pursuing M&A strategy or with distributed branch offices often face the kind of challenges that Consolidated Graphics faced. Enterprises with far flung offices and locations are now looking at ways to reduce the cost of delivering applications to branch offices while improving user experience and productivity. Check out the case study to see how Consolidated Graphics:

• • Enabled datacenter consolidation for cost savings
  • Simplified IT administration
  • Doubled throughput on existing T1 lines, avoiding need for network upgrades
  • Improved the user experience at branches

Happy reading!

Sai
Twitter:@SaiAllavarpu

Citrix Branch Repeater: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/product.asp?contentID=1350184