Are you really leveraging your Citrix XenApp Platinum investment?
02/09/2010
Are you fully utilizing all the Citrix XenApp Platinum software features that you paid for? Probably not. Many customers still haven’t capitalized on the fact that their Citrix XenApp Platinum licensing includes valuable tools and features which can significantly enhance both the system management, and your end user’s experience.
Industry research shows that business technology is massively underused. Studies by the University of Western Ontario suggest that people use less than 20% of the software features and functionality available to them during their work day. When you consider how much the average Canadian business spends on software upgrades and license upkeep, it’s not just an unfortunate reality… it is a costly one.
When it comes to the end user, the reasons why this functionality remains dormant are familiar; people simply have jobs to do, and keeping up with software is like being on a treadmill. Most people don’t have the time to learn everything there is to know about all the features, for example the latest Microsoft Office product; they learn what they need to know to get their jobs done. The average software product cycle is 18 months; so, by the time someone becomes familiar with new features and functionality, a new version is released and they are back to the drawing board. For enterprise software, the life cycle is a little more forgiving—3 to 5 years—but the treadmill principle applies just the same.
From the perspective of your IT staff, a trade-off has to be made; while it does perpetuate the underutilization of software features, regularly upgrading to new software versions is a necessity if your business is going to continue receiving vital service packs, security updates, and patches from the manufacturers.
Citrix Platinum Customers
“For whatever reason, we’ve found that many Citrix customers still haven’t taken advantage of the powerful system tools and features that they own by purchasing XenApp Platinum licensing. With a little help from IT Weapons you can unlock the powerful, cost-saving, and experience-enhancing features of XenApp Platinum,” said Nuno Lopes, Principal Consultant for IT Weapons’ Citrix and Microsoft practice.
For example, Citrix’s EdgeSight products provide powerful system analysis and management capabilities that many customers have left dormant. EdgeSight for XenApp provides real-time monitoring of session-level application performance. For each user session you can identify whether printing, video, audio, network, program, and/or database issues are contributing to a poor application experience.
EdgeSight for Load Testing is a powerful system management and planning tool that many customers own, but haven’t used. Today’s IT departments need to effectively leverage their hardware resources and plan for future requirements. EdgeSight for Load Testing provides an efficient and cost-effective method of server sizing and application load testing for your Citrix XenApp environment. This product allows you to record and replay interactions with your published applications. Once you have your set of instructions compiled, you can then set up a test by replaying those instructions over and over again until you find the breaking points or performance thresholds you are looking for. In short, EdgeSight for Load Testing can make capacity planning an exact science for your IT team. And if you are already a XenApp Platinum customer, you own these tools. You just need a little help from a trusted IT advisor to get your IT staff up and running on EdgeSight.
Another great example of an underutilized Citrix product is the Password Manager tool, which again, comes with the XenApp Platinum licensing. You can centralize password administration with your IT team for greater control and increased security. This is especially important for those concerned with regulatory compliance legislation like HIPAA. When you implement Citrix Password Manager, your users will experience real productivity gains with fast, automated logons to Web, Windows, and host-based applications. Your IT staff will also enjoy a reduction in desk-side tech-support calls. Password Manager is a single sign-on product that also has self service password functionality. If you or your employees are constantly setting, forgetting, and resetting passwords on websites and applications, then Password Manager is something you need to try.
When it comes to security and compliance, one of Citrix’s most powerful tools also comes with Platinum licensing, but remains largely unused; SmartAuditor. This system auditing tool captures and archives screen updates, including mouse clicks and the visible output of keystrokes, in digitally signed video recordings to provide a record of activity for specific users, applications, and servers. With SmartAuditor you can monitor and examine user activity, conduct successful security audits, and ensure regulatory compliance. SmartAuditor can also improve technical support with faster review, problem identification, and time-to-resolution.
Like the EdgeSight tools, the system requirements to implement Password Manager and SmartAuditor are not daunting, and with a little help from IT Weapons, you can begin taking full advantage of software tools and functionality you already own. Make the most of your investments.
Contact IT Weapons today to kick start your Citrix investment and learn about our tailored Citrix XenApp Platinum consulting engagements.