Citrix appoints Westcon as authorised distributor in SA

With thin client technology rapidly on the uptake in the corporate environment, with 99 of the Fortune 100 companies and 80% of the FTSE 100 companies using it, channel provider of networking technology Westcon has introduced the Citrix product range to its stable.

At the same time the company has appointed Raj Harie as Citrix vendor channel manager.

With several years of thin client experience, Harie, who was previously a Citrix systems engineer at Westcon in the UK in both pre- and post-sales, believes SA`s bandwidth problems are alleviated through the use of thin client technology.

"For companies to be more competitive they need to communicate more effectively with their branch offices, but restricted bandwidth - a problem plaguing SA business - is obstructing this need. With thin client, the bandwidth usage is typically between 12 to 20KBps because everything is server-based.

"Because processing and memory takes place at server level, the client becomes a `dumb terminal`. All that travels across the network are keyboard strokes, mouse movements and screen updates. These do not require high bandwidth utilisation, yet all the necessary and relevant information and data is on the screen," says Harie.

"Citrix is an enabling technology. It enables users to get access to applications that are sitting on the network. For users it is totally transparent where the applications are coming from - all they require are the applications to enable them to work effectively.

"Citrix enables this application access. Its goal is to make application access as easy as a telephone call. Users want to be able to use any device to access their applications and not be constrained by what types of connectivity are deployed."

The technology allows users to connect to applications using a LAN or the telephone network. But they are not restricted to these traditional means. They can connect using technologies ranging from wireless LANs to wireless WANs (such as GSM or Satellite) which is ideal in today`s diverse network infrastructures.

Whether users are at their desks or at any Internet caf'e around the globe, Citrix and its technologies enable them to access the same applications that are available to them on the corporate network.

"Effectively Citrix enables us to break away from the shackles that currently restrict our application access," says Harie.

His role is to broaden the market by expanding the reseller base and he expects to achieve that by putting into place a channel partner programme where Westcon focuses on adding value to the channel.

Chris Norton, channel manager for Citrix Systems South Africa, says Westcon`s appointment was made because the Citrix model is moving more main stream creating a need for a value-added hardware distributor.

"Until now we have been confined to a software only distributor, but there is a need to give the customer a wider choice as to who they deal with and move into the network integration market. Citrix and Westcon have had a long-standing relationship internationally and its channel focus complements what we are trying to achieve," says Norton.