Citrix brings faster, secure application delivery over WAN to local market

Citrix Systems, the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, has announced the availability of its WANScaler Client in South Africa.

WANScaler Client provides local area network (LAN) like application performance to employees over wide area networks (WANs), even when outside of branch office locations.

Citrix WANScaler forms a vital part of Citrix's enhanced application delivery infrastructure, which enables customers to deliver any application to any user anywhere with the best performance, security and cost savings. It also helps to power the global or multi-site enterprise.

WAN Optimisation appliances like Citrix WANScaler allow organisations to improve productivity, as users waste less time in waiting for applications and data. Organisations can also achieve improved regulatory compliance by centralising data and a lower total cost of ownership while maximising return on investment by deferring bandwidth and hardware upgrades and replacing expensive data circuits with Internet virtual private networks (VPNs).

Citrix WANScaler offers three main functions which optimise WAN links: 1) optimising available bandwidth by using adaptive TCP flow mechanisms, thereby making bandwidth more efficient; 2) By using multi-level data compression, which compacts the amount of data that travels across the WAN; and 3) By reducing latency of inefficient protocols via protocol-specific accelerators.

Industry analysts have estimated that as many as 60% of employees now access applications while working from a branch office, and up to 90% require regular access to applications while working from home or on the road. As such, organisations now require application delivery solutions which can extend LAN-like performance and security to application users wherever they may be.

Citrix WANScaler Client allows businesses to offer mobile and home-based users the benefits of WAN optimisation at any location by installing its client on each user's PC, negating the traditional performance reduction inherent in remote application access.

Citrix WANScaler also dovetails seamlessly with Citrix Access Gateway SSL VPN technology to help organisations eradicate the classic trade-off between enhanced application performance and secure application access for mobile employees.

"Citrix WANScaler is designed to integrate seamlessly with existing network infrastructure and enterprise applications, requiring no modifications to router, security or quality of service (QoS) policies," says Nick Keene, country manager of Citrix Systems Southern Africa

As a result, Citrix customers can enjoy instant accelerated delivery of applications to branch users, remote and mobile workers and enhanced productivity balanced by reduced IT costs."

Citrix WANScaler has previously been positioned in the Visionaries Quadrant by Gartner in its Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimisation Controllers report and as a 'Strong Performer' by Forrester Research in its 2007 Forrester Wave Report: WAN Optimisation Appliances.