Enterprise Featured Article
Citrix Announces Availability of Citrix Access Gateway 8.1
By Susan J. Campbell TMCnet Contributing Editor
This newest release of the company’s popular Citrix Access Gateway (News - Alert) appliance now includes integration with Citrix XenDesktop. This solution allows companies to deliver virtual desktops securely to thousands of end users based on their unique identity, location and security status.
The Citrix Access Gateway deviates from the traditional VPN
and network access control solutions, as it provides intelligent access directly to approved applications and desktops through its innovative SmartAccess technology. This is an increasingly important requirement as datacenter resources become more virtualized and physically separated from end users.Extending this capability to virtual desktops makes it easier for corporations to move to a delivered desktop model without compromising security or end user experience.
Improved Scalability for Secure Virtual Desktop Access is designed to add a highly scalable Access Gateway appliance in front of virtual desktops in the datacenter. This can dramatically enhance an organization’s ability to deliver XenDesktop securely to thousands of XenDesktop users, regardless of their proximity to corporate headquarters.
The new Access Gateway configuration wizards simplify and accelerate deployment in a virtual desktop environment through the automation of several commonly performed XenDesktop configuration tasks.
In addition, new standalone MSI (News - Alert) packaging for Windows simplifies and automates client installation by enabling administrative deployments through the broadly-available standard software deployment tools.
"With this announcement, Citrix is really delivering on its promise to bring the virtualized desktop closer, and more securely, to users," said Zeus Kerravala (News - Alert) of Yankee Group, in a Monday statement.
"Partnering with Citrix allows us to offer our clients a one of a kind solution for virtual desktops," said Steve Daly, director of systems engineering at Accelera Solutions, in Monday’s statement.
"The new release of Citrix Access Gateway for XenDesktop solves a thorny issue that enterprises face today. Enterprise customers can now restrict the access and use of desktops and approved applications from a central location, without network reconfiguration or end client software changes," said Sanjay Uppal, vice president of product marketing at Citrix Systems.
As organizations throughout the world find themselves extending their reach through branch openings, home-based agents, and other dispersed locations, the demand for such capability as that offered in the Citrix release continues to grow.
