Citrix

[reicherb]

Does anybody have any experience with Citrix? Our new Finance Director (who has more technology credentials that I do) says that we need to do a $10,000 pilot because it will save us TONS of money. I'm skeptical. Does anybody have experience with Citrix? Is it a viable option in education? What about Video intense stuff? CADD, streaming video, even Reader Rabbit, etc? It looks like a 50 node license is about $20,000 which would translate to $280,000+ (I'm not sure what the maintenance costs are)for us. Anything thoughts?

Thanks.

 

[dphantom]

we're a public library with almost 400 PCs connected to Citrix. we run all business apps via Citrix (Office, Adobe, etc) 10 DL360s dual processor, 4GB memory, 15K SCSI HDs. Could use a couple more, but except for a handful of hours when all of our branches are open, load balanncing works pretty well.

Citrix not real good for video intensive stuff. We have children's PCs set up with software installed locally. Tried it thru Citrix, but terrible performance.

Educational pricing is much less than the $400/node.

My staff (4) handles 19 locations 500 PCs and 30 plus servers - including 2 web, Exchange cluster, ADS, SQL so yes, Citrix makes a huge difference for us.

 

[traxxton]

Citrix is not good for video, one way to compare it is to windows xp remote desktop. Try a remote desktop session and open a video file and see how it plays. It'll be more or less like that...appear as low frame rate.

Actually a good way to compare Citrix is to a remote desktop, because its basically that...but with many more features for security ect...

If your really serious you can get a 45 day or so license by contacting citrix.

 

[groovin]

am i correct in thinking that the cost savings from running citrix is because you dont need to buy a license for every app to run on every workstation? and instead you only buy a server licensed version, install that on your citrix box (or cluster) and pay $400/node for citrix instead?? so an example would be:

*prices are estimates*
100 workstations that need MS Office ($500), Adobe Photoshop ($500), and Crystal Reports ($200) which would cost $1200 in software but instead all you need is $400 per client (ignoring the costs of citrix and the 3 apps installed on the server and the cost of the servers themselves, etc, etc...) that woudl be a savings of $800/workstation??

 

[dphantom]

That's part of it. A bigger reason for us is not having to install new or updated applications on individual PCs. Of course, one could use SMS or Altiris to push out such apps. But with Citrix, you have a set of servers and update or add software just to those. The client config always remains the same then easing desktop support considerably because users will have identical configs each time they log in.

 

[reicherb]

Originally posted by: dphantom
That's part of it. A bigger reason for us is not having to install new or updated applications on individual PCs. Of course, one could use SMS or Altiris to push out such apps. But with Citrix, you have a set of servers and update or add software just to those. The client config always remains the same then easing desktop support considerably because users will have identical configs each time they log in.

I'm able to push down apps with ZenWorks and also lock down workstations with Zen as well. I definetly see a benefit to Citrix for business apps but not for anything graphical (most educational software).

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: reicherb

Originally posted by: dphantom
That's part of it. A bigger reason for us is not having to install new or updated applications on individual PCs. Of course, one could use SMS or Altiris to push out such apps. But with Citrix, you have a set of servers and update or add software just to those. The client config always remains the same then easing desktop support considerably because users will have identical configs each time they log in.

I'm able to push down apps with ZenWorks and also lock down workstations with Zen as well. I definetly see a benefit to Citrix for business apps but not for anything graphical (most educational software).

Has this guy been driving a shiny new car to work..ie kickbacks?

 

[dphantom]

Wish...

 

[reicherb]

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: reicherb

Originally posted by: dphantom
That's part of it. A bigger reason for us is not having to install new or updated applications on individual PCs. Of course, one could use SMS or Altiris to push out such apps. But with Citrix, you have a set of servers and update or add software just to those. The client config always remains the same then easing desktop support considerably because users will have identical configs each time they log in.

I'm able to push down apps with ZenWorks and also lock down workstations with Zen as well. I definetly see a benefit to Citrix for business apps but not for anything graphical (most educational software).

Has this guy been driving a shiny new car to work..ie kickbacks?

He say's it will save us money because our older PC (P133s and P400s) will be enough to last a bit longer. He believes it will save us money. I thing he may be right but that functionality and performance will be significantly degraded.

 

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: reicherb

Originally posted by: Goosemaster

Originally posted by: reicherb

Originally posted by: dphantom
That's part of it. A bigger reason for us is not having to install new or updated applications on individual PCs. Of course, one could use SMS or Altiris to push out such apps. But with Citrix, you have a set of servers and update or add software just to those. The client config always remains the same then easing desktop support considerably because users will have identical configs each time they log in.

I'm able to push down apps with ZenWorks and also lock down workstations with Zen as well. I definetly see a benefit to Citrix for business apps but not for anything graphical (most educational software).

Has this guy been driving a shiny new car to work..ie kickbacks?

He say's it will save us money because our older PC (P133s and P400s) will be enough to last a bit longer. He believes it will save us money. I thing he may be right but that functionality and performance will be significantly degraded.

That is where the main savings would be. You would still need to license apps based on the users who would connect to Citrix. One app, one user, one license. You might want to first check out just using Microsoft Terminal Services since Citrix is built upon TS. TS might be sufficient for your needs.

http://www.thinclientpricing.com/index2.asp has good information.

 

[Agamar]

You can also save on Licenses by going with a Windows 2000 server vs 2003. For 2003, you would have to buy a 2003 license + a citrix license for any PC. Windows 2000 will let all Win2k and WinXp clients connect for free.