Does anyone have experience with Citrix?

[AFurryReptile]

My company is currently investigating methods to host an application (Centricity) within a data center, off-site from our branch office of 25 users. That application will need to be accessible by those 25 users, and 10 on the WAN. This number is going to grow. I see two options here:

1) Virtualize the application in Citrix.
2) Run the application in Remote Desktop Services.

In my (limited) experience, Citrix seems much closer in "user-experience" to a native client, which is a big part of what we want to accomplish here. I hate the input-lag that comes with an RDP session, and the forced window that's separate from the OS.

Bandwidth is an issue here, too, because I'm working with ~15mb connection for 25 users. Should be enough, by GE's calculations, but I'm hoping to hear about some real-world experiences.

From everything I've read, Citrix is the way to go for deploying an application on the WAN.

 

[drebo]

You can use RemoteApp to access an application on an RDP server and have it maintain the user's desktop experience. It's basically like Citrix or VMWare ThinApp, but you don't have to pay any extra for it.

Otherwise, VMWare ThinApp would be the next suggested method.

But, you should be able to use RemoteApp. And with the addition of Remote Desktop Gateway, you can easily make it available anywhere securely.

 

[theevilsharpie]

Before you invest in any remote application software, you should verify the supported environment with Centricity. Applications targeted at specific verticals tend to have very stringent requirements, and deviating from them may jeopardize your ability to receive vendor support, and it may even be a violation of their EULA.

That being said, both Citrix XenApp and Microsoft RDS sound like they'd fit the bill. XenApp is more efficient, particularly with multimedia, but the difference in resource requirements will likely be negligible if you're just doing data entry. The one advantage Citrix does have it that it is much better supported with non-Microsoft clients.

 

[AFurryReptile]

Citrix and RDS are my only two options - if I want to get support from GE, anyway. Obviously the application is healthcare-oriented, and healthcare apps have been virtualized in Citrix for years - so that is the direction they're pushing me.

RemoteApp would probably work too... but it's not about the money. We want whatever will work "best." That input lag you get in RDP sessions is very annoying, and very noticeable when bandwidth is an issue. In my experience, Citrix largely negates the "type one word and see it two seconds later" issue - but I'm hoping someone can confirm that?

I read somewhere that Citrix is like an iPhone: it's not necessarily faster than any competing technology, but a heavy priority is put on the interface rendering - so the end-users perceive it as "faster."

 

[theevilsharpie]

I haven't had any problems with RDP and input lag, but I also have a high-speed, low-latency connection. Citrix does its "special sauce" that accelerates the local interface, but Citrix can't break the laws of physics. Just because Citrix shows a letter being typed to the client, doesn't mean the server sees it at that exact moment, and the greater the latency, the greater the chance that the server could "lose" input data if the connection hiccups. Losing data in that manner is a pretty big deal for medical data entry, and it's something your practice may not want to risk, even if that risk is remote.

That being said, given the expense of Centricity, I would use whatever GE recommends. If they're pushing you to use Citrix, it's because their own engineers have more experience with it, and you're less likely to encounter finger-pointing from your vendor if there are problems with the implementation.

 

[imagoon]

Everything we do with Centricity is via Citrix. I believe it was picked for device support and the fact that is what the provider offers it on.