What's New in Citrix XenApp 6

Citrix XenApp 6 introduces exciting new enhancements for advanced management and scalability, a rich multimedia experience over any network and self-service applications with universal device support from PC to Mac to smartphone. With full support for Windows Server 2008 R2 and seamless integration with Microsoft App-V, XenApp 6 provides session and application virtualization technologies that make it easy for customers to centrally manage applications using any combination of local and hosted delivery to best fit their unique requirements.

Simplified management and unprecedented scalability
XenApp 6 introduces significant enhancements that simplify application management and bring unprecedented levels of scalability to increase cost savings and datacenter efficiency.

• Single, intuitive application management consoleXenApp 6 dramatically simplifies management with AppCenter, a powerful yet easy-to-use management console where IT can manage all applications from a central location. The redesigned console leverages Active Directory group policies and new PowerShell commands.
• Advanced enterprise scalability XenApp 6 scales to 100,000 concurrent users in a single farm and per server scalability is increased by over 15 percent, resulting in unprecedented levels of cost savings and datacenter efficiency.
• Built for Windows Server 2008 R2 XenApp 6 includes support for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 and adds platform enhancements including simplified provisioning, easier automation, and optimized management of XenApp farms through integration with Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager.

The highest quality HDX experience
Citrix HDX advancements deliver a richer and collaborative high-definition experience with support for more USB devices than ever before.

• Next-generation real-time collaboration HDX RealTime collaboration is a leap forward in real-time audio and video collaboration. Enhancements support Unified Communication technology such as Microsoft Office Communicator and VoIP softphones.
• CD-quality audio HDX RealTime audio ensures crisp CD quality audio for XenApp published applications. New audio codecs reduce bandwidth consumption by 90 percent while bringing high quality audio to VoIP softphones.
• Expanded support of devices HDX Plug-n-Play delivers a seamless user experience with expanded support of portable USB devices such as POS interfaces, webcams, microphones, scanners, digital cameras, and more.

New levels of self-service application delivery
Users have an entirely new level of flexibility and mobility, allowing them to choose the applications they need on demand at an online storefront.

• Dazzle storefront Citrix Dazzle, the first self-service storefront for enterprise applications, puts the personal back into computing by giving users 24x7 self-service access to applications. IT controls the list of applications and access level, so security is never compromised.
• App-V integration XenApp 6 delivers both Citrix and Microsoft virtual applications on demand from a single point of management. Users can easily subscribe to App-V packages using Dazzle and virtual applications from both Microsoft and Citrix can interact and share data seamlessly.

Any device, anywhere, to anyone
Users have access to more applications and services than ever before, regardless of their device or location.

• Citrix Receiver for Macs In addition to Windows and Linux, the power of on-demand application access and simplicity of Citrix Receiver are now available to Mac users.
• Expanded plug-in support for Citrix Receiver. New plug-ins for Citrix Receiver includes WAN acceleration, single sign-on, Citrix EasyCall voice communications and Microsoft App-V.

Fast migration
The Citrix XenApp 6 migration tool enables simple and fast migration from XenApp 5 farms to XenApp 6 on Windows Server 2008 R2.

• Automated transfer of farm settings. IT exports all server and farm settings and policies, applications, folders, load evaluators, and administrators. Synchronize legacy and new farm settings, and control which settings get migrated and override legacy settings.
• Smooth, error-free migration. You can stage migration without introducing instability to existing production environments, and preview before committing, by running a report without actually doing the migration. For a phased migration, you can even start with one application workload and progress as more applications get certified.

Deliver Windows Applications as a Service

Key Benefits:

Dynamic Application Delivery

• Online and offline application delivery - System intelligence automatically selects the best-fit method for delivering each application: streamed for offline use on a Windows PC, or run centrally in the data center and delivered via a high speed delivery protocol to any device when a user is online.
• Scenario-based delivery - Pre-configured policies deliver set levels of access based on the user scenario and device capabilities. When users connect, XenApp determines their device capabilities and attempts to deliver applications for offline use if possible. If the users device is not capable of running offline applications either for performance or compatibility reasons, XenApp automatically switches to online application delivery.
• Proven app compatibility - XenApp is estimated to be in use with over 1 Million applications in production. Built-in application virtualization technology ensures easy deployment and application compatibility and significantly reduces validation testing. Using XenApp, organizations can deliver Windows and UNIX applications to any of over 30 different client operating systems.

Any Device, Anywhere

• Universal device support - Users can instantly access applications from whichever client operating system or device is most convenient – a desktop or laptop PC, Macintosh, thin client and even mobile devices such as the iPhone.
• Secure application access - Users can securely access their corporate applications and data from any device - anywhere.
• Receiver plug-ins - A single, self-updating client provides integrated desktop access to any application from any device or operating system. Administrators can control which plug-ins are available based on the services they provide to users.

Enterprise Class Infrastructure

• Centralized management - Manage a single server implementation or thousand-server farm with a consolidated management toolkit that enables remote server configuration, centralized server and application provisioning, user support and activity monitoring and measurement.
• Dynamic virtualization platform - Virtualize server workloads, effectively converting a single physical server with idle capacity into multiple, virtual servers running at full capacity. With the XenServer virtualization platform, organizations can transform their entire environment into a dynamic data center.
• High availability and failover - Automated session, server, and datacenter failover ensure high reliability and seamless failover. If a user session disconnects, the system automatically attempts to reconnect. If a server fails, users are re-routed to healthy servers. When new capacity is needed, IT can provision new servers on-demand. In case of a catastrophic failure, users can be rerouted to alternate data centers without any client-side reconfiguration.
  
  
  

XenApp Key Features

Citrix XenApp enables IT to centralize and manage a single instance of each application in the datacenter and deliver them to users for online or offline use, while providing a high-definition experience. It revolutionizes Windows application management by virtualizing applications and delivering them as a centralized on-demand service to any user anywhere on any device.

• Self-service delivery of your virtual applications - System intelligence automatically determines the best method for delivering virtual applications as an on-demand service to users through a personalized and easy-to-use self-service storefront.
• Access virtual applications from any device, anywhere - Simply and securely access virtual applications with a consistent experience regardless of location or device. XenApp delivers Windows applications to any of over 30 client operating systems including Mac and even the Apple iPhone.
• Ensure a high-definition user experience - Citrix HDX technology gives users an experience that rivals a local PC, even with multimedia such as Flash, collaboration applications, USB peripherals, and 3D graphics. What's more, XenApp 6 offers additional HDX enhancements that ensure a high-definition user experience regardless of location.
• Secure architecture, secure delivery, secure by design - An integrated hardened SSL VPN with advanced, policy-based access control lets you give users encrypted access to virtual applications and valuable intellectual property from anywhere while eliminating the risk of data theft or loss.
• Single instance server and application management - Virtual application packages and server images are stored, maintained, and updated once in the datacenter and delivered on demand. This simplifies system and application management and makes it easy to provide real-time updates to users.
• Enterprise-class application management - XenApp supports more than 100,000 users and scales beyond 1,000 servers in a single implementation with 99.999% application uptime. This coupled with central monitoring, and management and automation tools enable rapid response to business and user needs.

Editions

XenApp and Microsoft

Combined power for on-demand application delivery
Combining the power of Citrix XenApp and Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services (RDS) creates the best remote desktop and application virtualization platform available on the market today. Using Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services (RDS) as the underlying platform, XenApp accelerates and extends desktop and virtual application deployments, with secure delivery and access to Windows applications for any user, from any device and any location.

Highest value, best performance, lowest TCO
XenApp delivers high value on top of Microsoft RDS with the lowest total cost of ownership, highest security, and best performance for all applications—all while reducing the cost of Windows application management by up to 50 percent. XenApp extends RDS and adds value by addressing complex business-critical environments, including:

• Providing instant, easy, and secure access to applications across the organization Meeting user demand for a consistent experience as they access information
• Reducing the complexity of delivering and maintaining virtual applications
• Ensuring application compatibility across any operating system
• Supporting a wide range of endpoint device types
• Increasing data security and controlling access to information
• Enabling business mobility

Extending Microsoft Windows Remote Desktop Services
XenApp adds key components to Microsoft RDS, for a best-in-class solution for any access scenario. Together XenApp and RDS support the strategic demands of businesses and their plans for growth. Just ask the more than 230,000 Citrix customers who can testify to the value of XenApp with RDS.