22 May 2008

Citrix and Microsoft have announced the immediate availability of Citrix Branch Repeater, a new line of branch office appliances developed and marketed as part of a strategic alliance between the two companies. By staging the delivery of applications and Windows services closer to branch office users, the partners say Citrix Branch Repeater will help make branch office computing faster and more cost-effective for companies of all sizes.

Citrix Branch Repeater will be sold as part of the Citrix Delivery Centre product family, an end-to-end infrastructure designed to help customers transform static datacentres into dynamic delivery centres. Just as digital television repeaters amplify and retransmit media signals to homes in a given neighbourhood, Citrix Branch Repeater sits between corporate datacentre and branch offices, amplifying and retransmitting applications to branch office users. Based on Windows Server and available with Microsoft ISA Server software, the Citrix Branch Repeater provides an ideal complement to application virtualisation solutions, enhancing application delivery and performance while simultaneously delivering critical Windows Server infrastructure services in the branch.

“This type of alliance will give companies more flexibility for managing their branches, and it will address never-ending bandwidth demands from branch workers,” said Robin Gareiss, executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. “The adoption of managed services at the branch is increasing. Today, 63 per cent of companies use some form of managed services at the branch, compared to 46 per cent in 2007.”