Citrix kicks off XenSource era by going bandwagon mad

Virtualization, compliance, green IT and VoIP. What's left?

Present Them

Turning back to Citrix's flagship code, customers will see the vendor jumping on just about any bandwagon it can find via compliance, green computing and unified communication tools.

For compliance, Citrix has rolled out SmartAuditor as a new option in Presentation Server. This software will record a user's actions on his PC and then send a replay of those actions back to a server or storage system.

"Some users work with sensitive data, while others are involved with outsourced tasks or maybe sensitive applications," Wasson said. "SmartAuditor lets the customer set policies to record an entire user session anytime a particular event in triggered. Then, you get a video clip of what the user was seeing."

Available immediately (Platinum Edition only), SmartAuditor records a user session as opposed to all the traffic being sent over a network, so the recorded files only take up a few KB "for long sessions," according to Wasson. Customers can instruct the software to record users, for example, during specific times of day and when using certain software.

The greenies out there may be more moved by PowerSmart - a software package that, well, can power down servers. Similar tools already exist, although Citrix claims an edge over rivals in that it doesn't shut down systems only based on time of day. Instead, Citrix's software can monitor server usage to decide the best means of load balancing code and shutting down idle boxes.

The new tool will ship in December for Presentation Server, and is being demoed this week at iForum with HP's ProLiant x86 boxes.

Possibly saving the weirdest new package for last, we bring you EasyCall. This software works with both NetScaler and Presentation Server and can add a click-to-call feature to just about any software package.

The software looks for phone numbers in documents, web pages and contact lists and pops up a dialer when appropriate.

"When the user clicks on the dialer, EasyCall initiates a call between the user’s preferred telephone – office, mobile or home – and the destination number, using that user’s corporate telephone system," Citrix said. "As a result, all application users, including the ever-growing mobile workforce, have the ability to initiate calls intuitively from any application without stopping to dial a separate device. Because EasyCall initiates the call using the company’s existing corporate phone system, end users also avoid expensive local phone rates and surcharges when traveling or working from home."

As far as we can tell, you have to be pretty damned lazy to demand that your computer and not your fingers make a phone call. As Citrix points out, however, there is money to be saved by letting your PC do all the grunt work since calls are routed back through corporate phone banks. You can use EasyCall with legacy or VoIP gear.

The software is available now at no charge with NetScaler Platinum Edition and Presentation Server Platinum Edition. ®