Is Citrix still relevant for JDE 9.x installations?

earthdog

earthdog

Active Member
I wonder.

Is still Citrix, "relevant" for new JDE 9.x installations?

I mean what is the point to today's Browser-OS environment to pass through Cistrix?

Is it only the standard bandwidth consumption? or there are other reasons for that?

It feels kind of not so flexible to have Web applications through Citrix.....and it feels kind of laggish also..

Opinions?
 
From an admin point of view, companies run citrix to minimize calls related to browser settings.
That sounds fine in theory, but reading through the latest browser requirements for connecting via citrix, it has requirements very similar anyway.

In practice, you have simply moved the issues to citrix, and a more complicated route to the application, with more points of failure. I've also seen a great many perceived performance issues with JDE, that are only seen when accessed via the citrix browser, to the point it's become the default point to blame when someone reports poor performance (after Insight).

All in all, I don't see the point, but c'est la vie.
 
On the other hand you could say that you standardize the bandwidth consumption per client....

I don't like it any way , i believe that security issues must be solved in the Active Directory area and not in Citrix... I am kind of worried of this status as i am not the decision maker for the citrix platform..

I wonder if the majority of people have the same opinion....
 
The answer is down to personal preference today.

Its not really a performance issue anymore - after all, I can run JDE through a browser over the internet from my iPhone and it works pretty well.

The issue is really whether you want to support the end-user browser or not. If you give everyone a "locked down" browser (like Safari on iPads) - then you absolutely don't need citrix. But the moment you give users Internet Explorer and the ability to install ActiveX for whatever reason - then you have to support issues that result with that solution. Companies with thousands of users just don't want the expense of dozens of "browser support personnel". Instead, its easier to lock the browser on a handful of Citrix Servers and provide that as a published application to the end-users.

The benefit from Citrix is therefore :

1. A locked down version of Internet Explorer - reducing operational costs
2. The ability to secure traffic over ICA instead of using a resource-expensive SSL between the end user and the web server
3. Citrix provides a good solution for remote printing
4. Reliable "streaming" bandwidth vs "peaks and trough" bandwidth that a browser provides - easier to estimate bandwidth requirements across large users

The negative aspect for citrix is :

1. License & Maintenance Cost
2. Additional Hardware

So, if you can offset advantage (1) against the negatives (1&2) - then it makes sense. If not, then it doesn't make sense.

The alternative to Citrix, in my opinion, is to give everyone a locked-down browser, eliminate ActiveX wherever possible and offload SSL at a clustered hardware loadbalancer solution. But there is cost involved in something like that as well, and it changes corporate desktop policy. Doing anything else is less and therefore not comparable.
 
Another thing Citrix gives you is an additional layer of security - many companies don't want their ERP system to be accessible directly through the Internet (of course, this is not an issue if you are 100% intranet).
 
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