Citrix Previews App-sharing Product, New MetaFrame Features

Computerworld - ORLANDO -- Citrix Systems Inc. last week unveiled a new product that can help a company's employees gain shared access to an application and previewed new features in its main MetaFrame XP application-serving and management software.
The real-time collaboration product, code-named Project Pearl, will allow users to work on projects and documents with their colleagues and see the changes that any of them makes in real time. Project Pearl, which runs with MetaFrame XP for Windows, is due to ship in the first half of next year.
That's when Citrix's core MetaFrame XP product is also due for a new features release. Feature Release 3 will include extended support for Microsoft Corp.'s Windows .Net Server 2003 operating system and enhancements to the Citrix Management Console, which enables oversight of a MetaFrame server farm from a single interface.
Other new capabilities in MetaFrame XP include a universal print driver that can be used on every server in a MetaFrame XP farm and a command-line tool intended to simplify the task of adding, activating and backing up multiple licenses.
Other announcements at last week's Citrix iForum conference here included the following:

• The release of the first service pack for Citrix's NFuse Elite portal server software, featuring scalability and performance enhancements.


• An agreement between Citrix and BEA Systems Inc. to jointly market, demonstrate and distribute a portlet to connect Citrix's NFuse Classic portal software to San Jose-based BEA's WebLogic Portal 7.0 product.


• Citrix's ongoing work with IBM and VMware Inc. to ensure that its MetaFrame XP product works with Palo Alto, Calif.-based VMware's ESX Server virtual machine software running on IBM's eServer xSeries 440 boxes, so that users can optimize and potentially consolidate their server farms.


• A global systems integration and cooperative support agreement with Hewlett-Packard Co., which plans to enhance its ability to resell the Citrix MetaFrame and NFuse products.