Citrix iForum Hits the Ground Running

In a rousing keynote address this morning, Citrix Systems Inc. founder and chairman Ed Iacabucci set the tone for the two-day conference with the catch-phrase: The Age of Digital Independence.

Digital Independence is a simple concept: Users get the applications they need from any client, from any server, over any connection, when they need them. This means they get access to their applications and data over LAN, WAN, dial-up, or wireless media when and where required.

It's a simple idea, but one that has proved elusive until now. However, Iacabucci notes some impressive statistics that seem to say Digital Independence is near.

Since last year, sales of Citrix's Independent Client Architecture (ICA) clients have almost doubled. In '98, at last year's conference, called Thinergy, the company announced that there were 8 million ICA clients installed. This morning, Iacabucci said there are now more than 15 million clients installed worldwide. In an interesting comparison, he said it's pretty close to the 18 million users of America Online.

Iacabucci cited these additional statistics:

ICA is in use by 100,000 organizations;

That includes 98 percent of the Fortune 100 companies;

That includes 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies;

There are 7,500 certified installers for ICA;

There are 8,000 certified administrators of ICA;

There are more than 400 Alliance Partners of Citrix.

"That means there are more than 30,000 persons in the business of ICA applications solution providing," he said.

In terms of device manufacturers, there are 100 firms making thin-client terminal devices, producing more than 200 unique devices. And one, Endpoint Technologies, is announcing ICA on a chip at the conference here. This single-chip device will make the installation of the client in unusual form factors, such as cellular phones and set-top boxes, a snap.

He also said the real growth is still ahead, and noted that for every person now wired into the Internet, there are 100 who are not. Hence, ASPs, by making applications universally accessible in venues such as businesses, consumer applications and education, actually create new markets. Those are markets that resellers, system integrators and other channel partners can jump into with both feet, making the idea of Digital Independence a bonanza for those partners.

"ASPs are being hailed as the foundation of a new channel," said Iacabucci. Apparently he's right.

Following Iacabucci's "vision thing" address, Mark Templeton, president and CEO, demonstrated two new technologies the company is working on to deliver applications even more transparently. Project Charlotte has resulted in technology, now in beta, that Web-enables Citrix MetaFrame capabilities. For example, with the technology, Citrix's now-familiar Program Neighborhood can appear inside a browser. In effect, it becomes an application portal on intranets, or accessed through the Internet. One of the applications Templeton demonstrated was Citrix Videoframe, which plays video in the browser on the Citrix environment. This will be announced later this year.

Templeton also showed Program Neighborhood embedded into a My Yahoo page, so that the user can see links to weather, time, stocks and similar items of interest, as well as Microsoft Word and Excel on the My Yahoo page. "I wonder how well Yahoo will like that," said one keynote attendee.

As Charlotte provides thin delivery of rich applications, Vertigo allows rich delivery of thin applications. Most Web applications are thin. They deliver static information. With Vertigo technology that Templeton demonstrated, the Web page can become dynamic, even allowing live updates of information such as stock prices inside a portfolio display. He called it RUI technology, for Rich User Interface. The technology is in a restricted beta at this time, but goes out to a larger audience "soon."