Sitara licenses Citrix Systems' ICA

Sitara Networks has licensed Citrix Systems' Independent Computing Architecture to bring a 'quality of service' provision to applications which run on Citrix MetaFrame servers.

Sitara Networks has licensed Citrix Systems' Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) to bring a 'quality of service' provision to applications which run on Citrix MetaFrame servers.

The Citrix system allows users to access the server via their thin client. Tim Beard, Europe, Middle East & Africa marketing manager at Sitara, explained that the firm aimed to make networks smarter by adding a layer of intelligence.

"It gives the network the ability to differentiate between the importance of applications. All traffic goes through the box, which then identifies the traffic and allocates priority," he said.

Education and data-entry companies, with little need for high-functionality desktops, are just some of the customers who benefit from distributed computing. With ICA, the system is more efficient and allows more users to access the applications more easily.

Duncan Crook, managing director at Equinox, said that the Citrix architecture is widely used, and that the new service provision solves a bandwidth prioritising difficulty. "I am very happy that this has been announced, because it solves a problem for Citrix. It is much more efficient and reduces overhead costs," he said.

According to a Citrix representative, the company, like its thin client rival NCD, is concentrating on making partnerships.

Citrix has an on-going relationship with Microsoft, which is continuing to provide add-ons that increase functionality, despite the widely held belief that Microsoft would be threatened by the take-up of thin client technology.

Jane Rimmer, marketing director for northern Europe at Citrix, said: "We are currently in the middle of a five-year contract with Microsoft to run MetaFrame on Windows 2000. We are genuine partners and not in any way in competition."