How typical that right after I do a roundup on the state of application virtualization technology, a major new system hits the market.

Citrix this week unveiled a substantial update to its XenApp platform, XenApp 5, that the company says provides a 10-fold increase in application start-up speeds over the earlier XenApp, even while it cuts management costs by 25 percent.

The new XenApp, in conjunction with XenDesktop and XenServer, is a key component of the Citrix Delivery Center, which in itself is about to go online as a hosted service dubbed Citrix Delivery Center Live.

XenApp 5 allows enterprise managers to set user and application priorities to both speed up deployment and simplify operations for end users. It also features new monitoring and analysis tools to tamp down operational issues before they start to affect performance.

XenApp 5 runs on Windows Server 2003, with full support for the enhancements found in Server 2008 to allow the new server to be easily deployed into existing XenApp environments.

Pricing ranges from $350 for the Advanced Edition to $600 for the Platinum Edition, although Subscription Advantage users can upgrade at no charge. Citrix is also offering instructor-led and e-learning training courses.