Citrix Marries WAN Optimization to Windows Server

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As part of an effort to give IT organizations more centralized control over services that are delivered to branch offices, Citrix today unveiled a CloudBridge appliance that combines wide area network (WAN) optimization software with an implementation of Windows Server.

Karl Brown, senior director of product marketing for CloudBridge product group at Citrix, says the inclusion of Windows Server makes it possible for IT organizations to deploy a range of applications, including video distribution and streaming, multi-site file collaboration and local print services, directly on top of the same device they use to manage access to WAN services for every branch office. To deliver those capabilities, Citrix has certified that applications from Qumu, Talon and Cortado, respectively, all run on the CloudBridge CSX platform.

The inclusion of Windows Server in the CloudBridge CSX, says Brown, also makes it possible for IT organizations to run other applications, including Microsoft Active Directory and DNS servers, that will benefit from being more directly accessible from branch offices via as much as 16 Gigabits-per-second of bandwidth. This ability also provides IT organizations a central point of control for delivering access to cloud services without having to deploy an instance of Windows Server in every branch office.

The end result, adds Brown, is an ability to consolidate servers across the organization without compromising the quality of the application experience.

As a way to cut costs, IT organizations have been pulling servers out of branch offices for years. As the appliances that IT organizations use to deliver WAN service get robust enough to run entire suites of applications, the whole process of centralizing the delivery of IT services to the branch office is becoming even more efficient.