Microsoft, Citrix Ease App Delivery to Branch Offices

Microsoft and Citrix have rolled out an all-in-one device that delivers applications to branch offices, eliminating the need for space-hogging, energy-zapping appliances, not to mention the IT staff required to implement and manage them.The Citrix Branch Repeater -- marking Microsoft's first foray into WAN optimization -- is all about "application delivery," which includes virtualization, network optimization and a number of Windows services that can be hosted in the device. The appliance optimizes traffic between a branch office and its headquarters on a protocol-to-protocol basis, and includes features that stage applications so that traffic won't have to travel across the wide area network every time an employee needs to access a virtualized application.

The Branch Repeater is available in three versions: a $5,500, 1-Mb 100 model; a $7,500, 2-Mb 200 model; and an $11,500, 10-Mb 300 model.,a href="http://www.informationweek.com/news/software/server_virtualization/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207801286">InformationWeek