Tarantella Updates New Moon, Lowers Price, Challenges Citrix

Written on May 13 2004 Filed under: Citrix, Industry Buzz, Propalms 8,468 views, 6 comments

by Brian Madden

In the past I’ve written about the “other” Terminal Server add-on products that compete against Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server. One such product is from Tarantella, and Tarantella has just introduced a new version of it with a much lower price. In doing so, Tarantella has decided to directly challenge the dominance of Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server.

Tarantella’s new product, called Secure Global Desktop Terminal Services Edition 2.1, is available for free to anyone who agrees to buy 2 years of maintenance. (This is a fancy way of saying that the new product costs $60 per user, although with that $60 you get all new versions of the product that are released in the next two years and your license is permanent—even if you don’t renew the maintenance after your two years is up.)

Tarantella bought New Moon about a year ago, and this new product is a minor update to the product that was sold as New Moon Canaveral iQ 2.0.

Tarantella now has two main products. As mentioned, Secure Global Desktop Terminal Services Edition is the Terminal Services add-on product that competes with Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server. (Tarantella’s other product, Secure Global Desktop Enterprise Edition, has capabilities for remotely accessing applications running on non-Windows servers, including UNIX, Linux, and Mainframe applications in addition to the Windows Terminal Services features.)

Tarantella is taking a different approach than Citrix in the Terminal Server “value add” market. Instead of focusing on the broader “access” market, Tarantella is focusing on the core Terminal Services space. Secure Global Desktop Terminal Services Edition adds value to Microsoft Terminal Services in the form of application publishing, load balancing, reporting, application management, and a web application interface.

Instead of targeting their products for end-user access, Tarantella is focusing on system administrators and trying to make it easier to manage server-based computing users.

This is where the fun begins. Citrix feels that they need to grow beyond the “pure” Terminal Services-only market in order to succeed. They feel that customers want more than just management products and that customers want to buy end-to-end access solutions.

In direct contrast, Tarantella feels that customers do not want to buy all that other stuff, and that customers just want to buy pure Terminal Server management tools.

Who’s right? Free market economics will tell us soon enough.

You can download a fully functional 30-day evaluation of Tarantella Secure Global Desktop Terminal Services Edition from their website.

Comments

Guest wrote Not a confidence builder

on 12-12-2004 1:22 PM

This message was originally posted by John Byrne on May 13, 2004
No matter the technology, I don't believe that these types of offers build confidence. Either in the ISV or the marketplace.

As you know, triCerat is in agreement with the premise of a market for SBC utilities. I'm surprised Tarentella sees the need to use this type of marketing gimmick to create success.

JB

Guest wrote Free to anyone who agrees to buy 2 years of maintenance.

on 12-12-2004 1:22 PM

This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on May 13, 2004
I could be wrong but it really doesn't sound free. At 2.20 share, not sure if they will be around for the next two years. Right now, I think the fully functional demo is a better deal.

Guest wrote Confident

on 12-12-2004 1:22 PM

This message was originally posted by an anonymous visitor on June 5, 2004
The National Security Administration and the Department of Defense has faith in Tarantella's Secure Global Desktop product, I'm convinced. At at time when reducing the total cost of ownership is so imperative, their software makes it happen.

Guest wrote Definately a great alternative to Citrix! (And a whole lot cheaper!)

on 12-12-2004 1:30 PM

This message was originally posted by Mike on July 23, 2004
We have used this product for a few of our customers including some large customers. We feel that this product is a must have even to the 10-15 user market with a single server. The management capabilities and functionality of this product is great! If your looking to greatly improve / build a Terminal Services farm and don't have money to burn on Citrix, this is the way to go. On top of all the competitive features, the best feature is support! Calling Tarantella support is like calling a co-worker! They are there for you and listen to your needs and address problems quicker than I have seen any other company respond! I appreciate April and Carlos's help in particular! When it all comes down to it, people make the difference!

Guest wrote "cheap" being the keyword...

on 12-12-2004 1:52 PM

This message was originally posted by Matthias on October 19, 2004
as long as they need an IIS on each box it's a "no go" for me. I'm not buying new security risks with money I might save only out of pocket. You still have to build know-how and everything.
Nope, not for me.

Guest wrote Yes, can't agree more

on 12-12-2004 8:03 PM

This message was originally posted by Michael Crabtree on July 15, 2004
This product is the godsend us TS administrators have been waiting for, and the support is excellent, ,kudo's to the tarantella team and to April Cambell and Carlos in particular.

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