by
Brian Madden
Citrix showed off a small business version of Presentation Server at iForum in Edinburgh, Scotland this week. The product, called Citrix AllInOne (also known as "Project Tamar") is like a Citrix version of Microsoft's Small Business Server (or Presentation Server "Lite" or whatever you want to call it). It's a single-server install meant for small environments that need Citrix capabilities but don't want to have all the complexity of setting everything up.
AllInOne is basically a stripped-down version of Presentation Server, Web Interface, and Secure Gateway with some simple wizards used to configure everything. It will be limited to 75 users on a single server.
The real value of AllInOne is the configuration wizard. First of all it's a "real" Windows app--not some Java piece of crap. It looks really sharp and is easy enough for my mom to use.
After installing Windows Server 2003, you install the Citrix AllInOne product. The first thing the wizard does is install Terminal Services (if it's not already there). Then it installs (and configures!) the Terminal Services Licensing Service.
The wizard then steps the administrator through the various configuration options, setting defaults along the way while giving the option to configure more advanced settings. For example, it says something like, "Right now you (brianmadden\brian) are the administrator and can manage this server. Do you want to add anyone else?" If you add other people, it asks something like, "Do you want this person to have the same rights as you, or do you want them to only manage certain things?"
AllInOne sets up two Web Interface sites--one for internal users and one for external users that uses Secure Gateway (Citrix's software SSL-VPN for ICA sessions). It provides the URLs in a simple to use way. ("Give this link to your users to allow them to access this server from outside the office. Give this link to users to allow them to access the site from inside the office.") The wizard also lets you choose which features are enabled for inside and outside access. It even allows you to integrate SecurID or Safeword for Citrix very easily.
The coolest part of the AllInOne wizard (by far) is the application publishing step. It says something like, "now pick which applications you want your users to be able to access." Then it enumerates the Start menu on the server and gives you a list of every app installed on the server! To publish an app, the administrator just has to check the boxes next to the program names they want and click the "publish" button and the wizard does the rest!
Seriously, I cannot express how cool this wizard is! (Like other wizards, it's also available after the initial setup, so the administrator should never have to use anything else.)
The AllInOne version of Citrix looks like it will have most features of Presentation Server except for being allowed to participate in a farm (and of course the 75 users per server limit). Actually, it's almost 100% spot-on to what Ron and I suggested Citrix should do over 14 months ago. (Look at the section in that article called "Citrix MetaFrame Presentation Server Lite" :)
Pricing and release dates have not been announced yet.