Citrix is introducing three new products to deliver applications more quickly and efficiently to branch offices and other remote locations.

All three fit into Citrix's overarching Deliver Center architecture, which is the company's design for data centers based on its thin-client, WAN optimization and virtualization technologies. (Compare WAN optimization and application acceleration products.)

Together the products based on these technologies enable using traditional laptops and desktops or smaller desktop appliances to access applications hosted in a virtual environment.

The products include one piece of hardware, Citrix Branch Repeater, which locally delivers applications that would otherwise have to be accessed over the WAN. The other two products are Citris App Receiver and Citrix Desktop Receiver, both software agents that reside on individual computers to streamline interactions with Delivery Center services.

Branch Repeater was developed with Microsoft to publish streamed applications closer to branch office users. So if a branch user taps such an application, it is served up from the Repeater deployed in the branch rather than over the WAN. The device runs Windows Server as its operating system, so it includes services such as file services, print services, Active Directory and domain control.

The appliance also hosts Citrix WAN-optimization software compatible with its WANScaler devices to streamline the transmission of application images being published on the Repeaters. IT administrators can push applications needed in branch offices to the Repeaters via a central management console.

Branch Repeater comes in three models scaled to the size of the branch WAN connection and range in price from $5,500 to $11,500.

This places another server in branches at a time when many businesses are centralizing servers to economize, but that may not be a problem for many businesses such as retailers with many branch stores, says Robin Gareiss, a senior vice president at Nemertes Research.

"We see about 56% of companies centralizing everything," Gareiss says. "But the balance keep some servers and functions out at the branch. So while the trend has been toward centralization, there are a lot of companies that want to keep some functions local."

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