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Heads-up On Citrix Access Essentials 2.0

Tuesday, 03 July 2007 by Michel Roth

The Microsoft SMB solution, Microsoft Small Business Server, has historically been quite popular in Europe. I guess Citrix' hopes were up when they announced their SMB product, Citrix Access Essentials in November 2005. However, Citrix Access Essentials didn't become the hit Citrix was hoping for. The awful name probably didn't help much as well as some annoying limitations (such as the 75 user, single server limit).

Recently Citrix announced the third incarnation of Citrix Access Essentials with Citrix Access Essentials 2.0 (there was also version 1.5) Perhaps three times is a charm in Citrix SMB efforts. If Citrix set this up correctly, there is definitely some business to gain in the SMB market, although they should be quick about it because Windows Server 2008 has a lot of features that could compel to SMB environments.

Even though the name has not changed (enough), the features of Citrix Access Essentials have. As Citrix' Kenneth Bell revealed earlier Citrix has really listened to their customers feedback. Brian Madden has extensively spoken with a Citrix representative for Citrix Access Essentials and is impressed with Citrix Access Essentials 2.0. So, will Citrix do better in the SMB environments? The product seems ready, time will tell if the customers are.