Introduction

Businesses are teeing up to new challenges brought on by an increasingly virtual environment. Telecommuting has increased the number of remote access users who need to access applications with specific business configurations. The pervasive use of the Internet provides an easy, nearly universal, avenue of connectivity, although connections are sometimes slow. The use of hand-held computing has exploded, but questions remain as to what kind of applications can be used.

For a business facing these types of challenges, the hole in one can be found in thin-client technology. The leader in this technology is Citrix, whose main product is MetaFrame. MetaFrame runs over Microsoft s Windows 2000 with Terminal Services and provides fast, consistent access to business applications. With Citrix MetaFrame, the reach of business applications can be extended over an enterprise network and the public Internet.