In addition, the company was adding users quickly and each additional installation--or even a change to the application--meant burning new CDs, mailing them to users, and walking the users through installation. With more than 600 people using the application, the process became too cumbersome, Hargrove says.

The switch to the thin-client architecture has made it easy to add users and to ensure that all of them are running the latest version of the application. In some cases, Hargrove says, remote users are getting better performance than the users in the main office. Citrix's technology doesn't get all the credit, but Hargrove says it does tend to make applications "run very fast." The company chose MetaFrame because of the functionality it adds to Microsoft's Terminal Server Edition, such as installation and resource-management services, a load-balancing tool, and support for heterogeneous computing environments, Hargrove says.

Maritz Travel Co., a $1.8 billion travel-management company, implemented a thin-client architecture based on Terminal Server Edition and MetaFrame. The St. Louis company moved to the thin-client solution to extend its client-server architecture to remote and small locations and to traveling employees, Maritz CIO Richard Spradling says. These users weren't always keeping their applications updated because downloading changes took too long.

Running strategic applications from servers in the company data center makes them easy for IT to update, and users automatically access the most current version. Not only are applications kept synchronized throughout the company, Spradling says, but performance has improved. Over time, Maritz will spend less on user hardware by purchasing thin-client devices rather than PCs or other fat clients.

The solution is saving Maritz money, Spradling says, though he declined to say how much. Giga's Friedlander says that after 12 to 18 months, the Terminal Server Edition and MetaFrame can save companies 25% to 75% in operating costs compared with operating a standard client-server deployment. While the initial thin-client rollout can be challenging and at least as costly as a comparable client-server implementation, the results in terms of server consolidation, simpler application deployment, and increased business functionality are compelling, he says.

Maritz did encounter some challenges with applications while testing the solution in the lab, Spradling says, but worked through them one at a time before distributing it to users. Since then, there haven't been any problems. Maritz initially licensed 15,000 Citrix users and plans to extend the architecture to about 50 of its remote offices. The company intends to evaluate the benefits of using the thin-client architecture internationally.

Citrix says the solution not only scales to big international companies using private lines but--with some tweaks such as incorporating additional security, authentication, and billing capabilities--to ASPs using the Net to rent out applications.

Forrester Research predicts that by 2001, application hosting will generate revenue of $6.4 billion annually for data center operators, network service providers, systems integrators, value-added resellers, and software vendors. CIOs of major companies say they're monitoring the ASP alternative and on the surface, at least, it makes sense.

"We're doing due diligence now to see who can provide credible services and once we get through the new year, we'll have a program to utilize ASPs whenever we can," says John Keast, VP and CIO of Pacific Gas & Electric Corp., a San Francisco energy services holding company. If an ASP removed some of the time-consuming burden of system support and maintenance from the IS group, Keast says, PG&E could focus more on strategic technology issues.

But other kinds of IS outsourcing have had problems in the past, and Keast doesn't expect third-party application hosting to be a silver bullet. "I'm cautious and, candidly, a little nervous about their capabilities, but I like the idea and want to make it work."

Even as Citrix concentrates on developing the ASP model, building its international business, and developing new products for a broader range of server platforms and users, its fundamental, decade-old belief in thin-clients remains unchanged. "One could argue that we started too early, since we've been doing this for 10 years," Iacobucci says. "But in the long term, the ASP business will be important for server-based computing."

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Photo of Hargrove by Tim Pott
Photo of Spradling by Greg Kiger