Esker Delivers Fax Support to Citrix Users
With the introduction of Esker LanFax Manager for Citrix, users of Citrix Systems Inc.'s MetaFrame and WinFrame server-based computing solutions on the AS/400 can now take advantage of Esker's fax client software.
Esker LanFax Manager for Citrix is optimized for a server-based computing architecture and works with Esker's Faxgate family of products, including Alcom LanFax and Faxgate. The new, Citrix-supporting product is designed to provide fax support to any client, including Network Computers, Windows-based terminals, Sun workstations, Macintoshes and other proprietary clients that support Citrix.
In May of this year, Citrix (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.) announced its MetaFrame server-based computing software would support the AS/400's Integrated Netfinity Server. Using the Integrated Netfinity Server, AS/400 network administrators can now install and run Citrix MetaFrame and Microsoft Window NT Server 4.0, Terminal Server Edition in their AS/400 environments. In January of this year, Citrix granted IBM the right to embed Citrix's Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) into IBM products, essentially opening the door for IBM to incorporate this thin-client/server protocol into the AS/400's framework.
Esker LanFax Manager for Citrix is expected to find an audience with application service providers and resellers who offer Citrix solutions because it will enable any client workstation to send and receive fax documents for users in a variety of locations.
"Fax automation is an ideal application to be served up in a Citrix environment," says Chris Norwood, worldwide product manager for fax technology at Esker (Stillwater, Okla.). "But most popular network fax packages do not run well in a Citrix environment." Esker LanFax Manager for Citrix is designed to let the network manager in an enterprise centrally administer a fax server and provide its benefits to all users without maintaining a fax server in every location, he adds.
--L. Greenemeier