Using a Portal to Speed Information and Application Delivery

Defining the Portal

In today’s fast-paced global marketplace, the ability to give workers ready access to the applications and information they need for sound decision-making has become imperative for businesses striving to be productive, agile and profitable. It becomes even more important as mobile knowledge workers dominate key positions in organizations. These employees depend on immediate access to the shared knowledge of the organization from distributed and remote locations.

The popularity of Web-based computing, combined with the need to expedite information access, has spurred adoption of enterprise portals. The last few years have seen a great deal of swirl over the definition of a portal. Most people, when asked whether they know what a portal is would say “yes,” although out of 10 people, there would probably be 10 different answers!

Let’s try to bring a definition of portal into perspective, and then look at how Citrix Systems, Inc. is bringing server-based applications together with personalized information.

Merrill Lynch defined the enterprise information portal (EIP) as “a single gateway to personalized information needed to make informed business decisions.” This type of portal is usually internal-facing, and intended to increase employee productivity by reducing the effort required to find and obtain crucial information. The business driver behind EIPs is that speeding the access to up-to-date, accurate, pertinent information will increase employee productivity.

In the short time since the crafting of that definition, portals have grown to encompass web sites, intranets, knowledge management systems, document management systems and ERP applications, among others. Popular web sites such as Yahoo!, Excite and more specialized content sites have all referred to themselves as portals. IT departments seeking to provide centralized access to corporate information via a Web browser have referred to intranets as portals. And knowledge management and ERP software vendors have similarly called the web interfaces to their products portals (for example, mySAP.com).

The widely varied uses of the word have muddied its meaning, but for organizations seeking a solution for information overload and integrated access, it seems that Merrill Lynch said it best. Let’s look again at that definition: a single gateway to personalized information needed to make informed business decisions—in detail.

• A single gateway—this implies that users can go to one location, typically accessed through a web browser, for all the content they require to do their jobs.;

• Personalized information—content is presented in a manner that suits the individual’s role within the organization and reflects personal preferences. Both the organization and the user can control which information is made available and how it is displayed.;

• Informed business decisions—employees make decisions every day, but not all of them are informed. When pertinent data is hard to find, or takes too long to locate, it won’t be available when a decision is weighed. Making the best decisions requires current, relevant information.;

The Merrill Lynch definition addresses only the portal’s ability to integrate and present information. Citrix believes that in their fullest manifestation, portals aggregate, personalize and serve both applications and information. In this model, portals can replace the desktop by providing a virtual workplace that exhibits the ease, convenience and ubiquity of browser-based access.

Making the Portal Productive

To provide maximum productivity, a portal must offer a full complement of information and application resources. Workers need fast, reliable access to business applications for planning, decision-making and execution. Typically, these applications represent a major investment—and often a competitive advantage—that the corporation wants to continue to use when moving to a Web-based system. From the standpoint of productivity, application access through the portal is needed so users are not forced to switch back and forth between the browser and the desktop to do their work.

These business drivers make a compelling case for including existing and upcoming applications in a portal implementation, but few current applications were developed specifically for web-based delivery. Although it is possible to use existing applications by reengineering them for web publication using HTML, scripting, Java and other proprietary means, this approach is time-consuming and expensive, and may delay portal implementation.

The challenges: How can interactive applications be web-enabled for inclusion in enterprise portals without requiring reengineering that can significantly delay and/or dilute ROI from the portal implementation?

And how can these applications be more efficiently managed, deployed and supported to realize the cost benefits of a portal?

The most compelling answer involves the use of server-based computing, a key enabling technology for portal implementations. Server-based computing centralizes applications on a server and deploys them to users who access them on a client device.In the server-based computing model, application processing, administration, support and deployment are based entirely on a central server (often a “farm” of servers). Users see and work with the application interface, sending keystrokes and mouse movements over the network to the server, and receiving screen updates, files and other data. Because processing takes place on the server, any device becomes, in effect, a thin client. Only minimal data travels across the network, resulting in greatly improved application performance and security.

This architecture enables application access on virtually any device, including wireless and handheld communication devices and information appliances, running on a wide array of platforms. Device and platform flexibility help to fulfill the promise of Web computing as the ideal model for today’s mobile workers, who can move seamlessly from one device to another and receive a consistent, personalized information set, including applications.

Fast Web-enablement of Applications Delivers Immediate ROI

Returning to the earlier question of how to adapt interactive applications for portal-based access, there is a way to quickly launch a portal—and quickly begin reaping the benefits—by Web-enabling existing Windows, UNIX and Java applications without rewrites. With this approach, applications are not converted to HTML or another language; rather, they are delivered in their original form with full functionality intact. In addition, the user interface remains the same, so there is no need for user retraining on the application. Organizations can also tailor the applications each user receives for additional security.

Citrix NFuse works with Citrix MetaFrame to deliver existing, interactive, server-based applications over the Web. While MetaFrame provides server-side command and control of applications, NFuse instantly “webifies” those applications, helping to create a central, online virtual workplace that promotes user efficiency and leverages a company’s investment in proprietary and off-the-shelf applications.

However, NFuse requires a Web “shell” in which to operate—such as a corporate intranet site—or a portal. NFuse enables users to access their MetaFrame applications without leaving the portal workspace. This powerful combination allows users to work with all the applications and information they need to do their jobs in the mo