Citrix Virtualization: A Revolution In Networking And Communication

About Citrix

Currently whole Networking world is greatly influenced by Virtualisation. Virtualisation in Networking has no doubt brought a revolutionary change in the world of Networking and Communication. Virtualisation is a remarkable technology that helps to run multiple Operating System and Applications on a single server at the same-time. Virtualisation concept is most popularly given as-“One cloud, any application, any device” Architecture.  Virtualisation has helped to reduce the cost of IT for enabling networking not only for Big Enterprises but also helps in cutting down the IT Cost for Small and Middle Size Businesses too.  Virtualisation has not only helped in reducing the IT Expenses but also has helped in Boosting up the Efficiency and Agility of the Networking.

Virtualisation with respect to Citrix is an extended App provided, through Citrix one gets the freedom to work from anywhere while cutting IT Costs. It helps to securely Run Windows, Linux, WEB and SAS Apps. It helps to increase Employee Productivity through Business Mobility, Deliver remote Access, provides Simplified IT Solutions and most importantly Cost Saving. 

Citrix was founded 30 years ago with the objective to make the Application for the technical domain  and data secure with convenience in  Access. Citrix dreams a world where Peoples, Organizations and things are connected with high security ,  accessible and make highly complex things possible with great innovations empowering peoples to work from anywhere. Citrix provides a complete solution for Application Delivery, Virtualisation, Delivery of Network, Mobility and File Sharing solutions, ensuring critical systems are securely available. Citrix – provides its solution through   Cloud Technology on- Premise and is compatible to all popular Platforms and devices.  Citrix solutions are globally used by 400,000 organizations and 100 million users worldwide. 

Citrix Products-:

• App and Desktop for Application Virtualisation & VDI
• Enterprise Management and Mobility Package
• File Sharing and syncing (EFSS) services for Cloud
• Netscape   for high availability, performance, security of Data Centre, Branch, Cloud and Mobile Services.
• Citrix Receiver- To enable self-service access to apps, desktops and data from any Device.
• Citrix Workspace Suite- Single Work space suit with  App and Desktop,  Mobility Package, Share File and Netscalor
• Netscalor App Firewall
• Netscalor Unified Gateway
• Netscalor Management and Analytics System
• Netscalor SD-WAN 

Ports and Protocols used by Citrix Components-:    

Source	Destination	Protocol	Port	Details
Gateway Access Device	Gateway Access Device	TCP	694	Communication in  Access
	Control through Advance Access	TCP	80/443/9002	Communication through Gateway Access Standard and Advanced features
	LDAP Server	TCP/UDP	389, 363, 3268, 3269	By SSL to LDAP connection to Global Catalogue
	DNS Server	TCP/UDP	53	DNS name simplification and configuration.
	Radius Server	TCP/UDP	1645/1812	RADIUS connection through Gateway
User Device Access	Gateway Devise	TCP	443	This port  is  used for making connection to  Gateway Access Deployment
Administration Workstation	Gateway Access Device	TCP	443	Supports Administration Website
	Advanced Access Control Server	TCP	9005	For  Administration AAC
Branch Repeater Device	Branch Repeater Device	TCP	N/A	Supports to Pass  of  the native application
User Device	Branch Repeater Device	TCP	443	Support communication of Client to Appliance
Administrator Workstation Branch Repeater Device	Branch Repeater Device	TCP	80/443	Supports the Citrix Repeater Console system
Any Citrix Component	Citrix License Server	TCP	2700	Handles initial point of contact for Licence Requests
Cloud Stack Management	Cloud-Stack Management server	TCP	9090/8250	Performs the  Inter-server communication
	Citrix XenServer Resource	TCP	22/80/443	Assists the Communication with Xen-Server Infrastructure  system
	KVM	TCP	22	Provides the Communication with KVM Infrastructure
	VMware vCenter Server	TCP	443	Performs the Communication with VSphere
	Virtual Router	TCP	3922	CloudStack Management Server
Citrix Receiver		TCP	80/443	Supports the Communication with the Merchandising
ICA / HDX		TCP	1494	Supports virtualisation
Session Reliability		TCP	2598	Supports Virtualisation
EasyCall dy		TCP	8443	P-Sync
Administrator Workstation	Netscalor Appliance	TCP	22	Implements the SSH – CLI Administration

Case Study about Virtualization With respect to Citrix 

South-Coast Medical Organization is  a charitable health care system with its headquarter situated at  New Bedford, Massachusetts. The South-Coast Health system owns three hospitals, twenty seven  Clinical offices, a Cancer Institute, Intensive care-  facilities (ICU),Emergency services, Medical labs and Radiology Departments, with the  Visiting Nurses service. South coast is also a fast growing Health care service System in New England too. This Health system has  employed approximately seven thousand workers in its Departments, including three hundred physicians and has two hundred  visiting nurses, with this it provides a wide range of medical services at each campus for Advance Medical facilities.  South coast’s mission is to provide “Advanced Care, Close to Home” for the patients it treats .   

Citrix Products

With this South-Coast Health System also has a goal to grow their organization in fast manner with providing exceptional Health care by providing distributed setting for their patients, through- outpatient centres by the help of newly acquired Physician practices?  The organization also desires to recruit and retain best Medical staff services for their Hospitals. For obtaining this goal, the organization plans to provide uniform access to the patient health records to the Visiting Doctors and Nurses regardless any device they are using for example Laptop or smart mobiles, Tablets etc. With this South-Coast Health care also demands the security of their patient’s information.  The South-Coast Health System along with above discussed clinical requirements also expects reduced cost in the IT Venture for their organization. 

Major Challenge- To provide best Patient Health care facilities and facilitating the privacy of patient information in the distributed Mobile Environment. 

The Solution-  Developing  an Integrated  Electronic Medical Record system and constructing the simple, securely developed mobile workstation that is required by the Hospital Staff.

Converting Patient Record into the EMR-To provide the solution of the above discussed issues, firstly the conversion of whole patient data into the Integrated Electronic Medical Record (EMR) through Citrix solution-Epic was developed.  Now the Doctor as well the Nurses can access patient data either from their office or in Hospital using same user-id to access data from the Epic. With this Hospital Medical staff is now able to get the detail of the patient whether the patient is in Hospital or discharged to the visiting nurses services.

Facilitating Access of data with the help of  any of Mobile Device of choice-  Secondly in order to provide the access of data through any of the Mobile Devices of choice, the rough idea of no of Laptops, Mobiles , PC’S in Network  was made, on observation approximately six thousand Personal Computers and Eight hundred Laptops in the network found. For providing the solution for this area the organization took help of Citrix solution by selecting Citrix -Remap and Citrix Xen-Desktop as the foundation to deliver its integrated EMR system along with Fifty  other clinical and nonclinical applications. Now the environment runs on the Cisco Unified Computing System platform and utilises the  Citrix NetScaler as a front end service. The organization also uses Citrix XenServer for all of the Citrix environments along with  Epic now. For providing the Advance Mobility features, the Southcoast chosed Citrix XenMobile as its enterprise mobility management solution. The  XenMobile helps to  handle the  mobile device management as part of its application, and it also provides the flexibility to support the bring-your-own-device policies. Now IT System of South Coast  are capable of  locking  devices, wiping data, upgrading and managing devices, and be proactive  in case of a security management-all while creating an fine medical  experience for  their users.

Ports and Protocols used by Citrix Components

Making the fast organizational growth and maintaining the  operational overhead at less than  percent of annual budget- With  the advance features provided by the Citrix , the organization now has progressed and achieving its targets.

Developing methods to  protect sensitive patient information-  With the help of the  Citrix solutions, South coast organization now  keeps patient data safe and ensures sensitive information remains to be private. The new developed  infrastructure protects against data leakage and controls the inference of new mobile devices, even when the medical staff bring their own devices  in the premises. 

“One best reason to select Citrix for our end-to-end platform is that it facilitates the Medical staff with a connected without interruption work for the hospital.”

Christian Boucher

Manager of Directory Services for Desktop and Mobile Engineering

Southcoast Health System 

“Citrix provides the Facility to Medical Staff  to work  in from the office or the hospital, they use the same user ID to access Epic” 

“There are several chances when the Doctors  and nurses has to  face problems when the system is in downtime, it also puts impact on the patient care. With the help of  citrix platform, we are capable  to refresh, upgrade and advance the environment without affecting operating of the services of Hospital,  which operates 24/7, 365 days a year.” 

Conclusion- 

Virtualisation through Citrix is no doubt can be considered as the best practice for any organization. Citrix provides a number of advance services for  better working environment of the organization. Citrix is playing a  key role in bringing the advance features in the world of Networking. This was a simple student level approach the research of Citrix and Virtualisation is the wide field and research area.   

References

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