Citrix Systems is broadening its application management remit with the release of EdgeSight 4.5, the first major version of the application performance monitoring toolkit since it was acquired with the purchase of Reflectent Software last year.

The company has also released a new product, EdgeSight for Load Testing, a load- and regression-testing program that lets firms better predict the effect of application changes.
EdgeSight is intended to provide a console for controlling Citrix environments. The 4.5 release adds new reporting options with a graphical dashboard and the ability to view user-based data as well as device-based information.

Administrators will be able to gain a “monitoring lens” on user behaviour, allowing them to identify where problems are occurring and supporting audit and charge-back programmes, said Derek Slayton, Citrix product marketing director.

“Visio usage is an example,” he added. “It’s a big, expensive program but you have situations where people have only used it once in a year and have never touched it again.”
Vista desktops and 64bit servers are also supported for the first time.

The EdgeSight for Load Testing release is based on technology acquired with the purchase of ThinGenius in March this year. It is intended to assist firms deploying Windows and web-based applications in Presentation Server and Desktop Server environments. Citrix’s Slayton said that the program provides superior insight over other testing programs as it is designed for server-based computing.

“That’s what the business is asking for because IT people are very good at measuring everything in IT-speak,” said Sean Whetstone, head of IT services at Reed Managed Services, part of the recruitment giant.

“Anything that measures the true end-user experience is has to be good for managing service levels. Also, if you’re a Citrix house already it makes sense to use a Citrix product because I want to have fewer vendors rather than more.”

Both products will be available from June.