Developers to gain most from application of a little protocol

Earlier this year I wrote about a little-known protocol called ICA which made it possible to deliver complete Windows desktop environments across networks and phone lines to client PCs and X-terminals.

Developed by Citrix Software, ICA is a key component of the company's WinFrame product - an extended version of Windows NT which supports multiple users using the system at the same time from remote locations.

The great promise of ICA was that even over 14.4k modem lines it was possible to open and work in a complete Windows environment running on a WinFrame server. Even someone with a DOS PC could hook up to a LAN and run a full graphical Windows desktop off the server.

But with the explosion of the Internet, Citrix can use ICA for a whole new purpose: application delivery to the Web browser.

Using an ActiveX control developed for Internet Explorer, it is possible to launch an application from a WinFrame server embedded in the middle of a Web page.

The promise of this is that the Web browser can become the default client work environment: it becomes the mail and news client, the front end to the Web and ftp and now the application deployment engine of the future.

Because applications run on central servers, they are easier to administer and maintain and the client-end is no longer platform dependent.