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Citrix and Oracle White Paper

Delivering Oracle applications with XenApp and XenDesktop

Executive summary

Application deployment and maintenanceThe traditional approach to application deployment is to perform an installation on each user’s PC, then attempt to manage, upgrade, patch and maintain the applications at the endpoint. This method quickly creates cost and complexity that grows exponentially as applications and users are added or changed in any way. This document details the implementation and delivery options for Oracle®’s Siebel, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and E-Business Suite applications with a focus on the application and desktop virtualization options.

Although the Oracle applications have a Web-based entry point requiring only a standard Web browser, there are additional client requirements such as a Java™ Runtime Environment and other auxiliary components like the High Interactivity Framework for Internet Explorer® (required by Siebel). These supporting components must be downloaded and maintained on each client device with additional considerations for the proper operating system (OS) and browser security settings on each client. Common compounding factors such as support for multiple operating systems, browsers and potential conflicts with other business applications add to the complexities of management.

Simplification with Citrix XenAppThere are multiple benefits to virtualizing Oracle applications with Citrix® XenApp™.

1. With application virtualization, a single package is created versus the multiple packages needed with application deployment.

2. Testing and troubleshooting application virtualization packages is far easier and takes less time because fewer user configurations need testing when compared to traditional application deployment and installation solutions.

3. Application virtualization packages are delivered on-demand as opposed to traditional application deployment scheduled for installation during off-peak hours. This ensures that all users get the applications they need when they need them.

4. Troubleshooting is far easier with application virtualization because issues are corrected once and are fixed for all users instantly. Self-healing technology means that applications will always run as if they were freshly installed. This is in contrast to traditional application deployment where issues must be resolved individually on each user device and where correcting problems can sometimes require a fresh installation.

5. Application virtualization is far less resource intensive than application deployment because updates are configured once and propagated to all users instantly.

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Citrix and Oracle White Paper

Simplification with Citrix XenDesktopCompanies worldwide rely on the PC desktop as the primary means for employees to conduct company business, and this need is only increasing as companies expand by introducing additional users into the workplace. As companies evaluate desktop expansion or replacement initiatives, IT departments are required to analyze the purchase, integration and maintenance of employees’ desktops. Any large scale desktop hardware or software project can require a substantial budget, lengthy project timelines and extensive resources. Citrix® XenDesktop™ approaches the traditional desktop deployment with a new way of thinking. Instead of requiring the IT department to manage and maintain a multitude of desktops, the Citrix desktop delivery approach centralizes these desktops in the datacenter and delivers a fresh desktop to each user on-demand.

XenDesktop provides a cost-effective solution that provides desktops on-demand with an exceptional user experience through streamlining desktop setup, centralizing desktop and application management, and providing additional cost savings through hardware consolidation.

By leveraging XenApp and XenDesktop, IT Departments can create an end-to-end virtualization platform that maximizes their total cost of ownership (TCO) and increases their ability to respond to the needs of the business.

Product overviewOracle E-Business Suite Oracle E-Business Suite is the most comprehensive suite of integrated, global business applications. It provides:

•The most complete, integrated business intelligence portfolio

•The most adaptable global business platform

•The most customer-focused applications strategy

Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise applications are designed to address the most complex business requirements.

They provide comprehensive business and industry solutions, enabling organizations to:

•Significantly improve performance

•Seamlessly integrate Web services into heterogeneous application environments

•Enjoy a broad choice of technology infrastructure

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Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is an integrated applications suite of comprehensive enterprise resource planning software that combines business value, standards-based technology and deep industry experience into a business solution with a low TCO.

•Only JD Edwards EnterpriseOne offers you a choice of databases, operating systems and hardware so you can build and expand your IT solution to meet business requirements

• JD Edwards EnterpriseOne includes 70 application modules to support a diverse set of business operations

Oracle’s Siebel CRMOracle’s Siebel CRM, the world’s most complete customer relationship management (CRM) solution, helps organizations differentiate their businesses to achieve maximum top- and bottom-line growth. It delivers a combination of transactional, analytical and engagement features to manage all customer facing operations. With solutions tailored to more than 20 industries, Siebel CRM delivers:

•Comprehensive on premise and on-demand CRM solutions

•Tailored industry solutions

•Role-based customer intelligence and pre-built integration

Citrix XenDesktopXenDesktop allows for the separation of applications, operating system and hardware, thereby always preserving the attributes of a fresh installation and giving the user an unparalled desktop experience. By delivering each layer independently, administrators can best manage the full range of operating systems and application sets needed by an organization, and can maintain optimal performance from each.

Figure 1 - XenDesktop architecture

XenDesktop dynamically assembles virtual desktops on-demand, providing users a new and pristine, yet personalized, desktop each time they log on—ensuring that performance never degrades. XenDesktop supports an open architecture using almost any hosting infrastructure, a broad range of client platforms (Windows®, Windows XP, Windows CE, Linux®, Mac® OS, Windows Virtual Server) and any application virtualization solution (XenApp and Microsoft Application Virtualization).

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Citrix XenAppXenApp is an end-to-end Windows application delivery system that offers both client-side and server-side application virtualization. A core feature of the XenApp product family is delivering applications to users via publishing on XenApp. Applications are installed, configured and updated on servers in the datacenter, instead of on individual client devices, greatly reducing the support burden for troubleshooting and maintaining a wide set of applications on a variety of platforms. Users access their entire set of applications by installing only Citrix Receiver™ on their local machine. Applications are delivered to the client device over the network via Citrix proprietary Independent Computing Architecture (ICA®) Protocol, allowing users to remain productive, even while using all types of devices, including thin-clients and mobile devices on any network, anywhere.

Oracle applications on XenAppThe complexities of deploying Oracle applications with traditional deployment methodsEven though the Oracle applications are designed to run in a Web browser, the client workstations must be running the proper combination of Web browser, Java environment and auxiliary components to achieve consistent results. This complexity is magnified by number of client desktop platforms, operating systems and browsers that modern businesses are forced to manage. Additionally, care must be taken to minimize conflicts with other browser-based applications in the environment.

This complexity is greatly reduced with the use of XenApp and application delivery. With XenApp, the client environment (Web browser, Java Runtime Environment and any auxiliary components) can be configured and packaged once by the IT Administrators and then delivered to users via Citrix Receiver. Citrix Receiver supports a wide variety of client platforms and environments, and, because the Oracle Applications are virtualized by XenApp, the local client requirements are no longer a consideration.

Delivering Oracle applications with Citrix XenApp 5

Figure 2 - Delivering Oracle applications with XenApp

In this example, the Oracle user environment is installed and configured on the XenApp servers. The XenApp server communicates with the Oracle server environment quickly and securely within the Internal Trusted Network. Users access the Oracle application via Citrix Receiver. It is not necessary for Internet Explorer, the Java runtime environment or any other auxiliary components to be installed on the client devices. In this model, all of the user’s data is confined to the datacenter where it remains safe and secure. Users have the flexibility of working remotely without the worry of exposing their sensitive data to the possibility of theft or loss.

Delivering Oracle applications with XenApp and XenDesktopXenApp for Virtual Desktops is included in the Enterprise and Platinum editions of XenDesktop. By combining XenApp with XenDesktop, businesses can realize the full potential of their Oracle investment and provide their IT departments with the highest level of flexibility and control while simultaneously providing their user community with the best possible user experience.

With XenDesktop, a Windows XP or Vista® operating system is delivered as a virtual desktop running in the datacenter. Applications are delivered to XenDesktop virtual desktops using XenApp. To IT administrators, this means they no longer manage individual instances of the OS and all of the continual updates, patches and security fixes on each physical PC. Instead, they manage a single instance of the OS in the datacenter, which is combined with user

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settings and applications delivered by XenApp at the time of logon, to provide users with their own personalized desktop and applications delivered from the datacenter. Since the IT administrator has preconfigured the user’s desktop with the right Web browser, Java virtual machine and other components, the users are ensured that their Oracle applications will work every time. By using XenApp with XenDesktop, organizations dramatically lower the TCO and improve IT agility for managing physical PCs compared to traditional desktop management models.

Desktop streamingWith XenDesktop Advanced, Enterprise or Platinum editions, the IT department has the additional option of delivering a pre-configured desktop image directly to a user’s endpoint device. As with desktop virtualization, streaming allows for the centralized management and control of a desktop image as well as the separation of desktops and applications. However, with streaming, the operating system is delivered to the user’s device at boot time and, unlike desktop virtualization, the users’ operating environments run directly on their local machines.

Separating applications from desktopsEarly desktop virtualization models simply replicated a copy of the user’s OS and installed applications in the datacenter. They typically didn’t solve the core issue; they just masked the problem by moving it from the physical to the virtual. From a hardware perspective, this is not a problem given the availability of fast, multi-core, multiprocessor 64-bit servers; dozens of desktop sessions can be efficiently hosted on a single machine. However, managing the SAN infrastructure for dedicated desktops often becomes cost-prohibitive. For each user, a separate instance of the OS and respective applications were stored in the datacenter. Image cloning, where a single OS image is created and then delivered to virtual desktops, saved storage space and was simple to maintain until an OS patch or update was required. When the original OS image was updated, the image persistence was lost and new clones were regenerated and distributed to the virtual desktops. From an IT administration perspective, little has changed. Individual OS instances are still managed, only this time the numerous instances are running centrally, simply moving the existing PC problem to the datacenter.

By separating the OS from the applications using application virtualization technology, a single instance of each Oracle application is managed in a central application repository and then delivered to the virtual desktop on-demand when it’s launched by the user. This separation of application and desktop allows for simpler desktop image management and greater flexibility in the user’s application environment.

Oracle applications on XenDesktop

Figure 3 - Delivering Oracle applications with XenDesktop In this example XenApp is being used to deliver a hosted version of the Oracle application to a XenDesktop virtual desktop with Citrix Receiver. Users access their virtual desktop with Citrix Receiver running on their endpoint device. It is not necessary for Internet Explorer, The High Interactivity Framework (Siebel) or any other auxiliary components to be installed on the virtual desktop image or the user endpoints.

Delivering Oracle applications with XenApp and XenDesktop

Figure 4 - Delivering Oracle applications with XenApp and XenDesktop

By combining application and desktop virtualization, IT architects can create a system where the following benefits are achieved:

•ReducedTCO – Maintaining only a small set of pristine desktop images unencumbered by locally installed applications reduces SAN storage and IT administration costs.

• Increasedagility – Roll-out new versions and updates of applications to tens of thousands of users in minutes rather than days or weeks.

• Increasedmanageability – With fewer application and OS instances to manage, there are fewer parts for IT to manage and troubleshoot.

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Additional considerationsThere are many other capabilities of XenApp and XenDesktop Platinum that should be considered in the delivery of Oracle applications.

EdgeSight – Application and desktop performance monitoringBy providing a direct line of sight across networks, servers, databases and desktops, Citrix® EdgeSight® goes beyond traditional device and network monitoring tools to improve application visibility. This consolidated view of application performance as experienced by the user gives IT the necessary tool set to lower costs, reduce downtime and improve service delivery.

Access Gateway (SmartAccess) – Flexibility in controlling access and actionsSmartAccess technology allows administrators to control both access and actions based on both the user and the endpoint device. For example, a user may have full access (read, save locally, print, etc.) to a set of files when utilizing her office PC—but may be restricted to read-only access when connecting through an unrecognized kiosk device.

Password Manager – Centralized password managementCitrix Password Manager™ increases application security for all applications, whether delivered by XenApp or deployed to the desktop. Organizations may now centralize password management with IT for greater control, while users experience the productivity gains of fast, automated logons to Web, Windows and host-based applications.

SmartAuditor – XenApp session captureSmartAuditor uses flexible policies to trigger recordings of XenApp sessions automatically. With SmartAuditor, IT can now monitor and examine user activity, demonstrate internal control, ensure regulatory compliance and conduct successful security audits of applications-–including financial operations and healthcare patient information systems.

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AboutCitrixCitrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the leading provider of virtualization, networking and software as a service technologies for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Its Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families radically simplify computing for millions of users, delivering applications as an on-demand service to any user, in any location on any device. Citrix customers include the world’s largest Internet companies, 99 percent of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers worldwide. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies worldwide in more than 100 countries. Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2008 was $1.6 billion.

©2009 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix®, XenDesktop™, XenApp™, Citrix Receiver™, EdgeSight®, ICA®, Access Gateway™, Citrix Password Manager™ and Citrix Receiver™ are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Oracle, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, and Siebel are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.