Citrix Presentation Server

            Our customers often find the need to access Sabre CentralCommand from a remote office, from the home office or even when traveling.  However, running applications such as Sabre CentralCommand locally on a PC over a VPN (virtual private network) or WAN (wide area network) connection can be a frustrating experience as the performance is not what the user is accustomed to when working in the office on the same LAN (local area network) as the Sabre CentralCommand database server.  This is particularly the case for reporting with AGRESSO Browser when a large result set may generate 50 MB of data which needs to be transmitted to the client PC. 

            In some cases our customers have deployed several workstations on the same LAN as the database server and remote users then connect from their remote site to the workstation with applications like Remote Desktop Protocol, GoToMyPC or VNC.  These applications only transmit screen changes and keyboard/mouse input so there is not a significant amount of network traffic generated between the workstation and the remote PC.  However for 5 or more users this can create a complex and expensive solution for IT to maintain and it becomes difficult for the remote users to know which workstation will be free for them to connect to.  In cases like this we recommend Citrix Presentation Server 4.0 running on Windows 2003 Terminal Services. 

            Citrix Presentation Server turns a single server into a multi-user workstation allowing multiple users to connect and execute applications at the same time within separate and protected sessions.  Sabre CentralCommand executes locally on the server and heavy network traffic is limited to the LAN network to which both the Citrix server and database server are connected.  Screen changes and keyboard and mouse input are transmitted between the Citrix server and remote PC using Citrix’s efficient ICA protocol.  The ICA protocol is capable of allowing a remote user to run Sabre CentralCommand over a dial-up connection.  Remote users benefit by having to make only a simple connection to their Citrix server or server farm and then can then access Sabre CentralCommand from any location and any PC at any time.  Citrix Presentation Server also allows the user to access the PC’s local printers and hard drives should the user require a printout or access to a locally stored file.

            From an IT perspective, Citrix Presentation Server reduces the hardware needed for remote access to Sabre CentralCommand as well as reducing the time required to deploy and maintain Sabre CentralCommand for remote users.  With Citrix Secure Gateway, an option included with Presentation Server, IT administrators can deploy Sabre CentralCommand over the Internet using SSL encryption which eliminates the need for a complex VPN solution but without exposing the internal network to unnecessary security risk.

Agresso Travel is a Silver level Citrix Partner. 

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