Jetro vs citrix

White Paper Comparison

®
Citrix MPS 4 and Jetro CockpIT Version 3.6

July 2006

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About this document
This document compares the differences between the two leading Server-based
Computing (SBC) products: Citrix’ MetaFrame® Presentation Server 4 (MPS4) and
Jetro Platforms’ COCKPIT Enterprise Version 3.6.

Comparisons are made from the following perspectives.

• Background: Product Design
• Complexity and Completeness
• Efficiency and Performance
• Enterprise Reliability & Effectiveness
• ROI: Pricing and TCO

For each of these perspectives, information is provided for MPS4 and COCKPIT.

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Background: Product Design

Citrix MPS4:

On a Citrix farm, every Citrix server contains code that allows it to serve
client requests. To achieve this goal, each Citrix server has to know
about all other servers in the farm. This is achieved via a set of services,
or ‘Subsystems’, which execute on each server.

The above illustration represents the inter-relationship of MPS4 subsystems.
These functions and subsystems are summarized below:

• Server farm configuration information is stored on a data base
named ‘Data Store’. The Data Store information is typically
stored on an external data base system such as MSSQL / Oracle /
DB2 which requires DBA expertise to support and maintain.



Citrix MPS4, continued:

• Each Citrix server contacts the Data Store and retrieves relevant
information. The information, named ‘Local Host Cache’, is locally
stored in an MDB file.
• Each physical location, named ‘Zone’ is configured with a main
server named ‘Data Collector’. The duty of the ‘Data Collector’ can
be dynamically transferred from one Citrix server to another during a
process named ‘Zone Data Collector Election’. During this process,
each Citrix server broadcasts information that is used by the other
servers to determine which server should become the Zone Data
Collector.
• The Data Collector is responsible for collecting dynamic information
from its local zone Citrix servers. Each Citrix server constantly
reporting its load factor, license consuming information, session
count and other dynamic information to its local zone data collector.
• Each Zone Data Collector is exchanging data with all other Zone
Data Collectors to replicate each Citrix server state to every other
Citrix server.
• Licensing information is saved on a central server named ‘Citrix
License Server’. On every client connection event, the Citrix server
contacts the license server to retrieve a concurrent license.



CockpIT Enterprise 3.6:

A CockpIT site includes one or more central CockpIT servers - all of which
serve user requests. The Terminal Servers report their load information to
the CockpIT server.

When the CockpIT client is launched it sends a request to the main CockpIT
server which responds with the best available Terminal Server. The client
then opens a seamless RDP session toward the Terminal Server which
shows the application set of the logged on user.

CockpIT 3.6 design is based upon the following principles:

• All farm information such as licensing, configuration, etc. is saved on
one or more CockpIT servers which replicate the data among them
using a built-in clustering engine.
• Each Terminal Server reports its load to the CockpIT servers on a
pre-configured interval.



• When the client is executed, the CockpIT server informs the client
with the most available Terminal Server. Then, the client opens a
seamless RDP sessions toward this server.
• The application set is displayed within the seamless RDP session.
Upon the opening of the sessions and whenever the user refreshes
the application set, a query is sent from the Terminal Server to the
CockpIT servers.

Complexity and Completeness

One of the fundamental differences between the products is the enhanced
and simplified design of CockpIT. Using CockpIT’s powerful web-based
console (available from anywhere via secure login), IT administrators have
an intuitive user interface to help manage their system.

In addition to comparing product design and complexity, it is important to
consider the all requirements for a complete Server-based computing
solution. With CockpIT’s multiple printing options, customers do not need a
rd
3 -party solution as they do with MPS4. When managing server farms,
rd
MPS4 requires an operational 3 -party database system.

CockpIT Advantages - Complexity and Completeness
• Shorter IT staff learning curves
• Smaller integration efforts (with existing IT systems)
• Faster and more flexible installations
• Accelerated deployment times
• Easier on-going support and management

Efficiency and Performance

Citrix MPS4
The complexity of Citrix’s MPS 4 architecture produces unnecessary
overhead on the Terminal Servers’ hardware resources.



In addition to the Terminal Server focusing executing applications, it spends
resources running Citrix’s various subsystems. Various test labs and case
studies show that Citrix’s subsystems consume 10% to 20% percent of the
hardware resources of a standard Terminal Server.

CockpIT Enterprise 3.6
On a CockpIT farm, user requests are served by one or more central
servers named ‘CockpIT Servers’. The CockpIT servers retain all
configuration information, licensing “Jetro CockpIT impressed us by handling
information and dynamic data about 30 clients (on one server) running our
text mix with tolerable performance. In
the Terminal Servers in the farm. The contrast, rival products either rolled over
under a 30-client load or showed res-
Terminal Servers run a thin agent to ponse times in the "poor" category…”,

report the server’s load and other key Michael Fudge, Network Computing
Feb 2005
dynamic information to the CockpIT
servers. This architecture enables the Terminal Server to focus on its
primary function – executing user applications. Due to the minor load that
CockpIT’s Terminal Server Agent produces on the Terminal Server’s
hardware resources, more users can be connected to same server.

The following table (pasted from Network Computing Magazine’s web site)
illustrates the results of a stress test they conducted with 5 SBC products.

CockpIT’s Efficiency and Performance advantages include lower PC
server needs/costs, faster user response times, more consistent
performance under load.



Enterprise Reliability

With both CockpIT and MPS4, server farms are used to support the
increased needs of an enterprise installation.

Citrix MPS4
To manage multiple servers, Citrix MPS4 uses a central data base called a
‘Data Store’. The Data Store component is central to the operation of the
Citrix farm. Upon failure, system administrators cannot perform any system
management tasks.

Citrix MPS 4 licensing information is saved on a single server named
‘License Server’. If the license server is not available for a period of 96
1
hours , clients can no longer connect to the farm.

In their Advanced Concepts Guide, Citrix states that enterprise customers
should use Microsoft Clustering Service (MCS) on a SAN environment in
2
order to cluster the date base .

This solution has far-reaching resource requirements such as shared
storage device(s), fiber switches and NIC’s, enterprise data base software
(Oracle / SQL etc) and the IT expertise and time to implement and support
them.
1
This grace period was extended to 30 days for all licenses purchased after August 19, 2005
2
Citrix Advanced Concepts Guide, “Cluster Failover Support”, Page 40



The main CockpIT Data Base resides on each CockpIT server and is
replicated among all CockpIT servers using MSMQ technology. With the
built-in clustering capabilities of CockpIT, no external storage device is
needed.

Enterprise Effectiveness

Citrix MPS4
Citrix Load Balancing Mechanism consists on 12 counters from which 9 are
performance related. These counters include only standard measures such
as CPU load,
Page/Sec, I/O etc.

Each server cal-
culates its load
information and
passes it to the
Data Collector.

Because of the
large amounts
of data being
transferred on each update process, the default interval for the updates is
30 seconds. The default load evaluator includes a single counter – Number
of users.



CockpIT’s Load Balancing Mechanism uses Windows Server Performance
Counters technology. This means that the system administrator has the
option of hundreds of performance counters available in Microsoft’s
Performance Monitor.

The CockpIT Terminal Server Agent calculates the load information by
averaging historical measurements of user-defined durations. Furthermore,
each counter can be given a factor that affects the weight it has on the
overall load factor. Because of the small amount of data that is being
transferred on each update, the default load policy report interval can be as
low as 5 seconds. This mechanism delivers a more accurate load
measurement and takes better advantage of the Terminal Server’s
hardware. CockpIT’s default load evaluator includes 5 performance-related
counters.

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14


CockpIT’s Enterprise Reliability and Effectiveness advantages include:
• Simpler multi-server deployments
• No single-point of failure (or need to make DB redundant)
• More performance from server-farms with more load balancing
measurements and options

ROI: Pricing and TCO

To evaluate the differences in each product’s Return-on-Investment (ROI), it
is important to consider all the costs and benefits associated with
implementation and management of each product.

Product Pricing

Citrix MPS4

Base License: Citrix has several different pricing levels. Depending on
features included, Citrix licenses range between $240 for each concurrent
user in a single server environment (XPs) up to $340 for concurrent users
for its enterprise license (XPe). This highest level offers comparable
functionality to Jetro CockpIT 3.6.

Subscription: To maintain a current version of MPS4, Citrix’s annual
subscriptions costs between $48 - $60 per license (depending on system
specifications).

Training: Citrix has several courses for MPS 4. The Citrix Administrator
course lasts 5 days and costs $1180. The Citrix Enterprise Administrator
requires 4 courses; each lasting 2 to 3 days and costing $590.

Support: Citrix support agreement ranges between $7320 to $58,800 per
year. The price is dependant on the Support Level Agreement (SLA).

14


CockpIT 3.6

Base License: Jetro Platforms’ CockpIT’s license price is $160 per
concurrent user for all features. For existing Citrix user licenses, Jetro
Platforms offers a competitive upgrade path at a price of $40 per concurrent
user. Included in both these prices is the first year of Software Subscription.

Subscription: Jetro CockpIT second year subscription costs $24 per
license.

Training: Jetro CockpIT enterprise administration course cost $530 and it is
2 days long.

Support: Jetro CockpIT support cost between $1200 up to $16,300 per
year, depending on SLA levels.

The following table summarizes the prices associated with each product.

14


TCO Summary
Along with a substantial savings from substantially lower license and related
princes, CockpIT offers many other TCO advantages:

Complexity and Completeness
• Shorter IT staff learning curves
• Smaller integration efforts (with existing IT systems)
• Faster and more flexible installations
• Accelerated deployment times
• Easier on-going support and management

Efficiency and Performance
• Better utilization of PC Server and related hardware – less need for
expensive server-to-server network upgrades
• No need to purchase, install and maintain 3rd-party printing or
database systems

Enterprise Reliability and Effectiveness
• Faster and easier to manage server farm deployments
• No need for separate investment in redundant DB subsystems
• More performance from servers in farm (using increased load
balancing options/flexibility)

14

Jetro Platforms Inc.
1550 McMullen Booth Road
Clearwater, FL 33759 USA
" info@jetroplatforms.com
! 727.967.5969

Jetro vs citrix

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