This is a guest blog post by Tony Sanchez, CSA Alliances & Business Development, 128 Technology.

The Challenge – Delivering the Right SLA for the Right App

Today’s workforce relies a variety of cloud applications and services to conduct business, engage customers and collaborate with coworkers. Each application has distinct characteristics and service requirements. Some applications, including video conferencing and meeting solutions hosted on Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, are delay-sensitive or bandwidth-intensive. Some applications like line-of-business tools are mission-critical. And some apps like Facebook and Twitter are mostly for personal use. Yet most enterprise networks treat all application traffic identically, which can squander bandwidth and provide a subpar user experience.

The problem is traditional routing solutions were conceived to connect networks — not people or applications. They make filtering and forwarding decisions based on networking constructs like IP addresses, VLAN tags, and VxLAN identifiers, without taking into account application requirements or user roles.

The Solution: End-to-End, Context-Based Routing

128 Technology Identity Context Driver (technical preview) helps enterprises optimize service quality and bandwidth utilization by intelligently prioritizing sessions and routing traffic based on user identities, application requirements and policies. The software runs on Windows hosts and interworks with 128T Session Smart Routers to provide end-to-end contextual routing across public and private networks, extending the benefits of 128 Technology Secure Vector Routing all the way to the endpoint.

Identity Context Driver adds contextual signaling information (security identifier, username, domain name/type, process name/trust-level, device ID) to the first packet of each session. The metadata is digitally encrypted, forwarded to an upstream 128T Session Smart Router, and used to establish a secure end-to-end path across an extended network, automatically steering traffic based on real-time conditions and administratively defined policies.

Contextual, Policy-Based Traffic Management

128 Technology Identity Context Driver software provides fine-grained service quality and security controls for online applications, on-the-go users and shared Windows computers. The solution runs on Windows endpoints and works in conjunction with 128T Session Smart™ Routers to provide end-to-end contextual routing across public and private networks.

Identity Context Driver intelligently prioritizes, and forwards traffic based on user identities, application requirements and policies, ensuring strong security and superior user experiences for today’s containerized applications and cloud services. The solution extends the benefits of 128 Technology Secure Vector Routing all the way to the desktop, helping IT organizations improve user satisfaction, optimize bandwidth utilization and accelerate digital transformation initiatives.

Optimize the Network for Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops

The Citrix Ready validated 128 Technology ICD (currently available as technical preview) improves user experiences and boosts productivity by optimizing Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop performance, without worrying whether the VDAs are hosted on on-premises or public cloud. With Identity Context Driver, you can prioritize your Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops traffic over other application traffic to eliminate network performance bottlenecks, increase user satisfaction, and remove any adoption barriers.

Improve User Experience by Prioritizing Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops Traffic

Benefits

1. Improve user experiences and productivity – Ensure high service quality for virtual apps and desktops sessions
2. Reduce OPEX – Optimize bandwidth utilization
3. Mitigate risk – Protect confidential data and IT infrastructure
4. Extend investments – Leverage existing authentication systems and policy stores

Use Cases

1. Application-specific SLAs – Prioritize traffic based on workload characteristics
2. Shared computers – Provide identity-based network access controls and SLAs for shared Windows devices
3. Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops performance optimization – Prioritize virtual apps and desktops traffic to improve QoE
4. User or app blocking – Prevent malware or rogue users from accessing the network

Summary

Poor service quality can impair user satisfaction and hamper digital transformation initiatives. 128 Technology Identity Context Driver helps IT organizations optimize user experiences by providing the right service level assurances for the right applications at the right time. It also helps businesses improve user satisfaction and productivity, reduce operating expenses, and mitigate risk.

The 128 Technology solution is designed to support popular authentication systems, single sign-on solutions, and policy stores to help businesses extend previous investments, simplify implementation and accelerate time-to-value. To learn more, visit the Citrix Ready Marketplace or contact 128 Technologies via email at info@128technology.com on via our Contact Us page.