Citrix Gateway for education

Before moving to NetScaler, TTUHSC El Paso was using a load balancing solution that could not provide multi-tenancy. It sometimes failed to correctly authenticate users when they logged in, and users were unable to access the right applications. At the same time, the university was using Citrix XenApp to run an EMR application for 800 users and Citrix XenDesktop to provide 185 virtual clinical desktops in exam rooms. The IT staff was also looking for an improved Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)–enabled solution for its VPN. According to Jorge Caballero, TTUHSC El Paso Director of Infrastructure Technology, the IT team looked into using NetScaler specifically because of its "capability for redundancy and integration with the current virtualization platform—XenApp and XenDesktop—and for providing access for our users all the way to the endpoint." Today, TTUHSC El Paso uses the NetScaler SDX multi-tenant appliance to load balance apps for high availability. "The platform provides us with a robust, high-availability infrastructure; we can feel safe when one instance fails because we know the other one will take over," says Caballero. The university reduces its server load by offloading a variety of functions to a NetScaler appliance. With NetScaler, they can create redundant virtualized instances to prevent user downtime. Multi-tenancy means the IT team can create virtualized instances for testing development scenarios without impacting the applications in use in the production environment—all on the same box. "Citrix helps us reduce infrastructure and operating costs; at the same time, we reduce total cost of ownership and increase our IT and business agility with an overall improvement in user productivity and customer satisfaction," says Francisco Rivera, Enterprise Network Engineer at TTUHSC El Paso. To address users’ connectivity issues, TTUHSC El Paso now relies on Citrix NetScaler to provide 100-percent uptime. NetScaler makes it easy for the TTUHSC El Paso IT team to ensure the redundancy and reliability needed for both on-site and mobile users. Because NetScaler delivers up to five times the performance of other ADC solutions, not only are users connected, they are connected at top speed. Delivering a better user experience and increased productivity and agility