As the performance and manageability
requirements for embedded and enterprise
computing environments continue
to converge, embedded IT executives face
formidable new challenges in attaining the
levels of managed control that enable them
to create and maintain optimized systems.

Fortunately, by taking advantage of innovative
embedded and enterprise technologies,
IT and the business can achieve the desired
performance, manageability, security,
reliability, and supportability – whether
the target device is a point-of-sale kiosk,
a HIPAA-compliant medical instrument
running XP-embedded, or an industrial
controller.

From an embedded computing perspective
let’s first overview some key criteria for
meeting IT’s desired managed control needs
as well as the business goals for managed
control and then look at best practices that
can be brought to bear to assure success.

• Performance optimization for embedded
  systems includes precision accuracy, high
  availability, direct access to hardware,
  and real-time processing.
• Manageability includes centrally managed
  system delivery and upgradeability,
  as well as re-configurability
• Security for embedded systems entails
  protection from data theft and elimination
  of the possibility that malware
  installs via networked access.
• Reliability involves failover protection,
  and reducing or eliminating downtime
  from corruption.
• Supportability is attained by using standards-
  based hardware/software platforms,
  and ensuring compatibility by using tools
  that simplify and streamline system development,
  maintenance, and diagnostics.

Clearly, three of these criteria – performance
optimization, reliability, and
security – have long been strong points for
traditional embedded systems. And while
the trend toward networked deployments
provides the opportunity for increased
manageability and supportability, there is
a risk that embedded system strong points
can become vulnerabilities.

For example, networked industrial controllers
that run time-critical motion-control
applications can suffer from unacceptable
performance degradation caused by malware
being installed, or from over-reliance
on a server’s processor.

Additionally, networked devices for health
care, military or government offer access
points for data theft and security breaches.

How then can managed control be attained
in the new networked world of embedded
devices?

Ardence, a Citrix Company, with significant
experience and expertise in both the
embedded and enterprise markets, has
developed best practices for delivering
managed control through software solutions
that enable Dynamic Devices™.

A dynamic device comprises standards-based
hardware/software; the OS/applications are
delivered on-demand – not deployed. By
streaming the device’s required OS and software
on demand – including hard real-time
control capabilities for Windows – Ardence
can provide the all of desired managed
control advantages while eliminating vulnerabilities.

Take the example of networked factoryfloor
controllers, using a combination of
on-demand OS/application-streaming technology
developed by Ardence and Ardence®
RTX® , the highest-performing deterministic
control solution for Microsoft® Windows,
the controllers are performance optimized,
secure, centrally managed, reliable and
supportable. Security, manageability and
supportability are achieved by on-demand
streaming of the OS/application image.
And with RTX included in the device image,
optimized performance and reliability are
assured.

Developers are creating and optimizing
a variety of dynamic devices by utilizing
Ardence software in a variety of combinations
to address the required criteria for a
fully controlled, networked system.

A good example of creativity is a national
retail POS company – XP and XPe devices
– deploying diskless and updateable transactional
devices across all of their U.S.
locations that are modifiable and serviceable
from a central remote location.

As global gaming companies become increasingly
aware that server-based delivery changes
the economic and security model for repurposing
games, XP and XPe based games
can be rapidly reconfigured, secured, modified,
updated and serviced without a tech
visit. The ultimate in managed control for
a regulated industry that is laser focused on
control.

The Ardence Product Suite

Ardence® RTX® is the highest-performing
deterministic control solution for Microsoft®
Windows – saving developers time, reducing
system costs and getting products to market
faster. It is the only complete solution that
supports standards-based multi-processor
and multi-core platforms. RTX enhances
Windows®’ universally adopted look/feel
with features that give developers real-time
determinism, better control, and unmatched
dependability.

The Ardence® Software-Streaming Platform™
enables cost reductions and productivity
gains by centralizing the delivery and
control of the operating system and applications.
Streaming the OS and applications
from the network provides devices with
unmatched manageability and reliability,
while reducing operating costs. PCs and
devices can be operated without a hard-disk
drive and be managed remotely via a local
or remote server. The OS and application
are processed locally on the client devices,
without the need for increased RAM, and
the clients maintain direct access to peripheral
devices.

Ardence® ReadyOn® enables OEMs to integrate
instant availability with enhanced
reliability and corruption protection into
their Windows-based designs. Additional
benefits include reducing manufacturing
costs and speeding time to market. The
enhanced end-user experience of instanton/
off functionality and secure, corruption
proof reliability in devices using the Windows
operating system provides OEMs
with clear competitive advantages and
the required functionality to compete in
tomorrow’s markets.

Ardence® Select™ is a next-generation
product (the direct result of customer
feedback about ReadyOn) that provides
single OS systems with the ability to boot
to multiple configurations (personalities).
OEMs can easily re-configure and update
products remotely, and even provide multiple
configurations based on boot-sequence
options. This device-configuration manager
enhances the user experience and provides
a separate utility configuration that helps
in system diagnostics and enables rapid
recovery.

About Ardence, a Citrix Company:

Ardence develops real-time software platforms
for the embedded world. The Ardence
Embedded OEM Development Platform
delivers market-leading operating system
control capabilities that enable OEMs to
increase system performance, device configuration
and management. The Ardence
product portfolio encompasses RTX®,
ReadyOn®, Select®, and ETS. RTX is the
leading solution to provide hard real-time
performance to the Microsoft Windows®
operating system on single and multicore
architectures. ReadyOn® and Select®
manage and greatly reduce the boot-up
time of the Windows operating system
while eliminating the need to shutdown the
computer before turning off power. ETS,
the Ardence real-time operating system, is
one of the most widely deployed real time
systems in the industry. With more than 25
years of industry experience, Ardence is the
leader in hard real-time embedded solutions
for Windows environments.

About Citrix

Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the
global leader and the most trusted name in
application delivery infrastructure. More
than 180,000 organizations worldwide
rely on Citrix to deliver any application to
users anywhere with the best performance,
highest security and lowest cost. Citrix
customers include 100% of the Fortune 100
companies and 98% of the Fortune Global
500, as well as hundreds of thousands of
small businesses and prosumers. Citrix
has approximately 6,200 channel and alliance
partners in more than 100 countries.
Annual revenue in 2006 was $1.1 billion.