You rely on Citrix, Microsoft Terminal Services & Remote Desktop Services (RDS) applications to run your business and day-to-day operations. From supporting virtualization initiatives via Citrix XenServer, facilitating real-time access to healthcare or financial data from any device to clinicians, bankers and tellers via Citrix XenDesktop, centralizing applications in your datacenter via XenApp, or supporting ecommerce via Microsoft Terminal Services integration, your success hinges on your ability to ensure your applications perform optimally for all your users, at all times. For example, AT&T relies on Microsoft Terminal Servers to run tests in real time from anywhere in the world, a business-critical function for them.
So….what happens when your Citrix servers or Microsoft Terminal Services are over-strained??
When external-facing applications underperform at peak times, there is a clear connection between revenue lost and brand damage. For instance, the launch of a new collection from designer Isabel Marant crashed H&M Website as shoppers rushed to shop. Similarly, underperforming internal applications also damage an organization’s bottom-line. In this case, H&M relies on Citrix to support internal operations and employee-scheduling system across 1,300 stores and 30,000 employees. If Citrix underperforms, H&M operations will be severely hindered, and IT productivity will be lost as the team goes into triage and troubleshooting mode.
Financial organizations recently had costly and visible externally-facing Web operations failures. For example, E*TRADE online services were down due to a spike in traffic, and the Royal Bank of Scotland faced a glitch on Cyber Monday that prevented customers from using their debit cards online or elsewhere, putting holiday sales shopping on halt. Both of these organizations rely on Citrix to run their business operations. Specifically, Royal Bank of Scotland is powered by Citrix virtual computing (65,000 desktops and 2,000 applications globally).
Wouldn’t it be better to triage and resolve overloaded Citrix/MTS issues early on, before large volumes of users are impacted?
That is exactly what you can do with load testing. With a best-in-class load testing solution such as Tevron’s CitraTest VU, you can test and optimize Citrix/RDS application performance under multiple load levels, and ensure quality Web experiences, for all users, at all times – under all load conditions. This is how it works:
- In server-based environments, an image of the application is delivered to the client UI. This is why CitraTest VU relies on advanced intelligent image recognition capabilities –automatically built into every testing script – to simplify testing configuration, and reduce time and efforts on your side.
- “Load generating machines” are used to generate user load against the server environment under test, while “measuring machines” actively measure response times and gather server performance metrics on the back-end. With Tevron’s unique image recognition approach, you can consistently generate virtual user activity across Citrix client interfaces or Microsoft TS/RDP client interfaces.
- During load testing execution, CitraTest VU replicates real user activity and measures and reports end-to-end response times at the client GUI by automatically comparing the screen to baseline response images created during load test script development. That way, you can baseline and compare application performance under different virtual user load levels, for each application. With CitraTest VU, the most important metric is measured and analyzed – the end-to-end client side response time, so you can verify that service level requirements are met for all pre-defined levels of concurrent users. And remember, no software is ever installed in your production environment!
Even if you are not supporting external facing applications, your internal applications can also choke at peak times. After all, IT environments are living entities where the number of users, remote branches and locations, business requirements, load levels and users’ expectations can change at lightning speed. So load test your applications to ensure IT and application readiness for whatever changes come your way! Check-out Tevron’s CitraTest VU today.
Good luck with your load testing efforts!