Citrix chief executive Mark Templeton says the company expects to deliver the first fruits of Project Evergreen, a joint development with Microsoft, by the end of the year.

Speaking at Citrix's annual iForum event in Edinburgh, Templeton said Project Evergreen will combine Citrix's WANscaler network booster with Microsoft Windows services to create Branch Office in a Box (BOB) and help organisations with their data centre consolidation plans.

Troy Trenchard, a vice president of Citrix's application networking group told Reg Developer the new device will fill a gap in Citrix's product range and provide customers with an additional option for delivering applications to the desktop.

"Our goal is to deliver the BOB by the end of this year. It will package up key Windows services, DNS and DHCP and the WANscaler in an integrated unit. Organisations going through data centre consolidation will be able to get WAN optimisation and local services from the BOB."

He went on to say that the BOB will enable branch office users to continue to use local Windows services such as web access and local file and print operations even when disconnected from their data centre application.

The BOB will be branded as a Citrix "appliance" product and pricing will be announced at product launch time. ®

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