Jaguar ups design software performance and cuts bandwidth

Design engineers at Jaguar Cars, the Coventry-based prestige car manufacturer, are using new application server software to help minimise bandwidth, optimise the performance of specialist design applications, streamline business processes, and help them communicate more effectively with other Jaguar departments. The company has implemented Citrix’s MetaFrame software to deliver applications to 1,000 users in its dedicated design office. It’s allowing the firm’s engineers to access standard office productivity applications from Unix workstations used for CAD software. Before MetaFrame, Jaguar tried to deliver Windows-based applications to Unix workstations by using terminal emulation software, but software performance suffered as a result. With the new software though, all application processing occurs on the servers, with only mouse clicks and screen updates travelling across the network. Hence, applications perform as if they were running on the local client device. “We only have to install applications once, on the server and they’re instantly available to all users,” explains Andy Davidson, Jaguar’s NT/thin client consultant. “All management takes place at a central point – the servers. “Recently, we gave all 1,000 CAD users a new custom application in a matter of 16 minutes. And as we didn’t need to give each engineer a Windows-based device to access it, we saved on the costs of purchasing 1,000 PCs.”