The Dienst Werk en Inkomen at the Gemeente Amsterdam (DWI Amsterdam) in the Netherlands was formed from a merger of the social services agency, the foundation Maatwerk and NV Werk in late 2005. DWI Amsterdam works with employers and education and re-integration partners on initiatives to find jobs for unemployed people in the region. The philosophy is to create an employed future with paid occupation for as many citizens of Amsterdam as possible, or in the interim, arrange for volunteer work or a trainee post. On the road to work, 38.000 customers of DWI Amsterdam receive a social security payment.

The challenge: enable a smooth merger

The social services agency that was the predecessor of DWI Amsterdam had been a satisfied user of Citrix Presentation Server™ for more than 11 years. In 2004 the organization was rolling out a project to provide access to outsourced mainframe applications and the office productivity environment on one physical desktop using two Citrix Presentation Server farms. In 2005, with the forthcoming merger of the social services organization, the foundation Maatwerk and NV Werk into the current DWI Amsterdam, the organization foresaw extensive relocation of people and resources. DWI Amsterdam decided to prepare for the merger by virtualizing all core applications using Presentation Server. This made sure that all applications were completely desktop-independent.

“We were looking for ways to use our broad, positive experience with Citrix Presentation Server for a completely new desktop environment. It was vital to have the new environment operational at the time of the new organization’s formation. At that point we decided on Presentation Server as a strategic solution for our organization,” said Hans Eggels, network specialist at DWI Amsterdam. “We needed to define a tighter desktop and to add productivity applications, e-mail and other applications to the concept. In addition, the solution needed to be scalable to support increasing demand for collaboration with other organizations and companies.”

Implementing Citrix Presentation Server, Platinum Edition

Together with Fujitsu Services, a Gold Citrix Solution Advisor, DWI Amsterdam developed a new IT architecture and installed the environment. Two Citrix Access Gateway™, Advanced Edition appliances and eight Web servers now deliver a virtualized desktop comprising almost 50 applications to all employees over the Web, using the Web Interface capability of Presentation Server.  Citrix Presentation Server, Platinum Edition with Microsoft® Windows Server® 2003 runs on 90 Fujitsu-Siemens server blades. This renewal project included consolidation of the Oracle back office environment and installing a SAN.

Centralized administration of applications

DWI Amsterdam started using Citrix Presentation Server many years ago to provide centralized access to a legal application and a time registration application between subsidiaries using a slow connection. The Citrix solution was the only way to achieve this. Another important step using the Citrix solution took place in 2003. A large improvement project needed an application that was still under development. Within a few weeks, the organization implemented a large temporary farm with 20 servers running Citrix Presentation Server and connected it to the network to deliver this new application to all project employees. “Citrix offered the only solution in a production environment to give broad access to an application still under heavy development. The application was modified and modeled on an unknown business process and often was changed or updated twice a day,” continued Eggels. “After the project, we moved this temporary environment to our datacenter, upgraded it and since then have used it to deliver this virtualized application to all regions.

“The way Citrix Presentation Server supports dynamic and changing environments is still a very important advantage. Rolling out new applications quickly and rolling back changes on the fly are still essential, as we are currently migrating to Oracle 10g. We experience the advantages of centralized management almost weekly. We can even preserve an older environment next to the current version thanks to the centralized nature of the solution.”

A single point of access to the network

DWI Amsterdam’s 2,400 employees now have a single point of desktop access to all virtualized applications.  “This creates a very clear desktop workspace that is exactly the same at all locations. We are completely independent of the type of desktop and its location,” Eggels said. “The Access Gateway SSL VPN solution enables secure application delivery, for example, for employees from our research department working externally at the locations of other public service organizations. In addition, managers can use Microsoft Outlook from their homes with ease of use and security.”

In the near future, DWI Amsterdam will introduce password management functionality powered by Citrix Password Manager™, which is part of Citrix Presentation Server, Platinum Edition. The organization has two main reasons for using Password Manager. Eggels noted, “The requirement for strong passwords and the frequency of password changes will increase as a result of new legislation. A new policy is difficult to implement because of the multiple passwords employees have to remember. Password Manager will increase security because employees can create strong passwords without the need to remember or change them. In addition, to compensate for the restrictions of the locked-down desktops delivered by Presentation Server, employees will gain the convenience of single sign-on access and self-service password resets provided by Password Manager.”

Improved collaboration increases efficiency

The nature of the services that DWI Amsterdam offers requires extensive collaboration with other government services and local governments. “We provide re-integration, recovery and education of derailed youngsters and the homeless, among others, and we take care of benefits. Previously, it was impossible to give these other organizations access to the necessary applications on the physical network or remotely using a secure connection. Organizations such as the Centre for Work and Income (CWI) and the Service for Social Development and Governmental Healthcare (GGD) now have secure access to our network using Access Gateway. The Citrix solution is easy to scale up and helps us realize numerous opportunities for collaboration, which immediately improve services to our customers,” concluded Eggels.

About the Citrix Solution

Citrix Presentation Server™, part of the Citrix XenApp™ product family, the new name for Presentation Server, is the de facto standard for delivering Windows® applications at the lowest cost—to any user, anywhere. It offers both application virtualization and application streaming delivery methods to enable the best access experience for any user, with any device, working over any network. Citrix Access Gateway™ is the only SSL VPN to securely deliver any application with policy-based SmartAccess control. Users will have easy-to-use secure access to all of the enterprise applications and data they need to be productive and IT can cost effectively extend access to applications while maintaining security through SmartAccess application-level policies.

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