Terminal Services for Microsoft Windows Server 2003

What's interesting about Terminal Server (in this case) is that it's an absolute requirement if you want to use any of these third party products. Your real decision is whether you want to use Terminal Server by itself or whether you want to use a third-party product in addition to Terminal Server.

Terminal Server has come a long way since Microsoft released the first version of it in 1998. From a pure protocol standpoint, Terminal Server's RDP protocol is just as good as Citrix's ICA protocol. They both support virtually any client platform, and they both support access to all local client resources (ports, printers, audio, and the clipboard). Additionally, the new version of RDP supports 24-bit color and very high resolutions.

This protocol equality does not mean that there is no longer a need for third-party products, however. It just means that there are other things you must look for when deciding which products are best for your server-based computing solution.

For example, Terminal Server still has some major weaknesses, including:

• Load-balancing is limited to 32-nodes. Furthermore, the load-balancing algorithm is based on network traffic--not user or processor load.

• Applications cannot be accessed "seamlessly." This is not a problem if you only plan to run full remote desktops, but the integration of local and remote applications is not that great.

• Users must access a server to access an application. For example, third-party software allows a user to request an application by name (i.e. "Excel"). Terminal Server requires that an administrator manually set up shortcuts to each application. Again, this is less of a problem if the server is to be used exclusively for remote desktop access instead of remote application access.

The bottom line with Terminal Server is that it can stand on its own in smaller environments where users will be accessing full remote desktops, but it cries out for third-party tools in larger and more complex environments.