Post to Twitter
Check out this GoView screen recording from Delta Flight 1547 (from Atlanta to Kansas City) at 34,000 and 520 kts.
XenDesktop on GoGo Wifi on Delta 1547
(embed not working)
You can read more about the GoGo Wifi service on Delta and other air carriers at the links below -
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/business.travel/05/04/airplane.wifi/index.html
http://blog.delta.com/2008/08/06/broadband-wi-fi-in-the-sky-coming-to-the-delta-fleet-soon/
http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/10/delta-pushes-in-flight-wifi-plans-ahead-gogo-to-hit-2-000-plane/
Microsoft, Intel & Citrix: Dynamics of Enterprise Virtualization
An interactive discussion led by Doug Brown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attend this lively discussion with virtualization experts David Greschler, Iddo Kadim & Simon Crosby on the dynamics of enterprise virtualization. Register here.
Topics include:
• Virtualization in the enterprise & upcoming technologies
• Moving beyond consolidation & getting to Dynamic Datacenters
• Cloud computing & how does virtualization fit in
• Desktop Virtualization opportunities, barriers & adoption challenges
Date: Monday, June 22, 2009
Time: 1:00 PM Eastern; 10:00 AM Pacific
Don't miss this opportunity to hear perspectives on the current & future virtualization landscape and what this means for the enterprise.
Register here now.
Follow me on Twitter.
Citrix iForum Benelux 2009 is in Antwerp on June 9th and 10th. The Citrix Benelux team put together a little promo video for the event and posted it on YouTube.
You can register here. I hope to see you and the Citrix Angels there.
Follow me on Twitter.
Twitter is obviously growing rapidily in popularity. According to a recent TechCrunch article, "Twitter's global unique visitors in April, 2009 was a whopping 32 million, up from 19 million in March, 2009". Many different groups within Citrix have begun to embrace Twitter. I use Twitter quite a bit, and have found several different Citrix Twitter accounts that I follow. Below are several recent Twitter accounts started by different departments within Citrix -
@citrixsupport - Mike Stringer, a Senior Director in Technical Support, created this account to provide updates from Citrix Technical Support.
@citrixreadiness - David McGeough from our Dublin office has been very active recently on this account.
@xenappjunkie - Vinny Sosa just started this Twitter account about XenApp.
@xdsupport - XenDesktop support. I have not yet found out who owns this account.
@citrixpartners - This twitter account is specifically for info related to Citrix partners.
@nssupport - Julio Rodriguez recently started this NetScaler related account.
@citrixblogs - This is an automated rss feed account that posts links to every new group blog post on the Citrix Community blogs.
@citrixonline - This account is dedicated to info on GoToMyPC, GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, and GoView from Citrix Online.
@go_view - This account by Brenda Dentinger focuses on the new GoView product from Citrix Online.
@ctxs - This account is an rss feed of Citrix press releases.
@xenserverarmy - This account posts info specific to XenServer and Essentials for XenServer.
@citrix_synergy - This account posted live updates from Citrix Synergy.
There are several other new accounts that have no or few updates yet.
@xasupport
@xssupport
@citrixeducation
You can also follow me on Twitter, and other Citrix employees such as Chris Fleck, Tedd Fox, Matt Lesak, Lauren Whalen, Rich Crusco, Vishal Generiwala, Dan Feller, and Pete Downing.
If there are other Citrix accounts or Citrix employees you follow on Twitter, please post them in the comments.
Citrix XenDesktop is a finalist in the Virtualization category for the "Best of TechEd" award from Windows ITPro magazine.
If you are attending TechED 2009 in Los Angeles, please vote for XenDesktop as the "Best of TechED" at this link -
http://windowsitpro.com/awards/teched_finalists_2009.html
(you must be logged into to MSTechEd.com and attending the event to vote).
Follow the Twitter feed for "Best of TechEd 2009" here.
Follow the official TechEd 2009 Twitter feed here
StorageLink is one of the components of the new Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V product that was just released last week.
Citrix StorageLink™ technology lets your virtual server infrastructures fully leverage all the resources and functionality of existing storage systems. StorageLink supports all third party storage architectures and delivers deep integration with leading storage platforms allowing you to switch seamlessly between XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V™ platforms. Citrix StorageLink provides organization with:
- Reduced cost and complexity by leveraging existing investments in storage systems.
- One click access to native storage services.
- Simplified, wizard-driven storage setup and maintenance.
I recently recorded a technical deep dive presentation and demo with Pete Benoit, the Senior Director of Engineering for StorageLink. You can watch the hour long presentation and demo below -
You can download the StorageLink Install Guide here. The StorageLink User guide is here and you can download the Powershell guide here.
UPDATE: I added the Deep Dive webinar video to my SkyDrive on Windows Live. You can download it here
Follow me on Twitter.
Garr Reynolds, writer of one of the best books I have ever read on presentation design and speaking (Presentation Zen) is speaking at Citrix Synergy on the topic of simplicity and thinking differently about business and technology.
Synergy 2009. May 4-7, Las Vegas (USA)
I'm really pumped about this one. I'll be opening the Synergy Conference early in the morning on the 4th, then I have to quickly jet back to Japan immediately after the talk. My talk is not about presentations but about broader themes related to the power of simplicity and thinking differently about business and technology in the cloud space (a topic in which I have great interest). There is some amazing stuff going on right now, especially in the enterprise cloud computing space. I'm a big fan of Citrix and their CEO Mark Templeton (who is an excellent presenter); it's going to be an honor to share the stage with Mark at Synergy 09.
Register for Citrix Synergy now.
VDI Expert Series: Microsoft and Citrix - Exploring VDI's Myths, Limitations and Benefits
If you're considering Desktop Virtualization or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), join Microsoft and Citrix to discover how to minimize the cost of a VDI implementation with the most comprehensive solution.
Hear about:
•Top 5 VDI Myths
•XenDesktop Technical Differentiators & Testing Metrics
•Minimizing the cost associated with a VDI implementation
•Enhanced security
•Increased business agility
Register for the Exploring VDI's Myths, Limitations and Benefits Webinar
Webinar Speakers
Scott Woodgate
Director of Windows Business Group
Microsoft Corporation
Scott Woodgate is the Director at Microsoft® in the Windows® Business group. He owns the enterprise version of Windows Vista® and Windows 7, Software Assurance Business, and Windows virtualization strategy including new ways to deploy windows on a variety of form factors such as laptops, desktops, and thin clients. Scott created the Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) license for the virtual desktop infrastructure space. He was involved in the creation of the desktop optimization product and in particular the acquisition of Kidaro (MED-V) and SoftGrid (App-V).
Scott has eight years of experience at Microsoft across both enterprise servers and clients. Before joining Microsoft, Scott was project manager in New Zealand building projects for enterprise customers. Scott holds 5 degrees including a PHD in chemistry.
Sumit Dhawan
Vice President, Product Marketing
Citrix Systems, Inc.
Sumit Dhawan is responsible for leading the go-to-market strategy for the Citrix desktop virtualization product line including evangelizing and developing the rapidly emerging application and desktop virtualization markets.
Prior to his current role, Dhawan was director of product management for the company's flagship product, Citrix XenApp™ (the new name for Citrix Presentation Server®), and led the growth of this product line to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2007. Since joining Citrix in 1998, he has held product management, product development and product marketing leadership positions for a variety of product lines and markets.
Dhawan holds degrees in both business and science, with a master's degree in business administration from the University of Florida and a master's degree in computer science from the University of Minnesota. Dhawan graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Exploring VDI's Myths, Limitations and Benefits Webinar
Another component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V is Provisioning Services. Learn more in this video from the Product Manager for Provisioning, Pete Downing.
Here is a brief description of Provisioning Services inside Essentials for Hyper-V -
Citrix Provisioning Services reduces total cost of ownership and improves both manageability and business agility by virtualizing the workload of a datacenter server operating system, applications and configuration and streaming the workload on-demand to physical or virtual servers from the network.
Servers are stateless until streamed to; no software is preloaded or permanently loaded. No other server-provisioning approach compares in terms of economic benefits or operational efficiencies. By delivering server workloads on-demand rather than deploying them on individual servers, Citrix Provisioning Services :
- Simplifies and streamlines server management, and reduces software rollout risk.
- Ensures server consistency within silos by provisioning servers simultaneously from a single standard workload image.
- Increases IT responsiveness and agility by enabling capacity on-demand--repurpose any server to do any job.
- Reduces utility costs and space needs by cutting the number of backup servers that are required.
- Dynamically satisfies needs for growth, disaster recovery and business continuity.
Citrix Provisioning Services can stream a workload to any server or server farm, extending Citrix XenApp™ application delivery capabilities and Microsoft Hyper-V server virtualization capabilities.
Learn more here.
In my post last post before VMWorld Europe, I embedded a new demo video on the StorageLink functionality with the recently announced Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. Another component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V is Lab Management. In the next video, Peter Blum takes about five minutes to review the capabilities of this new feature inside Essentials.
Here are the requirements for Lab Manager -
Lab Manager host (Platinum Edition only):
- CPU: Intel or AMD x86 or x64 compatible; 1 GHz minimum; 2 GHz preferred
- RAM: (will vary by number of managed physical hosts, number of users and number of deployed VMs)
- Disk space: 10 GB minimum for small labs and 30 GB for large labs (disk usage will vary by number of templates, ISOs, scripts and software packages)
- OS: Windows Server 2003
- Database: PostgresSQL 8.3 for data store installed locally on LabManager host
Lab Manager agent for Hyper-V (Platinum Edition only):
- One agent required per Hyper-V Host
- Installed on the Hyper-V host
- RAM: 512 MB minimum
- Disk space: 1 GB minimum
- OS: Windows Server 2003
Learn more here.
Yesterday Citrix announced the newest Citrix product that builds on top of the Microsoft Windows Server platform - Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. Essentials for Hyper-V has four primary components -
- Automated lab management enables Hyper-V customers to develop, test and deliver applications faster by automating and simplifying the entire virtual machine lifecycle, including movement across virtualization platforms.
- Advanced storage integration using Citrix StorageLink™ technology makes it easy for Hyper-V and Microsoft System Center customers to fully leverage all the native power of their existing array-based storage systems.
- Dynamic provisioning services lets customers centrally manage a common set of master images which can be streamed on-demand into Hyper-V virtual machines or physical servers.
- Hypervisor interoperability makes it easy for customers to manage virtual machines across heterogeneous Hyper-V and XenServer environments.
This short video below by Peter Blum reviews the Advanced StorageLink capability built into Essentials with Hyper-V.
I will post more videos and info on Essentials from Hyper-V from VMWorld Europe.
Join us for this LIVE webcast designed specifically for Citrix & Microsoft Partners.
Webcast: Desktop Virtualization - Turn the Hype into Money
Date: Tuesday, February 24 at 2:00pm ET
Host: Scott Bekker, Editor in Chief, Redmond Channel Partner
Come join our webinar and discover how to 'Turn the Hype into Money' in the escalating virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) market.
Virtualization is hot and virtual desktops are the fastest growing virtualization market today. VDI is growing at an estimated 90% year over year for the next 5 years, making it a $12-15 billion dollar market by 2012.
For IT organizations, it's all about reducing management costs and ensuring business continuity and data security. Learn what desktop virtualization is and what solutions are available now to centralize and deliver desktops as a service to users anywhere, while dramatically reducing total cost of desktop management.
Be at the forefront of VDI technology, so that you will be able to offer end-to-end, virtualization solutions to your customers and boost your sales in 2009.
I originally posted this in mid-December, but many of you many have missed it due to the Holidays and vacation time.
Our Events team is putting together the content for Citrix Synergy 2009 now. The team would like your input on the content. Please answer the poll questions below -
Our Events team is putting together the content for Citrix Synergy 2009 now. The team would like your input on the content. Please answer the poll questions below -
Sean Whetstone, Head of IT Services at Reed Managed Services in the UK, is a big fan of going green. By using a combination of Citrix XenApp, NetScaler and XenDesktop, Reed Managed Services was able to reduce operating expenses by over 20%, centralize and secure data from over 300 offices, and reduce their carbon footprint by 2500 tons. According to the post on Sean's blog, Reed Managed Services was able to cut utility usage by 5,500,000 kilowatt hours to save over 100,000 pounds as a result of this project.
Sean recently posted a video interview he did at a Citrix event in London on his blog.
You can view Sean's presentation on this topic here.
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviewed the Virtual Desktop Delivery of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Part V reviewed the integration with XenApp for application delivery to the virtual desktops. Part VI covers User Personalization with Citrix User Profile Manager. This is the third section from Dan's Pilot Implementation Guide.
This embedded presentation covers the "Personalization" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here
. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviewed the Virtual Desktop Delivery of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Now in Part V we review the integration with XenApp for application delivery to the virtual desktops. This is the second section from Dan's Pilot Implementation Guide.
This embedded presentation covers the "Application Delivery" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviewed an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. Part IV reviews the first section of Dan Feller's "XenDesktop Pilot Implementation Guide". Dan goes through each step of configuring a pilot from start to finish.
This first embedded presentation covers the "Virtual Desktop Delivery" section of the Pilot Implementation Guide.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Citrix EasyCall provides a simple and intuitive way communication enabling your existing applications with the flexibility of using any telephone.
EasyCall enables:
- Click-to-Call from any application
- Any telephone (mobile, office, home)
- Click-to-Call enabled directory & call-log
The embedded presentation below reviews the features of Citrix EasyCall.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
Here is a short demo video that covers how to use EasyCall and reviews briefly how it works.
EasyCall Demo video
EasyCall is a standard feature on:
- Citrix XenApp Platinum Edition
- Citrix NetScaler Platinum Edition
- Citrix XenDesktop Platinum Edition
You can find the EasyCall Administrator's Guide here and the Getting Started Guide here. The EasyCall User Guide is at this link.
There are several Systems Integrators Guide for various phone systems -
Nortel
Avaya
Bandwidth.com
Part I of the Deep Dive into XenDesktop series reviewed the architecture. Part II covered the install and management tools. Part III reviews an example XenDesktop Pilot Architecture. This presentation is based on the "XenDesktop Pilot Reference Architecture" document by Dan Feller. Here is the the introduction to Dan's white paper -
Overview
Properly delivering desktops to users is a core requirement for just about any business. If users are unable to use their desktops or applications, the business cannot function at full utilization. Every few years, just about every business undergoes a massive rollout of a new operating system, new hardware or new applications requiring a swarm of individuals to build, test and rollout the newest systems to the masses. Because of this enormous undertaking, many organizations hold off on beneficial upgrades, which oftentimes limit how fast the organization can turn to changing market demands.
There are automated tools from numerous vendors to help in the deployment of new applications and operating systems, but the question should be raised if deploying applications out to the user population is still the best approach. This type of approach incurs numerous consequences impacting the user and the business like:
- Loss of end-user device opens up significant security concerns for lost data
- Corruption of the operating system or application by malicious or inadvertent acts requires extensive troubleshooting and administrative time resulting in end-user downtime
- System upgrades are delayed due to the costs associated with the procurement of new hardware.
Instead of going down the old approach of deploying operating systems and applications to thousands of physical workstations, a dynamically provisioned virtual desktop environment will offer organizations the ability to provide their users that latest environments without the time and costs associated with a large-scale desktop rollout. Before the rollout begins, it is recommended a pilot program is launched that validates the recommended design based on business and user requirements.
This document provides a reference architecture for a XenDesktop Pilot. It is broken up into the following components:
- Virtual Desktop Requirements
- Solution Overview
- Technical Architecture
Dan put together a list of requirements for this Pilot Reference Architecture -
The pilot is the last stage of testing and validating the design and environment build before moving towards a full-scale production rollout. A small set of users will work with the production-level environment and validate the solution is functional and meets the overall virtual desktop requirements. For the architecture defined throughout this document, the following requirements are used:
- Users should be able to personalize their virtual desktop environment with application configurations, environment settings and user preferences. The personalization settings should follow the user from system-to-system.
- Users should be able to continue working within their virtual desktop even if there is a failure of a component within the environment.
- Users should be able to get access to their virtual desktop securely and over remote connections without relying on a VPN client
- A single base standard image should be used for all users within the pilot group.
- Updating the operating system with the latest security patches should only be required on a single image. Those changes should be propagated to all users' virtual desktops.
- Users should only see the applications they have been assigned as seeing all applications causes confusion.
I have broken the great content of the pdf into smaller, bite size chunks to make it more digestible within a slide format (especially the step by step tables). Before each step in the tables, I added in the reference diagram with a big arrow that points to the step within the diagram. There are a lot of slides, but the amount of content on each slide is much easier to swallow in this format IMO.
Click here to view the presentation in full screen at Slide Share.
This presentation does have several slide notes that provide additional detail. You can view the slide notes here.
Frank Anderson on the XenDesktop team has created a few screencasts covering the features of XenDesktop. You can watch his short screencast covering the provisioning and lifecycle management features of XenDesktop here. Frank's screencast on user experience is available here.
Download the free XenDesktop Express Edition here
Thanks to Dan Feller for putting together an excellent whitepaper and allowing me to convert that content into this format. I hope you find this useful.
