A couple months back I posted a blog on running OCS 2007 on XenApp. In it I highlighted a couple of known issues (doesn't support voice or video at this time), but I also posted a feedback received from customers that the user status changes intermittently. E.g., Communicator will change your status to "Away" even if you are online and available. If you have experienced this annoyance, it appears this issue (sporadic presence change) has been addressed in Microsoft's April 30^th update for OCS 2007. You can find more information about this update here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/951662/

Last week, I wrote about the challenges related to the on-coming waves of Windows in the next few years. This week, I thought I would ask my readers about 16-bit apps - many of us have them, though many can't say we love them. Supporting 16-bit apps has become exponentially challenging with each hardware cycle and new release of the Windows OS. As an example, if you have 16-bit apps running on one or two year old servers, chances are you are running your 16-bit app on Windows 2003 (32-bit OS & WOW) and probably on a 64-bit processor. There are simply too many layers for things to go wrong.

So, my question to you this week...

What are you plans for 16-bit applications?	Choose
Definitely keeping 16-bit apps as long as we can - even if without vendor support
Already have migration plan on the roadmap for 16-bit apps
Not sure – haven't thought about it
We've thought about it and decided to revisit at a later time
Don't have any 16-bit apps

I'll post the results in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile, please don't hesitate to contact me with questions.

I've been spending a bit of time thinking about the relationship of Windows servers and the datacenter. In my role as a product manager, I often hear customer talk about their challenges and pains balancing applications, OS'es and hardware refresh cycles. And once a while, I catch myself recalling the simpler times of the past; when Windows NT, 3.51, 4.0 and even Windows 2000 were more manageable (Ok, relatively speaking). Today, IT organizations have to manage exponentially more apps, more users, and more flavors of servers than you can keep count of. 32-bit apps has been around for a l-o-n-g time. When Windows Server 2003 introduced 64-bit, only a limited number of apps were able to realize the benefits of better scalability, faster performance. Even today (5+ years later), customers still tell me they can't take their apps on a 64-bit OS because of driver compatibility. This has IT organizations painting themselves into the corner of supporting a complex matrix of 32-bit and 64-bit apps and OS'es. When you toss in legacy 16-bit application into the mix, you end up with a fairly complex mix of... spaghetti.

The next wave of Windows is coming. I'm not talking about Windows 2008, which was just released in Feb 2008. There are already talks about Windows "7" or Windows 2008 R2 - the codename for the next release of Windows (server and client). And in case you haven't heard... Windows "7" server will be 64-bit only. What will you do with your 16-bit and 32-bit apps? How will IT be able to catch up, or will this downward spiral continues? Or do you have everything under control?

Thoughts?

Ok, I think this would be an interesting one for the community. Audio (voice & sound) content is becoming more important to customers - day-to-day applications that require clear audio (e.g., listening to a voicemail attached in your email), VoIP/softphone calls, dictation applications, etc. If you have applications or use cases that require audio (voice or sound) over XenApp, please read on...
Take a listen to the recorded audio clip (no video) below - the clip was recorded over XenApp to an ICA client. As you listen to the clip, think about whether the audio quality is, in your opinion, good enough for you day-to-day use? After listening to the audio clip, please vote in our poll below. By the way, it's recommended that you watch/listen to the clip from a locally installed browser.

Oh, and if you cannot see the voting buttons (green checks).... you'll need to login to vote. And if you don't have a login, you can easily create one here.

What's your impression of the audio quality in the sample audio clip?	Choose
Poor – if it's my only option, then I cannot use it with my voice/audio application
Bearable – I can use it to communicate with others, but only if I have to
Acceptable – I can use this on a daily basis
Great – When can I have this?

If you have questions, please click on my name and feel free to contact me!

In the last couple of months, there have been a number of blogs added on this site covering the progress of Project Delaware -- the next release of XenApp (new name for Presentation Server) for Windows Server 2008. At the same time, another team of talented engineers has also been working on the next release of Citrix Access Essentials (CAE), codename Project Eden. Like its bigger XenApp sibling, Access Essentials projects are also named after rivers; however, in our case, Access Essentials projects are named after rivers "across the pond" - that is, in the U.K.  Project Eden has three main objectives:

1. Support Windows Server 2008 - Microsoft has introduced a number of enhancements in Windows Server 2008, including improved management, security and printing. As the adoption of Windows Server 2008 ramps up for the small to mid-size business (usually more rapidly because they have more flexibility to change), let's make sure customers can continue to leverage AE on this new OS platform. 
2. Integrate with Microsoft's new mid-size business offering, Essential Business Server (EBS) or codename "Centro". If you follow the SMB space, undoubtedly you've heard of "Centro" or Essential Business Server. You've probably also seen Citrix mentioned in one of the many EBS industry write-ups or the Citrix logo on a Microsoft EBS' blog post.
3. Deliver features to improve usability and enhance end-user experience. As an example, CAE 2.0 introduced SpeedScreen technology of Browser and Image Acceleration. Project Eden will deliver the additional SpeedScreen technology currently available in XenApp product for CAE customers.

Obviously there are more features and details not mentioned here, but, as you can see already, there are many exciting things going on with Access Essentials. So, even though the last CAE blog was posted some time ago, don't despair. You can expect to see more CAE coverage in the up-coming months! As the new Product Manager of CAE, I am very excited about this product and its future! If you are currently a CAE customer, I would love to hear about your experience with CAE. You can reach me by clicking on my name/profile above. If you are new to CAE, you can learn more about it here.

If you are familiar with Microsoft Office Communication Server (OCS) 2007, you probably know OCS 2007 introduces communication and collaborative integration with Microsoft Office and Exchange.  What you may not know is that between 60 - 80% of customers surveyed said they use Presentation Server to deliver Microsoft Outlook and Office apps to their users. And with increasing number of customers putting focus on user communication and collaboration, we needed to see whether we can run OCS 2007 with PS. With help from the Microsoft Unified Communications team late last year, we were actually able to get some good results from our preliminary testing.
The Setup:
Our test bed was quite simple - 3 servers and 3 clients configured as diagramed below. Obviously, your environment probably looks different, but you get the point.

 
  
The Results:
With our setup, we were able to get the following OCS2007 features to work on PS:

• Office Communicator 2007 - the IM client running in PS 
• IM (instant message) - IM'ing with other users on your IM list
• IM Presence - see in real time whether the user is available (online, offline, etc.)
• Microsoft Office integration - IM and presence of a colleague... say, you want to see in Outlook if Jane is online before sending her the email

And while we didn't test the Remote Call Control (RCC) features in OCS 2007 (couldn't get permission to connect to the corp PBX), we believe this feature should work without issues. After all, Presentation Server is simply "rendering" the remote call control interface over ICA (just like any other app) and the calls are handled by the OCS2007, Mediation Gateway and PBX. If anyone out there can try RCC over Presentation Server, and I'd love to get your feedback on this!

More Work Underway:
Of course, it's clear there is more work to do - notice voice and video are missing  from the above list. We tried voice, but that didn't work. We need to figure that one out. Video conferencing is yet another hurdle at this point. Some customers have told me the wider adoption voice and video is still 12 - 18 months out. Do you agree?

In the coming weeks, I'll follow up with more information on the configurations and setup. Hopefully, I'll have time to do a video demo'ing the OCS 2007 features we test with Presentation Server as well. Meanwhile, I'd love to hear about your plans for bringing communication and collaboration to your organization! Submit your comments or shoot me an email!

May 14: Sporadic presence status with OCS and XenApp? Please see my blog on Microsoft's update to address this problem.