Pierre Marmignon, one of the most active and talented developers in the Citrix Community has recently written a great article about tuning up XenDesktop deployments. Influenced by a previous Citrix Community post from Paul Wilson, Pierre decided to write this article with a detailed coverage of the following topics:

- Operating System Tuning for XenDesktop
- XenDesktop Tuning
- User Profile Tuning
- Microsoft Office Tuning

Read it all here at CitrixTools.net, and don't forget to check out his XenApp tools.

Did you know that Citrix has a private Customer Advisory Community that enables global Citrix customers to serve as virtual advisors, providing their perspectives and opinions in an online forum? The Customer Advisory Community is comprised of 400 Citrix customers who span more than 30 countries and represent a broad cross-section of industries and organizations.

Customer Advisory Community members log in to the site each week, and provide Citrix with a wide range of feedback, including insight into their organization's IT direction, IT industry trends, and feedback on Citrix products, services and marketing, among other topics.

The Customer Advisory Community has a limited number of openings for new members this month, and we would like to offer Citrix customers the opportunity to be considered for membership!
As a member of the Citrix Customer Advisory Community, you would have the ability to:

• Provide insight into your organization's needs and challenges
• Share your thoughts on a variety of technology industry topics
• Learn early on about new Citrix initiatives and influence their direction
• Interact and network with your peers in a private, online forum
• Receive periodic rewards in exchange for your participation (if your organization's policies allow)

Those chosen to participate in the Citrix Customer Advisory Community will be asked to complete a click-through Non-Disclosure Agreement, create an account, and then log in and contribute their thoughts (via surveys, bulletin boards, etc.) an average of 5-15 minutes per week. Citrix partners with Communispace Corporation, a professional community management firm, to host and moderate the online advisory community.

To be considered for membership, please complete this brief, 10-minute questionnaire click here by March 6, 2009. Customers using one or more Citrix products are encouraged to apply.

Your responses will be kept confidential, and will be used only to determine your membership in the community. You will then be notified within the next few weeks about the status of your membership.

We hope to see you in the community!

As pointed out by Adam on his previous post, this site is the gateway for the community to get to know Project Braeburn's team as well as interact with us.

The site is now live and you can access it by clicking on the following link:

http://community.citrix.com/iphone

Happy Holidays.

best,
Gus

Lately main stream media picked up on the fact that we're building an ICA client for the iPhone. Several stories emerged, many pointing back to Al's blog as well as our most popular blog post ever by Chris Fleck.

Some have questioned if we were really working on a client or just some vaporware.

I can safely tell you that what you've heard is true, we're building an ICA client for the iPhone, but that's not all. We're not just building an ICA client for another mobile platform, we're redefining the mobile experience for Citrix users, we're building a Citrix Receiver for the iPhone.

iPhone is remarkable for its design and simplicity and we do not intend to change that, in fact, we find ourselves inspired by all its novelties.

Our goal in delivering a Citrix Receiver to an iPhone is to ensure a completely seamless transition from personal to enterprise, all in one device. Virtually millions business critical application run today on Citrix XenApp, and soon enough all of them will be at your fingertips in an iPhone near you.

We are following the very same guidelines every other native iPhone app follows, and to ensure that, we have teamed up with our friends at Apple to deliver nothing but the smoothest experience to our users.

The Citrix Receiver for iPhone will not only look and feel native to this platform but it will leverage many of the software and hardware advancements incorporated into this ingenious device. Expect a rich combination of multi-touch gestures, great usage of the iPhone's accelerometer and many more.

Our timeline can not yet be disclosed, however I can share with you that the first edition of the Citrix Receiver will be released to the App Store within the first half of 2009. In the meantime, we are building an iPhone community site within CDN, allowing us to contribute and share information with the industry as well as a mainline of communication between our development team and the community; this new site will be available soon, stay tuned.

The Project name is Braeburn (Project Braeburn), I'm the Product Architect, Al Grandville - Product Manager, and a highly skilled team of our finest Mac developers; we form the squad in charge of getting the Citrix Receiver released into the wild. On the new iPhone community site you will be able to chat, ask questions and exchange ideas with all of us.

Stay tuned, iPhone magic is coming soon!

best,
Gus

Citrix technologies have been around for almost 20 years, we have helped other companies to stay on their feet during time of economic crisis by implementing access and application virtualization technologies that not only helped them succeed with their business needs but also reduced their operational costs.

With the economy outlook looking so obscure, companies have begun seeking for new ways to reduce costs while challenged to provide their customers with unchanged level of services and products.

Understanding what technologies to invest in times like this can be crucial decision; while researching some market trends I stumbled upon a recent post on ZDNet by Dan Kusnetzky with the title "Can virtualization help when times get tough?"

After a brief analysis Dan pointed our six ways virtualization can help a company financially, here they are:

• Access virtualization, such as that offered by Citrix and Microsoft, can make it possible for administrative and operational cost reductions while still making needed applications available in a secure, reliable way.

• Application virtualization, such as that offered by Citrix, Microsoft and many others, can make it possible for applications to be made available to staff members in a reliable way and even make it easier to update these applications without having to visit each and every laptop or desktop computer.

• Processing virtualization, such as that offered by Citrix, IBM, HP, Microsoft, Oracle, Sun, Virtual Iron and many others can either allow many machines to work together to get tasks done more quickly to optimize staff member's time or consolidate tasks onto a smaller number of physical machines. This approach can result in hardware, software, operational and administrative cost reductions.

• Network virtualization can make it possible to reduce the costs of administrative and operating costs.

• Storage virtualization can do for storage what processing virtualization does for processing.

• Management and security software for virtualized environments may be the area having the biggest opportunity for cost reduction.
  

Citrix was mentioned not once or twice, but at least 3 times and shows how we've managed to grow exponentially our portfolio; Citrix is now more than ever the ONLY end-to-end virtualization company from Network (NetScaler, WanScaler), Server (XenServer, Provisioning Server), Application (XenApp) all the way to Desktop (XenDesktop).

To compliment the great work done by Dan pointing out the values of virtualization, I will list below some extra reading that can help you define the best strategy to save money while using virtualization technologies:

The Economic Impact of Provisioning Server Streaming Platform
This study describes the financial impact of moving from a traditional datacenter environment, where individual servers are dedicated to specific functions, to an environment where applications and content are streamed to an individual server that exists in a pool of shared servers dynamically using Provisioning Server.

Virtual Desktop ROI Calculator
Calculate your savings with a desktop delivery solution you can take to the bank!

Green IT: Reducing Your Carbon Footprint with Citrix
This white paper explains how Citrix solutions can help bring environmental and organizational objectives into alignment, by alleviating the energy impact of equipment needed to serve both the datacenter and the desktop.

For more, visit: Citrix.com/Solutions

Best,
Gus

PS. Sorry if some of the links require a sign up; I hate signing up for stuff, but these docs are totally worth it...

...And don't forget to check out Chris Fleck's posts about Cloud Economics:

Cloud Economics 101 - Part 1

Cloud Economics 101 - Part 2

XenServer 5 has just been released, and now we can talk about experiencing zero downtime with live migration. With XenMotion, virtual machines can be moved from server to server without service interruption for zero-downtime server maintenance or to seamlessly balance available compute power within a pool of physical servers.

Here's a cool demo of this new XenServer 5 Feature:

Get your weekends back by managing and maintaining your physical hardware during business hours...

For more on XenServer 5 check out XenServer5.com

You can also download a copy of XenServer 5 right here.

This tip shows you how to connect remotely to XenServer Configuration Console GUI from XenCenter and save a trip to the Datacenter.

UPDATE

Adding the command line to be typed for Copy & Paste purposes...

/usr/bin/xsconsole

best,
Gus

Citrix Delivery Center Live! is a series of premier worldwide virtual events that will provide a look at how Citrix is making the next generation of virtualization a reality.  Join us for these live online events where you will get an in-depth view of Citrix products and how you can transform your datacenter into a dynamic delivery center.

Transform your datacenter to a delivery center...with XenApp
Join us for the first event of the series for a look at the next generation of Presentation Server: XenApp.  Attend sessions throughout the day to learn about how application delivery is driving businesses forward and why Citrix XenApp is the only end-to-end solution in the market.

This virtual event will explore key topics:

• Deliver All Windows Applications To All Users
• Introduction to XenApp 5
• XenApp and Windows Server 2008
• Combat Top IT Challenges with XenApp
• Create the Best Desktop Virtualization Solution
• Virtualize XenApp Servers
• Deliver 100% Availability for XenApp Deployments with Citrix NetScaler.
  
  

Throughout the day, you can:

• Attend keynote sessions with live Q&A
• Chat live with Citrix product experts
• Participate in forums and network with other attendees
• View content online and download information
• Visit the expo hall to learn about key Citrix products and joint partner solutions
• Connect with Citrix Partners to learn about solutions to enhance your virtualization experience
  
  

Event Schedule:

Register for Citrix Delivery Center Live!
Transform your datacenter to a delivery center...with XenApp

Now that XenApp 5 has been released to web, you will be probably looking to migrate your current farm or just create a test one. Jo Harder did an amazing job of putting together an all-you-need-to-know document that will help you understand all the technical aspects and requirements for installing XenApp 5 as well as step-by-step procedures on how you can migrate to XenApp 5.

XenApp Migration Reference Table

XenApp 5 Operating System and Platform Support

Farm and Server Interoperability Scenarios

 
 
Download the full document here

Hello Mac Users

First I would like to thank all of you for downloading version 1.0 of our blogs widget. We currently have 1400+ downloads, and this goes to show that the Citrix community has indeed a large number of Mac users.

I also would like to thank those users who sent us their feedback, this version of the widget is here because of you, so keep sending your feedback and comments.

 Meet the Citrix Blogs Widget

 Version 1.0:

• The latest 30 Citrix Blog posts
• Adjust view from Full to Summary
• Collaborate with your comments
• Open posts on Safari or Firefox
• Spotlight Search (Instant search)
• Push updates (no refresh required)
• Watch blogged videos
• Check for updates
• Send feedback

 Version 1.2:

• Widget Resizing
• Bug Fixes

Requirements:

• Mac OS X 10.4 or greater

Download:

Citrix Blogs Widget

In the age where Agua or Aero-glass interfaces are somewhat as important as the underlining kernel, same rules have been applying to Scripts and utilities, after all not everyone wants to be using complex scripts and endless command-line combinations.

For those who are not so keen on Scripts and CLI, our French friend Pierre Marmignon created an app that doesn't solve a new problem, but tackles it more elegantly. Pierre has created an GUI app that (bulk) imports/exports all your published applications.

If you have an useful Citrix app or utility that you would like to share with the world by showcasing it here on the Citrix communities, feel free to send an email to: gus.pinto@citirx.com with the title Community App.

This is the very first edition of a highly buzzed virtualization event held in London, UK, from Oct 14 to 16. The event is three days long: first day (Oct. 14) is dedicated for distributors and resellers, second and third day are for the attendees.

But wait a minute. Another trade show? The answer is, Not really!

So what makes Virtualization Congress special, VC is shaping up to be a truly unconventional conference.

• No Slide allowed on Stage - Only 1-hour long demos: the product is being showed while applied to a specific use case, hopefully matching the ones that attendees may have back at their datacenters.
• It's independent, following the very successful model we know from BriForum, Virtual Congress is an independent and unbiased conference.

Never mind the level of expertise attending the conference: Simon Crosby, Mark Russinoivch, Richard Garsthangen, Scott Herold and many others.

Citrix as usual will be there supporting the conference as a platinum sponsor and deliverying the keynote, you will be able to interact with our top experts and product specialists, so feel free to stop by our booth and say hi to myself, Simon, and others.

Anything else? Yes. Citrix Certified individuals (CCA, CCEA, CCIA) will receive an amazing discount to sign-up for the conference, an amazing 25% off the regular price or $400 US dollars for a pass. *Details coming soon, stay tuned.

I'm looking forward to this event and I have here a video invite from Simon to share with all.

In the meantime you can check out the following links for more information.

Home
Speakers
Agenda

See you in London.

best,
Gus

Back in april I stumbled upon and brought forward a nice finding on our internal showcase farm, an application named ICAPipe later renamed to Citrix Fast Launch.

I posted some demos and an interview with the creators of the tool, shortly after announced that we had the intent of releasing the app as a utility on CDN with forum support.

As you probably know, it's been 2 months and the utility has not being released, and the reason why, is very simple.

The demand this app has generated was tremendous, but despite of the community demand, many customers would not be able to take advantage of this app simply because it's not officially supported, therefore making it not suitable for production environments.

We were set with a dilemma, release the app anyways, assuming web support would suffice or review our release process and attempt to sneak CFL in the XenApp product roadmap.

I can tell you that in the meantime we've been putting the app thru many tests, while identifying the scenarios users could benefit from it, and at the same time, talking to our engineering group trying to lockdown a possible target for this application to be introduced as part of our product.

Of course, there is no guarantee Citrix Fast Launch will be included in the future, however one thing is certain, you as customers can influence these decisions, helping us identify where does faster launch times fit on your list of priorities.

With that been said, here are some questions for you...

Community Release vs. Product Integration?	Choose
I'm OK with a community release supported on CDN forums
Integrated is preferred but a community release is better than nothing
No rush, I can wait until it becomes officially part of XenApp
I cannot implement apps in production without official support

Would faster launching times impact your decision of deploying XenApp?	Choose
Yes
No

Citrix is all about virtualization. They have a suite of tools that enable IT departments to virtualize almost everything. Citrix is a Microsoft Certified Partner and, to some extent, a competitor. How does this Partner Competitor relationship work? Microsoft is very interested in virtualization technologies and with the advent of our hypervisor technology, HyperV, and application virtualization software, SoftGrid, you can bet that we'll compete hard with other virtualization vendors.

Here, we meet Simon Crosby, formerly of XenSource now working for Citrix (Citrix purchased XenSource). We discuss the relationship between Microsoft and Citrix, the complexities of building scalable, sercure, reliable and performant virtualization technologies and the future of virtualization. It's a very interesting conversation and Simon is quite the conversationalist. Enjoy.

Not too long ago, I posted an article introducing the availability of ClearType on Citrix XenApp.

Helge Klein - one of my favorite bloggers, has taken it to the next level, he wrote a technical article explaining in great details how to configure ClearType on both XenApp 4.5 and XenApp 5.0, along with their respective requirements. Here's a snippet of his post.

With the release of the hotfixes KB946633 and PSE450R02W2K3037 ClearType font smoothing is finally available on both the current and the upcoming Citrix flagship products Presentation Server 4.5 and XenApp 5.0. Remains the question of how to configure it.

Windows has a GUI for configuring font smoothing (well hidden in the display properties). XenApp does not.

Each user of a published desktop can use the Windows GUI for configuring font smoothing. But what about the majority of XenApp users who only use published applications and do not have access to a published desktop? I do not know. Of course, the admin could set the font smoothing type in the registry for them. But even then users have no means of changing their setting.

Enter XenApp 5.0 and ICA client 11. If and when those two are at the server respectively client end of an ICA connection, the whole thing works the other way round: The ICA client reads the font smoothing type of the Windows client and transmits it to the server who then activates the client's setting for the current session. This even works across reconnects: During a reconnect from a different machine the new client's setting is read and transmitted. If it is different from the previous client's setting the font smoothing type of the session is changed on the fly.

This approach clearly has its advantages: No problems with published applications. Additionally, remote applications always have the same look as local programs.

But wait: What if the client is not a Windows client? Then we are back to the pre-XenApp days: Configuration on the server.

Configuration Overview

Just in case you got confused: The following table lists all requirements and configuration options:

Continue reading Helge's blog post here.

Citrix Online is going to host a series of three training webinars on GoToAssist Express, register to attend one of the following:

Tuesday, July 15 at 11 AM PDT
Click here to register

Wednesday, July 23 at 4 PM PDT
Click here to register

Thursday, July 31 at 9 AM PDT
Click here to register

During each of these Webinars, they will hold a drawing for a pocket camcorder, here are the details:
- 5.0 Megapixel Video Pocket Camcorder Value: $175
- DXG-567V HD
- 1280 x 720 Video Pocket Camcorder
- Flip USB Connector

Citrix Online is releasing updated versions of its popular GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar conferencing software with complete support for the Mac, and integrated VOIP and telephone audio capability.

Due to the sharp increase in Mac use among customers, Citrix Online decided the "time was right" to create OS X-native versions of both programs.

Kineon Walker, Citrix Online Product Marketing Manager said in an interview with MacNN that our main customers – smaller businesses – have been more willing to embrace the Mac than larger firms that have huge investments in other computing platforms. Although earlier versions of GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar allowed Mac users to participate in conferences, the new editions allow them host meetings and have the same features as their Windows counterparts.

The integration of VOIP and audio eliminates a major hassle for conferences where some users connect via the Web, while others dial in over traditional telephone lines. Until now, conference moderators had to come up with a way to patch both sets of users together, usually by trying to hold a telephone while using a computer headset at the same time. Kineon says that feature and others are part of a strategy to make both products simple to use, especially for smaller companies with limited IT budgets.

GoToMeeting is designed for smaller conferences and impromptu meetings while GoToWebinar supports presentations to audiences of up to 1000 people. Users can present information, demonstrate products or conduct training using Keynote, PowerPoint, text documents, pictures and other material. Although the company does not directly support it, Citrix says many users also use video in their presentations. GoToWebinar includes tools that allow presenters to monitor the audience, gather feedback and even help determine which participants are paying attention.

Web conferencing software is growing in popularity as business travel costs continue to rise. The product is also useful for "virtual companies" with telecommuting employees scattered across a wide area, and for schools that use the technology for online classes.

Citrix Online is continuing this popular free beta until later this year. However, beta users have asked Citrix how GoToAssist Express will be priced once the free beta ends.

After the free beta, GoToAssist Express will be priced as follows:
•Monthly Plan: $69 per month
•Annual Plan: $660 per year (Save 20% off the Monthly Plan!)
•Day Pass: $9.95 per 24-hour period

Plus, everyone (including beta testers) will be eligible for a 30-day free trial.

Beta users will receive a 30% discount - that's $48 a month or $462 a year.

Again, GoToAssist Express is still absolutely free for now, and these prices will not apply until the official launch of GoToAssist Express later this year. Citrix will give plenty of advance notice to users before ending the beta.

All plans will include:
•Unlimited product usage
•One-click session entry and remote diagnostics
•Live Chat and file transfer
•Session reporting (tracks billable hours)
•24/7 support and unlimited product upgrades

Monthly and Annual Plans will include the ability to set up Unattended Support on an unlimited number of client computers. Day Passes do not include Unattended Support capability.

If you have any questions you can also contact the GoToAssist Express team on: 1-888-521-0542 or customercare@gotoassistexpress.com

In the mean time check out: GoToAssistExpress.com and sign-up for the free beta.

cheers,
Gus

ClearType (aka Font Smoothing) is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs, such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.

For the longest time Microsoft ClearType has been working properly inside an ICA session with Citrix Presentation Server running on Windows 2000 Server, but it did not work with XenApp 4.5 running on Windows Server 2003.

As previously mentioned Citrix was working on an update to XenApp 4.5 for Windows Server 2003 to utilize this new Microsoft Update for Terminal Services to provide ICA users with ClearType support.

Well, on July 7th (yesterday) Citrix released a hotfix for XenApp 4.5 on Windows Server 2003 that enables ClearType on its XenApp 4.5 Servers.

Note: This patch also rectifies several other issues in XenApp 4.5. You can find the list of fixes by clicking here.

If you want to learn more about ClearType, I can suggest two great articles on this subject:

• Jeff Muir on ClearType and Terminal Services.
• Helge Klein has written an excellent article on ClearType Bandwidth requirements on Terminal Services.

Cheers,
Gus

Today I have received two new applications to play with; that's exactly what I did.

After installing and playing with both apps, I can say they do exactly what their respective developers advertised. Each can be very useful to deployments and day-to-day admin tasks.

Kudos to both developers. I hope you guys find these apps usefull, if not, let them know where and how they can improve.