Howdy,

I have a few minutes between meetings here today, so I figured those who aren able to attend iForum might be interested in some of the latest announcements and happenings. In particular, I like to talk about the new Dynamic Desktop Initiative that was unveiled yesterday keynotes.

Citrix unveiled its new iniative around delivering desktops in a dynamic way yesterday. A dynamic desktop is a reolutionary new Windows-based desktop that delivered over a network and optimized for office workers tasks from simple to complex types of tasks. dynamic desktop desktop delivery into a number of distinct layers:

• Windows-based access device - this is the where the user sits; any device with mouse, keyboard and display with a suitable network connection capability
• Network connection - any network connection (dialup, SSL/VPN, IPSec VPN, LAN, WAN, wireless, etc.)
• Windows desktop - this is the Windows-based desktop operating system, which consists of Windows Terminal Server and/or Windows XP (and Vista)
• Desktop delivery infrastructure - a number of components that manage and deliver the desktop experience over a network connection, including the new Desktop Broker, existing remoting protocols (ICA and RDP), session management infrastructure and a desktop access point (e.g., Web Interface and PNAgent).
• Desktop experience management tools - instrumentation and monitoring tools that track the client-side, network server-side performance (e.g., Edgesight technology) and quickly pinpoint user experience issues and their root cause.

By virtualizing the desktop delivery, it now possible to match the optimal type of desktop resources to each kind of user need.

Scott Heren, Group VP and General Manager of Citrix Virtualization Systems Group demonstrated the DDI during his keynote yesterday. The demo showed how quickly DDI will enable IT to upgrade users from Windows XP to Vista desktops, when these desktops are hosted in the datacenter and delivered as dynamic desktops.

We watched as the user desktop was upgraded from Windows XP to Vista less than 30 seconds. Then, we saw the administration interface where farms of dynamic desktops are managed, and where IT administrators manage the desktops delivered to users (through the familiar AMC).

DDI supports three simultaneous types of dynamic desktop delivery:

1. Simple Fast (Terminal Services Published Desktop) This type of desktop is highly efficient, reliable and best for office workers who perform identical, routine tasks such as those in call centers, banks or retail centers. runs on a Windows-based device and has minimal power requirements. what has traditionally been called the published desktop, the OS and applications are delivered to match the simple and fast requirements of large populations of users with similar computing requirements. As a result, the simple and fast mode yields the best TCO. This type of desktop is analagous to a traditional desktop found in Presentation Server today.
2. Personal Versatile (VM-based, Windows XP/Vista Desktop) This type of desktop is best for workers who perform non-repetitive and more complex tasks such as those in accounting or finance because it both personal and versatile. It combines a Windows-based access device, desktop delivery infrastructure, a virtual machine, and desktop experience management tools. can easily update and upgrade this desktop, saving time and improving TCO. as a service, enhancements are instant, security is best, and it portable to support virtual working from anywhere. This type of desktop support multiple users hosted on a server, where each user session runs within its own virtual machine instance.
3. High Performance Powerful (Dedicated Client Blade, Windows XP/Vista Desktop) This type of desktop is best suited for workers such as design engineers, software developers, or financial traders who perform complex, knowledge-based tasks using a wide range of compute-intense applications. desktops are the most powerful and offer the ultimate in performance and flexibility. run on dedicated blade PCs in the data center and scale for practically unlimited storage, memory, and performance.

Two key product deliverables were announced:

1) Desktop Broker for CPS Customers, Now Downloadable Desktop Broker is available immediately to Citrix Presentation Server 4 customers with an active Subscription Advantage agreement. Customers can freely download a copy of the Desktop Broker and use it on CPS 4 download it MyCitrix.com. others interested in evaluating Desktop Broker can download a trial version beginning on Nov. 6, 2006.

2) New Comprehensive Desktop Delivery Product, Coming in 2007 - Citrix unveiled its plans to deliver a new, comprehensive dynamic desktop delivery product line in 2007. This will be a new product that includes what we known as desktop capabilities for years, plus the new Desktop Broker capabilities, plus it will come bundled with EdgeSight and Tarpon application streaming technologies. This is known as Project Trinity.

By including Tarpon technology within Project Trinity, it should be possible for dynamic desktops to be created that receive applications owned by IT and by departments. For example, IT can use a single, common Windows XP desktop image that serves a broad range of users (reducing the number of unique desktop images needed), then stream the right applications to each type of user.

It should also be possible for departments and business units to leverage Tarpon to stream their applications into the desktop environment safely, as well. This flexibility provides different organizations to manage their respective and ensure users have access to the right set of applications, without worrying about having to install apps on desktops anymore.

EdgeSight technology will provide the deep visibility into the various layers of the dynamic desktop infrastructure, enabling IT to quickly pinpoint trouble spots, performance bottlenecks and deliver the best possible dynamic desktop user experience.

Immediate access to both live and pre-recorded demos of dynamic desktops (including access to a dynamic Vista desktop running on DDI today) is now available. Desktop Broker feature brings Citrix application virtualization technologies to the desktop. provides a common management console for both application and desktop delivery, and offers Citrix traditional performance and user experience advantages over any type of public or private network. Many of Citrix farm management and session management benefits are available, including the ability to publish a dynamic desktop through the popular Web Interface (which integrates with popular portals, like Sharepoint, WebSphere et al).

The Desktop Broker also provides for logical groupings of desktops for easier management and delivery to users. Both and images are available. A pooled image is a desktop image that is standardized across a group of users with similar needs; e.g., call center users, software developers, traders, engineers, etc. private image is a desktop image that provides each user with their own unique dynamic desktop environment that can be more personalized according to that user own needs.

Through transparent session brokering, Desktop Broker allows users to automatically connect to the dynamic desktop that best suited for them and their work needs. enables seamless connection of users to desktops running on Windows Terminal Services, Microsoft Virtual Server, VMware XenEnterprise or blade servers that reside in the data center. leverages Citrix ICA protocol combined with RDP to efficiently deliver the virtualized end-to-end session, along with the usual session management and many other features commonly found in a CPS 4 environment.

The Desktop Broker feature of Server Citrix initial desktop delivery offering and is fully compatible with Citrix end-to-end application delivery infrastructure solutions, including Citrix Presentation Server 4, Project Citrix Netscaler, Citrix EdgeSight, Citrix Access Gateway and Citrix WANscaler.

For more information on Desktop Broker and Citrix Dynamic Desktop Initiative and access to both live and pre-recorded demos of dynamic desktops, please visit www.citrix.com/dynamicdesktops. Read the official press release on the Dynamic Desktop Initiative here.

For more information on Desktop Broker and Citrix Dynamic Desktop Initiative, please visit www.citrix.com/dynamicdesktops. go for now - will provide more details later.

Rick

There a lot of discussion going on right now across a spectrum of virtualization technologies. Virtual Machines are the latest craze, which is driving increased interest in server consolidation, as well as sparking interest in virtualizing desktop operating systems in the data center. However, VM are finding their way into all kinds of interesting solutions these days.

I recently went looking for a definition of href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desktop_Virtualization" title="desktop virtualization" target="_blank">desktop virtualization and found that there actually wasn already a Wikipedia.org definition - so I created a definition (please feel free to review/improve it - the Wiki way).

Each of these desktop delivery models has their own unique and specific advantages (and limitations). The most common case is a user simply needing direct access to a single PC machine desktop (at the office or home) a different location over a network (often via the Internet). This works great for a or 1-Few scenarios. When many user desktops need to be hosted and managed centrally (hundreds) or a premised-based solution is required, that where the Shared, VM and Physical Desktop models are increasingly coming into play - a trend we can expect to see accelerate over the coming years.

Whether my definition of Desktop Virtualization withstands the test of time on Wikipedia or not, it clear that these technologies have been around for quite some time in various forms and are here to stay. They also through yet another transformation that being fueled by customer demand and technology availability.
Desktop Virtualization is a growing marketplace, driven by many different factors, including people needs to work remotely for various reasons (e.g., teleworking, mobile sales, outsourcing), and companies needs to maintain control over their computing assets and the intellectual property running on business desktops.

Running user desktops (and applications) centrally can sometimes provide significant value and benefits over the traditional local PC desktop model. By hosting desktops securely within the data center walls, it lowers management costs through centralization (faster updates, less variability, standard images, etc.), along with ability to effectively amortize PC compute power across many users.

There another side benefit that may not be as obvious - workforce continuity and business continuation. Displaced workers need access to their business desktops to work from home or another location after a disaster, and hosting desktops provides some interesting options, assuming most end users have personal PC they can use from home or abroad in such situations. class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">In addition to VM technology, client PC blades are also helping pave the way for desktop centralization by giving each remote desktop user access to their own dedicated client PC blade - this is great for power users who are accustomed to having a dedicated machine environment.

There a good discussion on the future of virtualization posted on Brian Madden site - well worth the review.
From my perspective, the future looks bright for a whole range of desktop delivery approaches, including desktop virtualization. But what the value in centralizing desktops in the data center and providing remote access?

Well - plenty. First, there the generic value gained by something. When we separate the physical location of the resource (in this case, the desktop) from the user, we add a layer This new layer offers both intrinsic value, as well as an opportunity to add new kinds of value. Let me explain.

By separating the user from the resource (desktop), we enable user mobility and remote access; i.e., the user is no longer tethered to the device containing the resource. This enables the desktop to be accessed over a network connection, providing users with the flexibility to work nearly anywhere, with access to their desktop.

It the closest thing we can get to actually into our desktop from anywhere. A very cool and useful concept - one that has been around in 1-1 PC remote access for many years, through products like PCAnywhere, Windows RDP, Citrix Presentation Server (formerly known as MetaFrame), VNC, and many others. Of course, today this kind of remote desktop access is also available as a hosted service, like those that GoToMyPC and WebEx offer.

The other intrinsic value of virtualization stems from the fact that the desktop can be physically secured and managed within a protected environment. The only way to gain access to it is through a controlled, secure connection one that can be monitored, audited and carefully managed.

Another intrinsic value of desktop virtualization is the ability effectively a desktop across multiple users. Microsoft built multiple user access into workstation operating systems a long time ago, yet there a limited number of use cases where multi-use of a shared workstation actually takes place (it does occur in labs, at clinical workstations, call centers, etc. today).

Another piece of intrinsic value has to do with the PC equipment being absent from a user workspace. In the case of a stock trader, there often insufficient space and/or cooling to collocate multiple desktop PC where the traders all - flying their starships on or near the trading floor. By moving the PC off of the trading floor, it also makes it possible to update and maintain the everything more conveniently (not to mention it being more isolated and secure).

Yet another intrinsic value is the ability to keep sensitive documents, drawings, and other data files within the perimeter of the data center - physically securing these important company assets and intellectual property. By providing selected, authorized access to a centralized desktop, it now possible to provide contractors, suppliers and others within a company value-chain selected access (even admin rights for remote administration that offshored), without giving up the intellectual property and ability to carefully monitor the situation. This is huge for anyone wanting to outsource certain tasks, yet maintain control of their IP and shop.

Beyond intrinsic value, there an opportunity to add new value within the virtualization layer itself. For example, we can provide an added layer of security, more granular control over resources that can be accessed. It also possible to add more intelligence about whether the user is allocated a shared desktop resource (running on Citrix and/or TS), a VM-based desktop image for knowledge workers and developers, or a client blade image for power users.

Of course, the weak link in running things like desktops remotely is typically the network. Networks are subject to tremendous variability, in terms of latency, bandwidth and quality of service. To meet end user expectations, these factors must be managed well (in the usual ways): QoS prioritization and overlay network the interactive traffic gets through in a timely manner, efficient communications between the endpoints ensure bandwidth and latency are mitigated where possible, including compression, caching and screen optimizations (like queuing and tossing, for example).

So, desktop virtualization has been around in various models for many years. It beginning to see a resurgence, driven by customer demand and business value, coupled with technology availability.

What the future desktop virtualization? Well, clearly the hosted service 1-1 model is doing extremely well today, as evidenced by GoToMyPC and others. The shared model has been pr oven over many years and many thousands of implementations on Terminal Services and Citrix Presentation Server (and MetaFrame and WinFrame before it). The emerging VM-based model holds a lot of promise, especially as VM efficiencies CPU power improves. At the same time, costs for the physical model (e.g., client blades) continue to drop, making this option viable for an increasing number of situations.

All of this means that the ability for a customer to choose one of more of these models to address various business needs will continue to flourish and grow. I personally believe Intel and AMD will continue to improve their chipsets by eradicating the biggest barriers to VM efficiency over the next 18 to 24 months (maybe even sooner). At the same time, improvements in I/O throughput efficiency in a VM environment will also arrive.

Competition in the VM arena will continue to increase. The state of the art in virtual machines and hypervisors is happening very rapidly, with both XenSource and Microsoft racing to catch up with VMWare as fast as they can. The increased competition will continue to push the value higher and the costs lower in this area, which is a good thing for the market and customers.

When we consider a 4 core CPU coming next, it certainly feasible to imagine an 8, 16 or even 32 core CPU someday - perhaps within the next 5 to 8 years. Why does the CPU density matter? Because once the I/O and VM overheard limitations disappear, the main ones remaining will be CPU power and memory - and with 64-bit processors, I don see memory as the bottleneck. More CPU horsepower will be needed to increase the user density - the number of users that can be hosted per server on a VM implementation, which correlates directly to TCO. In the meantime, client blades offer a compelling alternative.

The combination of improvements in technology will enable the VM-based model adoption to increase, and could allow it to cross the chasm as a mainstream method for managing corporate desktops by 2009 or 2010. Until the TCO improves, early adoption will continue to drive technology vendors to move faster to address the shortcomings holding adoption back, like most technology adoption cycles where business needs ahead of the available technology.

It should be very interesting to watch as it this space develops and grows over the next few years.

Rick

Had another three focus group sessions yesterday - this time with SMB/SME, Non-customers and Citrix Customer groups. Very interesting, indeed.

Past research has often centered upon existing customers, and in more recent years, mainly on the larger enterprise customer segment. With the introduction of Access Essentials around a year ago, it been important to regain focus on small to medium business (SMB - 50 to 250 employees) customers. It equally important to remain abreast of what of a product are doing instead of buying your products.

In the past several years, a lot of attention has been placed on enterprise adoption - very successfully. More recently, I begun balancing my attention across many different market segments, including SMB, SME and truly understanding the Non-Consumers (and why they non-consuming)...

When I talk about of a product, I using this terminology in the sense that Professor Clayton Christensen uses it. For anyone not familiar with Professor Christensen, he is the Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School. He has written numerous leading business books, including href="http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Dilemma-Revolutionary-Business-Essentials/dp/0060521996/sr=8-2/qid=1159481269/ref=pd_bbs_2/002-8626930-9529643?ie=UTF8 title="Innovator Dilemma" target="_blank">The Innovator Dilemma and href="http://www.amazon.com/Innovators-Solution-Creating-Sustaining-Successful/dp/1578518520/sr=8-1/qid=1159481269/ref=pd_bbs_1/002-8626930-9529643?ie=UTF8 title="The Innovator Solution" target="_blank">The Innovator Solution - great books that all modern-day technology and business people should read and learn to apply (IMHO). In these treatises on innovation and market disruption forces, Professor Christensen bases much of his theories around the to be done by customers and how products must become better at helping customers get their specific jobs done.

According to this perspective, hire products to get a particular job done Understanding each job customers are trying get done hiring a product yields unique and powerful insights into customer needs (and product attributes required to fully satisfy the job). Additionally, the biggest opportunities are often jobs that are extremely important to do, yet still present a high degree of frustration (or uncertainty) in doing them using currently available how the heck does all this mumbo jumbo apply, one might wonder? Well, I going to get into that - eventually. But first, a recent may be useful.

I often thought about what led to the extraordinary success of Apple iPod. Prior to the advent of the iPod, I only listened to music on the radio, CDROM and via satellite (both Direct TV and XM Radio, which I still use today). I had plenty of music sources available to me, and just couldn be bothered to use an MP3 player with the available, non-integrated online music sources (which were painful and time-consuming to deal with). I did download music and listen to it through my PC, but only occasionally. Hmm. I wonder why I didn do it more often?

That easy. It simply wasn convenient enough. I don always have my notebook PC with me, it batteries run down too fast, and to get music onto it just took too long, and playing it on my PC wasn what I really wanted to do. So, I was basically a of portable digital music for the most part. Meanwhile, my kids all had MP3 players and usually had their music with them (I tried not to ask where they got it, but believe it was mostly legit stuff).

In the early days, Napster was one of those file sharing sites - until it got shut down involuntarily briefly. Of course, it reopened and still operates today, selling songs for a song, as I recall. I haven been there in a long time, except to pick up the link included above. could bought any MP3 player and had portable music with some additional effort, but the units were too clunky looking and undesirable to me, and the whole process was far time-consuming and inconvenient - so I steered clear. I could use Napster, but I still don today, as the integrated Apple solution completely satisfied me.

The marketing geniuses at Apple realized all this some years back that the MP3 player was clunky, with its arcane switches and controls, and even its shape, which was apparently preventing the true market from materializing. They also realized the available solutions were incomplete, a situation resulting in non-consumers - and a giant opportunity for a company who could do it right. People didn have an integrated music solution allowing them to purchase, download and consume portable music conveniently, which had limited the market size and growth.

You see, what they identified was the that most people wanted to get done, but couldn today (especially non-consumers like me). More specifically, the job to be done was something like me purchase music conveniently online - anytime, anywhere, and seamlessly download it into a slick, portable music player that attractive and easy for me to use The Apple iPod combined with iTunes does this whole job marvelously well. As a result, I absolutely love mine (both of them) - along with around 8 million other people who are buying iPods every quarter, according to some reports.

I went from being a non-consumer (never had a Walkman either) to a satisfied customer with not one, but Apple plus a whole family of additional iPod users. I have personally spent thousands on iPods. I also bought two pair of Bose noise-canceling headphones to go with my iPod - another opportunity for Apple to create something smaller and

Well, needless to say, I not the only non-consumer who finally got into the portable music game. Apple has sold billions of dollars worth of their iPods, plus untold amounts of iTunes (Music as a Service), and from what I can see, it far from over. Now they set their eyes on the video and TV markets. They also selling a record numbers of Apple Mac all kinds now, as a by-product of gaining access to more customers who love their products and now understand and trust the Apple brand and due to finally switching to the Intel chipset. Yeah! Better late than never!

It clear that Apple has recognized its root-causes for non-consumption of existing products (Mac) and addressed non-consumption in a whole new category for Apple - portable music and video. It also clear that their strategy for building an ecosystem upon a proprietary architecture has worked well - so far. However, there is increasing demand for a more open integration approach for the Apple iPod, as some people are beginning to feel trapped and locked in. As markets mature, open standards sometime help the overall market to grow even more, but can cause the market leader problems; e.g., the IBM PC.

So, large groups of non-consumers typically not purchasing a product because it just not suitable to getting their particular done well it not a good enough This can be due to price, inconvenience or other reasons. In the case of the Apple iPod, it was more about getting a complete solution (not about price, since the iPod is clearly more expensive than MP3 players). Other reasons for non-consumption arise from missing product attributes - gaps in features needed to get a particular job done better than a customer other alternatives, or even overshooting a particular market segment needs entirely.

Over the years, there have been numerous reasons for non-consumption of CPS, growing complexity for some less demanding segments, TCO/ROI due to server requirements, application compatibility issues, graphics intensiveness of apps that just don fly - and inconvenience - having to switch away from the status quo by doing something different and unknown. Oh yeah, did I forget to mention Printing?

Along the way, some people tried the technology at various stages of its maturity lifecycle, formed a particular opinion, and haven looked at it again more recently. Many of the original reasons for non-consumption have actually been addressed, but certainly not all - there always room for improvement of any product.

Fortunately, Citrix recognized its biggest TCO/ROI and other adoption barriers over the past few years and has done a lot to address them. I discuss these in introduction posting regarding href="/blogs/cto/archive/2006/09/21/Introductions-and-Background.aspx" title="CPS 4" target="_blank">CPS 4. At the same time, the needs of the typical SMB customer were also recognized - the need for a more convenient product that complexity and less functionality, contains an embedded TSCAL license, and has wizards that make it easy to get started quickly and painlessly.

Access Essentials provides a viable solution that (formerly non-consumer) SMB can up quickly, providing their employees with remote access to applications, folders and important data - leveraging powerful enterprise-class tools without the cost and complexity. This added simplicity also makes it possible for a larger range of resellers cost-effectively provide application delivery solutions for SMB customers, and with less up front training investments.

The SMB market segment relies heavily on consultants, application ISV and other resellers to handle their various IT needs, as they typically have little to no IT staff. Citrix Access Essentials addresses what had become increasingly market non-consumption by the SMB as CPS grew more capable, but more complex and feature filled the years - necessary for larger enterprises to be sure, who face many more demands and much more complex environments, but overshooting the needs of companies with more basic needs.

Another, much larger, group of non-consumers is the segment who still use traditional desktops and notebook PCs, usually combined with various VPN products as remote access solution. This segment appears to be fairly happy with their current paradigm (and many of them will probably never change). The approach this group takes is to provide everyone with PC, plus a VPN connection for remote users. Roaming users typically have notebook PCs supplied by the company, which are equipped with company-approved anti-virus, anti-spyware and other tools intended to keep them in a well-managed state.

Of course, this classical approach to a number of different, but well understood challenges. Interestingly, many these pain points have actually become accepted as just being costs that increase proportionally to the number of inter-office WAN links and sites
Unpredictable user experience when roaming, due to the effects of latency on most data-intensive applications (slow, unpredictable response times)
Significant desk costs due to all kinds of desktop and application issues that arise
Significant help desk costs due to foreign network variability (on non-IT controlled networks)
Higher levels of end user frustration and dissatisfaction when things go wrong
Greater security risks, due to sensitive data on laptops, USB drives and even home PCs (which get rationalized away as not really being that risky).

The majority still use IPSec VPN today - a technology that is out now, driving people to seek other solutions. Most folks are considering or have already adopted some kind of SSL/VPN technology, which helps alleviate the network pains caused by IPSec.

I would also say that most SME and enterprise shops now feel they have their desktops reasonably under control, using various tools that do 90% or more what actually needed manage their desktops adequately (including SMS, Altiris and other such ESD tools). What these tools can address, various levels of command and control lockdown schemes can, including re-imaging PC on a regular enough basis to repel users from even thinking about putting local data or apps on them!

In contrast to a traditional desktop/VPN model, I find that Citrix users often report less help desk frustrations, more satisfied end users (after an initial training ramp period and adjustment phase has passed). They have far fewer concerns over common data security risks. They continue to struggle with printing on some level and when something does go awry, it can be challenging for the end-user or help desk to quickly pinpoint what actually causing the issue - the so-called box problem.

Recognizing this challenge, Citrix acquired Reflectant and its EdgeSight product line. EdgeSight monitors actual end-user experience, along with details about the end-to-end pathway from user to application - the user PC, the network conditions, server conditions and application behavior. Whenever a problem crops up, IT and the help desk can now pinpoint the actual problem root cause much faster. In some cases, the problem may even be detected and repaired prior to end-users being affected materially.

Interestingly, both types of shops have basically the same approaches to VPNs now Citrix users on older versions of the technology (1.8, MetaFrame XP) report occasional (well known) printing-related problems, but generally recognize they need to upgrade resolve that residual printing pain (confirmed by CPS 4 users). Today, there are also many shops successfully using a hybrid of both approaches.

To get beyond this level of analysis, it helps to gain a deeper understanding of various customers are trying to get done with these technologies, and where the biggest areas frustrations remain in doing each job. Examples of these jobs include:

• Secure remote access for mobile employees, teleworkers, day extenders and sales force
• Controlled secure access for partners, suppliers and customers to certain apps and data
• Secure access to oursourcers, contractors and consultants
• Rapid application delivery when custom software changes often
• Disaster recovery and workforce continuity
• Regulatory compliance without re-writing packaged and custom applications
• Reduction of company-issued laptops, leveraging employee-owned PC and DSL connections
• Delivering applications and meeting SLAs
• Software hosting and rental, both internally with IT as a Utility service provider and externally as ASP many more (the so-called army knife remain fascinated by the incredibly valuable insights yielded from solution-centered, disruptive - something I be applying more as time goes by to better meet my customer needs - converting more non-consumers into happy customers somewhere along the way.So, what kinds of are you trying to get done? And how well does this model apply to your business and situation?
  I hope this was interesting and useful in some way.
  Carpe Diem!
  Rick

A new blog has been created known as the Corner In this blog, Citrix Customers can actually create their own posts and direct the blog topics and discussions - with one another and with other Citrix Community members. Posts to this blog are to be made only by Citrix Customers (any registered user may comment, of course).

The intention of this blog area is to provide customers a way to control their own blog discussions, generating further discussions within the Citrix Community that pertain to important customer needs and interest areas.

A separate Agenda blog is provided for customers to summarize the agenda topics of greatest importance they would like to see discussed by the Citrix Community members.

Please note that this blog area is carefully monitored for abuse. Any blog postings created by non-customers are subject to immediate deletion. To use this blog, a customers needs to be: 1) a registered Citrix Community user, 2) able to identify their company by name. In this way, we able to regulate postings, combat blog spam restrict the use of this blog for its intended and proper use.

Thank you in advance for respecting this arrangement.

The Agenda blog is now open for posting by Citrix Customers.

In this blog, end-user companies who use Citrix products can identify topics of particular interest they would like to see addressed in future posts on the Citrix Community site. It important to the founders of the Citrix Community site that the conversations taking place here aren perceived as but instead truly are in every way possible. In particular, this Customer Agenda blog provides a mechanism for Citrix Customers to identify topics of greatest importance to them, enabling Citrix Community members to know what matters most and to be aware of what on the customer mind.

blog is intended for Agenda Item topics and summaries only (not the actual discussions, which should take place on an appropriate topical blog).

customers who wish to create their own posts on topics of interest, the Corner blog is designed to serve that purpose.

In Boston today for a customer focus group, discussing various customer needs once again.

We had great discussions with three distinct customer groups: large enterprises, SMB/SME and end-users. We went from 12 Noon to 10 p.m. in three separate sessions. What a day! While I can share everything we learned, a couple of significant things really stood out.

The Virtual Machines is Spinning Up Nicely

First, most large companies are well underway using VM technology to consolidate their server rooms, and some SMB are also now catching on. It clear that this is a huge sweet spot for VMWare, and an inescapable trend of IT and data center management. The benefits of server virtualzation are many, including laying a foundation for disaster recovery, recovering rack space sorely needed for expansion and reducing the humming sounds emanating UPS systems.

Server Virtualization effectively subdivides a server CPU into multiple logical units, allowing each one to be managed separately. This separation is giving rise to a tremendous number of benefits. It the rest of the operational problems I had for years according to one customer. The biggest TCO comes from the resultant server consolidation that now possible, along with cost avoidance of additional data center space, air conditioning and power that would otherwise be required.

Not only have VM cross the chasm, they in what Geoffrey Moore calls the phase of hyper-growth, where the market just can satiate its appetite for most everything VM. The amazing thing is, the biggest portion of this market is yet to come - 90% or more of the market has yet to adopt VM technology. This topic warrants more discussion in future posts . . . especially where desktop virtualization is concerned.

On x64 Architecture Awareness

So, with that backdrop in mind, imagine the response customers who are headlong into server virtualization have when you say the word Remember the Sprint commercials? It was that quiet when x64 was mentioned today. This isn the first time I seen this phenomenon, either.

I beginning to think that while a group of us truly do understand x64 technology, and that fact that it runs 32-bit applications natively very efficiently, not everyone gets it yet. Unfortunately, it appears that on the surface, most people jump to the conclusion that 64-bit computing still means for 64-bit applications. Nothing could be further from reality...

Windows x64 actually runs the operating system kernel in 64-bit mode, as well as 32-bit native and 64-bit native applications.

According to Wikipedia, x64 is:

is a 64-bit microprocessor architecture and corresponding instruction set; it is a superset of the x86 architecture, which it natively supports. It was designed by Advanced Micro Devices, which markets it under the name AMD64. This architecture has also been adopted under the names EM64T and IA-32e by Intel. The names x86-64 or x64 are sometimes used as vendor-neutral terms to collectively refer to the two nearly-identical implementations. are many advantages to the x64 architecture, chief among them is its ability to directly address up to 1 TB (terabyte) of memory. Why is this so important for 32-bit applications, you might ask? Well, it acutely important in a multi-user system running lots of 32-bit application sessions - like Terminal Server and Citrix Presentation Server. Why? Lots of reasons...

It allows up to 300% more 32-bit Windows applications to run on a typical CPS and TS server (compared to a 32-bit server). This is primarily because the Windows OS doesn hit the same kernel data structure walls that blocked additional user sessions on a 32-bit machine, combined with the fact that it virtually eliminates unnecessary page swapping (assuming you put enough memory in the server, of course). Now, once you get past those barriers, the server can also its CPU more effectively in many cases (I would surmise that in some case going beyond 2 CPU could also be beneficial).

The bottom line? Windows x64 running CPS 4 will support up to 300% more users per server, yet the server costs are only marginally higher, yielding dramatically better TCO. Apparently, a large part of the market still thinks x64 primarily benefits 64-bit apps. like databases or new 64-bit code. Somehow, we need to help the marketplace, Citrix customers, the benefits of the x64 architecture for today 32-bit Windows applications.

While this focus group represents a relatively small sample size, based upon many other data points, I certain these observations are reasonably accurate. I be very interested in everyone else viewpoints here.

The VM is clearly on track to change the way data centers are organized and operationally managed. x64 servers are still in the early stages of their adoption lifecycle. It should get really interesting if an tornado of tomorrow someday meets its VM counterpart and their TCO streams cross into our world.

Until next time, happy trails.

Rick

Howdy,

My name is Rick Braddy. I been with Citrix for about 5 years as of this posting. It been an incredibly exciting ride - one that just keeps getting better and going faster...

My first week with Citrix was attending iForum in Orlando in October, 2001. At this particular iForum, Citrix introduced its Workplace vision, which included showing that thought-provoking Virtual Workplace video (that I ended up seeing so many times I could almost recite it word for word at one point).

In a word, I was in awe at what I saw. Now I was really excited! This looked like an incredible opportunity to change the world...Little did I know just how much this video would affect the trajectory of our products...

At the time, I was in a product strategy role, having just joined as Citrix Director working for our then CTO, Bob Kruger. At one point following iForum, I decided we needed to engineer what we saw in the Virtual Workplace (VW) figuring out what and technologies it would take to make it reality. Fortunately for us, we picked a few things we seen that were of real, sustainable value and focused on them (instead of trying to build a product that delivered exactly what the video conveyed). In particular, the business quality mobile video conferencing technology just wasn feasible (and still isn today, from what I seen, although it getting better).

It kind of interesting... some of the features and products that arose after that VW video included Smooth Roaming, aspects of Smart Access, single sign-on (Password Manager) and good ole MCM (that is, the MetaFrame Conferencing Manager . One of the most prominent aspects of the VW video was the compelling, futuristic collaboration vision. We all realized at the time Web Conferencing was really the way to go, but we chose not to pursue at the time (this was before Placeware was purchased later by Microsoft). Of course, we later acquired ExpertCity, with its then fledgling GoToMeeting product still under development at the time. We all know how that story has evolved - GoToMeeting really rocks! (making Web conferencing both affordable and easy)

Eventually, the impacts of the VW video began to fade away, as more pressing business and technology needs came to the forefront. In 2002, I took on the role of Citrix VP, Product Management. Things were about to get really interesting...

We were in the midst of finalizing Presentation Server 3.0, and had to choose what to focus on next for CPS 4. We had just introduced the Access Suite, which was basically a bundle of products that had little integration initially (today, it a nicely integrated product set). One of my most memorable moments in those days was while I was on stage at iForum/Orlando. I was playing the role of Rick in a skit where I showed the use of Smooth Roaming and GoToMeeting combined in a live demo to thousands of attendees.

Wow! What a rush! I managed to fumble the mouse at one point, losing focus on the target window and not noticing what had happened. It all turned out good (thanks to help from my compadre on stage), and from what I could tell, was somewhat entertaining for most everyone, including me that time, our top corporate imperative was standardization - becoming a standard piece of infrastructure for enterprises. At the time, therefore, it seemed like the obvious questions to ask were... ARE the barriers to enterprise standardization (for CPS)?

- -

are the barriers to adoption in general? often heard you ask good questions, you get good answers the time, we didn know most of the answers to these simple questions - something that would change over the balance of that year. Our PM team became focused on answering the above two questions (in addittion to gathering more general customer needs). As I recall, the team met with partners and customers all across North America for months. We also spoke with customers and partners in EMEA and abroad...before long, we had a prioritized list of the biggest barriers to CPS adoption and enterprise consumption. Using this newfound knowledge, we set out to address these barriers as best we could in the time alloted for development of CPS 4. I was (and still am) extremely proud of the job our Product Management (PM) and development did defining and delivering CPS 4 product.

As it happened at the time, our Advanced Products team was engaged in an advanced R project evaluating CPU and memory management technologies, in a project code named One of the key barriers that been identified by PM was density per server, as this directly affects TCO and capital costs for the farm. CPS 4 requirements and the project coincided nicely. As it turned out, we would license both CPU and memory management technology for CPS 4, which resulted in a nominal 25% increase in user density. As fortune has done over the years, it smiled once again...

Microsoft was working on their x64 version of Windows Server 2003. It wasn long and we forked our development team and had created project Argo - the x64 port of CPS 4, which was planned for 6 to 9 months following release of CPS 4. Today, x64 chips are the defacto standard server platform, with tests showimg awesome user density improvements as high as 300% in some cases. These days, running 32 bit apps under a 64 bit Windows Server operating system should be the default approach taken (especially for new farms), since the 64 bit OS platform manages memory so much better than its 32-bit predecessor (and kernel memory is one of those things in a multi-user OS you just can seem to have too much of).

When combined with the Maloo technologies, the number of users that could be supported per server increased markedly - yielding the TCO improvements many enterprises needed. The CPU management technologies are really key, as they smooth out CPU spikes and provide more for additional users (in the past, application startup spikes would trash a server CPU, drastically reducing the number of users that could be supported). In addition, better CPU management provides a more consistent user experience by reducing service variability.

Among the top adoption barriers identified by customers back then were:

• Improved user density per server
• Better application compatibility, especially for non-TS compliant apps
• Unique IP addresses per user session (many apps assume a unique IP address for each user; e.g., IM, PDA Sync. and many more)
• Printing - there were still numerous gaps in printer support, so we decided to completely redesign the print subsystem...
• Enhanced USB device support for cameras and PDA rest is history. We listened and responded. CPS 4 shipped in May 2004, addressing all of these top barriers (plus some other cool features). By that time, I was in an acting role as VP, Product Marketing and Product Management - doing something I never dreamed of...launching CPS 4 in Munich, Edinburgh and South Africa that year.Another piece of credit for our successful CPS 4 and overall product strategy goes to our Customer Council, along with Corporate Marketing team who enables those awesome events to happen twice a year. I recently read things where some people apparently think Citrix doesn listen to its customers...
  Well, without blogging, I sure we been unable to connect as broadly and deeply as we prefer, but I assure you our Customer Council has seen the tremendous we made addressing their biggest concerns and issues over the years. In fact, I been told on many occasions by customers how well Citrix listens and actually acts on their input. Many of these customers involved in customer forums for other companies, and typically don see the kind of responsiveness they do from Citrix.
  In addition to our Customer Council, we meet regularly with all types and sizes of customers, gathering a broad view of our market. I hopeful that through increaesed blogging, we open up the lines of communications at a level of granularity and frequency that can enable us to become even more aware of and responsive to the market and our customers needs.
  One thing for sure, though. It always tougher than it seems from afar to make the difficult tradeoffs required in any product release. There always limited time, and limited resources available, to invest in every product that built. Based on the results, it clear to me that CPS 4 hit the mark exactly as we planned. We continuing to evolve the CPS 4 platform (a topic for another day, perhaps from our PM team).
  My hat off to the CPS 4 team for the incredible job with the product. Of course, there always more to do... for example, the re-write of the printing subsystem was absolutely necessary and the right thing to do. Anytime you completely redesign a complex, mature of enterprise software, one thing is almost assured - there going to be some unforseen issues crop up. Fortunately, the CPS 4 print system is now very solid and dependable, as well as robust, especially when the latest hotfixes (HRP) are applied.
  As you can tell, I quite passionate about Presentation Server. It been the company bread and butter for over a decade. It simply an awesome product and technology. I often amazed the business issues are able to use it to address (we be talking about many of those in future blog postings). In fact, there so many real-world uses for CPS, at one point (while in my prior Product Marketing role), I decided we needed to write as many of them down as possible - documenting the army knife blades, so to speak.
  In case you not aware of it, you can find many of the top uses for CPS (and Citrix other products) in the form of what we call Answers I highly recommend taking a few moments to have a look at them if you haven recently. Our Access Answers are really taking off, with downloads soaring and breaking new records every month. Another great place to see how broadly applied CPS is today are the many Case Studies available on Citrix.com.
  There was a six month period in 2005 where I took on a dual role of VP, Product Services and Product Line Executive for our IdM business, focused primarily on Password Manager. During that time, I had a lot of fun working on our CPM product and business strategy, and with our localization, pubs, UI design and process teams.
  Today, as the CTO of the Virtualization Systems Group (VSG) at Citrix, I now responsible for our group business and technology strategy, product architecture, intellectual property and patents, competitive intelligence and technical marketing areas. It a heck of a lot of fun, working with a tremendously talented team here at Citrix.
  In case you wondering, the VSG group is responsible for our application and desktop virtualization products, including Presentation Server, Access Essentials and the Access Suite, and Password Manager. VSG is also responsible for Project Tarpon (streaming/isolation for desktops), other new products we planning and contemplating from time to time.
  Well, it about time to close this entry off and call it a day (or a night, perhaps).
  In closing this entry, I just reiterate that in my five years with Citrix, there never been a more exciting time filled with more new challenges and big opportunities. Today, I see more the marketplace for Citrix and our teams than ever before in our history.
  The best is definitely yet to come - it a whole lot of fun being a part of it. And it be even more fun sharing it with everyone through our blogs as we move forward.
  Rick

Well, after weeks of blogging software installations, evaluations and discussions, we have the Citrix Community blog site operational as of today!

It was actually quite a lot of fun working through all the options. We ended up choosing Community Server, as it has the best balance of multi-user blogging features, security and ease of use. It also clear that it being used today by some very large corporations, so it should scale up for us over time. WordPress MU, the multi-user version of the popular Wordpress platform came in a close 2nd (it a very nice platform), with b2Evolution.net bringing up the rear a bunch others from the running along the way).

We decided to require participants to register and join the site (with a valid email address), rather than allowing anonymous postings, based on what we observed about anonymous posts at other sites. Hopefully, this won be too big an inconvenience for everyone.

Many thanks to the team who helped out throughout the whirlwind evaluation and setup processes. I like to extend special thanks to Sam Johnston, who provided with advice and assistance along the way, to Kurt Moody for getting the Community Server installed and operational, and to Dave Asprey for his assistance in evaluating all hosting providers. Finally, thanks to everyone who provided comments, feedback and encouragement along the way.

Incidentally, there a mechanism available for providing comments and feedback on the Citrix Community site itself, to help steer the site development over time. can use the Citrix Community group, on the Citrix Community Site blog, which you can use to post comments with suggestions, feedback, etc.

Now it time for the really fun stuff...

Happy Blogging!

Rick

P.S. You may note that Citrix Community blogs syndicates a number of other external blogs (inlc. Jay Tomlin and Citrite.org, for starters), providing a convenient place to view them all aggregated together as one.