Two weeks ago, we introduced XenDesktop 4, an exciting new product line that I personally believe will make virtual desktops a mainstream reality for the first time ever.

The initial response to XenDesktop 4 has been overwhelmingly positive. Over the past two weeks, I've had countless conversations with customers, prospects and partners. In the course of these discussions, three themes in particular seem to have struck a real chord:

• Customers of all sizes like the fact that XenDesktop 4 with FlexCast goes well beyond VDI-only products, giving them the flexibility to deliver any type of virtual desktop to any user - from one, centralized solution.
• Including XenApp as a built-in feature makes virtual desktops far more cost effective and gives customers one seamless solution for desktop and application delivery.
• Many customers have commented on the long list of enhancements to our HDX™ technology and can't get wait to get their hands on it to try out, plus test the 90% bandwidth savings in comparison to other solutions.

Amidst all the positive responses, however, it also became clear that we missed a few important things on the licensing and packaging front in our initial announcement. Feedback from numerous surveys and 1:1 conversations found that some customers needed additional flexibility to license virtual desktops based on devices, rather than users. Other customers new to desktop virtualization told us they needed a simple "VDI-only" solution with more flexible licensing to make the transition easier as they ramp up. Finally, we heard from a number of K-12 and university customers who needed a simpler, more cost-effective program customized for the unique needs of the eductional market.

So what do we think about these suggestions? The short answer is "we agree". Your feedback has been invaluable in helping us make sure XenDesktop 4 enables the broadest set of virtual destkop scenarios possible. As a result, we've decided to make three important new enhancements to XenDesktop 4:

1. NEW device-based licensing option.
2. NEW VDI Edition available in both user/device and CCU licensing
3. NEW Campus-wide Licensing Program for customers in the education industry

Flexible licensing based on user or device

Customers in some industries have scenarios where multiple users share the same device. These situations include retail kiosks, warehouses, branch banks, labs, and the like. To help with these situations, we've decided to enhance XenDesktop 4 licensing to offer more flexibility by adding a new device license option - available at the exact same price as the user-based license. This means that users can access their XenDesktop from an unlimited number of devices with the user-based license option, and devices powered by XenDesktop can be used by an unlimited number of users with the device-based license option. As a result, your XenDesktop 4 product license can now be assigned to either a user or a device. Please also note that our user licensing doesn't require you to manage a bunch of named users or specific device lists. We've tried to make it as simple, easy and flexible as possible.

A killer "VDI-only" solution for people getting started with virtual desktops available in user, device or CCU licensing

While most customers were overwhelmingly positive about the power of FlexCast to deliver any type of virtual desktop to any type of user or device, we found many customers were still just testing the waters with VM-based "virtual desktop infrastructure" projects, commonly referred to as VDI. These customers wanted a flexible, VDI-only solution they that could trial in a wide variety of VDI use-cases. Because many were just getting started, they also needed flexible licensing that made it easy to ramp up as they got more familiar with the technology.

In response, we're creating the new XenDesktop 4, VDI Edition available for $95 per user/device, or $195 per concurrent user (CCU). XenDesktop 4, VDI Edition gives customers the ability to deliver best-in-class VDI-based desktops with a true HDX experience, and scale them up with our built-in provisioning services, profile management, and StorageLink™ technology. As with all the XenDesktop editions, the new VDI edition lets customers use any hypervisor, including XenServer or Hyper-V (both of which ship with all XenDesktop editions) as well as VMware ESX or vSphere. I'm confident customers who compare the alternatives will conclude that XenDesktop 4, VDI Edition is hands down the best VDI product on the market, at a far better price than any other competing solution.

Desktop Virtualization in Education is ready to go Campus-Wide

K-12 and university customers told us that they love XenDesktop 4 and want to use its desktop and app virtualization capabilities across a broad diversity of students, faculty, labs, and administrative facilities. They also want the flexibility to deliver either the full Windows desktop, or just some applications to a wide variety of use cases, including enabling access from smart phones, etc.

To address this customer requirement, we're adding the Citrix Campus-wide Licensing Program. This program, available starting November 16th, will offer extremely compelling prices to accredited educational institutions in K-12 and university campuses who adopt XenDesktop 4 for campus-wide use.

Putting it all together

Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, VDI Edition - Best-in-class VDI-only solution available at $95 per user or device, or $195 per CCU
Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, Enterprise Edition - Enterprise-class desktop virtualization solution available at $225 per user or device
Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, Platinum Edition - Best-value comprehensive desktop virtualization solution available at $350 per user or device

Remember, the user-based licenses are available not for per named users but the users as they login to their virtual desktops. You do not have to manage the user lists yourself.

Thanks for making XenDesktop 4 even better

Thanks to all of you who provided all the great feedback over the past couple of weeks. Your input was invaluable in helping us understand the additional use cases we missed the first time around. In short, your input helped make XenDesktop 4 even better, and for that, we are grateful.

As we approach the General Availability date for XenDesktop 4, I'm more excited than ever about the impact this product is going to have on customers of all sizes, across every industry sector. The best part of my job is watching the reaction of customers when they see XenDesktop in action. Even more fun is talking to end users who have discovered the power and flexibility of virtual desktops and would never go back to a traditional installed desktop. That's the power of desktop virtualization. And, XenDesktop 4 makes it real for even a broader set of use cases now!

72 hours after the XenDesktop 4 announcement

In the past 72+ hours after the announcement of XenDesktop 4, I have seen several positive comments written up by esteemed bloggers such as Chris Wolf (Burton Group), Dan Kuznetsky, Brian Madden, Doug Brown, the 451 Group, and more, reinforcing our mission to make desktop virtualization as the solution to the outdated desktop management practices.

In addition, I have personally had several 1:1 conversations with customers and partners and the feedback I have received has been extremely positive. In fact, I was visiting a healthcare customer today and when they heard about XenDesktop 4 - they loved it and when I told them about the Trade-up program, they were excited and wanted to move forward with it ASAP.

Licensing - what? why? hmm!!!

Licensing for XenDesktop 4 has certainly created some discussions in the blogosphere. The user-based licensing in XenDesktop 4 means that customers pick the users they want to deliver virtual desktops or apps to. In addition, it offers the ability to reassign a license from one user to another. For example, in a scenario where an employee quits an organization - the license can be reassigned to another employee. The licensing works perfect for the mainstream use cases where customers are rethinking their desktop management and applying the power of all types of virtual desktops and applications across a range of users. And, the licensing makes even more sense when you implement local VM-based desktops with offline use. In my conversations with the customers and partners, we have found that the licensing works well for majority of customers and prospects.

However, we have also seen comments that user-based licensing does not work for certain use cases, for example - student labs in schools or Universities or shared devices in a healthcare facility. First of all, I want to state that majority of these comments have reinforced that XenDesktop 4 is a solid product that addresses customer requirements, and customers are extremely interested in using the product for their implementations. Citrix's goal is to enable organizations to adopt desktop virtualization and address all enterprise use cases and not restrict usage for any specific use case scenario.

Is Citrix doing something about it?

We have received the customer feedback and we are actively investigating appropriate licensing programs for XenDesktop 4 to address these use cases. We believe that all customers should be able to adopt desktop virtualization enterprise-wide and reshape their desktop computing, and we stay committed on that mission. We are in the process of collecting some more information and we plan to share our solution to address these requirements within 30 days.

How can you help?

Finally, we recently launched a survey to collect more information on how our customers plan to start their desktop virtualization projects with XenDesktop 4. It takes less than 5 minutes to fill it up with mostly multiple choice questions. I encourage everyone to give us your direct input on your use cases. It will help us enhance our product offering overtime and guide us to offer appropriate licensing programs immediately. CLICK HERE TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK

Thank you for interest and support in Citrix and XenDesktop 4. We are open to input so we can serve you with the right products and programs.

Don't forget to attend our online event - we will talk licensing a bit more then!

Time to rethink your desktops

Months of planning, hours/weeks of discussions with customers, listening to the community and years of R&D effort leads to something big - and that right now is XenDesktop 4. Something that unlocks the potential of desktop virtualization that the world has been waiting for. With the new FlexCast delivery and enhanced HDX - now it is easy for anyone to look at desktop virtualization and start building plans to put their traditional desktop computing to rest for ever. Harry lists out why he would consider the change now and Raj talks about how this revolution will play out. Traditional desktop computing has clearly had its day - so long - hope to never see you again!

Looking at the responses within the community and several conversations with customers and partners have me convinced that XenDesktop 4 hits the mark. It offers exactly what customers need to serve different types of users with high def. user experience using one solution.

The only question I get is how do they get to it in the best possible way? What's the right license path to take? Every time I hear this question I think that the most important part of the job is done - getting the right product built for the customers that serves their needs and helps them solve their problems!

Three ways to get to XenDesktop 4

Now - let me walk through some scenarios that you may be faced with - it will help you decide how to pick the right path towards the bright future of desktop virtualization in your organization.

Scenario #1 - Not a Citrix customer today, but evaluating XenDesktop for virtual desktops

This is the most straight forward one. If you are considering desktop virtualization, XenDesktop 4 makes it simple. With FlexCast delivery - you have any type of virtual desktop solution you need, all with HDX user experience. You use it with Hyper-V, XenServer, ESX or vSphere - we will leave it up to you - I am sure you will pick the one that is most cost effective to you! Case closed!

Scenario #2 - Existing XenDesktop 2/3 customers, looking to XenDesktop 4

All XenDesktop customers get entitlements to XenDesktop 4 for no additional charge, as long as you are current on your soft assurance (which you likely will be because we offer 1 full year of SA with the product purchase). Most of you are already using the product based on 1:1 concurrency since virtual desktop means getting a license per user in most cases - Brian summarizes this quite well. So, this means more value for all of you at no additional cost. For example, if you are using XenDesktop 2 or 3 Advanced Edition - you get free entitlement to XenDesktop 4 Enterprise. All of the FlexCast delivery and full power of on-demand apps by XenApp at no additional charge. Wham! Similarly, Platinum Edition customers get the full capabilities of XenApp Platinum as part of XenDesktop 4 Platinum. In few cases I understand that there may be a concurrency delta from 1:1; adding new user based licenses of XenDesktop 4 with all additional capabilities as you expand to a larger number of users can be quite easy to justify with the new pricing and value of XenDesktop 4. Finally, if you are in an industry that has high concurrency ratios - stay tuned - we are working on offering you the right options to address your requirements.

Scenario #3 - All existing XenApp customers

Existing XenApp customers have three options now:

Interested in expanding to desktop virtualization now or in the near future for your XenApp users?

If you are interested in desktop virtualization, you should take advantage of the new Trade-up to XenDesktop 4 Program. This program is unbelievable value for anyone considering desktop virtualization. Here is how it works - you can trade-up all your XenApp licenses that you own for up to 2x the number of XenDesktop 4 licenses. Here is how you calculate savings. This might be enough for you to get your desktop virtualization going. You don't even have to start implementing virtual desktops day 1 - adopt it when you are ready and leverage the power of app virtualization as you get all the capabilities of XenApp with XenDesktop. Don't miss the opportunity - this program is only valid for a limited time.

Interested in XenDesktop 4 for new users that do not use XenApp today?

As part of the Trade-up program that I described, we also offer the flexibility to trade-up selective XenApp licenses and convert them to XenDesktop licenses. This program gives you the ability to use any XenApp licenses that you have own but do not use on a regular basis to deliver apps to your users. In fact, they may not even be current on Software Assurance. This program gives you the ability to leverage your existing investmet with Citrix - both license costs as well as your skill-sets and adopt XenDesktop 4 with lower risk and cost. Again, I encourage you to look at the Trade-up calculator.

Not interested in desktop virtualization?

If you are using XenApp to deliver apps with high concurrency requiements, keep using XenApp the way you are. Citrix is committed on XenApp product roadmap and support. We recently delivered powerful new capabilities in XenApp 5 Feature Pack 2. And, you will continue to see similar innovations in XenApp going forward.

Bottom line

This value with XenDesktop 4 is hard to beat, and time is now to look at desktop virtualization as you adopt your plans for windows 7 migration.

For all XenApp customers, look at the Trade-up program. If it doesn't work for you, no worries - XenApp is still the #1 strategic product with the biggest R&D and you will continue to see some solid product roadmap and support from Citrix.

For XenDesktop customers, most of you will have a solid upgrade with more value at no additional cost. I encourage you to look at the licensing differences as you go through the upgrade to XenDesktop 4.

For new customers, the choice is now easy. If you were thinking of how you can get one solution to serve all your users overtime. The solution is now here - Citrix XenDesktop 4

To learn more and uncover all the secrets, join our live event - Secrets, Lies & VDI

Windows 7 looks great

Like it or not, Windows 7 will be here soon. I am a new user of Windows 7 and it looks great! Definitely faster! I think that the adoption rate will far outpace not just Vista (of course) but also Windows XP. So chances are pretty good that there will be a rollout in your organization in the next 12 months.

But,...

Unfortunately, a migration could be disruptive, time consuming and can bust your budget.

Windows 7 represents a significant change as compared to XP. Apps that ran on XP may not run natively on Win7 without upgrading. The XP emulation feature on Win7 - the jury's still out on that. So, no matter what, you are likely going to have to spend a lot of time to test all of your applications in XP emulation or go buy upgrades to some of the apps and then do compatibility testing to ensure everything interacts the way it did in XP. In addition to spending 100's or even 1000's of dollars per user on these license upgrades, even a medium sized organization could spend millions on testing/integration/project management/installation.

Then, of course, there may be the cost of buying new PCs for the upgrade. If you have the luxury of time, you can just wait until the next refresh and ensure you get Win7 for some of your users. With this approach, you will have spent a chunk of money on planning Win7 app upgrades to just the first 20-25% of your user base and you will still be stuck with supporting PC desktops along with two OS platforms for years to come.

Finally, you need to manage somehow getting Windows 7 physically rolled out on all the end points that you manage. If you are lucky, they are all sitting in a single room - but for most of you this means end points everywhere. Also, since you did your last migration to Windows XP, you now have users that you didn't have in your previous migration - contractors, offshore, partners, you name it - you likely have it.

Time to think of the right plan

Can desktop virtualization help you with Win7 migration? Yes! In a big way: make it non-disruptive and will help you lower your costs.

1. You can migrate to Windows 7 by installing it once in the datacenter without touching every end point.
2. You don't need to refresh the hardware. Repurposing old PCs into thin clients can get you started quickly.
3. Any application conflicts can be managed via app virtualization technology, which should be a key component of any virtual desktop project. App virtualization makes desktops so much easier to manage than dealing with multiple desktop images spread on multiple end points.

Once you have established a golden OS image with Win7, desktop virtualization will deliver Win7 to your old PCs essentially overnight.

The key is to leverage the right delivery technology for different end point devices. By judiciously applying OS streaming technology, you can leverage the local processing power in newer PCs and reduce the investment in data center infrastructure. This has a significant impact on the overall per user cost of the solution. Now, you will be able to get started with desktop virtualization by using the budget you have allocated for PC replacement and start reducing desktop management costs from that point on.

7 STEPS TO WIN 7

1. KICK-OFF A PILOT FOR HOSTED VIRTUAL DESKTOPS TODAY - Kick off a pilot for virtual desktops today in order to experience the different in management and user experience. This gets you started.
2. SEGMENT YOUR USERS & EXPAND VIRTUAL DESKTOPS - Pick the right kind of virtual desktop for all your enterprise users. Expand your pilot to other office workers, remote workers and guest workers.
3. INVENTORY & VIRTUALIZE YOUR APPS - Inventory all the apps that you have and identify the ones that get updated the most or will have compatibility problems with Windows 7. Virtualize these apps within your virtual desktop pilot. Ether host the apps on dedicated servers if they are big, chunky LOB apps or stream them into the image (isolated) if they are productivity apps.
4. PREPARE CLEAN & PRISTINE WINDOWS 7 IMAGE - Prepare the OS image that you plan to roll-out with Windows 7. Ensure that you only have one clean & pristine image for all your users - virtualize all other applications and separate them from your OS. Centrally update your virtual desktops to Windows 7 for instant experience for all.
5. ROLL OUT WINDOWS 7 WITH VIRTUAL DESKTOPS FOR ALL ONLINE USERS - use a combination of delivery technoloies for getting the best ROI and levreage of your existing PC refresh budgets and cycles.
6. ADOPT OFFLINE VIRTUAL DESKTOPS - Once you are done with your online users, it will be time to expand llocal virtual desktops for your offline users. This is where you are using a technology such as XenClient to implement offline virtual desktops.
7. GET OUT OF MANAGEMENT OF END POINTS - This is where you transfer the responsibility of managing the end points entirely out of IT; and give it to other groups. It could be facilities. Or, it could be the employees themselves - helping you implement a BYOC program.

Follow this process and be a hero - lead the migration without disruptions for a change! And, you will never need to worry about the disruption and costs of another OS upgrade!

It will be hard to argue that there will be a migration process that is simpler and less disruptive. So, our conversation should shift to evaluating the technology landscape - which technology can help you with this migration best. Of course - my advice would be - XenDesktop

We will be talking more about this and more in our big desktop virtualization show - there will be thousands attending the online event - Secrets, Lies and VDI

Finally, join others who are going through Windows 7 migration with desktop virtualization

On the run up to VMworld 2009, there seems to be an increasing amount of activity on the subject of user personalization in VDI. Gartner has written about dynamic workspace includng user personalization as a key element of the stack. What does it mean? What is user personalization all about? And, where does it need to be? Let's take a closer look.

Aren't all PCs supposed to be personalized? What's the big deal?

Personalization of the desktop is really all about making the working experience for the user as effective as possible. Sure this means users have photos of their family or favorite sports team as their wallpaper, but personalization is more than that! Think about all the things you have done to make your personal computer your own - from toolbar settings to your email signature, to applications you have installed since being supplied with your machine. Then think about how IT is able to manage the user-specific component of this machine - corporate policy, user access rights, PC lifecycle management, patching and security updates. It's a constant struggle between IT who needs to manage the PC and the user to wants to personalize it. The more personal the PC, the less control IT has over that machine and the more expensive it becomes to manage.

Does desktop virtualization help or hurt the cause for users?

The emergence of desktop virtualization provides a real opportunity to address this long-standing struggle. Those assets of the desktop that are common to many users, including corporate OS and apps, can now be standardized and automatically delivered 'on-demand' to users from a central source. In fact, the only way to get scalable and cost effective virtual desktops is with single instance management of the corporate OS and applications - as with Citrix XenDesktop. A 'corporate' OS can be dynamically provisioned into a virtual image, and likewise, corporate applications can be delivered on-demand onto the virtual desktop as needed. The result? A scalable, low-management, low-storage, low-cost corporate desktop for all employees. The third key component of this scalable virtual desktop is personalization - so that you can make each user's virtual desktop personal.

So, how do you pick the right solution?

Based on my interactions with customers successfully implementing virtual desktops, I have come to a conclusion that there are 5 key requirements that you need to consider for delivering personalized virtual desktops:

1. Starting with managed user profiles or equivalent - A system that can store user settings and personalization changes. A system that can provide an easy and fast way to manage the settings for users. This is included as part of XenDesktop and gets you started with your personalized virtual desktops.
2. Getting On-demand 'personality' - To increase the responsiveness of the desktop and logon, only provide parts of the user personality required by the user at the time when needed. Why load what a user is not going to use?
3. Allowing user-centric configuration - This may be a bit counter-intuitive to personalization; however, role based configuration is a critical component of making every user's desktop 'personal'. It starts with configuring which applications a user has access to. XenDesktop (with XenApp as an application management system) offers the ability to control the applications. IT may need more granular control - such as what printers users will need and what drives they can access.
4. System self-healing from user errors - To be able to automatically roll back to pre-configured user settings in case any personalized changes made by zero conflict centralized configurations.
5. Ensuring visibility - Giving IT the ability to see into the user environment and solve potential problems before the user gets involved creates a continuously improving desktop estate as well as reducing costs

How do you get it going?

We have included #1 and parts of #3 in Citrix XenDesktop. To address other requirements that cover comprehensive enterprise-level control and management of personalization, I have seen customers successfully use the combined solution of Citrix XenDesktop and AppSense Environment Management to good effect. In addition, AppSense Environment Management is also able to offer Enterprise-level scale to cover not just your virtual desktops but also your physical environments, or environments where you may be using multiple technologies such as XenApp published/hosted or streamed apps to physical PCs and XenDesktop.

So when you hear about 'user personalization' or 'user profiles', look deeper into the details of what's being discussed. Successful (low-cost, high adoption) VDI requires the ability to use a single instance of OS and apps on demand across an entire company. I have seen that customers have successfully combined Citrix XenDesktop with AppSense Environment Management to ensure user adoption across all platforms for thousands of users, and it's being considered as the most complete solution for delivering personalized virtual desktops.

What to expect in coming weeks?

I expect to see more point solutions and some technology acquisitions and OEMs. However, they have two fundamental shortcomings, in my opinion:

• They are built only with the perspective of user personalization. Any user personalization product needs a solid desktop virtualization solution.

• They solve one of the requirements I listed above and may not be enough to address all of enterprise requirements.

As you are doing your assessment on personalization, I encourage you to review this list of requirements that I have seen in successful implmentations of virtual desktops. Also, I'd love to hear your comments on other requirements around personalization that I haven't covered here.

In case you have not been following some of the recent news on VDI and desktop virtualization, here is a recap.

Two contradictory stories

It all started about 2 weeks ago when Citrix and VMware shared the status of VDI business. There were two contradictory stories - Citrix announced some large purchases and implementations for Citrix XenDesktop and VMware announced that larger projects are being pushed out to 2010.

VDI is doomed for failure

Then came some reports on how VDI projects have recently failed. I like calling these not so successful VDI projects as 'first generation' architectures that are destined for failure. As the author notes that these projects start 'innocently' - with the goal of putting a desktop on top of the existing server virtualization platofrm. In other words 'We have done server virtualization - we can now do the same for the desktop'. Unfortunately, that is where the problem starts. Recently, Brian Madden published a story highlighting the problem. Two weeks ago, I heard customers sharing their frustrations and concerns about why desktop virtualization is different from server virtualization.

The Truth

I spoke with our CTO, Harry Labana, and Harry walked me through the top 5 reasons why in his experience VDI projects will fail if they are done with a presumption that desktop virtualization is similar to server virtualization.

The fact is that implementing Desktop virtualization or VDI is mre like implementing any other server based computing technology, such as Terminal Services. The VDI infrastructure that may be resident in the data center; however, it goes beyond the data center to the network, the end points and the user. So, unless the implementations are planned with network, device and end users in mind they are destined to fail. Good design, on the other hand, will lead to successful implementations. But that means doing the right due-diligence of products up front - including network, end points and end users. Or else you will fall into the similar trap as others are falling into.

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I was in San Diego last week at the Catalyst Conference 2009 hosted by the Burton Group. Desktop virtualization was one of the main tracks and for some of the Burton Group analysts, desktop virtulization or VDI or virtual deskops were the most frequently discussed topic with their customers.

Personally, I met with over 2 dozen enterprise customers, including some that have already implemented the technology. I also co-presented with Burton Group on the topic of future of desktop virtualization. It was very encouraging to see that customers are increasingly becoming aware of desktop virtualization and are considering desktop virtualization to free themselves up from the PC refresh cycle. I think that we are nearly at the tipping point - where the success from early adopters will spread to the majority of the IT environments.

Here are my top 3 findings:

Virtualizing a desktop is not the same as virtualizing a server

There was a consensus here among all customers who have already implemented virtual desktops. IT often starts with virtualizing desktops with the assumption that it is the same as virtualizing a server. However, it turns out that there are some stark differences. We have talked about this before but Some interesting quotes:

• "2000 virtual servers is a lot of virtual servers but 2000 virtual desktops common for an enterprise"
• "Server VMs - goal is to keep them up, Desktop VMs - goal is to keep them up to date"
• "Server VMs - multiple workloads to virtualize without any personalization, Desktop VMs - Single workload to virtualize but with user personalization"
• "Server VMs - all about up-time (easy to measure - 99999999....), Desktop VMs - its all about user experience (user satisfaction, performance, easy to access)
• "Server VMs - if virtual center is down - no big deal, Desktop VMs - virtual center is down means users are unable to connect!"

Existing customers of first generation VDI are rapidly upgrading and expanding with new virtual desktop solutions

I spoke with customers that started with virtual desktops about 18 months ago and did so with 1:1 user mapping to VMs. It was interesting to learn about how customers were able to make successful business cases in virtual desktops even with those first generation or primitive architectures that involved managing multiple instances of desktops in virtual machines, high storage costs and not the best user experience. Business cases were based on simplifying distributed dekstop management while giving users the flexibility to access their desktop from anywhere.

In the past 12 months, several of the limitations of the first generation virtual deskops have been eliminated. All these early adopters are now rapidly upgrading to these new generation of virtual desktops where they can manage a pool of virtual desktops using a single OS image, and single of instance of apps. Most were planning to start with virtual applications gradually starting from the ones that are the hardest and most complex to manage and update. This will give them the ability to simplify virtual desktop management and cut down the cost of storage infrastructure.

Most of these customers said that they are rapidly expanding their virtual desktop solutions as it will help them migrate to Windows 7 much more easily.

Picking the best desktop for every user helps virtual desktop solutions

During my presentation on the future of desktop virtualization, there were two topics that resulted in many good questions and positive feedback.

1. Best virtual desktop solution for different user types - I have written about this before. I had several conversations with enterprises looking at hosted virtual desktops or VDI regarding how to get the best fit desktop using other technologies including blade PCs, terminal server based or even local virtual desktops. In almost all cases, mapping different options to different user types led to eliminating several barriers to hosted virtual desktop or VDI model, including TCO, user mobility & power user scenarios.
2. Local virtual desktops - Huge interest in Citrix XenClient. Security, manageablity and BYOC became the three top discussion topics with the customers. In fact, Citrix CIO Office presented Citrix's BYOC implementation at the event and it was one of the most popular sessions.

Overall, it was a good event, well attended, with lots of good, in depth discussions. It is great to see the positive momentum of customers moving from physical PCs to virtual desktops.

Get more information on Citrix's desktop virtualization

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Brian's blog today addressed some of the myths that I posted (and a bit more ). I thought I will post a reference in case you haven't seen.

There are three myths that exist about Citrix's desktop virtualization or virtual desktop offering. Unfortunately, most of these have been propagated via misinformation being packaged as customer education by Citrix's competition! I thought it'd be good for me to share the truth behind each myth:

Myth #1 - Citrix cannot handle personalized desktops, it can only do locked down desktops

Truth - Citrix offers solutions for a range of workers, locked down desktops for task workers, pooled virtual desktops for office workers and dedicated virtual desktops to power users

Task workers need fully locked desktops with few apps - XenApp provides the lowest cost solution for delivering a locked down server based desktop.

Office based departmental users - need personalized desktops with ad-hoc access to apps - XenDesktop provides a way to deliver personalized desktops along with ability to manage a single image for the OS and each app. Just because you are managing a single image doesn't mean that you cant deliver a personalized environment - XenDesktop provides the ability to manage user profiles for personalization without having to deal with messy roaming profiles.

Power users - that need full admin access and ability to install their own apps - XenDesktop enables virtual desktops for both blade PCs and VMs in the data center, enabling you to setup a 1:1 image per user with complete control over the image.

So - you get the required level of flexibility along with centralized enterprise class management and unmatched HDX technologies for best possible user experience.

Myth #2 - Citrix doesn't understand virtualization

With XenApp, Citrix and over 200,000 Citrix customers have been doing desktop virtualization before anyone actually called virtualization. With the acquisition of XenSource, we have the top industry experts and support from a vast open source community in developing virtualization technologies.

XenDesktop has become the industry leading product, as reviewed by several independent reviewers (not paid for by Citrix), along with quotes such as:

• "The gold standard by which other products are judged" - Virtualization Review
• "...we were impressed with XenDesktop 3.0..." - InformationWeek
• "All in all, the Citrix XenDesktop is a well thought-out product." - InfoWeek.

Truth - we have built the best product in the market without any technology understanding. Good days for our customers - the products will only get better once we know a bit more about the technology

Myth #3 - Citrix doesn't have any big VDI implementations and XenDesktop is complex

Truth - Customers are implementing small scale pilots and mid-large scale production implementations of XenDesktop every day

And some great examples include one customer planning to use XenDesktop for 40,000 users (as announced at Citrix Synergy) and we another is Collier County using XenDesktop for over 12,000 desktops expanding it for use to 20,000 desktops this year. Here are some of the successful customer implementations of XenDesktop.

Now that we understand the truth, I want to go a step forward and encourage everyone to not fall into these selling traps by asking the right questions:

1. What will be the network requirements for virtual desktops?
2. Will the virtual desktop solution work for remote use, even if it is occasional? What about branch offices?
3. Will it require any special hardware upgrades on the server or the client? How much will that cost (now or overtime)?
4. How will IT manage multiple images of a desktop, even if they are cloned?
5. How will you manage applications within the desktop?
6. How will the solution help you monitor user experience and troubleshoot problems proactively?

I encourage everyone to do the required due-diligence in picking the right solution that addresses your needs today and in the future. These are the questions (among others) we are using to build our desktop virtualization solution - XenDesktop.

I recently recaped the desktop virtualization news at Synergy. During Synergy, there was a lot of rich technical and product information presented on XenDesktop.

If you were unable to attend the event or missed any of these technical sessions, we have packaged up all the technical goodies into a 3 part webinar series that will be available both live with Q&A and on-demand. I highly encourage you to go through all these events; it will be time well-spent learning about desktop virtualization and XenDesktop with presenters presenting content that they have built based on hands-on knowledge.

Here are the three topics:

Effectively planning a technical migration from physical PCs to Citrix XenDesktop   This technical session will provide a clear, detailed process for helping your customers upgrade from existing physical PCs to centrally managed virtual desktops using XenDesktop.  Early customer implementations and best practices will be offered as guidance for handling both small-scale and large-scale migrations. When: Monday, May 18th; 1 PM ET / 10 AM PST* *
Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/157171272

Citrix XenDesktop 3 Architecture and HDX User Experience: A Comparison Versus VMware View The new Citrix XenDesktop 3 provides high definition user experience and higher scalability, making it the leading virtual desktop solution. This technical session will cover the architecture and design of XenDesktop 3, including Citrix's HDX technology. Attendees will learn about the key technical advantages of XenDesktop over other virtual desktop products including VMware View. When: Tuesday, May 19th; 1 PM ET / 10 AM PST* *
Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/665923001

Citrix and Intel:  Manage Once and Stream to Many Local DesktopsThis technical session will focus on the unique, single image management capability of XenDesktop and the best practices for streaming the entire desktop environment to local PCs across large-scale virtual desktop deployments. When: Wednesday, May 20th; 1 PM ET / 10 AM PST 
Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/211934248

Please share your feedback with comments on the blog, so that we can continue to enhance our technical content for you.

I just returned from Synergy 2009. While we did not have any new major press announcements; however, there were several new things shared at the event. Here is a quick recap:

Desktop Virtualization and XenDesktop are ready for prime-time

• During Synergy Day 1 Keynote, we announced that we have a customer who has decided to implement XenDesktop for 40,000 seats, with help from CSC with their Dynamic Desktop service offering. Needless to say, the customer went through detailed evaluation and compared several options to make that decision. It definitely shows that desktop virtualization is ready for large scale adoption.
• If that doesn't whet your appetite, we had Collier County during Day 1 Keynote (virtually - since Tom Petri from Collier County Schools could not be there), who talked about how they have successfully implemented over 12,400 desktops using XenDesktop (both streamed and hosted). And, they are planning to add 8,000 additional desktops via XenDesktop in 2009. Collier County was the first XenDesktop customer, who decided to adopt XenDesktop last year during Synergy 2008.
• Several other success stories for XenDesktop implementations were shared, including Morgan Stanley, UPMC, CSC for internal use and other customer implementations. Neil Allen (Architect from Morgan Stanley) even talked about the ROI for desktop virtualization with XenDesktop, one of the concerns that I continue to hear from our customers.
• In addition, there were several tracks on technical best practices shared to migrate from physical to virtual desktops. All workshops for XenDesktop were packed and large majority of the audience was implementing virtual desktops shortly.
  

XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 and HDX technologies available now

• Couple of weeks ago, I announced XenDesktop Feature Pack 1 couple of weeks ago. It is now available for download! A must have  for any desktop virtualization implementation.
• We did some side by side demonstration of HDX technologies vs. the  "the other guy" during the keynote . We showed how only HDX technologies provides acceptable user experience for any Internet based scenario, including broadband, branch office or offshore. Even over the LAN, we shared our test results showing HDX requiring 1/10^th the bandwidth. HDX includes ICA protocol and more.
  

Virtual Desktop will be extended to the mobile laptop devices with XenClient - coming soon!

• In January 2009, we announced Project Independence - our joint collaboration agreement with Intel to develop a client side hypervisor, which will give IT the independence of having a single corporate image delivered securely to any laptop device, and provide users the independence of using their personal and corporate desktop on the same laptop device seamlessly. We named the technology XenClient and shared our vision on how IT will be able to use Citrix's Delivery Center to deliver both hosted virtual desktop and local virtual desktop.
• Citrix and Intel jointly demonstrated XenClient during Day 2 keynote. There were three key things demonstrated:
  1. High performance - running 3D graphics intensive applications, including a first person shooting game, without any performance penalty. You can envision our HDX technologies getting extended to local virtual desktops as well.
  2. Comprhensive Security - By leveraging VPro technologies, we are able to keep XenClient hacker-safe. No malware can hack into the hypervisor and compromise the security of the device. Also, we demonstrated how no keyloggers can get the sensitive password data from corporate applications ensuring that IT can easily rollout corporate desktops to personal laptop devices.
  3. Seamless application access and VM switching - A user can easily switch between virtual machines on the laptop device. Also, a user can seamlessly view their corporate applications (that reside and run in the corporate VM) from their personal VM - a powerful way to make the user experience extremely intuitive.
• We plan to have the XenClient technology available to our customers in 2H'09
• Finally, we demonstrated XenClient on a MacBook, running Windows and OS-X as two separate VMs, enabling users to be able to bring their MacBooks to work without any hassles for IT!
  

Desktop Virtualization enabled for the cloud!

• We announced a Service Provider program, enabling our partners and ecosystem to offer their DaaS (Desktop as a Service). It is still early days but now our partners can get a low cost way to enter the DaaS market without a large capital investment for Citrix XenDesktop software.
  

Some help for the misguided

•  I have had several customers come to me, saying that they love XenDesktop but they have already invested in a competitive product. We have now made it easier for these customers - they can now get XenDesktop Advanced Edition for only $95 (retail price). Get the benefits of HDX technology (high definition experience), simpler provisioning and a comprehensive built-in app-delivery. You can even keep using your existing hypervisor, if you like!   
  

I want to make everyone aware that we will soon be releasing XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 with some new feature enhancements that will make your virtual desktop evaluations go even better and smoother. Here is a quick summary of what you will find in the Feature Pack 1. For more details visit - http://www.citrix.com/xendesktop.

Flash gets HDX'ed
 
Did you know that over 99% of desktop users use the Adobe Flash player? Almost every webpage you go to has a Flash banner-ad. Most of XenDesktop banner ads are Flash-based. Flash provides a lot of mainstream content for most users, and guess what, it is one of the culprits for poor performance, high bandwidth utilization and low user density with virtual desktops. If you are evaluating virtual desktop solutions, Citrix XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 will enable you to carry out your user acceptance testing and evaluations with Citrix HDX technology that accelerates the delivery of Flash content over virtual desktops. Citrix HDX MediaStream for Flash technology enables the local endpoint device to handle processing of Flash media, freeing up server resources, optimizing network bandwidth and providing the best PC-like performance for Flash content. I am a happy virtual desktop user myself with this technology implemented for my XenDesktop. This technology is a trial release that will be able to use with your virtual desktop evaluations as soon as it is available. We have kept it simple - just install the Feature Pack 1 and it will guide you through the process of installing the Trial Release of HDX MediaStream for Flash. In addition to Flash, Feature Pack 1 will include other optimizations for media-rich content that accelerates the performance of Silverlight, QuickTime video, graphics rich websites, animations and other on-screen motion. 
 

They call it "multi"-media for a reason - it's more than what you see
 
Screen-capture rate, bandwidth for screen updates, screen scraping, bitmap codec, remote display, etc. - all of these seem to be the areas of discussion and debate within virtual desktops. But that's only part of what makes up a rich multimedia desktop. How about audio and in particular, VoIP? Only XenDesktop 3 Feature Pack 1 enables users to run their VoIP soft-phones and use microphones and headsets within their virtual desktop and collaborate and communicate with other users. This new HDX RealTime technology increases user satisfaction with their virtual desktops. Feature Pack 1 is our first step towards our vision and enables the use of soft phones for LAN connected users. Citrix will continue to invest in enabling VoIP soft-phones within virtual desktops accessible from any device, anywhere.  
 
Unmatched Smart Card integration
 
If you are managing IT in industries such as healthcare, government and even large scale design and manufacturing, you understand the importance of Smart Cards and how Smart Cards have become an industry-leading standard for implementing two-factor authentication for internal users. XenDesktop 3, http://www.citrix.com/xendesktop3, is the only virtual desktop solution with seamless integration with Smart Cards for Windows-based end points. Feature Pack 1 will make the Smart Card integration complete with further enhancements including broad support for Linux-based endpoints and the ability for users to roam from one device to another - even with a different card reader - and have their virtual desktop session follow them. Some of our large customers are in the process of implementing XenDesktop 3 with Smart Card integration to implement secure virtual desktops for users that can be accessed from any device - making it a low cost 'hoteling' workplace where devices and office locations do not matter and users get to their personalized desktops from any device anywhere.  
 
Get ready for Windows 7
 
And finally, if you are planning to migrate to Windows 7 and want to get a head start on your virtual desktop implementation, Feature Pack 1 comes with an early release of our support for the Windows 7 beta as well. Citrix HDX technologies are all enabled, including the latest HDX MediaStream for Flash, HDX Plug-n-Play and HDX RealTime. We plan to have the Feature Pack generally available at Citrix Synergy (http://www.citrixsynergy.com) in about 2+ weeks.
 
We will be demonstrating the new capabilities and more at the event - go ahead and register if you would like to know more about it. Whether you are currently using XenDesktop in production or just beginning a proof-of-concept, plan to download and install the Feature Pack to get the latest advancements and best performance.

I have to admit that this in response to a blog posted by Brian Madden couple of days ago. In his blog Brian did three things:

1. Create some news and controversy - as always he seem to have done well
2. Compare Citrix's shipping product with VMware's 'experimental' technologies
3. State that do not invest in VDI because of the competitive alternatives that are available in the market through 2010 and we don't know the who the leader will be then.
   

I usually enjoy reading Brian's blogs because he always looks at the best interest of the customer and doesn't get influenced by announcements and technologies that are not real. However, in this case - I have to say that he missed the mark on few things. Brian is the last person I had expected to get caught up in the land of vaporware and public announcements; so I thought I'd get the record straight.

1. Citrix shipping product vs. experimental technologies - There is a lot of confusion in the desktop virtualization market already. And broad announcements regarding 'experimental' technologies has created some of the confusion. Citrix, on the other hand, has been focused in getting success with XenDesktop product in the market and we are seeing some great results; thanks to all of our loyal customers who are putting their trust in a solid product and moving forward with hundreds or thousands of hosted virtual desktops. At Citrix, we have taken a more conservative view point in going public with our 'experimental' technologies in this market. However, that doesn't mean that we are not working on the future technologies; in fact, we have a robust roadmap that we continually discuss with our customers around different use cases. Our vision is to deliver a desktop to all enterprise users including mobile and offline use case. We are working with customers to align our vision and strategy with customer requirements. As appropriate, we will make short-term and long-term announcement of our vision and product releases.
2. VDI or Desktop virtualization - be all end all - We all love technology and want to talk about how technology will get better overtime. However, when it comes to client computing, I urge each one of you (including Brian) to think about the use cases. Is XenDesktop not a good fit for anyone today? False. Like I said, we have customers who are implementing the technology for hundreds or thousands of users. It is designed and built for delivering a desktop to an office worker (corporate office, branch office or home office) who does all his/her work when connected to the network. That is about 50% of total workers worldwide. Is offline or check-in/check-out a requirement for that user? - NO. Example - I deal with two financial advisors (an inside sales person and a field sales person). The inside sales person is always working when connected and can be using XenDesktop and the field sales person needs offline access and cannot. Those of us who can figure this out will have no problem in cutting the cost of desktop computing for your office workers TODAY!
3. Offline worker - Is Citrix doing anything about offline workers? First of all, we ship the best technology for the offline workers today - XenApp. XenApp enables you to have offline virtual applications, simplifying application management (addressing the biggest offender of cost and complexity). Again, we have customers using the technology TODAY for their mission critical mobile worker use cases - packaging their applications once and then flexibly delivering them to users using any device anywhere. In addition, we are investing heavily on local desktop virtualization technologies where two desktop OS can co-exist on the same device in order to increase the overall security of the mobile workers with laptops and further improve manageability of the desktop OS. Again - we are taking the use case based approach here. We are looking at the needs of a mobile worker who has either a corporate owned laptop or a personal owned laptop (BYOC) and delivering a solution that provides three benefits:
   • Enhance data security by protecting the data with a layer of virtualization
   • Further simplify desktop lifecycle management - by having a single image across multiple types of devices and centralized image management technologies
   • End user flexibility - by enabling them to pick any end point device while delivering the desktop anywhere

Let's look at the mobile user use case - these users will be using their laptop device and the latest version of OS, apps and user settings must be available to them anytime anywhere, including when they are offline. The only time they will be accessing a desktop in the data center is when they don't have access to their laptop device (traveling, emergencies, etc.). So, the whole concept of check-in and check-out is an incorrect model. In fact, I'd argue that the check-in/check-out model is antiquated. We are no longer used to going to libraries and checking-in and checking-out books. Instead, we use iTunes to automatically synchronize what we need on our iPods for offline use and most of us use automatic synchronization. That's what the right solution will need to be - dynamic synchronization, rather than static check-in and check-out, and that's what Citrix is designing and building. 

In summary, I urge each of you (including Brian) to start thinking about the use cases rather than technologies. There are some great technologies out in the market that help you address your challenges for your use cases TODAY - leverage them. Don't wait until 2010 - there will be some other vaporware then!  Consider three different use cases (task workers, office workers, mobile workers) and map out your technology requirements based on the following high level goals that you should accomplish: 

• Lowest cost of ownership
• Maximum flexibility and agility
• Data security 
  
  

There are a couple of myths that have propogated in the industry - VDI - one size fits all (NOT TRUE) and desktop is just another workload on the hypervisor (again NOT TRUE - think users and use cases instead).  

Of course, I am going to close by saying Citrix can help!

Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp now offer customers two different computing models for centralizing their client computing. I have had about a dozen or so customer conversations regarding where the best use of each technology is. I want to share that with everyone.

People ask me whether the IT and business problems to centralize have changed. The answer is - they have not. Costs, compliance/security and flexibility for access remain to be IT challenges that centralization can solve. If you think about the culprit that keeps the TCO of desktops high, it is application deployment and management.

The two problems that customers have been able to successfully address with XenApp are:

1. Delivering appa to users anywhere - typically customers start with virtualizing problem apps and grow their XenApp usage overtime.
2. Virtualizing the full desktop with all the apps - it has worked great for task based workers who use standardized locked down environments with few apps.

Overtime, XenApp has addressed several key challenges in addressing those requirements including scalability (via 64-bit), app compatibility (via app isolation environments any app can be made compatible with XenApp), graphics (via SpeedScreen), performance monitoring (via EdgeSight) and offline support (via portable app virtualization/streaming). This has enabled an even broader use of XenApp for virtualizing more apps within existing XenApp customer base.

Now, XenDesktop enables our customers to expand desktop virtualization to not just task workers (served via XenApp shared desktops) but also office workers (VM/Blade based dedicated desktop). However, dedicated desktops always come at a cost. The cost is reflected in the user density per server. Where as a dual core XenApp server can serve 100 shared desktops, XenDesktop can serve about 10-12 users per dual core server. So, the cost of hardware required per user goes up from $25-$50 for XenApp to about $250-$350 per user on XenDesktop. Hence, the XenApp based shared desktops will always be the most cost effective way to deliver virtual desktops.

Both models have their merits and limitations. As stated XenApp serves desktops in the most cost effective manner and is best suitable for task based workers. The limitation for XenApp is around personalization capabilities - end users cannot fully personalize their environment, which is a need for mainstream office users. XenDesktop, on the other hand, is best suited for virtual desktop delivery for mainstream office worker. The real limitation lies in offline access requirements, or advanced peripheral support.

LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST - delivering applications using XenApp radically lowers TCO of BOTH physical and virtual desktops by enabling IT to centralize the apps and never install them with the desktop. There are different benefits for physical PCs and virtual desktops.

With physical PCs, benefits of using XenApp are:

1. Increases the life of PCs
2. Enhances application and data security
3. Enables app delivery anywhere using any device
4. Lowers the cost of application management

With XenDesktop (virtual desktops), benefits of using XenApp are:

1. Dynamic provisioning of virtual desktop implies that a user's desktop always stays pristine with no apps installed - all apps are delivered (using streaming or hosting technologies) enabling an on demand assembly of personalized desktop at the time when a user logs on.
2. Predictability and Capacity planning on VDI - Separating all LOB apps that have unpredictable (problematic) resource requirements, and running them on separate XenApp servers, prevents over-provisioning the VDI server architecture and can reduce the number of servers required for virtual desktops, improving the TCO of virtual desktops.
3. Application and license management - each app can be controlled granularly. You have complete visibility into who has access to the applications and who accessed which application when.

In summary, IT now has two excellent options (XenApp and XenDesktop) for building their virtualization infrastructure to meet the needs across all their use cases:

Task workers - use thin clients with shared desktops delivered via XenApp
Mainstream office workers - use desktop appliances with dedicated desktops delivered via XenDesktop
Mobile users - use XenApp to deliver all streamed or hosted apps for both connected and offline access

At Synergy (http://www.citrix.com/synergy), this topic will be discussed at length. Come visit us!

Before an audience of more than 4,000 IT professionals and partners at Microsoft Management Summit (MMS) last week, Brad Anderson, General Manager in the Management and Services Division at Microsoft, kicked off the day with the keynote "Managing the Dynamic Desktop". As part of the keynote, Brad demonstrated Citrix XenDesktop working with Microsft Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager to deliver a dynamic desktop to a user anywhere. XenDesktop was the only desktop virtualization product demonstrated as part of the keynote.

View the demo
Read the blog

Citrix and Microsoft are in agreement that desktops no longer need to be tied to a fixed device but can be effectively delivered as a service to any knowledge worker using any device anywhere. With XenDesktop, a user can take her active virtual desktop with her as she moves from meeting room to desk to kitchen to home office (all on different endpoints). If I am working on a word document, the app can stay open without saving when I move from endpoint to endpoint, giving users ultimate flexibility.

XenDesktop, when released shortly, will support the delivery of virtual desktops running on Hyper-V - all deployed and managed through System Center. To get more details and see live demonstrations for our final XenDesktop product, visit our annual customer event, Synergy May 20-23. http://www.citrixsynergy.com

For early customer evaluation and pilots, Citrix and will provide email and web based support for XenDesktop running on Microsoft Server 2008 Hyper-V RC and System Center Beta. We will have full support for System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2.0 30 days after its availability.

In case you dont know already, Presentation Server 4.5 is now available on myCitrix.com. Try it out!

Most of you will start purusing a long list of features in Presentation Server 4.5 and the new Platinum Edition for the product and will be trying to digest all that new stuff in the product. And, in the midst of all that, what most will likely ignore is a subtle yet most fundamental change in the product.

With Presentation Server 4.5, we have redefined the product to some extent - and you will see more of that reflected in the product overtime. Presentation Server 4.5 is no longer a multi-user remote access product as it started with old WinFrame or MetaFrame - instead it is an application delivery system for windows applications. What the difference? The difference is that Presentation Server is a superior alternative to application deployment using traditional methods. It allows you to deliver applications rather than deploy them. Application delivery can be via virtualization protocols such as ICA or streaming technologies (previously called Tarpon). Presentation Server 4.5 allows customers to stream or virtualize their delivery for windows apps. You will see Citrix add more and more integration different streaming and virtualization of application delivery the future, including based application delivery where the system can pick how to deliver application based on the usage scenarios.

Presentation Server 4.5 also introduces a new edition - Platinum Edition. While it may appear like a bundle of several free standing products to begin with; however, our vision is to further integrate those technologies into one system for windows application delivery. For example, you can envision things like configuration of single sign on to occur when you publish a virtual or streamed application, and making the experience more seamless for end users. Another example would be for EdgeSight to be able to monitor ICA responsiveness even better. Presentation Server 4.5 Platinum is very different from Citrix Access Suite where we bundled different products into a single package making it more cost effective. With Presentation Server 4.5 Platinum we are committed to delivering a solution for the line of sight between applications and users and we will build the required technologies as part of Platinum Edition that will complete that line of sight. In future releases of Platinum Edition, Citrix plans to add new technologies such as application monitoring - Project Gemini/IRIS (ICA Recording), to further enable you to build a complete windows application delivery system.

Presentation Server 4.5 has a lot of new stuff and can be used many different ways. But in the midst of all that, Citrix has changed the way we think about the product entirely and you will see more and more of that thinking reflected in the future releases. Enjoy PS 4.5 I am always looking for your feedback; post it!

Its been a long time (about a month) since I posted my previous note where I was shamefully advertising the benefits of using Presentation Server. Based on the ratings on the post (which I checked today), it doesnt seem like it went quite well. So, while I am still passionate about the topic, I will stay clear from it so that I dont bore the audience.[:S]

During the past 5 weeks, I continued to spend fair bit of time on the road or on the phone with our customers, folks like members of this community. While I dont get involved in getting hands on with the product, I do get involved in discussions with the IT management teams and how they perceive Citrix. At one of my trips, I was sitting on a dinner table with few Citrix professionals and we started talking about their IT team objectives. And, we soon discovered that there were three distinct groups sitting on the table with three distinct priorities. There was over 100 years of Citrix experience sitting around that dinner table, working at several different firms. As we discussed around the three different categories, we reached some interesting conclusions that I will share with the group.

Problem management, Risk management and Cost management the three buckets you can place all CPS users into. Let me define these.

Problem Management - this is where I would place many of users. users manage their deployments around problems. They do not plan around application delivery strategy - but they achieve it overtime through resolution of problems. In these customers, Citrix teams are often isolated and run fairly independently. They may often define CPS as a band-aid to their problems, even though they may have several places where band-aid is being applied and the business may seize to operate without the band-aid. If you are in this type of organization and you are running, managing or administering your CPS environments, then focus on MARKETING. The most effective implementations that have come out from such organizations have been from the teams who have done a great job in making their IT organizations aware of the value that CPS brings to them. You do that through highlighting differences between before and after (since the organization thinks based on problems and their solutions and forgets about them once the problem is resolved).

Cost Management - another area to place many CPS users. These organizations focus on costs and cutting down costs. You should think about increased user density, server consolidation, bandwidth management, etc. Your goal should be to cut costs down in all places including server infrastructure, database and app infrastructure, network infrastructure. You plan the role of OPERATIONS in such organizations. You should be continually monitoring key metrics within your CPS infrastructure that impact your costs and report on them to your management teams. You should be cautious in implementing new items or adopting new technologies, with all the cost metrics studied.

Risk Management - These organizations focus on managing risks and elimintating them. Unless you belong to these organizations, you wont understand what I mean. These organizations are often leaders in innovation in their businesses. And in order to sustain their leadership, they need to do things differently but manage risks in succeeding. You can pick an industry of your choice and you will find the leader most likely belonging to this category. If you are in this category then your focus should be to AUDIT. You should ensure that you are taking steps in creating an environment that is dynamic and pushing its boundaries. This includes things implemented for Presentation Server environment to make your environment more dynamic.

A big problem that exists in training classes, certification courseware, blog recommendations, reference architectures professional implementations is that a cookie cutter approach is prescribed. This in itself leads to several failed implementations of CPS. have run across some implementations of CPS that were great for cost environments but awful for an organization who is focused on risks.

So, what in it for you?

1. The skills around CPS that you acquire in one organization are not necessarily directly transferrable to another.
2. Before applying the prescribed recommendations to your environment, validate your objectives and category of users that your organization falls under.
3. If you want to talk CPS implementations in your organization in a manner that it resonates with your management team, you need to understand their priorities and follow MARKETING, OPERATIONS OR AUDITING functions based on the bucket your organization falls under.

Have you ever wondered whether the way you operate is to manage costs, problems or risks?

Since I posted my article Constellation targeted to improve end user experience through ICA enhancements in Project Ohio, I have received several questions regarding what value Presentation Server provides under different network scenarios.

There are several SpeedScreen technologies that ICA already includes including SpeedScreen Latency Reduction, SpeedScreen Browser Acceleration, SpeedScreen Image Acceleration, SpeedScreen Flash Acceleration. All these technologies are either targeted to improve the performance of a type of application or type of network or both. For example - SpeedScreen Latency Reduction provides local echo of text so that an end user gets high responsiveness from the system in case of a high latency network.

There are several reports that have done comparison of Presentation Server under different network and application scenarios. The following document summarizes the results well in case you are looking for data like this:

http://www.tolly.com/TS/2005/Citrix/PresentationServer/TollyTS205141CitrixPresentation%20ServerDecember2005.pdf

I would love to get your comments regarding what you have seen with Presentation Server as compared to other remoting technologies in your environment. Post as a comment or send me an email (sumit.dhawan@citrix.com).
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As I mentioned in my previous post, Project Ohio (Tech Preview available on http://www.mycitrix.com), contains some of the constellation technologies. I will write a bit about the Constellation technologies in Project Ohio targeted to improve user experience. But, before I do, let me answer some simple questions that I have received from my customer interactions.

Why do you care about user experience?

Majority of you probably do not need to read my notes regarding why user experience matters. It has always mattered; however, it is extremely critical now with IT management and CIOs top priorities being to serve the business and deliver on business value of IT. So, rather than focusing on reduced costs and better manageability, IT teams are turning into delivering the best to business with measurable results.

What are the challenges with user experience?

For those of you who have been working with Citrix technologies for a long time, you probably understand that Citrix technologies (WinFrame/MetaFrame) have always been challenged with different types of networks for desktop and application delivery (modems, ISDN, Internet). Citrix, via ICA, has continued to address different types of challenges for emerging networks and applications via SpeedScreen technologies. Project Ohio is going to add more to SpeedScreen technology portfolio to address emerging network scenarios and applications.

Things that we started with for Project Ohio were - high latency network being caused by globalization (outsourcingmulti-sourcing/offshoring) and more graphics applications as integration of several items of applications start (example - maps, graphs, images). Both of these are use cases that we are seeing increasing with CPS and will possibly impact your deployments over time as well. However, the technologies covered here are not limited to those and we are seeing more responsive environment with better bandwidth utilization for all types of networks, apps and usage.
/>SpeedScreen Technologies in Ohio

Frame-based display

With CPS 4 and before, ICA protocol queues up display commands coming from the server and sends only the relevant ones to the client to reduce the traffic on the network. It is quite optimized to not send excessive traffic. In an ideal world, we would toss out all the packets that were redundant and would only send the packets that were necessary to provide the right display to users. The reason there is need to toss out packets is because the screen draws are coming in much faster than they can be delivered remotely to clients. The need is exacerbated with graphics intensive apps or higher latency networks.

With Project Ohio, we have added technology to optimize tossing the redundant packets for new types of applications being written or when apps are accessed over high latency networks. The tossing algorithm has been enhanced so that now we are looking for more graphics constructs. It now detects complete self contained This way the server can either toss the entire frame or send the entire frame to the client as a self-contained entity. This has the following benefits:

1. Less data on the wire due to improved tossing operation
2. Better responsiveness for end users because the entire frame gets updated at once rather than in parts.

Progressive Display

This is the most visible change for Ohio. When enabled, the first/initial display of any complex image is always displayed using the highest (the progressive) compression setting, to provide a fast initial response over a slow line. This initial/crude display is then sharpened up as background activity so long as the bitmap itself has not now been overwritten, and that no new drawing is happening. New drawing always takes precedence over sharpening.

This will improve the usability for any user working over a lower bandwidth connection. There are several common use cases that will benefit from this enhancement - such as scrolling through a document or graphs, images, etc. For example - we are noticing that healthcare PACS based applications (X-Ray, etc.) are going to perform in a manner where it is hard to tell that they are running remotely.

There are other ICA enhancements made to provide better responsiveness to end users. You will likely notice those with your graphics apps or high latency networks right away. If you have either one of those two, take a look at Ohio Tech Preview.

Orestes forgot to talk about the Constellation session that I conducted at iForum. He lied when he said that the only session we had where we talked about Presentation Server was on Project Ohio. In addition, I had a session on Constellation technologies and where we are headed around Presentaion Server going forward (and the session was equally full []

I took an easier way out with my presentation. Instead of preparing and presenting all the content myself, I brought up folks that actually architect the product and write code on the stage to talk about stuff that they are doing for Constellation. I thought we had a lot of fun on the stage and my job was simple - (attempt to) make some jokes and make the way for the next presenter.

As part of Constellation, I talked about three areas that Citrix is committed to innovating in:

1. End user experience

2. Reduced Complexity

3. Application Compatibility

There are Constellation technologies being built to address those three areas. Project Ohio is in fact the first release when you will start seeing some of these technologies taking life. If you havent done so already, I highly encourage you to take a look at the Tech Preview for Ohio available on mycitrix.com. You will find how there is a significant boost in end user responsiveness with Project Ohio. talk about end user experience, I had Brad Pedersen, Chief Architect and Senior Fellow at Citrix, employee #1 at Citrix and one of the founders of ICA protocol with me on the stage. Brad talked about a lot of cool stuff that we are doing within ICA protocol as well as in our client UI to give users further Local/Remote transparency and better performance/responsiveness than when an application is running locally. Brad has recently prepared a video on Citrix history that you can view at http://www.citrixvirtualization.com

I plan to talk about all these three areas of Constellation in subsequent blogs. If you attended iForum, you can download my (or I should say slides at http://www.citrixiforum.com

This is the first time (after a very very long time) that we presented future technologies and directions at iForum and with some concrete framework. I would love to know from those who were at the event, how the session was and whether you like to see that presented in a webinar open to all.