Do you ever work from home, the road, an alternate office location, a train, a hotel business center, a coffee shop, the beach - in short somewhere, anywhere other than physically sitting in your official place of work? 

If so, snap a picture and upload it with the tag "workshifting" on Flikr. Then, check out www.workshifting.com to see the photo feed and read what others have to say about the world of remote work. 

Work is going mobile, remote and online. Companies that support flexible working arrangements and provide employees with the tools they need to get work done anywhere and collaborate with others via the web attract and retain talent and achieve higher degrees of productivity and satisfaction.  In short, we get more done and have more fun.

I need to be clear up front that this is not a blog about our Citrix Online products.  Although there is a way to resell the Online SaaS products, that is a discussion for another blog.  This blog is about setting up your data center to host Windows applications in a Software as a Service model using the Citrix Cloud Center (C3) products. 

I recently spoke to Byron Altridge, Vice President at ClubDrive, one of our new Citrix Service Providers in the U.S. about his company's success in this space and he was kind enough to share with me how they are becoming one of the fastest growing companies in Atlanta.  From a business perspective, Byron told me they are pretty much doing everything by the book in regards to finding the target market and providing a valued service to their customers.  Like so many other Service Providers however, they were lacking the tools to make the delivery of applications over the open Internet seamless and simple.

When the team at ClubDrive found out about the Citrix Service Provider Program, they were one of the first in line to pick it up and put it into action.  Byron turned me on to his CTO, Nathan Kelly and we went over the configuration of his data center using C3.  Nathan told me, "It's really quite simple.  We use the inherent security of XenApp by managing the applications from a single instance.  There are 2 NetScaler devices in the DMZ at each location that monitor each other locally in the event of failure and also monitor the other location devices in case of failure - this provides High Availability for the users.  And because there is so much efficiency in XenApp workloads using XenServer, the combination provides us with the best approach to making our hosting center work."  The diagram below depicts the configuration of the ClubDrive hosting center using C3 technologies.

Note that ClubDrive also opted to create fail-over redundancy using a mirrored approach deploying C3.  The combination of network optimization with NetScaler, single instance management with XenApp and server virtualization with XenServer creates the best revenue generating, cost optimized approach to hosting Windows apps.
 
Based on the popularity of this offering we will be providing both a business webinar and a follow up technical webinar for hosting service providers in July.
 
Stay tuned.

There are many security issues with remote workers. One in ten laptops is stolen. USB flash drives or memory sticks can hold large amounts of sensitive data and are easily lost, misplaced or stolen. One estimate was that 1,985 USB drives are stolen from the average major corporation every year. Home computers are unsecured and out of your control. Public wi-fi can be hacked. People can email themselves documents that can be misdirected.

 However, the reality is remote work is only going to continue to grow. From a security perspective, perhaps it would be easier if you could keep everyone behind locked and secured doors working offline, but the world of work is going mobile whether we like it or not. People travel. They use iphones and blackberries. They work on their home computers. They use public wi-fi networks. They carry laptops and flash drives. Technology and the internet is enabling increased work mobility. People want that work flexibility. And business benefits incredibly from the increased productivity, not to mention employee retention and the other benefits of enabling remote work.

How do you reconcile the two?

You can look at the security issues above and decide not to allow people to work remotely at all. The problem is it's like trying to reverse the tide. People will do it anyway. Consider the case of the government worker who copied the entire veteran's database on their laptop, which was then stolen.

Or, you could look at the security issues and determine the most prudent course is to provide every tool you can to enable remote workers to do it safely. GoToMyPC is one such tool. GoToMyPC performance and reliability is such that it's easy for people to work on documents and programs directly on their office computer – from home or while traveling. Traveling users know that they can get to a file back on their computer if they need it, so are far less likely to carry everything with them. That means workers more often leave data on a secured office computer and view it remotely and only when needed. This greatly reduces the risk that employees will carry that data out of the office where it could be lost or stolen.

GoToMyPC doesn't make the home computer or laptop part of the Corporate network. You are just using any Internet connection as a portal back to view the secured and protected office PC. That means you don't need to worry about the home computer and home security just to enable occasional after-hours remote work from home.

Because all connections are encrypted end-to-end, you can safely use public wi-fi networks, and GoToMyPC will encrypt everything you do. It's more secure to use GoToMyPC to work remotely on an office PC from a relatively blank laptop at an airport, than to be working directly from that laptop using local documents and public wi-fi.

If you think about it, GoToMyPC is no riskier than giving workers a key to the office. They can't do anything with GoToMyPC they can't do by walking into the office every day and turning on their computer. In fact, in some ways it is a lesser exposure since their access is restricted to their computer only. (You can't steal office supplies if you're working remotely.)

GoToMyPC has many built-in security features that greatly reduce the risk of connecting to a computer remotely.  As with most things, the biggest risk is password exposure. Unlike some other products, GoToMyPC requires two passwords with strong requirements, an account password and a computer access code that resides on the computer and is never transmitted or stored on GoToMyPC servers. These can be used in conjunction with a separate windows password so there are many levels of safeguards. Limited log-in attempts also offer protection, and it's easy to change passwords at any time. You can also choose (or require) people to use a new password for every log in with the one-time password feature. The Corporate version can also integrate with RSA SecurID. 

Other security features include automatic disconnection after inactivity, screen blanking and keyboard and mouse lockout protection, HIPAA and GLBA compliance, VeriSign, SSL, 128-bit AES encryption, etc.

GoToMyPC Pro and GoToMyPC Corporate let you administer access for your entire company. You can add, remove and manage users, even report on exactly when they were working. Best of all, it's incredibly simple to roll out and administer so it won't tap your IT resources – and you can save money by not supplying and maintaining as many laptops to remote workers.

The next time an employee asks if they can use GoToMyPC, consider – do you want a more productive employee safely connecting to their office computer from home or while traveling? Or do you want them copying your customer database or product roadmap to a flash drive and carrying it around in their pocket?

The idea of allowing people to connect in to your office from anywhere may seem risky, but not allowing it may actually prove riskier.

For additional IT questions about GoToMyPC, call 888-646-0016.

GoToMyPC Product Comparison 

GoToMyPC Security FAQs 

GoToMyPC Corporate Security Whitepapers and Documentation

A customer calls describing a baffling problem on their computer. You try to explain what they should do to diagnose and fix the problem, but it's excruciating.  If you could just SEE their computer, you know you could fix it in a minute.

The great thing is taking over a computer remotely is now fast and easy. Provided there is internet access on both sides, there's no reason to make on-site visits or labor over the phone.

You can use a number of the Citrix products for remote support and trouble-shooting, but how do they differ and which one is best for you?  It depends on who you are and your needs:

The Heavy Lifter: You run a support organization. Your department provides software support for a large number of customers (maybe even internationally). You want to get into remote support session via the phone, but also let people ask questions on your web site and easily go from chat to full screen-sharing and remote control. You want to record the sessions for quality assurance, monitor and transfer sessions, survey customers, run reports and even integrate into your business systems. You should use GoToAssist Corporate, the best-in-breed solution for remote support.

The One-Man (or Woman) Shop: You are an IT or computer consultant or you work on an internal help desk. What you really need is just a super-easy way to quickly take over someone's computer and fix it. Basic diagnostics, file transfer and chat would be nice, but key is it's easy for you and the people you are supporting. You may even have multiple sessions going at one time, and want to switch between them, or access a customer's computer later when they aren't using it. You should use try GoToAssist Express. Cost after trial is $69/month or less for an annual plan.

The One-Timer: You just want to take over someone's computer right now. Today. For as little money as possible. You don't need a long-term solution. You should use GoToAssist Express. If you've already done a free trial, buy a day pass for $9.95.

The Trusted Advisor: You are in a position to recommend technology to your customers, many of whom are small businesses who care about their own productivity and need to be able to work remotely. Encourage them to sign up for GoToMyPC so they can work on their office computers from home or while traveling. They increase their work flexibility for only $19.95/month. Anyone who has GoToMyPC can right-click the icon in their system tray and select "Invite Guest to PC". Have them invite you whenever they need help - no cost to you.

The Family Fix-it: Your mom or dad is hopeless on the computer and you're sick of traveling to their house for every little computer issue they have. The next time you visit, install GoToMyPC on their computer for regular help.  If it's infrequent or an immediate one-time need, consider that GoToAssist Express day pass.

The Social Butterfly: You provide support and training to groups of people. You would get value from a web conferencing solution to reduce travel and increase your productivity. Sometimes you need to take over someone's computer remotely and fix it, but it's not your primary need. You should try GoToMeeting, which lets you share your screen with up to 15 attendees and comes with integrated phone or VOIP audio conferencing. Cost after trial is $49/month or less for an annual plan. You can use it for support by starting a meeting, then making your customer the presenter to view their screen.  

In a previous post I mentioned a free podcast of a GoToWebinar we did with Seth Godin. Among Seth's accomplishments is a top-rated blog as ranked by ad age.  Another blogger on this list, Chris Brogan, happened to be visiting our Citrix Online offices in Santa Barbara last week to train a group of us on the topic of "social media". Dreading the hard chairs and long monologue, I prepped myself for a long training session with a large cup of coffee laced with espresso.

Little did I know that Chris had once offered to shave his head if he ever hit #1 on the ad age list. As it turns out, that day he popped to the top spot just above Seth Godin, and as a result, we enjoyed a highly interactive and rewarding lesson in social media. More on that in a minute.

At first I was skeptical of Chris's claims about the profound implications of social media (My rule of thumb, if anyone says something is going to be "as big as email," be skeptical.) However, after a hands-on lesson, I think there are some profound and positive implications.

1. Social media is highly relevant to your career. The larger and more engaged your online networking, the better able you are to get help from others, find a job, etc. The secret is to help others first. Take Chris Brogan as an example. His blog is influential because he creates content useful to other people. He has over a hundred LinkedIn recommendations, but he's also recommended more people than that. People help him because he has helped them. Social networking has always been the best way to find a job -- or create a movement. Chris' big, fat online network means he's better off than most of us in that area (not without cost as he doesn't sleep). His world of social media is just the old-world social contract writ large.

2. Social media could bring an unprecedented level of transparency to the world of business and perhaps even humanize the corporation. For companies accustomed to controlling the message, this could be scary. With Twitter, an Amazon glitch can spread like wildfire through social networks. When everyone can review your products, you have to be more open about the good and bad. What's more, when you respond to customers in a format like twitter, or speak in a blog like this, it is from a person, not a corporate entity. I am writing this post, not all of us at Citrix. And when you put your name on something, you take more personal responsibility for it. It becomes more real. More human, and more powerful.

3. Great content will get people's attention. In a more fragmented world, we may not be able to interrupt people with mass advertising as easily, but if we engage each other with useful information, the traffic will come. When you look at the top-ranked posts on Digg or Stumbleupon or Delicious, lots of them are helpful, well-ordered information, such as "40 Awesome iPhone Application Websites." (Anything with iPhone in it seems instantly popular.) Once you provide useful and educational content, perhaps people will be more interested in what you have to sell.

4. Emotion is powerful. Some of the most viral content on the web connects on an emotional level. In reflecting on the Susan Doyle phenomenon or a popular viral video like, Where is Matt, I'm struck by how they both involve an ordinary person inspiring strangers - through music or a silly dance - in a way that's surprising and delightful. Both have moral resonance. Don't pre-judge. We are all connected. I love that the social web rewards this.

5. Charity begins online. We convinced Chris to go ahead and shave his head right then and there during our training class last week - with a live online video stream and twitter updates, documented via iPhone and Flip. Plus, Chris put out the call for donations, and then it was truly a commitment. Charity is another viral lightening rod. From this impromptu event, Chris has raised $4355 (last I checked) from lots of individual donors, not including Corporate donators including Citrix. The dollars went up, the hair came off, his network buzzed. It was incredible to watch because this shows the true power of social media and the impact it can have for the greater good.

Where all this leaves me is feeling generally optimistic. There are negatives and drawbacks to unfiltered mob-created information (and misinformation), but if social media also rewards generosity, transparency, humanity and charity, all I can say is, count me in.

Our GoToWebinar team puts on web events with leading industry experts and invites target audiences to attend. What you might not know is that they also record these webinars and now post them to iTunes where they are available as free podcasts that anyone can listen to at any time. Some of the speakers and topics include:

• Seth Godin and the Future of marketing on the 14 trends that are changing the way we do business.
• Selling in Tough Times, an interview with Jim Dickie of CSO Insights
• The ROI of Moving Training Online
• Communicating Effectively with your Employees
• Make Training Online as Effective as in Person with Roger Courville, founder of the 1080 Group
• Presentations That Make the Sale
• Managing a Mobile and Remote Workforce
• Using Webinars to Engage Prospects with webinar expert Ken Molay
• Increase Reach with Webinars, an interview with Webinar guru David Cleary
  

Note that to listen to the podcasts, you have to have iTunes.  While you're in iTunes, a couple of other business podcasts that I enjoy and recommend:

• Harvard Ideacast: Generally short, interesting interviews with business authors and academics.
• TEDTalks: The conferences are hard to get into and sell out way in advance, but you can watch the very diverse and often compelling presentations on innovation and ideas as podcasts for free.

Inside tip from Citrix Online: Check out www.goview.com. This is an easy way to record, edit and share content, available as a free limited beta. (If you register and it's full, just wait until they allow more people in.) We're finding tons of ways to use it. 

First, How It Works:

1. Click "record" and it starts recording audio and everything on your screen.
2. Click "stop" and it provides a URL you can use to share your recording.
3. If desired, you can edit your recording, add title slides, or export it.

10 Cool Ways to Use it: 

1. Training: Create short training videos. It's so simple, anyone can create a fast recorded training explaining how to do something on your computer and send it out to customers, co-workers or customize for an individual customer. 
2. Marketing Demos: This is an easy way to create demos highlighting product functionality for use on web sites or wherever. 
3. Sales: Answer prospect questions. If you have frequent questions that require detailed explanation - show, don't just tell. Record the answer on your screen and send the link to your prospect.  
4. Customer Service: Answer questions faster. Record snippets answering frequent questions and send those out to people. If you can't reach someone, send them a video answer.  
5. QA, Catch Bugs: Use it to record funky or malfunctioning behavior and report it. 
6. Collaboration: An employee recently sent me a screen recording of proposed survey functionality so I could approve it. This is great. You can show how something might work on your computer and send out a link to get other people's feedback. 
7. Record a presentation: Record and talk through your presentation then share it. 
8. Side-by-Side Comparisons: I recently recorded a comparison of myself using GoToMyPC to work remotely vs. a competitor and shared it in an internal meeting. It helped drive home my point which was how fast and easy GoToMyPC is for after-hours remote work. 
9. IT, Help Desk and Support: Tired of answering the same questions? Record the on-screen steps to take and refer people to those. 
10. Usability: You could record someone interacting with your web site or product and then share that with others.  
What have I missed?  I'd love to hear how other people are using GoView.

In 1993 Bell Atlantic was frantically trying to figure out how to deploy television services over their network to compete with the then emerging Cable companies.  They failed.  In 1998 Verizon embarked on a campaign to provide television through their network starting with high rise apartments and condominium complexes in order to quicken the pace of deployment through what was then called MDU (Multi Dwelling Unit) delivery.  Deals were struck with huge developers and a 50 city roll out started in 2000.  They failed.  In 2001 BellSouth began deploying FTTC (Fiber to the Curb) in an effort to deliver entertainment services to their subscribers through high bandwidth fiber optic cable.  They failed.  In 2005 Southwestern Bell Communications (SBC) announced U-verse, a Very high speed Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (VHDSL) based Internet Protocol (IP) television service in Texas.  On December 16, 2008 SBC (now AT&T) announced it had signed its 1 million^th U-Verse customer.  This is a far cry from the tens of millions of customers that the cable companies have secured, but finally shows some traction. 

Why is AT&T succeeding when there has been such a long history of failure in this space?  Because over the past 10 years while Telcos have been failing at providing Cable entertainment services, cable companies like Comcast have been devouring phone subscribers.  In fact, Comcast just announced they are the fourth largest phone operator in the U.S. with 6.47 million subscribers.  It's a matter of business.  The Telco now has to succeed at providing alternate services because they have fierce competition over their core business... namely telephony.

The moral of the story is not to sell your Telco stocks or even be dismayed by the lethargic progress of these monoliths.  The moral is that whenever large corporations attempt large game changing moves, time is the only way to measure success.  Secondly, the measure of technology push and consequently adoption sometimes has to do with market pressure from competition and not just increasing revenues but protecting them as well.

So what does all of this have to do with Software as a Service?  Well, take for instance the fact that Microsoft (as well as others) started to deliver their software over the Internet in 2000, created ASP.net in 2002 and has been hard at it ever since.  With hundreds of thousands of hosted Exchange licenses in this space it's safe to say that Microsoft is entrenched and growing.  With all of the business customers that Telcos like AT&T have, why aren't they also growing this (SaaS) business?  The answer is simple.  It has not yet begun to encroach on the core telephony business.  Or has it?  The enterprise space is usually the place that large telephony companies start new services.  One only has to look at Voice over IP (VoIP) implementations to see this.  Adoption of VoIP in the Telco subscription base has grown dramatically over the past few years.  And even though the growth has slowed in this economy, there is an extending strategy emerging for mobile use of VoIP.  This is the first entry of IP delivery services to business from the Telco showing traction.

Will the big Telcos or Service Providers be competition or partners for applications hosting providers?

All of this creates opportunity for existing Tier 2 Hosting/Managed Service Providers.  Why?  Large service providers do not set the pace for early adoption.  The iPhone is one exception but even then it was actually Apple who set the pace and not AT&T.  As more businesses adopt SaaS and the market share grows, Tier 1 service providers will be forced to reckon with the delivery of applications over their networks.

Since brand is the number one asset among these service providers they will be looking to purchase "white label" offerings which have a proven track record in services, especially those that scale.  These will be the Tier 2 applications hosting companies who show promise in their subscription growth, but more importantly have adopted a strategy for growth of their data centers which adds scale and flexibility.  Since Xen is used prolifically today in large service implementations XenServer would be a likely choice for HA (High Availability) and management.  And since XenApp is the most prolific application delivery platform on the planet and has the highest utilization capacity on XenServer of any hypervisor/SBC combination, it would make sense to use it in a hosting environment for scale.

If you want to grow your current hosting business beyond Microsoft Exchange, you need to look at what a long term strategy is for servicing millions of subscribers, not just a few thousand.  Sure, in this economy you will need to pay the light bills with your core business and not throw money (CapEx and OpEx) to the wind.  But you better have a plan for sustained growth or you will be eaten alive by those companies who see the storm on the horizon for mass market application delivery.  If you don't believe me all you have to do is look to what happened last year at GE.  Even Google Apps won't compete in this market when there is an alternative that scales better like Zoho.

This is not to say you should dump all of your Windows apps... quite the opposite, for the Tier 1 service provider to pick up your service in mass, the applications will have to be in the main stream.  Launch what SMBs want and need, do it cost effectively and form a strategy for growth... that's the road to the big leagues.

If you want to learn more about a holistic approach that scales, check out the podcast that Doug Brown did a few weeks ago entitled, "Citrix Cloud Computing".

"What this power is, I cannot say. All I know is that it exists...and it becomes available only when you are in that state of mind in which you know exactly what you want...and are fully determined not to quit until you get it." - Alexander Graham Bell  (Kind of ironic don't you think?)

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In reference to hosting applications in this new Cloud world I recently heard from a guy I admire and respect, "We've been here before and all that came out of this was a bunch of hype." When we consider what happened to the Application Service Providers in 2000 that is a fair assessment. So the million dollar question(s) today is who is making money hosting applications, what applications are they using and who are they selling these subscriptions to?

The answer is a bit complex because hosting service providers come in many shapes and sizes. However, if we only take into consideration those service providers who are actually charging for application delivery (subscription of applications) and not outsourcing companies who are mainly infrastructure providers, we can distill the market down to just a few distinct categories. The chart below is a depiction of the types of applications most subscribed to in this emerging space.

Human Resource Management Systems, Collaboration and Communications, Customer Relationship Management and Content Management Systems top the list of applications being delivered via hosting among Small and Medium Businesses (SMB). When we look at the practical application of these services, there is a business reason for why this is happening. 

Smaller companies do not have the capacity for overhead related to support functions within Human Resources such as Payroll, Talent Management, Employee Review processes, etc.  It makes absolute sense that these services would be either completely outsourced or applications hosted that perform the needed function. 

In order to cut the cost of expense items such as travel, Collaboration and Conferencing using the Internet and hosted applications is a sure fired way to accomplish this.  I've got to plug Citrix Online here... some say the 3^rd largest SaaS concern in the world for this category.  Corporate email is a good fit in this category as well.  There are currently over one hundred million unmanaged electronic mailboxes worldwide today and using email that has no business continuity is dangerous and unprofessional.  SMBs use hosted business email such as Microsoft Exchange to mitigate this issue.

Customer Relationship Management services shouldn't be a surprise to anyone with the success of Saleforce.com.  But there are many CRM packages used in this space.  Using a product like XenApp to virtualize applications opens the door to products typically used in the Enterprise but can now be scaled to operate in the larger Internet cloud.  Citrix has customers today who (internally) host CRM software using XenApp to thousands of end points in remote locations worldwide.

Content Management Systems may be a bit of a surprise for some.  However, document management and workflow is a critical need especially in market verticals such as Healthcare (HIPAA) and Finance (SOX).  When requirements of this magnitude are levied on the SMB the overhead can be overwhelming.  So the IT management of a system like this is a burden not many SMBs are willing to bear.  Application hosting is a cost effective alternative.  I recently spoke to an ISV in this space who started selling his application to SMBs in the insurance industry.  It became unmanageable to scale his business so he started to host the application 8 years ago.  Now he has 12,000 SMBs using the software.

Order Management, Enterprise Relationship Planning, Web 2.0 applications and Supply Chain Management round out the list.  And there it is... the applications making the most impact and therefore the most revenue in the SaaS space among SMBs. 

What if business productivity applications such as Microsoft Office could be offered up through the Internet (Cloud)?  Service providers who have tried this before might say that this is impossible because Office wasn't designed to be hosted... but what if you could do it using a platform that could make Office run as though it were local?  Wouldn't that be great?  Citrix has the technology and the products to accomplish this and my guess is it won't be long until service providers (in 2009) actually use it to host these types of applications.

Here's another surprise.  In an economy that is shrinking in virtually every other aspect of IT, applications hosting is still growing.  What are you waiting for?

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Analysts and technology companies alike have been attempting to describe the totality of Cloud Computing in terms of technology and business application.  The problem to date is that there has not been a single company who is both actively creating applications as well as producing the infrastructure and delivery mechanisms to deliver applications in the Cloud.  I usually don't promote Citrix right up front in my blogs, but in this case, Citrix is the core of the discussion in that we are the only company in the world today that plays across the entire spectrum of the Cloud.  I'd like to start with a basic picture to depict this strength and then describe each area. 

The Cloud can be described in these vertical planes by generalizing between Services and Infrastructure.  Along the horizontal plane the spectrum of the Cloud stretches from the software companies producing the applications (Independent Software Vendors - ISV) to the ultimate utility infrastructure for architectures with a foundation of servers which are virtualized.  The core product families at Citrix not only fit this paradigm, but by definition are core to the way in which Cloud Computing is developed and delivered.

Note first of all that without applications the cloud has no purpose.  The spectrum starts with the ISV.  Citrix Online's core technology and business proposition is rooted firmly in the ISV and SaaS portions of the cloud (http://www.citrixonline.com/products.tmpl?SessionInfo=20196379:BC688DECBA73756).  In fact, Online is actually the 5^th largest SaaS supplier in the world.  This gives us a keen understanding of what it takes to produce applications and deliver them to millions of subscribers around the world through a subscription model.

Next, Citrix has designed an application delivery technology used by 98% of the Fortune 500 companies around the world, XenApp.  Huge companies like Bechtel looking for ways in which to change the way they do business are adopting a variant of SaaS through what they call the Project Services Network producing an "on demand environment for application and data access" (http://web.citrix.com/go/synergy_08/vote/). And because the base software has been designed to work in these complex environments it shouldn't be surprising that Citrix also is the world leader in the delivery of applications embedded with high end graphics. (http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/derekt/2009/02/06/New+Multimedia+Capabilities+%28and+more+to+come%29).

Recognizing the need for entire desktop virtualization, XenDesktop is rapidly becoming the Desktop as a Service choice for many companies looking to augment their current application delivery approach.  Citrix leads the market in the flexibility of the DaaS through the latest release of the XenDesktop product.  My friend and colleague, Simon Crosby recently spoke on the topic and our future plans in this space in an interview with Doug Brown (http://www.dabcc.com/multimedia.aspx).

Moving to the far right of the spectrum we know that eventually the delivery of software will have to follow a utility model closely related to the Telco in order to be available to the mass market consumer.  So in an effort to begin to bridge that gap, Citrix has begun work in what is called the Elastic Compute Cloud or EC2 (http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=58196960&showComments=true#comments).  In this environment, Citrix has demonstrated a future view of what will be Infrastructure as a Service using XenServer and the Xen Hypervisor as the core technology.

Finally, NetScaler has been a critical element of the Cloud for a number of years.  Providing web application acceleration and network optimization, this is a core technology to enable the infrastructure that delivers the applications through the Cloud.

I challenge anyone who thinks they know of a company better aligned with all aspects of Cloud Computing and has not only the vision for the future of application delivery, but a business model and technology today to actually deploy it and allow customers to produce revenues from it.  Look for an upcoming Podcast hosted by Doug Brown including discussion from Brad Pedersen and Kurt Moody to round out this discussion (http://www.dabcc.com/multimedia.aspx).

The following trademarks appear in this blog: Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows are a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries, SAP is a registered trademark of SAP Corporation in the U.S. and in other countries, Firefox is a registered trademark of Mozilla, an Internet Community, Safari is a registered trademark of Apple Inc in the U.S. and other countries. 

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Why is it that we become so polarized when it comes to Information Technology?  "I'm a Mac guy!-I'm a PC guy! Linux is the only way! iPhone vs. Blackberry, you must be kidding! Win Server 2003 vs. Win Server2008!  Web apps are the only way!"  I know it's good to have opposing views and diversity is the foundation of change, but polarizing to any extreme just doesn't map with reality, does it?

Ten years ago the polarization around web based applications began.  Adobe is probably the best example of how this technology has emerged.  There was a day when loading someone's client on your PC or laptop was seen as obtrusive and even a security risk.  But now we are constantly reminded to upgrade our Flash player or we won't be able to access the latest multimedia.  To be sure, web app technology including Flash have come a long way and have enhanced our ability to get the information we need more rapidly.  But when I sit down to put a spreadsheet together chances are I'm not going to launch IE or Firefox to get started.  There is a job for every tool and a tool for most every job.  That's what my grandfather used to tell me and I think it applies to the world of IT as well.  In that regard, if we postulate that Google Apps is going to take over the world of application delivery any time soon, I think time will tell a different story.  But just to round out the playing field I'd like to examine some of the misnomers around a web app only world.

First and foremost there is the issue of what works best for the job.  As I mentioned, like it or not, Microsoft Excel owns the lion's share of the spreadsheet market by leaps and bounds.  Even if there were another application with a more user friendly experience the typical consumer of this application would still adopt what he knows (learned behavior) over what is new. So if a "universal" web app emerged tomorrow it would take years to get mass market adoption.  And even if that were to happen, we would still have to the issues of file storage and file sharing to contend with.  The point is the information technology world we live and work in takes advantage of both O/S dependent applications and web/browser based applications. 

But what if overnight, we all just decided enough is enough and we want to simplify the world of IT by only using web based applications?  Are they universal enough that every application would run on every end point every time it was accessed?  Let's explore...

Leaving aside the problem of learned behavior for O/S dependant applications, web based apps have a myriad of obstacles to overcome.  First are the physical machine and the physical network limitations.  Have you ever tried to stream a high definition video on a 5 year old PC (or MAC) on a dial-up network?  Even if you increased the bandwidth to Business Class DSL/Cable Modem you'd have to shut down every other web app just to get the clip running.  So there is first the problem of embedded multi-media over low bandwidth/high latency networks.  Surely everyone has access to 100 mbps Ethernet, don't they?  No, in fact they don't.  Most of the SMB world still lives off of a connection of 3-6 mbps with no specified SLA and that bandwidth is shared for the entire office.According to Kurt Moody, Senior Technical Marketing Manager at Citrix, "The development of web-based applications has been perceived as a fundamental competitor to traditional Windows desktop applications and therefore to some extent is considered the largest competitive threat to Citrix XenApp.  The reality for many enterprises is that although the web based applications themselves present a form of Server-based computing from an application development perspective, from an application delivery perspective the critical potential point of failure is the web browser itself, which in many cases is a Windows desktop application that presents the same version and lifecycle maintenance challenges of other desktop applications.  Many businesses have determined that using Citrix XenApp to deliver the required Web Browser and application presents a much more predictable environment to the broadest set of users and use cases with a lower TCO."  Not that XenApp solves all of the problems listed above, but it still provides the best case user experience even over low bandwidth, high latency networks.

How about the browser environment itself?  According to David Wagner, Architect and Product Manager at Citrix, "While it is easy to make the argument that the complexity and headaches that exist across multiple browsers has diminished somewhat over that last few years, there are still plenty of pain points this creates for all of us.  Challenges such as a browser version or needed plug-ins still occur particularly when using shared or common devices.  Sure if it is your personal PC or your company's laptop or desktop it is often easy enough to add what you need but what if you are using a hotel device?  Or a public venue kiosk?  Or some mobile device?  Making any change or modification at all is just not going to happen.

From a developer's point of view, wouldn't it be nice to focus on one or two browsers?  And maybe just a handful of configurations?  It would be if you were sure all your users had access to that version and configuration setup.  Otherwise you will be developing, testing and validating for every combination you can expect a user to leverage which usually means picking as many as you can manage to test and validate with each release and thus we have our published 'supported list'.  E.g. if you are trying to use this app and are experiencing issues and you are not using a configuration on the supported list we can't help you."

So what exactly do the Cloud initiatives of 2009 present to mitigate these web application issues?  Nothing really.  The Cloud is a mechanism for providing utility in the mass delivery of applications, not the end-all, be-all.  Even when Cloud delivery infrastructure becomes a reality, we still have these fundamental issues to grapple with.  That's why Citrix is taking the more holistic approach to the entire eco system.  From the creation of web based apps (Citrix Online products) to the virtualization of workloads in the datacenter (XenServer) to the delivery of both web and non-web applications (XenApp/XenDesktop) we provide the architecture to economically and efficiently provide services (applications) to the end points.... And we've been doing it for years. 

Stay tuned for the next discussion on Managed Service Providers vs. Independent Software Vendors providing SaaS.

I'm kind of a stickler for simplification so I always like to set the stage by making sure terms are defined and understood before launching into a diatribe of alphabet soup over acronyms that mean ten different things to ten different people.  For instance, it seems today (much like the era of the dot-com) that if someone drops the suffix "aaS" at the end of a subject or object it immediately becomes newsworthy.  For instance a statement like MSPs who provide SaaS or DaaS must use either AIaaS or APaaS to achieve true IaaS, is in my opinion condescending.  It's kind of like using the word Grok.  If you don't know what it means, then you must not be educated enough to use it.  Do you grok SaaS?

These kinds of acronyms and esoteric terms only confuse the poor guy who is trying to make a decision about how to run his business more cost effectively.  The small business owner is still trying to figure out what an "XP Pro" is or why there is so much hype over Vista vs. OS 10 (PC Guy vs. Apple Guy).  And the more software/computer science literate business owner wants to know why he has to pay for an entire staff of guys to keep his PCs running when he could do it all himself if he only had the time.  In either case, especially in this economy, at the end of the day it's all about the bottom line in business. Techno jargon is meaningless if it has no bearing on profitability. For these business owners if it costs less to do business by outsourcing part of the business, that's exactly what they are going to do.  But the message better be simple as to how they go about it.  So whether or not the small or medium sized business (SMB) owner can decipher Managed Service Providers (MSPs) who provide Software as a Service (SaaS) or Desktops as a Service (DaaS) must use either Application Infrastructure as a Service (AIaaS) or Application Platforms as a Service (APaaS) to achieve true Integration as a Service (IaaS), doesn't mean a hill of beans if it doesn't help his bottom line.  What is really important is for the MSP to quickly articulate his value proposition to the SMB owner so that there is no question about the service provided and its relative value to the business.  To start, according to Wikipedia, Software as a Service "is a model of software deployment where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the Internet. By eliminating the need to install and run the application on the customer's own computer, SaaS alleviates the customer's burden of software maintenance, ongoing operation, and support."  Now that's pretty understandable even for the guy who doesn't know what an XP Pro is.

Even with this distinction however there are still different types of MSPs who provide services for a variety of different use cases.  For simplicity sake, I'll describe three variants of MSPs here but by no means does this exhaust the category.  First there is the purist MSP.  That is to say the service provider who sets up one application to be shared by hundreds or thousands of businesses for a one-to-many implementation.  On the other end of the spectrum, is the service provider who transfers an entire data center from an SMB and hosts the "custom" one-to-one environment.  The later obviously has a scaling issue in that each physical server farm must stand on its own for each individual SMB.  In between these extremes is the MSP who has a "generic" server farm (which may or may not be virtual) used to deliver applications, but not necessarily built to scale.  In this case, the SMB may have a set number of applications he wishes to have hosted, but not all applications.  Sometimes these applications are problematic and may be difficult to deliver to remote sites.  Or they may be cumbersome to manage and therefore cause an inordinate amount of time and energy for the local IT personnel.  In some cases this hybrid hoster may provide an entire environment for a specific niche.

One such hybrid is a company called AcXess Inc, http://www.acxess.com/AcXess_home.htm in Boca Raton, Florida.  AcXess is the developer of V-Works™ a new Platform for managing online Virtual Server Environments. Their services include Labs On-Demand™ for integration and consulting projects, Demos On-Demand™ for automated "live" software demonstrations and Desktops On-Demand™ for Hi-Performance remote access desktops and applications.  By focusing on the ability to host lab environments and demonstrations, this MSP has built a business with unique value to a variety of customers including Microsoft, AT&T and SAP.  Tom Elowson, CEO is no neophyte when it comes to hosted services.  He was actually one of the principals in an ASP company in 2000.  Learning from the rise and fall of that era, Tom started AcXess and a couple of other companies to take advantage of the emerging hosted services market.  His business is actually seeing growth even in these tough times, which is no surprise according to a recent article written by Scott Campbell at ChannelWeb, entitled "Study: MSPs Bucking Poor Economy", http://www.crn.com/managed-services/212902884.  The article states, "Managed service providers expect their revenue to increase by 20 percent over the next 12 months, according to a new study by research firm AMI-Partners. The study found that MSPs are being spared the impact of the downturn, and in fact may owe some success to the economy, as more businesses look to streamline IT costs through managed services."

So when it's all said and done, alphabet soup isn't where the money is... it's in the services that the SMBs are looking for.... And did I mention that AcXess uses Citrix products to power their hosted infrastructure.  Yep, they do!

The web apps are coming, the web apps are coming!  This has been the mantra in the Internet space for years now.  And the truth of the matter is that yes, the web apps are coming.  In fact, there are hundreds, if not thousands already deployed.  Many of which were designed specifically for browser based technology and are used by the masses every day.  YouTube, Facebook, and MySpace are entrenched as the debutants of social networking with applications like Twitter on the quick road to mass adoption.  In the business world, Saleforce.com is the clear leader in CRM while products like Microsoft Live, Cisco TelePresence and Citrix Online top the list for web conferencing and team collaboration.

And then there are those applications that have a dedicated connection to their original designs which are not browser based.  Intuit and SAP are two companies that come to mind. Giants in their own right, they have yet to cross the chasm from Operating System dependency to fully web enabled delivery.  To be sure, both of these companies have products in the browser space, but the bulk of their revenues still come from non web enabled applications.  The challenge for these companies (and hundreds like them) as well as the opportunity is in their ability to quickly expand their license penetration and hold the cost of doing business down.  Enter Virtualization and subscription services.

Citrix is the best kept secret in the web space from a software delivery perspective.  Many ISVs don't think to offer their products through Citrix server based computing technology mainly because there is no association between what SBC is and how an ISV sells to their customer.  Or at least that has been the problem in the past.  Now, Amazon is creating the Elastic Compute Cloud (or EC2) and the ability to offer data center functionality using the utility company model.  Pay as you go and only pay for as much (data center) as you use.  So imagine taking an existing model today for data centralization in the large enterprise, transfer the architecture to an uber-data center in the Cloud and offer software applications through a (virtually) secure, (virtually) redundant network.  And voila, a new age is born in which any here-to-for O/S dependant applications can be run on any desktop in any location by simply using a virtual environment to get it there.  Sounds pretty futuristic, huh?  Well, it is and it isn't.  It's futuristic in the sense that it hasn't been proven from a mass adoption perspective.  But then again, thirty years ago no one ever imagined driving down the road with a wireless connection to a head set which allowed voice communications (aka the cell phone) to emerge as a mass market delivery network either.

But what about today?  Is it possible to host applications that are not web based and serve them up to a mass market?  Wanna know another well kept secret?  The answer is YES.  If you don't believe me just take a look at the following web site, http://www.microsoft.com/hosting/findahostingprovider.mspx. In here you will see that Microsoft has not only embraced the concept of hosting applications that were not originally designed for web delivery, but support an entire network of hosting providers who generate income from these services.  What's even more surprising is they have been doing it for over 7 years... long before the term Software as a Service was dreamed up.

And are there really hosted service providers providing Software as a Service outside of the Salesforce.com hype?  Yep!  They are right in your backyard most of the time.  In fact several of them are already a part of the Citrix Partner Program and the focus of their business is in hosting applications.  One in particular, a company called Nasstar ( http://www.nasstar.com/) is taking the concept to the next level in the way in which they offer up an application delivery model to the SMB.  Charles Black, CEO of Nasstar had a vision that the mass market SMB would not only accept this paradigm of subscription based software applications, but would generate enough revenue to substantiate an ongoing business concern.  That was five years ago.  Now Nasstar is thriving and growing the business of subscription based software delivery (or SaaS) utilizing products like XenApp in their infrastructure.  I had a call with Charles today and he underscored the SaaS model saying, "Citrix is indeed a pioneer in this space.  [Our approach is] Citrix powered desktop and application delivery for the SMB and XenApp is the delivery platform." Futuristic?  Not anymore.

Software as a Service.  Sounds like it would be a pretty easy concept to understand.  But when we look under the hood we find that there are three differing perspectives. 

At a hundred thousand feet SaaS is a buzz word for Wall Street and investors to get excited over.  It is the intersection of off premise hardware managed by others at a location (either virtual or physical) with dedicated resources which may also be a part of the larger Internet Cloud which combines Web Hosting with shared applications.  Wow!  That's a mouthful.  No wonder so many tech savvy analysts are so excited about it.  There are enough "high hit" Google terms there to start a search engine frenzy.

The investment community represents the first of three perspectives for SaaS.  Trying to predict what the future will hold and which companies have the technology to capture more customer wallet share in the ever growing information age.  The view from this perspective is about the value of software.  Specifically will software continue to hold its value and thus hold up the value of those Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who produce it?

The second perspective is that of the software industry itself.  The opportunity is with those software companies who are blessed with no legacy code and have built their product for a distribution that takes advantage of the open Internet.  From this perspective the sky is the limit and exposure or awareness of the product is the key to attracting revenues from the mass market.  On the other hand ISVs who have invested millions of dollars in their code base and it has evolved from dedicated operating systems are not so lucky.  From their perspective SaaS could be the next crushing blow that renders their code obsolete.

Lastly we have to look at the guy who pays the bill.  The end user and for the purpose of this article, I'm going to limit that to the small and medium business.  After all, if the SMB actually makes up 80% of the total number of end points in the world, one would think that this is the most important segment to address, right?  From their perspective, SaaS doesn't matter.  All they want to know is, "how am I going to get my software applications running without an IT staff or with limited IT capabilities".  In fact if Geek Squad could figure out a way to supply physical services to every small business in the universe and manage applications on-the-fly, this would be the definition an SMB would use for Software as a Service.

If we start from the guy who pays the bills, the world of SaaS looks something like this.  A simple, secure and cost effective way to access applications and data from any device in any location.  Some ISVs understand this definition and are becoming wildly successful, because they understand the first order of business is satisfying the end customer's needs.  After all, he is paying the bill.  In the world of communication and collaboration we see products such as GoToMeeting and Microsoft Live.  The hard truth is that these products sell the best by circumventing the current IT professionals.  They are completely end user focused, have a specific use and are easily accessed from any device in any location.  In the world of Customer Relationship Management, Salesforce.com is the 800 lb gorilla.  Once again, simple to use and accessible.

But what of the thousands of applications that were built specifically for the desktop or dedicated server Operating Systems?  Are these guys just out of luck?  Will the millions of users who currently use these products suddenly stop and go to their web application cousin created by these new and emerging software vendors?  Maybe.  Eventually.  But not tomorrow.  Not in a year and maybe not for the next 5-10 years.  There are a hundred reasons why this is true.  The most compelling is risk and reliability.  The mass market by definition is not a part of early adoption.  In fact, according to Geoffrey Moore, we have an entire chasm to cross before there is mass market adoption of something as disruptive as a web app only business model.  If this were not the case, Google would be the name on your phone bill today instead of AT&T, everyone would be driving a Prius and Cable TV would have been killed by IPTV.  But these things take time and what is needed is a way to bridge the gap.

Most people in the IT industry don't think of Citrix as a mass market product company.  And since SaaS is typically associated with the mass market, don't think of Citrix playing well in this space.  That's because we have spent the bulk of our sales expertise and adoption in the large enterprise market.  Why?  Because it has taken 20 years to cross the chasm of server based computing for the mass market.  But what most people don't realize is that Citrix started out by creating products designed for low bandwidth, high latency, and low power CPU environments.  These are the basic tenants of the mass market.  Our core product, XenApp has only been enhanced for these tenants over the past 20 years.  That's why we have deployments of up to 50,000 end points within our current customer base.  No one else in the world has this type of delivery system to match the needs of the end user in the mass market for the thousands of applications that are not web based.  So as ISVs continue to look at the mounting problem of servicing the end customer in the SMB segment, Citrix will provide a simple, elegant solution to the perspective of the guy who is paying the bill... A simple, secure and cost effective way to access applications and data from any device in any location.

I wouldn't be surprised if Citrix is seen in a new light over the next couple of years.  After all, we can bridge the gap that crosses the chasm.

Twitter

According to Wikipedia a Cloud is "A visible mass of droplets or frozen crystals floating in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth". It is amorphous and very loosely structured. A Cloud has no specific strength, organization or output. A hurricane on the other hand is "a storm system characterized by a low pressure center and numerous thunderstorms that produce strong winds and flooding rain". A hurricane is organized, has form, purpose and an outcome. The center or eye of the hurricane is where the system is the most powerful and at the same time the calmest portion of the system.

Cloud Computing is interestingly fraught with the same issues of its vapor filled synonym. It is amorphous and lacks specific direction from a business perspective. It promises a world of flexibility and responsiveness, but little is said about its' form, organization, power and ability to generate an outcome, namely productivity and efficiency for revenue generation. Cloud Computing has been given an inordinate amount of power through press and hype, as though it were in fact a hurricane and not just a formless blob of vapor. But if it is truly a hurricane, what form does it have, what direction is it going and where is its power center? Who will pay for the "Cloud"? What is the model that produces enough inertia to keep it going and make money with it? The answer is simple. Applications!

What most experts neglect to write about in the dawning of this new age called Cloud Computing is its distant and ugly cousin, Applications Services. Why? Because it is so painful to recall the disastrous outcomes of the ASPs of 1999-2000. But if we don't scrutinize and learn from the past, how will we succeed by simply changing the taxonomy. The revenue generating end of the Cloud is applications and Software as a Service is the platform by which these applications will be delivered.

So much has changed since the Application Services model first came on the scene 10 years ago. Bandwidth is cheaper, web applications have evolved (or have they?), security is much better, and the virtualization of data centers is becoming common place. Hosting providers have become much savvier and have carved niches out to produce revenues. How? Through the efficient delivery of applications or Software as a Service. The golden child in this space is Salesforce.com for CRM, but what about the 2,000+ hosting providers in North America alone who service the SMB? In many cases these hosting providers supply the same applications that failed so miserably in 2000. What's changed? A model that now allows flexibility of application delivery to the end point in a secure, efficient way AND a mass of customers willing to pay for it.

So if SaaS is a growing market (most analysts believe it is now $3-5 Billion for the SMB with a CAGR of 20 %+), where is all of this money coming from? In this current economy Small and Mid-sized companies are looking for every possible way to save a buck. They are using SaaS to minimize operating expenses that used to be a part of their every day processes. But even in the best of economic times, using SaaS provides a huge amount of flexibility and is great for cash flow. In one survey, over 70% of the SMB respondents reported SaaS is helping them to lower overall costs and increasing their speed of implementation and delivery of applications. These are two killer assets especially given the current economic situation. No wonder this is a growth market in a declining economy.

Citrix is addressing the entire spectrum of the Cloud. From Infrastructure as a Service (XenServer) to Desktop as a Service (XenDesktop) through application delivery providing Software as a Service (XenApp). This approach goes beyond theory to the basic elements of revenue generation. The very core technology of XenApp, for instance, is based on the concept that software should be 'delivered' as a service, not deployed. As the market continues to evolve, Citrix will emerge as a leader in this space because we had it in mind twenty years ago when we began to evolve server based computing.

The hurricane is where Citrix is focused, not just the Cloud and we already have the technology to power a significant revenue generating engine for which service providers will gain efficiency and bottom line cost savings. Citrix XenApp provides the infrastructure for Hosting Service Providers to more efficiently generate revenues from the delivery of applications... in the eye of the "Cloud" storm.

This is the first in a series of topics regarding Software as a Service and the growing need to develop virtual application delivery platforms to meet the demand of this quickly growing market place. Topics include 'SaaS - What is it really?', 'Is there room for Virtualization of applications in the Cloud', 'Are all Hosting/Managed Services Providers the same?', 'Web Apps - Are they universal?', 'Is SaaS for Hosted/Managed Services Providers or for ISVs?', 'What is the role of an SI in SaaS', 'Where are the Telcos?', 'What is Citrix doing in SaaS?'

Key contributors to this series will include Brad Pedersen (Chief Architect and Senior Fellow), Juliano Maldaner (Senior Architect), David Wagner (Principal Product Manager) and Kurt Moody (Senior Manager).

Twitter

Hello Mac Users

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

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

 Meet the Citrix Blogs Widget

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• The latest 30 Citrix Blog posts
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 Version 1.2:

• Widget Resizing
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Requirements:

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Citrix Blogs Widget

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

cheers,
Gus

From: blog.gotoassist.com

Here is a video of Nat Kunes, Product Manager for GoToAssist Express, doing a product demo. If you would like to learn more about individual features, you can sign up for one of our GoToWebinar trainings - we usually send out email invites two weeks ahead of time.

If you would like to comment on this post, please log in to the Beta Forum at forums.gotoassist.com.