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Over the past couple of years I've had a number of customers and prospectives ask me for different ways of evaluating XenApp because they wanted to show someone how it worked really quickly without having to use their production system. Or, they got the Receiver for iPhone but didn't have their system configured to use it. Or, they were meeting with the head of another department at work and wanted to show them the power of application virtualization with Citrix XenApp.
Well, now you can with 3 easy ways to get an evaluation system to meet your specific needs.
- Eval in the Cloud - A pre-configured, rapid evaluation system that anyone can use to see the power of virtualizing applications for themselves. This system is great for anyone from an end-user to a non-technical family member. It requires no investment or hardware and doesn;t need any installation since it's already configured. EVAL LENGTH: 2 hours, 1-User
- Evaluation Virtual Appliance - A completely pre-configured virtual machine system running XenApp, the EVA runs on Xen or Hyper-V and helps your quickly virtualize your own apps and deliver them to anyone. It's got an illustrated quick start guide that leads you through the process of profiling, publishing and accessing applications. You can even add the machine to your domain. It's perfect for the techie that's new to XenApp but who doesn't want to get their hands covered in grease. This system is also perfect as a test bed for applications and application compatibility. It's also useful for testing scripts created with Workflow studio. Some admin's have even found it helpful for stdying up to take Citrix certification exams. EVAL LENGTH: 60-days, 99-User
- Product Media - This is XenApp installation media that is downloadable from Citrix.com. You can also order physical media from customer care. The great thing here is you'll have everything you need to create a completely customized evaluation environment including licenses which we've made available online. EVAL LENGTH: 90-days, 99-User
So the net-net is that there is now an evaluation option for nearly any scenario and you now have more options for getting demo or evaluation XenApp environments up and running with very little effort, if any at all. Check these options out for yourselves at the XenApp evaluation center.
Please let us know what you think.
Sincerely,
Vinny Sosa
Follow XenApp on 
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I remember when I was in the field, among the many things that partners wanted were better options for evaluating Citrix XenApp. The reason is because they have many prospects calling on them asking for an evaluation but no way to service them - either because of lack of resources or lack of budget or committment from the customer. See, customers come in many phases of preparedness. Some are just learning about application virtualization and just want to kick the tires on something. Others have budget and are seriously committed to finding the right solution. You've got to have options that help you bring the early stage folks up to the qualified lead level while limiting the amount of resources needed by you to get them there.
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*Vinny Sosa*- Mr. Cheap - This type of prospect knows a bit about application virtualization and may have the hardware to run their own evaluation system but want free help from you to set it up. As a partner, you're stuck because your engineering time is money so you need to charge for this. At the same time, you don't want to say no and just send them away to bark up another partners tree. This is the perfect use case for the Citrix Evaluation Virtual Appliance. It's a completely pre-configured virtual machine system running XenApp. it runs on Xen or Hyper-V and helps customers quickly virtualize their own apps and deliver them to their own users. It's got an illustrated quick start guide that leads them through the process of profiling, publishing and accessing applications. They can even add the machine to their domain. It's still a basic system with none of the Platinum level features turned on which makes it a handy way to get their foot in the door without trampling on your value-add and without adding any unnecessary complexity to your sale. This also leaves lots for you to discuss when you finally come on site to sell them your services and expertise. Licenses are also available online and the system will support 99 users and timeout in 60 days. The system can even be expanded if you wish by adding the Platinum features with a manual installation.
- Mr. Custom - This type of prospect knows what application virtualization is to some degree and they aren't afraid of getting their hands dirty. They likely have budget to solve a particular problem and they might also have the time and resources to do it themselves. They likely have hardware that they can use and the know-how to read documentation (ahem
). This is the kind of customer you want to be dealing with. You'll either sell them evaluation services that will roll into a deal with implementation and support services or watch from the side-lines guiding their evaluation as it progresses and sell them product, implementation and support services at the end. In any case, this type of evaluation will leverage XenApp media that is downloadable from Citrix.com or you'll give them physical DVD media. Great thing here is we've made licenses available online as well so it's easier for you to obtain for them or for them to obtain themselves. Another great thing is that the eval is limited to 90 days. Additionally, you'll be dealing with a more knowledgeable customer so the design phase should go a lot smoother if you know what you're doing. On the downside, if you don't know what you're doing the same will be easier by the knowledgeable customer to sense so be prepared and send in your very best.
So the net-net is that there is now an evaluation option for nearly any type of customer and the best part about it is that you now have options for limiting the involvement of profitable engineers and also for empowering your sales team to do more on their own. Check it out for yourselves at the XenApp evaluation center.
Please let us know what you think of these new evaluation options.
Sincerely,
Vinny Sosa
Follow XenApp on | | |
Oracle EBS 12.1 runs on XenApp
Citrix XenApp™, a member of the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, is the industry's de facto standard for delivering Windows-based applications with the best performance, security and cost savings. XenApp is the most complete application virtualization system available with the ability to virtualize applications on both the client side and server side, delivering them on demand based on the user, the application or the location (online or offline).
By centralizing applications and data in secure datacenters, IT can reduce the costs of management and support, increase data security and facilitate business continuity. XenApp Platinum Edition adds critical capabilities for application performance monitoring, secure remote access, WAN optimization and single-sign-on application security.
Citrix XenApp is compatible with Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1. Organizations of any size can deploy XenApp on industry standard servers anywhere in the datacenter, on a single server or across all cloud computing datacenters. This simple integration takes Enterprise applications into the virtual realm, allowing customers to run Oracle on Virtual Machines, within XenServer, delivered to the end user through XenApp.
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Oracle EBS 12.1 is integrated with Citrix NetScaler
Deployed in front of Web servers, NetScaler application delivery controller models combine load balancing and content switching. Potential benefits include application acceleration, content caching, SSL acceleration, network optimization, and application performance monitoring in a single built-for-purpose hardware platform. Unlike other approaches that require multiple point products, NetScaler is an all-in-one appliance that is easy to deploy, configure, and operate with AppExpert Visual Policy Builder GUI-based tools, AppExpert Templates, and multiple wizards.
NetScaler 9.1 is available in both hardware-based (NetScaler MPX) and application-based deployments (NetScaler VPX). All deployment options available in version 9.1 are compatible with Oracle E-Business Suite 12.1. Organizations of any size can deploy NetScaler VPX on industry standard servers anywhere in the datacenter. NetScaler VPX enables load balancing, application acceleration, application security and server offload to become virtual appliance-based services that can be easily and dynamically deployed; on-demand and anywhere in the datacenter. Whether installed on a single server or across all cloud computing datacenters.
Download the Citrix NetScaler, Oracle EBS 12.1 Deployment Guide.
Download the Citrix NetScaler, Oracle EBS 12.1 Data Sheet.
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HDX MediaStream does a fantastic job of reducing the network bandwidth requirements for streamed video compared with rending the video on the server. When using HDX MediaStream your bandwidth requirements roughly equal the bit rate of the source video file. For lower quality clips, like those found on YouTube, this is around 256Kbps. For full HD content the bandwidth requirements can be as high as 8Mbps.
While this works great over a high speed LAN, trying to push that amount of data over typical branch office T-1 is another story. This problem is magnified even more when you have multiple users in the branch office who are repeatedly pulling down the same video content. In this situation, the video quality suffers and other business applications can be impacted. This issue has nothing to do with XenApp or XenDesktop. It is purely a function of the size of video file and the limited amount of available network bandwidth.
What can you do about this? Well if the culprit is the latest viral video making its way around the Internet you could attempt to block access to sites like YouTube. However, what if the video is for legitimate business purposes? I talked to one customer at Synergy who is rolling out a corporate compliance training video to their entire company using XenApp but is worried about the impact to network bandwidth.
Enter Citrix Branch Repeater and HDX IntelliCache. With Branch Repeater 5 we now participate in the ICA session and accelerate the ICA virtual channel used by HDX MediaStream. The first time the video is streamed to the branch office, Branch Repeater caches the content locally. The next time the video is requested, Branch Repeater serves the content from its local cache rather than pulling it across the WAN. Using branch caching, you can reduce the bandwidth requirements for on-demand videos by up to 90%.
Don't just take my word for it. You can see a demo if this in action on the latest edition of Brian Madden TV. (If you don't want to watch the entire episode you can jump ahead to 5:49 into the clip).
NetScaler Virtual Machine
Today, Citrix announced a virtual appliance version of their NetScaler Application Delivery Controller - the NetScaler VPX, the first of its kind. All of the functions that traditionally were performed in the datacenter can now be performed in the domain of virtual machines. Load balancing, application acceleration, security and offload functionality are now available as a XenServer virtual appliance.
Industry's first Virtual Load Balancer
No other vendor offers this type of software as a Virtual Appliance. By making advanced web application delivery functionality available as a virtual appliance, NetScaler VPX drives convergence of virtualization and networking. In the continued movement toward simple and affordable convergence, NetScaler VPX makes sophisticated application delivery functionality available to any size organization. This breaks down deployment barriers for all types of organizations.
What used to run on a proprietary piece of hardware now runs on any hardware that supports virtualization. Because there is no physical appliance to ship, install or move VPX can be installed at a moment's notice, on any server running XenServer.
The challenge
- Check out The Great NetScaler VPX challenge and get $10,000.
- The Tech Preview will be downloadable from citrix on May 18th.
- If you are running VMWare, you need to run Xen - and why wouldn't you, Xen is free.
NetScaler VPX
New NetScaler Technology Speeds Applications that Push Data to Users, Achieving Greater Real-time Interactivity with Fewer Servers Required
This groundbreaking new capability was specifically designed to address the demands that today's interactive Web 2.0 applications are placing on server infrastructures. While Web 2.0 applications are ushering in a new era of enhanced functionality and responsiveness for end users, they are highly inefficient when it comes to server computing resources. In order to create a rich interactive experience, Web 2.0 applications need to maintain a one-to-one user connection to backend servers for extended periods, which severely taxes datacenter resources and adversely impacts performance and scalability. NetScaler is the first application delivery controller to streamline this process by "pushing" data directly to thousands of users concurrently, offloading web servers from this burdensome task. As a result, server costs for delivering Web 2.0 applications can be reduced by five to ten times.
Rich Web Experience at a Fraction of the Cost
These new capabilities allow NetScaler to free up backend servers from inefficient connection management tasks, thus shrinking the number of servers needed. This reduced server footprint in the datacenter improves server utilization and allows a smaller set of servers to accomplish the same business tasks, cutting server costs by up to 90 percent by decreasing power, cooling and operational overhead.
Its powerful - AppExpert!