Here is a video of Rich's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his second attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Here is a video of Rich's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his first attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Here is a video of Gus's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his second attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

Here is a video of Gus's Citrix Super (Hero) flight training lesson on his first attempt at learning how to fly in an indoor skydiving facility.

GUS PINTO: It's noticeable the steady growth of conversations around virtualization within organizations and in the Internet today, more specifically around server and desktop virtualization.

Microsoft is readying up Hyper-V, and a lot of technologies to allow these technologies to actually happen for the large enterprise. It's going into market in partnership with Citrix and its Xen Hypervisor.

I guess the question is, what is your true feeling about virtualization in the enterprise on the server and desktop base? Is this just really hype or is this something you guys truly believe is going to happen?

RAY OZZIE: No, it's absolutely fundamental. It is absolutely going to happen.

I would say you have to take desktops separately. The logic behind virtualization on the desktop is completely separate from what it would be on the server, and in some ways it's different within the on-premises world versus the cloud. So, I'll just touch upon those independently.

Before I do that, though, let me just say that from a TS perspective, Terminal Server based deployment will always be more efficient than virtualization. It was a designed-in, multi-tenant model within the OS. So, if there are applications and solutions that fit the TS model, that's just a terrific model to use, and I would encourage organizations to use that model.

Within the enterprise, virtualization, the simplest and most straightforward way is to just make the best use of the datacenter resources that you can from a consolidation perspective. This is we are absolutely taking it seriously.

There are two phases of that consolidation. Phase one is bringing things together, meaning if you have a scale-up cluster or a scale-up, some expensive configuration of hardware, how can you package much usage on that piece of hardware as you can? The other one is then movement of images amongst the different machines within the back-end. You'll see investments progressively from us in both of those realms.

Taken to the extreme within the cloud, virtualization is absolutely critical. Virtualization is key to making the best use and securely isolating properties from multiple customers that might not use even a full inexpensive CPU, and moving them geographically or whatever to provide resilience and robustness. So, it is something that's extremely important.

On the client I'll only say that the uses of it, the way that the Mac uses it to run Windows and stuff, it's clever. Parallels, they're very clever technologies.

The way that you'll see us take advantage of it over time more and more on the client is our mechanisms around ensuring compatibility. App compat is a very, very challenging thing, and you want to continue to make progress with the operating system. We look to it as another tool in the toolbox to try to help in the compat world without -- enabling innovation while still enabling assurance of compatibility.

~snip~

I will be posting the Video with Q&A shortly.

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | gus.pinto@citrix.com

Microsoft and Citrix Evangelists hang out in Redmond on the Channel 9 - Code Trip bus and showing off their wicked cool gadgets!

Rock On!!!
Gus Pinto

P.S. For more stuff on our visit to Microsoft and MVP Summit 2008 check out Frameworkx.com

Citrix has set a launch date and pricing for its desktop virtualization platform.

XenDesktop will start shipping May 20, at the Citrix Synergy conference. The company will offer three versions: Standard, Enterprise and Platinum. The latter will include more advanced management tools, including EdgeSight Monitoring, to keep track of how the system performs.

Pricing will begin at $75 per concurrent user.

Citrix calls XenDesktop a desktop delivery solution, which allows companies to virtualize Windows desktops in the datacenter and then deliver them on demand to office workers in any location.

The promise is to lower complexity and management costs by as much as by 40 percent compared to a traditional desktop, according to Citrix.

To do that Citrix wants to separate the management of operating systems and applications, which will solve the problem of virtual desktop "image sprawl".

XenDesktop will centrally manage the operating systems: end users will get a new desktop at each login.

"If you take the applications out of the equation you'll be able to use the same image for thousands of users, instead of one for every user," said Dave Austin, director of product marketing at Citrix in EMEA.

The centralization of the desktop will also offer significant improvements to traditional Citrix customers.

Continue at Source: http://www.frameworkx.com/

Rich's recent post sparkled a long thread debating if the hame Citrix Technology Professional is the right name for the Award Citrix currently gives to exceptional individuals in our community.
 
I wanted to know what the general public thinks of that, if they like the current name or they choose something different.
 
I put together a quick poll so you guys can voice it up, and let us know what you think! 

What is the best name for the Citrix Award, currently known as CTP?	Choose
Citrix Technology Professional (No Change)
Citrix Most Valuable Professional (Citrix MVP)
Citrix Very Important Professional (Citrix VIP)

cheers,
Gus

*It seems like Citrix MVP has the lead!? I will keep the polls open for another week!

This page contains links to all current Citrix products documentation, you can literaly get to it with 1 or 2 clicks!

Forget about searching, bookmark this address:

http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX116089

Many customers who use Citrix XenApp (formerly known as Citrix Presentation Server) have leveraged Resource Manager for performance metrics and reporting on the health of their Citrix XenApp environments. The capability of measuring end-user experience and having visibility into an application's availability, performance and functionality on Citrix XenApp is becoming increasingly important.

EdgeSight for XenApp enhances Resource Manager's capabilities by capturing, aggregating and reporting on end-user and application experience all in a single, easy-to-use interface. The end result is the ability to monitor and measure the successful delivery of an application to any user, over any network, to any device.

This white paper will provide a high-level overview on how to successfully transition your Citrix management architecture from Resource Manager to EdgeSight 4.5 for XenApp. The key areas of focus include:

• Overview of Resource Manager & EdgeSight Architecture
• Feature Comparison & EdgeSight Benefits
• EdgeSight Planning Considerations
• Transition Strategy and Key Points

To learn more and to read the entire article please refer to the rest of the article at its source: CTX116798 - Resource Manager to EdgeSight Migration

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Citrix Technology Professional
gus.pinto@citrix.com

So if you see down bellow Rich pointed out that we are going to be in Seattle and Redmond next week attending the Annual Microsoft MVP Summit.

As Rich pointed out the event is 100% NDA, and we won't be able to share minimum if anything from what's being talked about with the general public.

However you can still make a different, having us be your voice during the meetings by sending us your questions and comments that we can relay to the Microsoft Terminal Services Group.

So if you could ask anything to the guys who are responsible for Terminal Services at Microsoft, what questions would you ask?

cheers,
Gus

We will be flying up to Settle, WA to attend this year's MVP Global Summit 2008 at Microsoft. This is an NDA event, but we will do our best to report to you from the event on what looks like is going to be a great conference. I will do my best to keep Gus out of trouble, as we all know how he loves NDA's =)

For those who of you who are unfamiliar with the MVP Global Summit event, here is an overview of this year's event.

MVP Global Summit 2008

Over the course of four days, hosted at the Washington Trade and Convention Center in Seattle and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington, the MVP Global Summit gives you exclusive access to more than 400 sessions and panel discussions and a range of networking opportunities, as well as Microsoft top executives such as Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer, and Ray Ozzie, chief software architect.

What is the MVP Global Summit?

The MVP Global Summit is a four-day invitation-only event hosted at the Washington State Trade and Convention Center in Seattle and at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond, Washington. With more than 400 sessions and a variety of networking opportunities, the MVP Global Summit enables Microsoft Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) and Regional Directors (RDs) to:

• Connect with other MVPs and RDs
• Engage with Microsoft product managers
• Provide valuable feedback directly to Microsoft on its products and technologies.

Highlights for 2008 include:

• Event closing technical discussion by Ray Ozzie, Microsoft chief software architect
• Keynote by Steve Ballmer, Microsoft chief executive officer
• Deep technical sessions by competency
• Cross-competency electives
• Highly dynamic and interactive sessions, where you'll be able to define topics, attend, or host
• Additional activities designed to promote networking and meet attendees' diverse informational and business needs
  
  Microsoft 2008 MVP Global Summit
  Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
  Microsoft MVP - Terminal Server
  Microsoft MVP - Rich Crusco
  

First of all, I feel compelled to introduce to all of you the CTP Award as many in this industry and even other Citrix employees don't know about this award given to exceptional professionals who excel on sharing knowledge freely about Citrix products and solutions.

What's the Citrix Technology Professional Award?

Citrix recognize and awards the most active and recognized individuals in the industry. Citrix presents the CTP Award to thank individuals for their exceptional contributions to technical communities worldwide. CTPs are active in the technical community, whether in a newsgroup, as a user group host, a conference speaker, or a respondent in forums, all users can be confident that the information shared by a CTP will be of the highest caliber and will help every user make the most of the technology.

Citrix also benefits from engaging with CTPs through conferences, conference calls, CTP Summit, and other events. CTPs share with Citrix their independent, real-world feedback with us, therefore helping Citrix better understand users' needs, improve current products, and develop future technology.

Who Are the CTPs?

Most in this list are personal friends of mine and I have to say I'm proud to be part of this industry, and sure enough they all deserve our thank you and admiration.

Keep up the good work guys!

See y'all in Seattle next week!

Cheers,
Gus Pinto

Sure you've all seen Windows XP running on the Asus EeePC, and today I wanted to show you not XP but Windows Vista running on this neat little device. Since pictures are worth more than 1000 words, here you go:
 

You're probably asking yourself now; is this Photoshop or how the heck did we get Vista to work on an EeePC?

There's no magic, trick or Photoshop, we are simply using Citrix XenDesktop. XenDesktop allowed us to virtualize the Windows Vista operating system and present it to any device installed with a Citrix client, this technology is also known as VDI.

This is a slick technology that enables people to be productive from basically anywhere and almost any device.

Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Citrix Technology Professional
gus.pinto@citrix.com

You might have not noticed and/or you're probably still waiting for iForum in late October, iForum have moved and it's now in May. Citrix is hosting iForum now within a much bigger conference named Synergy.

So what does that mean?

iForum is now a track within a industry wide event, an event that has many tracks for the Virtualization, App Delivery and Networking crowds.
iForum didn't change names, the industry grew bigger, so big iForum could no longer contain all the content to cover all the 3 key audiences people would be looking for.

So now we have Synergy the event that is bringing together:

iForum Track, Get the scoop on Citrix products from A to Xen. The iForum Track delivers all the best of iForum: architectural insights, tips and tricks, and best practices that will help you get the most out of your Citrix environment. Highlights include:

-Technical sessions
-Customer case studies
-Demos
-Citrix Technical Workshops

Application Delivery Track and Expo Learn how to make everything work together, from the data center to the desktop. Highlights include:

-Architectural best practices
-Technical sessions on hot topics including VDI, green computing, Web 2.0
-Answers Pavilion-industry experts take your questions, live
-Application Delivery Expo - see product demos from industry vendors

IT 2.0 Business Symposium Exclusively for CIOs You're crunched for time, so we condensed C-level strategy and networking into an exclusive, engaging, one-day event-featuring a one-day pass for reduced registration fee. Highlights include:

-Keynote and CIO networking lunch with best-selling author Nicholas Carr, former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review
-High-level, strategic sessions on virtualization, networking and integrated application delivery
-Private CIO reception offering a unique networking opportunity with your peers
-Access to leading industry analysts from Gartner, IDC and more

Geek Speak Live! Meet industry tech geeks, analysts and bloggers at the ultimate "unconference", where participants choose the topics and run the sessions. It's an informal forum for sharing ideas and learning from one another.

I will talk a heck of a lot more about this one in the future; keep tuned for our videos and stuff! That's right, Geek stuff!

~snip~

If you're still waiting for iForum in October, dude seriously, get with the program!

iForum is in MAY, Geek Speak is in MAY, Expo is in MAY, even for all my exec friends, yes IT 2.0 is in MAY - All in one conference named: SYNERGY.

Oh before I forget.... iForum - ops - I mean Synergy, is in Texas, Huston - ops - I mean Huston, Texas!

I know what you're thinking why oh why did Citrix choose Huston? I don't know and still asking myself this question, but anyways, I've heard they have great beer down there, and trust me great stuff happens over a beer! 

Cheers,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Citrix Technology Professional
gus.pinto@citrix.com

Rich was so excited about saying hello, he forgot to get the "USER FOCUS" on his post....

So here it goes....

// Hocus Pocus, grab the focus
   winSetFocus(...)

LOL

See you at Geek Speak Live!

cheers,

Gus Pinto
Frameworkx.com

I can't express in words how excited I am to again be working on the inside at Citrix. So I'll just leave it at "Hello World"  =)

CmdShell
                     Echo "Hello World!"

PowerShell
                     write-host "Hello World!"

VBScript
                     Wscript.echo "Hello World!"

JScript
                     document.write('Hello World!');

C++
                     std::cout << "Hello world!\n";

C#
                     Console.WriteLine("Hello World!");

I'm running my Sony on a WWAN connection (cellphone connection) in Florida and connecting to our engineering XenDesktop server and virtual machine all the way out in the UK and I was stunned by the amazing performance! "Oh Hail SpeedScreen!"

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com
http://www.frameworkx.com

Test Drive Citrix Storage Delivery Services Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP

Sign-up here: http://www.citrixtestride.com/

Citrix Command Center is a management and monitoring solution for the complete line of Citrix application networking products including Citrix NetScaler, Citrix Application Firewall, Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition, and Citrix WANScaler.

• Centralized management and performance reporting of the entire range of Application Networking products, including the Citrix NetScaler, Citrix WANScaler, Citrix Application Firewall and Citrix Access Gateway Enterprise Edition devices.
• Centralized Configuration Management to configure multiple NetScalers from a single location. This reduces the possibility of mis-configurations, saves time and cost, and enhances manageability of a diversified NetScaler deployment substantially.
• Change Management and Configuration Auditing, which provides comprehensive visibility into the configurations of the managed NetScalers, allows administrators to track changes and synchronize changes across devices.
• Centralized SSL Certificate Management, which provides real time visibility into the status of all SSL certificates deployed on the managed NetScaler devices, and provides a central console from which administrators can renew and install new certificates.
• Alarm and Event Management, which provide NetScaler and WANScaler administrators the ability to configure granular thresholds for different aspects of system performance, be alerted when those thresholds are hit, and respond back quickly to changing traffic patterns or issues on the devices.
• Performance Monitoring and Reporting, using which administrators can generate historical reports, troubleshoot issues, and gather data that will help in capacity planning, resource utilization, uptime calculations, application loads etc.
• Security Auditing and Accounting, which ensures that only users authorized to use the Command Center are permitted to do so. Administrators can also specify highly granular rules and operations, that would allow partitioning of users into groups which can use only subsets of the Command Center's functionality, on an administrator specified subset of devices.

To ensure scalability of Command Center in user environments, version 3.1 also supports the following:

• Ability to run the Command Center server with an external instance of Oracle 10g or MySQL, allowing higher data storage scalability, and offering better data resiliency through clustered instances of these backend databases.
• User authentication through external AAA tools such as RADIUS, Active Directory and TACACS+, allowing for easy user and group management within Command Center

Command Center provides a rich HTML user interface to allow users to access the server remotely and centrally manage NetScaler deployments from remote locations.

Command Center can be installed on servers running Windows 2000+SP4 or Windows 2003, and Red Hat Linux AS/ES 3.0/4.0.

Citrix Command Center Brochure

Citrix command Center Download

regards,
Gus Pinto - Technology Evangelist
Microsoft MVP | Gus.Pinto@citrix.com
http://www.frameworkx.com