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The Citrix Ready program is the primary partner technology alliance program at Citrix. The program has received tremendous response from its inception in 2006 and has verified more than a 1000 products which are featured on the Citrix Ready catalog.
Citrix Ready program offers its partner a unique opportunity to promote their products online and is designed to highlight the product features and demonstrate the products compatibility with Citrix. Some of the essential benefits of the program for Citrix partners include;
- Generating new revenue opportunities for partner products
- Increasing exposure to Citrix customers and channels
- Improving joint customer satisfaction
- Gain access to Citrix "technology insiders" via forums, newsletters and webinars
The program also offers its partners technical and marketing benefits through "My Citrix" which is a private Citrix partner portal from where partners can;
- Utilize NFR licenses and discounted technical support incidences
- Joint solution marketing opportunities
- Access to Citrix Key Play materials and marketing templates
- Quarterly Technical and Program Webinars
You can learn more about the Citrix Ready program by logging onto citrix.com/ready. You can also follow the program activities on Twitter and receive daily program updates on product verifications.
Join us for the Nirvana Phone webinar February 9, 2010
See the demo!
Download the Nirvana Phone reference document
Citrix and Open Kernel Labs (OK Labs) are collaborating to take smart phones to the next level. Citrix and OK Labs recently announced the "nirvana phone" reference architecture that uses virtualization to enable both mobile communications and office desktop-type productivity on handheld mobile devices. (OK Labs is a leader in virtualization software for mobile devices, consumer electronics, and embedded systems and supports OKL4, an open source microkernel that is deployed on more than 500 million mobile phones worldwide.)
As SmartPhones continue to become more capable, fast networks become more pervasive, and virtual desktops like Citrix XenDesktop go mainstream, it is becoming increasingly possible to use a SmartPhone to perform tasks previously limited to laptops and desktops. Desktop virtualization is a concept that delivers a complete Windows desktop experience as an on-demand service to any user, anywhere on a variety of endpoint devices.
With support for docking to full-sized displays, keyboards, mice and other PC-type peripherals, Nirvana Phones will offer mobile workers a complete "virtual desktop in your pocket," allowing them to take their desktop anywhere without the need to carry around a full laptop. The following illustrates the Nirvana Phone concept:
The Nirvana Phone reference architecture incorporates many emerging capabilities in mobile chipsets and handsets like full resolution video and HD output.
We've been getting a lot of requests for information about a new Receiver for Windows Mobile devices. Can't give you all of data you want just yet, but here's a Sneak Peek of what the team is working on. We'll let you interpret what you're seeing for now, and give us your feedback on where you'd like to see the Roadmap for WinMo Receivers go, what you see that you liked, what you didn't see that you want.
Junior Achievement of South Florida (JA) has launched the "Are You Faster Than a Football Player?" campaign. In conjunction with the Jason Taylor Foundation, this effort will raise up to $50,000 in donations from Citrix Systems, Inc.
The campaign features a video with Broward County fifth grader Kevin Hautigan in a head-to-head competition with Miami Dolphins All-Pro Jason Taylor. The tongue-in-cheek contest using Citrix solutions is posted on YouTube and Citrix will donate $1 each to JA and the Jason Taylor Foundation, up to $25,000 for each organization.
"The Jason Taylor Foundation is dedicated to supporting the education and empowerment of South Florida's youth so the decision to partner with JA for this campaign was a natural choice," said Seth Levit, executive director of the Jason Taylor Foundation.
For JA, the donation will go toward funding financial literacy programs like Finance Park and BizTown™. Every year, 40,000 Broward County fifth and eighth graders participate in JA programs. The BizTown programs provide a simulated community where students assume the roles of workers and consumers. Finance Park curriculum and subsequent experience involves role playing an adult who has a salary and a family; the students must create and live on a balanced budget. Emphasizing hands-on, experiential learning techniques, Finance Park and BizTown curriculum educates the community, children and adults alike, about the free enterprise system and how to successfully and responsibly manage their lives.
With the grand opening of the JA World Huizenga Center last fall, JA programs are now held in a new, state-of-the-art facility. Citrix donated all of the technology for the center.
"Our core mission is to inspire and prepare young people to succeed in a global economy," said Melissa Aiello, president of Junior Achievement of South Florida. "The money raised by 'Are You Faster Than a Football Player?' will be invaluable to supporting our work."
"Junior Achievement and the Jason Taylor Foundation are dedicated to empowering the students of South Florida in a creative and fun way." said Tony Dinkins, vice president of human resources for Citrix and JA board member. "Educating future generations, especially in the community we work in, is an important corporate citizenship objective for Citrix, so we're excited to help foster their innovative spirit with this campaign."
To see if Kevin is faster than Jason Taylor, play the video below:
For more information, please contact:
Kathryn Cousins
Junior Achievement of South Florida
Kathryn@jasouthflorida.org
(954) 979-7110
Seth Levit
Jason Taylor Foundation
seth@jasontaylorfoundation.com
(954) 424-0799
To learn more about the technology used in the video, visit http://www.citrix.com/faster.
Or any Application for that matter.
Chris Fleck gave fair warning. I'm here to tell you that it works and its here, now. The computing model just got turned on it's ear.
Why would you want this? Because it increases your mobility without having to reboot your laptop everytime you want to use it, it saves time and money, and it delivers any Windows platform or application to your iPhone, iPod or iPad.
What was previously just a future scenario is now a reality.
Citrix runs Windows and Windows Applications from a central server, called XenDesktop, and pipes it out to your mobile device through the NetScaler AGEE. This is perfect for the iPad which has a screen size of 1024x768. Now the touch, squeeze and pinch is available for all of your Enterprise applications, making them usable on an iPad.
The small form factor of the iPhone was a little hindering for Enterprise applications. Now, with the iPad and Citrix Receiver, Enterprise Apps are usable. Although, while putting together this POC the Product Manager sent me an eMail from Microsoft Office 2010 running on a Windows 7 Desktop ... from his iPhone. This confirms that form factors and the computing model is about to be rocked.
The magic is in the way that Citrix hosts the Windows desktops and delivers them to the mobile device. The advantage is all of the computing power of multi-core processors and large memory can still be utilized by Windows, while all of your touching and pinching power is localized at your mobile device.
All of the communication is done over secure tunnels, so all of the information is secure.
For this Proof of Concept, We started with XenServer, installed XenApp and XenDesktop, built a NetScaler to Front-end and secure the infrastructure, and fired up our iPhones and iPads. Its fast, easy and cool. We used the Citrix Web Interface for authentication to keep it simple. You can also use LDAP or any other type of authentication method.
Guides
You can have this setup, by following the guides we wrote up as a result of this testing.
Download the Deployment Guide - ICA Proxy for iPhone, using LDAP authentication.
Products
Citrix Receiver is available for Free on the App Store
Get an iPhone, iPod or iPad from Apple.
Watch it live
Tap into the power of AppExpert!
Beyond the hype the of the iPad by Apple lovers and the nay sayers who say "who needs it " the iPad is likely to impact company IT practice more than anticipated. For many CIO's and IT Directors there is a growing interest in minimizing the expense and support of endpoint devices. Many companies have taken the fist step to allow access to company apps from unmanaged home PC's utilizing Application and/or Desktop Virtualization, however very few have taken the leap to allow employees to really bring there own computer to work "BYOC".
The reasons for the hesitancy typically revolve around security, compliance, local data and risk to internal networks. These concerns have been reason enough for most companies to not to move beyond where they are today. The policy is either a company provided PC/Laptop only, or the next level of enablement allowing controlled access from outside the company network.
What frequently changes IT's priority to move from the status quo is a management decree or revenue generating employees. Enter the iPad. Regardless of current IT policy the iPad is going to be purchased by Executives, Sale Managers, Physicians, Traders and other money makers. In increasing numbers these employes are going to bring the devices to work and ask IT to support them. Although the first reaction may be no way, the current obstacles of BYOC don't necessarily apply. If IT allows access from a Receiver equipped iPad with a XenApp/XenDesktop backend the following issues and concerns easily can be managed.
Exposure to Internal Networks - The iPad has no Ethernet port to plug into office RJ45 jacks exposing the internal network. Many companies already provide an isolated guest WiFi network that only allows a secure remote SSL/VPN connection. Alternatively no WiFi access could be enforced and only allow controlled access from the independent 3G carrier network completely isolating the device from the company network.
Company Data on Employee Devices - With Citrix Receiver for iPad no data is stored or runs on the device. Email can be limited to company hosted XenApp sessions of Outlook or Notes and disallow the local native email.
Mixing Personal and Business Data - IT does not want to deal with iTunes, personal music and photos, licensing issues etc. With an employee owned device all these issues are the responsibility of the employee and IT can define a "virtual" wall between IT delivered Desktops and apps that never mix with the employees device.
Replacement Issues - Most BYOC iPads will be secondary devices that won't kill the employee's productivity if its out of commission, they can just go back to their primary PC. For some users like Physicians who may depend on an iPad, keeping loaners on-hand can be easy, and set up / configuration can be done in minutes.
Support of Non Company Devices - Aside from replacement issues IT would prefer not to be in possession of employee devices for set-up causing logistical and asset control issues. With Citrix Receiver IT can simply send an email or have an Intranet site that employees only need to click a link to configure the iPad for company apps and desktops.
IT Security Policies - Most companies have specific policies in place for allowing controlled secure remote access. This may include 2 Factor Authentication, 128 SSL Encryption, and password protection enforcement. A Receiver enabled iPad can support all of these requirements.
So for the many companies who are thinking BYOC is an interesting concept but " not for us " , it could be worthwhile to consider the Citrix Receiver enabled iPad as a safe way to allow employees to Bring Their Own Computer.
Have you been asked to support the iPad already ? Do you think the iPad is a door opener to BYOC?
XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2010) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest news in on-demand application delivery with XenApp. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Product Manager David Wagner on new User Profile Streaming technology planned for availability in XenApp for R2. Episode 4, Season 2.
| | |
Learn more about XenApp for R2 |
We found this exciting product from StudioGPU called MachStudio Pro. It takes 3D geometry and animation from most leading 3D programs and gives a full real-time workflow for doing lighting, materials, camera and rendering. They do all of this on the desktop using the GPU with no render farm needed and can output final frames or layers for composite. What if we could put the application and its output in the cloud to allow the user to have access to the tools to compete with major studios without the prohibitively high costs?
A niche market you say? How about using the same cloud based graphics engine for Computer Aided Design (CAD) programs or Architectural, Engineering and Construction (AEC) design. There are thousands of small and medium businesses who use these types of programs but many of them can't afford the hundred grand for a high end graphics machine and the software to run it. Check out this video to learn more about the product. And if you are a CSP or Micrsoft SPLA partner, maybe you'll want to pick it up and run with it!
We found another high end graphics software for the healthcare industry called "CapSure". Imagine having a video conferencing and collaboration product in the back of an ambulance. The Doc back in the ER doing triage on a patient before he/she even arrives at the hospital? Sound futuristic? Not so much. GlobalMedia, based in Scottsdale, AZ is an ISV who has been working on this technology for the past nine years. And now they've perfected it to be used in production at hospitals around the world.
Take this idea one step further and you can imagine consults from a Doc at Mayo clinic to a hospital in Haiti where a catastrophic earthquake has just taken place. Doctors can see what is going on, take realtime images, measure, consult and even diagnose. Think that is futuristic? Well I spent an hour talking Joel Barthelemy, the CEO of GlobalMedia and he told me they just shipped the hardware and software to Haiti to make it a reality.
All of this done over the Internet through Citrix Service Providers? Well why not? Citrix provides the only technology in the market to enable these types of applications to run just like they would on the local desktop... to any subscriber, anywhere on any device. Check it out!
In the words of Brad Paisley, "Welcome to the Future".
Well, OK, that's a bit fanciful but we can certainly help.
Citrix Worldwide Consulting Solutions is focused on gathering and compiling information from the field so that we can share the information with you, the hardworking men and women tasked with bridging the gap between the CIO's vision and IT's reality. Where the "desktops hit the ether" as it were.
Working closely with our team of worldwide consultants we have put together a Modularized Reference Architecture for XenDesktop that can be used as a blueprint for architecting successful XenDesktop implementations. This is the real thing. All of the design considerations and methodologies in this document have been proven in the field and verified in the Citrix Solutions Center lab.
The concept of a modularized approach is built on the notion that each customer is unique but that many share a core set of requirements and objectives. A modularized approach solves for these core requirements by creating a platform that is highly resilient, flexible and scalable. With the platform in place we use a set of discrete modules to customize the platform to suit each customer's individual needs and objectives. Sounds simple enough, right? Check it out and let us know what you think.
The document "A Modular Approach to XenDesktop Architecture" is available for download here.
To learn more about the companion Citrix Consulting Offering "90 Day XenDesktop Implementation Methodology" click here.
Al Grandville
As Architect of Application Streaming, one of the things I do along with the other Citrix architects is worry about how to build the layers of cake. Operating system on the bottom, Applications in the middle and user profile on the top. We gathered a few months back to work on this problem and some pretty cool stuff came out of it. The concepts apply to XenApp and XenDesktop. Here's the high level view: 
I'm going to focus primarily on XenDesktop. The same ideas apply to XenApp hosted on Virtual Machines as they do to XenDesktop running virtual desktops. One way or another, the "system" has to be put together and that means assembling an operating system, applications and user data.
Starting at the top: User data. With Roaming Profiles or Citrix Profile Manager, the application settings are already roamed as a common occurance. This is the least interesting of the layers in this post.
The quick version is that if a user visits machine A today and machine Q tomorrow, the profile manager will move the applications settings from A to Q. At logon/logoff the user profile is synchronized to some central machine, where it is later copied from to the new execution machine. This kind of technology has been around for a very long time, though there still exists some art to "doing it properly". The "properly" part says that you cannot ASSUME that a user will not be logged on to multiple machines at once. This is the classic "last logoff wins" problem. Thankfully, the Citrix Profile Manager does not suffer these problems, so this top layer of the layers of cake is already baked and ready for icing!
A side note is "user data" is over stated, the user profile is really worrying about Application Settings. The user's data, as in DOCUMENTS, will normally be redirected to some network server.
Next, the "bottom", the operating system:
Notice I skipped apps for the moment. Apps are the point of this post, so I'm saving them for last.
Every machine, virtual or real, needs an operating system. For real machines, no problem, INSTALL IT locally and it will still be there the next time you power the machine on. For Virtual Machines, this same INSTALL IT solution could be used with one disk image per machine. Store the image away at "power down" and bring it back at "power up". This will RUN, but it will sure be a PIG on disk usage. It will also be harder to maintain as there will be a separate disk image for every virtual machine. The whole appeal of bringing things into the data center is that it makes things easier to maintain. If all you do is convert physical hard disks to virtual hard disks, you haven't really worked on the problem of simplifying maintenance!
A side note: With real machines, you can also get to the ONE to Many maintenance aspects, Provisioning Services does this for real hardware just as it can for virtual hardware.
Back to the virtual world:
To get this "right", we need ONE Operating System image and ONE image for each application to go along with ONE user profile. In this world, the operating system maintainer, maintains the OS and each application owner maintains their respective application. In some environments, these are the same person, but in concept, they are all separate and even if they are the same person, we do not want application content to pollute the OS image. If that happens, then every time ANY application needs update, the OS image must be updated and versioned => inefficient.
Cashes, caches and more caches!
With a virtual machine, the virtual machine manager maintains a "write back cache" for the "machine". Pooled desktop here, there is ONE image for the operating system and each VM as it runs has disk space that holds the changes to the disk as the machine runs. When the user logs off, the machine powers down and the virtual machine manager THROWS AWAY everything that was written to the base machine.
This "throw away" is necessary as the disk is a "block" entity and the only way that the single base image can be updated is if it is updated in ONE place. On a future logon, the pool manager will have queued up a pristine machine, with the LATEST AND GREATEST version of the operating system image, which will bring the virtual machine to life - while implementing yet another write back cache for the machine.
Applications, the point of this post
Application Streaming in the graphic above is the Application Virtualization system bringing in application content. This is the artist correctly now titled the "plugin for offline applications". I'm getting used to it.
The App Virtualization system could also be Microsoft App-V or potentially even some other solutions though I do find it easier to manage the caches for systems that have installed agents. As Architect of App Streaming, I'm working the Citrix side today; the concepts are the same.
Given a virtual machine is running and you want to get apps onto it, what are your choices?
1) Install them into the base image. We covered this already - it's a losing gig.
2) Presentation delivery. Publish from XenApp and deliver to XenDesktop; HDX gets it to the user.
3) App Virtualize the applications to get them "into" the hosted desktop.
Today, we're worring about "3".
Given we have a virtual machine, anything we populate into the virtual machine will be a DISK WRITE.
The fundamental guiding principle: Disk writes are BAD! We want everything to be a "read".
When the OS runs, we want the system to populate pieces of the OS as needed via block based fills from the virtual machine manager or disk subsystem. When we run applications, we want the virtual machine manager to READ data from the application store and ... (finally getting to the meat of this post) ... NEVER perform a disk write.
Application Streaming has a long history of delivering application content to physical machines. On physical machines, disk writes are fine, they are a one time cost and the up front cost actually has long term benefit to minimize network activity on future executions. With virtual machines, disk writes are evil and they are a recurring "every logon" cost.
We need disk writes to go away, which leads me to one of my favorite statements related to layers of cake.
- We gotta get Application Streaming out of the STREAMING business.
This task much better to hand off to the virtual machine manager or to Provisioning Services, or to the enterprise disk subsystem. Whatever the the technique of mounting disk space, all of these folks will do a more efficient job, if the streaming system somehow makes everything a "read".
In the layers of glass, the streaming system populates stuff into the execution cache, which is called RadeCache, named after the directory that holds the application execution content. I have also previously described that deploy should never happen on a virtual machine based execution, so thankfully we can avoid all of that disk activity.
How do we get application content into a virtual machine? Answer: MOUNT IT!
The Application Hub is the file server that holds the execution content. In a physical world, the streaming part of application streaming deals with COPYING content from the Application Hub onto the physical execution machine. In a Virtual World, we want everything to already be in place, so that application execution is based on disk reads and the disk write generating "streaming" aspects of Application Streaming, never occur.
One complication to date has been that the streaming system stores stuff on the Application Hub in compresses container files, CAB files. These are going away ([link|http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/12/04/App Streaming - CAB to DIR]) in a future release, to be replaced with decompressed directory images of the same content.
Putting it all together
Once we know that we don't want the streaming system to "stream", it can instead focus on application isolation and application delivery; delivering "installed" applications to single instance machines, but letting other pieces of the puzzle take care of the streaming aspects.
The Deploy space is not used; the RadeCache - is necessary. Stick with me on how we make it go away too.
Given that the RadeCache space and the streaming profile execution content on the App Hub have the same format, there are things we can do to "mount" the Application Hub directly into the execution space. With the "next" streaming client, this is easier because the App Hub storage format is changed to match the execution format commonly found in the RadeCache.
This can STILL be accomplished NOW using the released 5.2 version of the streaming client.
The example App I will use is Textpad. To follow along, profile this up and store it some place convenient. I'm using Windows 7 machine with the 5.2 level offline plugin and skipping all the publishing aspects.
Start up a command prompt (run as administrator). I follow with a cut / pasting of a bunch of commands which I entered to prove this can work with 5.2. After that, we'll talk about what each of them do.
c:
md \apphub & cd \apphub
icacls . /grant:r Ctx_StreamingSvc:(R)
icacls . /grant:r Ctx_StreamingSvc:(OI)(CI)(IO)(R)
mkdir textpad
xcopy \\ConvenientPlaceFromEarlier\textpad textpad\. /s /e
cd textpad
md guid_v
cd guid_v
extract ..\guid_v.cab *.* (Extract is from Microsoft CAB SDK and requires *.* rather than *)
cd \program files\citrix\radecache
mklink /d guid_v c:\apphub\textpad\guid_v (Creates a JUNCTION to the mounted App Hub)
exit (close the command prompt window)
Finally run the thing (a really short version of publishing the the AMC).
start "" "%PROGFILES%\Citrix\Streaming Client\RadeRun.exe" /package:"c:\apphub\textpad\textpad.profile" /app:"Textpad"
WOW! That was alot of stuff.
Given you did the start above, you've already seen the application run and come to life, with minimal disk writes! Drum roll.
Here's what happened.
The MKDIR of C:\AppHub simulated the MOUNTING of the App Hub onto the local machine.
The icacls commands gave the streaming service READ privilege to this space. The streaming service runs on a named user account and by default it can only modify a few places on disk, like RadeCache and Deploy. I think this is unnecessary as all users on the machine will automatically get read access to this space due to inherritance from the root. Still, I stuck it in there in case it is a required element. If so, you'll need this in the system configuration when the mount point is created.
The streaming service will "believe" that this space is local when it is really backed up by some XenServer, Provisioning Server, Hyper-V, ESX, Disk magic system. One way or another, it's a MOUNT POINT and the streaming service has privilege to read it.
Why local? The isolation system looks at all disk activity at the start and if it is "network", it jumpts out of the way and doesn't mess with it. So, the streaming system MUST believe that this space is "local". For all these virtual worlds, this is "easy".
Next trick is that the streaming sytem will want to populate the RadeCache at runtime, we don't want this to occur. Instead, we want the streaming system to BELIEVE that the RadeCache is "fully populated".
Creating the JUNCTIOND at the RadeCache space, the streaming system will believe that the RadeCache space is already there, when it looks inside, it will see that the files are already in place and it won't have any reason to want to write more to this space. Notice that with the "linkd" commands in place, when the streaming system looks into the RadeCache space, we will have LIED to it to instead sent it to the C:\AppHub space.
Lying to the Lying system - wonderful!
Deep down in the streaming streaming, the device driver that does the file system filtering isn't fooled by any of this application level nonsense; it sees the "real" location, C:\AppHub. The isolation system insists that the RadeCache space for the application content be on local storage, and it is, as far as it knows.
C:\AppHub is "local" as far as this virtual machine is concerend.
With the call to RadeRun, the application is launched and comes to life; skipping publishing.
The application comes to life and things are happy.
Publishing
When publishing applications in the Access Management Console, one of the fields is the UNC path to the App Hub. This can be a UNC path or a HTTP path, but either way, the AMC is told where the App Hub is located and when applications are enumerated via PNAgent/Web Interface, this information is relayed to the streaming launcher for app launch. This means that the publishing has to reference C:\AppHub or possibly a local host based reference of local machine based UNC reference. The AMC and the execution machine both have to believe that C:\AppHub is local storage. You can also create a LINKD based junction on the AMC machine that reflects to the "real" app hub on the network. The AMC will believe that this is the local machine space and will relay this to the execution machine.
I dream of a future where the streaming client could override what the AMC says to use and instead use a fixed location that the administrator says to use. Just dreaming...
House cleaning
One of the things that the streaming system does is clean house in the RadeCache. If it exceeds high water mark in size, the streaming system will launch a reaper thread that deletes things until the house is clean. Here's a link that describes how this works. Since we only granted the streaming service "(R)" Read access to the local machine AppHub, the streaming services' attempts to house clean in RadeCache space that is really the AppHub space will be unsuccessful - it will have no choice but to "push on" to look for some other file to erase.
For this reason, in a XenDesktop space, we should either put everything into the read-only space where the Streaming Service can't delete it or we should set the cache high-water mark sufficiently high that the house cleaning thread will never trigger; in reality, we should do both. Leaving the RadeCache space writable by the streamign service allows it to run applciations that haven't been published or managed into the App Hub, so this is good - though that space would be loaded on each logon to the virtual machine.
Hope this is useful.
Joe Nord
Product Architect - Application Streaming and User Profile Manager
Citrix Systems
As earlier posts of this series have suggested, simple tweaking of your applications without modifying code can go a long way of making your existing applications more mobile friendly. In fact, my colleagues and I are working hard to make our product smarter so that majority of applications can be mobilized without any code modification.
However if you can modify code or have influence on how an application is built, you can do a lot more. DocFinder is a good example.
This article shows you how to make ListBox, a common windows control, look good on a mobile device such as iPhone.
The default look of ListBox
The mobile friendly look of ListBox which is more finger friendly
If you are a developer, please continue reading. Otherwise, please refer this blog to your developer or ISVs( Independent software vendors).
Attached is the complete example code.
Here are some notes to help you understand the example:
- Drawmode property of Listbox control is set to ownerdrawfixed. And mainList_DrawItem method manually draws each item
- Height property of Listbox control is set to 48 to give more spacing between items. I found 48 works well. This property can only be changed when Drawmode is set to ownerdrawfixed or ownerdrawvariable.
- Font property of Listbox control is set to Ariel bold size 16.
 | Tip Check "Hide Application Title bar" property when publishing applications on XenApp. This way the windows title bar won't show up on mobile devices. You can still use the same application with windows title bar when accessing it from a non-mobile device. |
Question and Feedback
It would be nice to have some re-usable mobile friendly components such as a mobile friendly component for showing a list of items. What do you think? What components may be useful to you? Which ISVs shall I work with? Your feedback will ensure I spent time on things that are most beneficial to you.
You can leave comments below
or email me at ray dot yang at citrix dot com
or twitter me
Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
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Everyone knows a Smartphone is a Cell Phone + PDA. A " nirvana phone " is a smartphone + video connection to a full size display + full size keyboard, Plus access to a Virtual Desktop. With a "nirvana phone" you finally get your leave your laptop home !
Citrix and partner OK Labs are collaborating to utilize the OK Labs Microvisor plus the Citrix Receiver in a secure mobile VM. This solution will enable a new generation of smartphones to provide "nirvana phone" functionality. In addition, Citrix and OK Labs are providing a concept specification for device builders to follow to assure the best "nirvana phone" function and experience.
Learn more about the "nirvana phone" and the Citrix - OK Labs collaboration at a free Webinar on 2/7/2010. Register here .
I just read Alessandro's article asking "Is there any real need for application virtualization?" I say most definitely YES, especially when talking about desktop virtualization! When I talk about application delivery in conjunction with desktop virtualization, I always refer to three ways of integrating applications into the desktop:
- Install
- Host
- Stream
Streaming is what Alessandro means when he talks application virtualization. Is application virtualization required in every virtual desktop implementation? No. Have I seen customer successfully use application virtualization for their applications? Yes. When is it best to use application virtualization? Not a simple yes or no question, but here is when I typically recommend and don't recommend its use.
Scenario 1: Almost all of an organization's applications, to be delivered in a virtual desktop, are used by 100% of the users. There are only a few applications that are specific to certain user groups. In this instance I typically recommend forgoing the use of application virtualization. If I created a virtual desktop image for each unique configuration, I would end up with a fairly small number of desktop images due to the similarities between all groups. It would probably end up creating more work to setup an application virtualization solution for this type of environment.
Scenario 2: There is a wide disparity of applications between different groups of users. Creating desktop images based on these differences would result in 25+ images, each of which must be maintained individually, which will take quite a bit of time. I would be better off separating out the unique applications and finding another way of delivering them to the virtual desktop either via streaming or hosting on XenApp.
Scenario 3: Users who travel with laptops need to have locally available applications. Are these users computer savvy and able to install and maintain their own applications? Maybe, maybe not. If they are not, you really don't want them to install their own line-of-business applications. You want those applications delivered to them. And because they are mobile users, they need to have these in an offline fashion. This is a place where I would suggest using application virtualization. In fact, if you have an environment with mobile users and virtual desktop users, you can use the same application profile, which simplifies maintenance even more.
I've seen quite a bit of success with application virtualization. In fact, I know of a few customers who are streaming large application like SAP. To be honest, I am also receiving most of my apps to my laptop as virtualized applications via Dazzle.
Unfortunately, the application virtualization solution is not an end-all-be-all solution yet. In fact, because of technological limitations in the current versions, you will be hindered by the types of applications you can virtualize (services, ODBC configurations, etc).
The main thing to remember is that you must have flexibility if you are going to do your desktop virtualization designs correctly. Forcing every user into the same environment without the ability to customize is not something I would accept, and neither would other users.
The big question you have to ask yourself is for typical organizations that have thousands of applications, how would you deliver a virtual desktop and applications to the users? Hundreds of desktop images or one desktop image with one application package per application?
Daniel
Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow Me on twitter: @djfeller
Blog for Next-Gen Desktop: Ask The Architect
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Have you experienced this before? You need an application to help you with a project. You ask your manager if you can purchase the software and you get approval. You go out and buy the software and install it onto your desktop and away you go to do your job.
This is a common situation, one I've done myself on many occasions. These applications make up the non-IT delivered application set of every organization, and it is a massive list. This happens over and over again in every organization and in every department. So when you hear organizations say they have 10,000 or 20,000 applications, they are likely not exaggerating. Out of that massive list, only 500-1,000 of those applications are IT-managed.
This brings about the main challenge with desktop virtualization, how do you deal with the non-IT delivered applications? WithXenDesktop, if you use the recommended strategy of a single image for many users you lose the ability to install the application into the virtual desktop and have it persist across reboots. This is a major issue that must be dealt with or users will not accept the virtual desktop.
First, you need an application assessment. You have a few options. # Entire site assessment: By using a tool or doing a manual assessment you can get a list of applications deployed throughout the organization. This will give you the data points, but the amount of data might be overwhelming. Imagine looking at a list of 20,000 applications. How do you even start determining your optimal solution. This is information overload
- Department-by-Department assessment: By focusing at the departmental level, you get a better grasp of the applications without being overwhelmed from the start. . If you focus at a departmental or group level, your application list should be more manageable.
- Survey: Leave it up to the departments to create a list of what their users NEED to effectively do their job and not what they HAVE. Many of the applications are outdated and unused. By identifying what is needed, the number of applications can be better managed.
Regardless of the approach taken, the following is needed for each application:# User
- Application
- Dependencies
- Mobility requirements
Second, it's time for layoffs but this time we need to layoff applications. If you ask your users what applications they have installed, they will miss most of them. In fact, many of the applications installed on a typical desktop are not needed anymore. By laying off applications, we can start to get control of our application set and give our IT organizations an opportunity to succeed.
Third, develop an application delivery strategy. We can either install, host or stream. Do you need all three? Potentially. The point to remember is you need to be flexible. Certain strategies will work better in certain situations. Think about it this way. # Certain applications will be used by 100% of your users. These applications are best served by installing into the virtual desktop image. Why add another process (streaming/hosting) for an application that will be used by everyone, everyday?
- Certain applications have such a massive memory footprint. Executing the application within a virtual desktop will result in massive amounts of RAM being consumed. However, if that application were hosted on XenApp, those DLLs and EXEs could be shared between users, thus reducing the overall memory footprint required.
- Certain applications are used by a small group of users (1-2% of users). These applications might best be served via the hosting model on XenApp or via application streaming into the virtual desktop.
- Certain applications go through constant updates (daily/weekly). It would appear to be easier to use a single application image that can be distributed to any device when needed. Instead of maintaining hundreds/thousands of installations, the single package model would appear to be easier.
The point of all of this is if you going to be successful, you must have a strategy for delivering the applications into the virtual desktop. The strategy is also dependent on how well your IT group can service the user requests for all of these applications. If it is just not possible, your other alternative is to go down the Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) route.
In the BYOC model, my physical desktop is maintained and managed by myself. I'm not part of the domain nor do I call support when I have an issue, I do it myself. This also means that the non-IT delivered applications are installed on my own personal desktop. So far, this model has worked for me but I'm a savvy user and know how to fix a lot of issues I run into to. This approach might be more difficult for those not used to self-supporting. But if a user installed their own applications, then technically they are already self-supporting their non-IT delivered applications.
Remember, the desktop is the easy part. Spend your time looking at your application set and remember the following:
- Application Assessment
- Application Layoffs
- Application Delivery Strategy
What other application characteristics have you seen that would help determine your application delivery strategy?
Daniel
Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow Me on twitter: @djfeller
Blog for Next-Gen Desktop: Ask The Architect
Questions, then email Ask The Architect
Facebook Friends: Ask The Architect
XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2010) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest news in on-demand application delivery with XenApp. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews XenApp Architect Juliano Maldaner (@jmaldaner) on best practices for Migrating to XenApp for R2. Episode 3, Season 2.
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Learn more about XenApp for R2 |
No doubt you have heard about the iPad by now and you may be already pondering whether or not you will be buying one. Chances are you have a Laptop or PC and a Smartphone already so you need to rationalize how you will use it beyond e-books and browsing. Well if your company has XenDesktop or XenApp you will be happy to know you will be able to use your iPad for real work as well. It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024x768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once. The advancements that were made for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone will carry over to the iPad, however the iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. It's a beautiful thing ! The iPad looks to be an ideal end point device that can empower users to be productive were ever they are and IT will be able to safely deliver company hosted virtual desktops and apps without worry.
So tell us if you want Citrix Receiver for the iPad and let us know how your going to put it to work. ( even it's just to rationalize buying another gadget 
)
デスクトップ仮想化製品を評価する時、WAN環境やLAN環境で使用できる帯域が限られているネットワークでのパフォーマンスを評価する事は重要なポイントである。ネットワークシミュレーションソフトかなり高価なので頭を悩ませている方も多いのではないだろうか。
そこで無料のWANemというソフトを使用して簡易的にネットワークをシミュレーションを行うことができるのでその方法を紹介したいと思う。
物理マシンを用意して、ISOイメージをCDに焼いてCDからブートしてもいいが、今回はXenServerからISOイメージをブートする方法を使い、XenServer1台とクライアントPC1台でこの環境を作ってみようと思う。そうすることで、デモ環境なんかにも応用がかのうである。なお、WANemには色々な方法でネットワークをシミュレーションをできるが、今回は最も簡単な、NIC1枚の方式で、ルーティングテーブルを変更する方法でシミュレーションする。
1. WANemのサイトよりWANemv2.2.iso.bz2をダウンロード
http://sourceforge.net/projects/wanem/files/
2. WANemv2.2.iso.bz2を解凍し、共有フォルダに置く
3. XenServerのメニューより[ストレージ] - [新規ストレージリポジトリ]
4. ISOライブラリより、[Windowsファイル共有(CIFS)]を選択して、次へ
5. 任意の名前をつけて（英語）、共有名でWindowsの共有フォルダのパスを指定、[異なるユーザー名を使用する]を選択しユーザー名とパスワードを指定し、完了
例：\\192.168.1.249\iso
6. CIFS_ISO_MiscというSRが作成されたことを確認
7. XenCenterのメニューより、[VM] - [新規]を選択
8. テンプレートよりOther install mediaを選択し、次へ
9. 任意の名前を指定して、次へ
10. ISOイメージより、WANemv2.2.isoを選択し、次へ
11. この仮想マシンを起動するXenServerを選択し、次へ
12. [VCPUの数]: 1、[メモリ]: 512Mを指定して、次へ
13. 仮想ディスクは追加せず、次へ
14. 1 NICを追加して、次へ
15. VMを自動的に起動をチェックして、次へ
16. WANem2.2の仮想マシンが起動され、Knoopixの起動画面が表示され、起動ログがログされる
17. Do you want to configure all interfaces via DHCP (y/n)と聞かれるので、nを選択
18. IPアドレス情報を指定し、エンターキーを押下し、Save
19. Passwordを設定して、エンターキーを押下
20. Browserより、http://192.168.1.251/WANem（大文字小文字に注意）にアクセス
21. WANシミュレーションを行いたいクライアントとサーバー間のルーティングテーブルにそれぞれの宛先用のデフォルトゲートウェイをWANemのIPアドレスを指定する
例
クライアントPCでシミュレーションするNICのIDを調べる
route print =========================================================================== インターフェイス一覧 12...00 16 cf 11 4b 0f ......11a/b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter 11...00 16 d3 25 ff e8 ......Intel(R) PRO/1000 PL Network Connection 1...........................Software Loopback Interface 1
クライアントPCのルーティングテーブルを変更
route add -p <server ip アドレス> MASK 255.255.255.255 192.168.1.251 metric 2 if 11
同様にサーバーも変更する
route add -p <client ip アドレス> MASK 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.251 metric 2 if 11
22. これで、クライアントPCとサーバーPC間でWANシミュレーションが可能になる
23. http://192.168.1.251/WANem より、Basic Modeを選択し、Choose BWで帯域を指定、Delay time(ms)で遅延を指定する
24. クライアントにCitrix Online Pluginをいれて、接続先にXenAppもしくは、XenDesktopの仮想デスクトップを構築し、WANemでシミュレーションすると、HDXの使用帯域や遅延ネットワークでのパフォーマンスを体感できる。
Kimihiko Kitase
Lead Product Marketing Manager
twitter: @kkitase
仮想化技術情報wiki: http://v12n.jp
The Citrix Education team is looking for Citrix XenApp administrators to act as Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) by providing input critical to the development of future Citrix courses and exams. Specifically, we are looking for information about your XenApp implementation and the administrative tasks you perform.
We will be scheduling a series of real-time remote focus groups where participants will collaborate for about an hour-and-a-half per session, over a period of 5 days, starting February 8th. There will be multiple sessions a day.
Criteria for participation:
- Have Citrix XenApp 4.5 Feature Pack 2 (Cache) or later implemented
- Have at least one year experience administering Citrix XenApp
- Note: Familiarity with Access Gateway Enterprise Edition is a plus.
Compensation:
Participants of the workshop will receive credit as Subject Matter Experts for all of the exams and courses that are designed based on their input, and may receive free copies of courseware and vouchers for exams, depending on level of participation.
If you, or a member of your technical team, are interested in participating in this workshop or want more details, please send an email to Alejandra Amador Garcia at Alejandra.Garcia@citrix.com. Please include your phone number, and the dates and times when it would be convenient for you to be contacted.
Thank you in advance for your interest!
I love checking my work email on my iPhone/iPod Touch using the native email client.
However at times, I wish it could also do the following:
- Flag an email for follow up later. As a result, sometimes, I forget to follow up.
- Search for emails older than 1 month. Once I needed to find an old email to forward to my manager while having no access to a computer.
- Add a comment when declining a meeting invite. It's generally a polite thing to do.
Luckily I can also run the "real outlook" (desktop version of Microsoft Outlook) on my iPhone. And I can do all of the above when I need to. Please see this blog post for more reasons to use "real outlook" on iPhone.
What are your top wishes for your iPhone email client?
For more information about how to run corporate applications on your iPhone please visit our community page
Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
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Here is a quick 38 second demo video of using SMS (Text Message) based authentication on Citrix Receiver for iPhone.
There is no need for hardware token. Your iPhone is all you need to access corporate applications. And you don't have to remember or copy paste the random number in a hurry...
Click here to view the video and discover many others on Citrix TV
For more information, please visit our community page.
Information about Citrix Receiver for iPhone
Ray (Ruiguo) Yang
Check out my other blogs
Subscribe to my blog RSS feed