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As part of the Citrix Technical Support Escalation team that focuses on Debugging/Code analysis, Kapildev Ramlal is constantly learning new technologies and thinking of ways to help improve the support process at Citrix. Kapildev will be presenting the following sessions at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix XenApp, and then his in-depth session will cover Troubleshooting tools and methodology for Citrix XenApp 5 environments.
Q. How has XenApp improved from a support perspective over the past year?
Kapildev: Over the past year XenApp has improved significantly from a performance standpoint. With the release of hotfix rollup pack 3 for XenApp 4.5 and the release of XenApp 5.0, there has been some tremendous IMA improvements. As we know, IMA is the backbone of XenApp, and is considered the most critical component of the Farm. From our internal stress testing, we have found that IMA is now more stable than it has ever been in the past, so I expect to see less support cases opened regarding performance issues.
Q. What XenApp and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?
Kapildev: I hope that attendees would pick up several troubleshooting tips and techniques that they can readily use in their own environments. For my session, I've updated several tools and techniques as things have evolved a bit with the release of Windows Vista and Server 2008. For example, I include tips on how to enable local debugging on Windows Server 2008, which can be extremely useful for live debugging and analysis. It is becoming more common to see servers with 16+GB of RAM, so learning how to debug and analyze complex server related issues live, can save precious time on a trip to Citrix or Microsoft.
Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot XenApp?
Kapildev: We have had some improvements with our internal tool development process, and because of them, we now have a lot more public Citrix tools available for use on our Citrix Knowledge Center. These tools not only help automate time consuming tasks, but they also help expedite the time it takes to resolve problems.
Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?
Kapildev: I have covered several synchronization and memory related cases over the past year. I believe this is mainly due to the wide variety of applications that can be run on a XenApp server. Because of this, the chances for a rogue application or driver causing problems on a system will be increased. Surprisingly not all of these cases were Citrix problems. In most of these cases, which I have worked on, the problem usually turned out to be a problem with a 3rd party application, and usually that 3rd party vendor already had a fix for the problem.
About Kapildev Ramlal
Kapildev has been with Citrix Technical Support for about five years. He started as a technical support engineer, and had a strong motivation for learning programming, C/C+, and Windows internals. One year later, he transitioned into the Global Escalation team as an Escalation Engineer. On the Escalation team, he's been able to learn debugging user mode and kernel mode Windows components, and has been actively assisting with analyzing complex development analysis cases. He's also developed several software application utilities for Citrix including CDFControl, Print Detective and TSUserLog (to name a few). He holds certifications in Network, A+, MCP, CCA. When he's not learning a new technology, he loves to be playing music.
Do you have an XenApp troubleshooting area that you would like Kapildev to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.
Nelson Esteves has moved through the ranks as part of the Citrix Technical Support team. He started out as a level one support engineer on the XenApp team, and now is an Escalation Engineer for the NetScaler and Advanced Access Gateway (AAG) support team. Nelson will be presenting the following sessions at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition (AGEE), and then his in-depth session will cover Integrating and troubleshooting Citrix Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition.
Q. How has AGEE improved from a support perspective over the past year?
Nelson: AGEE has evolved to a bigger and better product. With the 9.0 release we are able to meet most of users demands such as full Microsoft SharePoint Integration as well as Branch Repeater acceleration. From a support perspective, the new filtering capabilities of network tracing on the appliance is great not to mention the ability for more granular control such as choosing packet type and size.
Q. What AGEE and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?
Nelson: During the breakout session, attendees will learn with great detail how pre and post-authentication scans work and how to configure them properly. They'll also learn how AGEE integrates with XenApp via Web Interface. I'll show what's involved on the login process to Web Interface and how Smart Access works in the background. In addition to all that they'll learn how to successfully decrypt a network trace and how to troubleshooting SSL errors when launching a published application via a pre-recorded troubleshooting video. The CDC presentation will explain how AGEE integrates with XenDesktop as well as Web Interface and NetScaler.
Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot NetScaler?
Nelson: The new filtering system when taking network traces was a great addition, and it made troubleshooting a lot faster since we can now select what we want to filter instead of having to handle very large network trace files.
Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?
Nelson: I have handled cases related to VoIP issues via the VPN, SSL Errors when launching applications, Microsoft SharePoint integration issues, and several others. Most of the VoIP issues had to do with the software being used since it didn't have an option for VPN configuration. We need to make sure the call manager server receives the VPN user Intranet IP and not its local IP. SSL Errors were due to clients either not having the proper certificates installed or misconfiguration on the AGEE or Web Interface (missing STA, wrong STA URL, missing STA port, etc.). SharePoint integration has been challenging since the release of 9.0, but now we have corrected all the errors we have encountered.
About Nelson Esteves
Nelson has been with Citrix Technical Support for a little over three years. He started as level one support engineer working on core products such as XenApp, Password Manager, Installation Manager and Resource Manager. He was then transferred to the Web Security team working with Web Interface and Access Gateway. One year later he was promoted to the frontline NetScaler support team, and about a year after that he became an Escalation Engineer supporting NetScaler, Application Firewall and AGEE. He holds certifications in A+, Net+, MCP, CCNA and CCA for Citrix NetScaler 8 Platinum Edition. He's also pretty quick on his feet, as an amateur soccer player, and has played in local tournaments and traveled with the Florida select team.Do you have an AGEE troubleshooting area that you would like Nelson to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.
Garr Reynolds, writer of one of the best books I have ever read on presentation design and speaking (Presentation Zen) is speaking at Citrix Synergy on the topic of simplicity and thinking differently about business and technology.
Synergy 2009. May 4-7, Las Vegas (USA)
I'm really pumped about this one. I'll be opening the Synergy Conference early in the morning on the 4th, then I have to quickly jet back to Japan immediately after the talk. My talk is not about presentations but about broader themes related to the power of simplicity and thinking differently about business and technology in the cloud space (a topic in which I have great interest). There is some amazing stuff going on right now, especially in the enterprise cloud computing space. I'm a big fan of Citrix and their CEO Mark Templeton (who is an excellent presenter); it's going to be an honor to share the stage with Mark at Synergy 09.
Register for Citrix Synergy now.
As part of the Citrix Technical Support team, Jacob Salassi is not only a senior escalation engineer, he's also an appliance technical relationship manager (TRM). Jacob gave us a glimpse into the following sessions he'll be presenting at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Citrix Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Citrix NetScaler, and then his in-depth session will cover Advanced troubleshooting of Citrix NetScaler.
Q. How has NetScaler improved from a support perspective over the past year?
Jacob: With the release of 8.1 and 9.0 we have seen big gains in overall feature sets, UI improvements, and stability improvements. Along with that have come enhancements and additions to logging (TCP logging for example), and the various tools we in support employ to troubleshoot issues. A hotly awaited change in 9.0 was the addition of the ability to use filters in nstrace.sh which allows us to capture much smaller sniffs and avoid post-capture filtering while still preserving the entire session and its related packets.
Q. What NetScaler and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?
Jacob: My sessions will take an administrator through overall troubleshooting methods and techniques, to a simple XenApp deployment example, and then to troubleshooting that same deployment using the techniques that have been learned.
Q: What NetScaler Tech Tip can you give people now?
Jacob: Always disable unused interfaces on BOTH nodes of an HA pair. It's common for administrators to forget about the secondary node which may cause HA to behave improperly in the event of a failover.
Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot NetScaler?
Jacob: Having more experience and spending more time using and developing troubleshooting tools has been a huge benefit for me. We now have tools to automate many things we had to do manually in the past, and this really helps our customers provide us with the data we need to resolve their issues.
Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?
Jacob: I don't like the restrict myself to any particular kind of case, and the issues around NetScaler can be of a huge variety. This year some of the stand out issues have been dynamic routing deployments, as well as some very large, exotic, and sensitive deployments where resolving an issue quickly is absolutely a requirement.
About Jacob Salassi
Jacob's been with Citrix Technical Support for just under two years. His first position at Citrix was as an escalation engineer. He was then promoted to lead escalation engineer, and then to senior escalation engineer where he joined the TRM team. He holds certifications in Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA) for NetScaler. When Jacob is not troubleshooting a hot issue, he's listening to his motorcycle scream around the track at 15,000 RPM.
Do you have a NetScaler troubleshooting area that you would like Jacob to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.
Partners: Receive bonus training when you register for Citrix Summit in Las Vegas, May 3-4
All partners who register for Citrix Summit will receive the Virtualization Starter Pack*, a bundle of self-paced online training courses designed to help you learn more about the latest virtualization solutions. This package features four training courses and seven days of content, with a separate retail value of $6000 USD! This package includes:
- 2 days of XenDesktop - a $2000 value
- 2 days of XenServer - a $2000 value
- 2 days of Provisioning Services - a $2000 value
- 1 day of Essentials for XenServer training
*Training access will be distributed in July, with vouchers valid through the end of 2009. Partners are entitled to one pack per paid registration. If you're a salesperson, learn about CCSP 2009 at Summit and give your Virtualization Starter Pack to your most valued technical resource.
Register for Summit between March 25 - May 1 and receive this great value.
Special Registration Discount for Citrix Certified Attendees
As an exclusive benefit for Citrix Certified professionals, we are offering a discounted rate of $1495 USD for a Synergy All-Inclusive conference pass - that's $400 off the current list price!* If you are Citrix Certified, contact Synergy Headquarters at citrixsynergy@citrixevents.com to validate your certification and request the special promo code for discounted registration.
As a Citrix training student or certification candidate, you may be interested in the many additional training and certification opportunities at Synergy, including:
- Hands-on learning opportunities delivered via new and innovative learning methods
- On-site testing opportunities and a "buy one get one" certification offer
- A chance to win access to unlimited training and virtual practice labs for one year at no cost
Click here to learn more and register for these exciting opportunities!
*Citrix customers (non-Partners) only, does not include Citrix Certified Sales Professionals
Customers & Partners: Get Certified at Synergy
Take one of our latest exams at regular price at the Citrix Testing Center and receive an extra exam of your choice at no cost! The free exam may be used for retakes or advancement toward your desired credential. Now through May 1, pre-register to take an exam at the Citrix Testing Center and receive an extra 20% off the exam price!
VDI Expert Series: Microsoft and Citrix - Exploring VDI's Myths, Limitations and Benefits
If you're considering Desktop Virtualization or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), join Microsoft and Citrix to discover how to minimize the cost of a VDI implementation with the most comprehensive solution.
Hear about:
•Top 5 VDI Myths
•XenDesktop Technical Differentiators & Testing Metrics
•Minimizing the cost associated with a VDI implementation
•Enhanced security
•Increased business agility
Register for the Exploring VDI's Myths, Limitations and Benefits Webinar
Webinar Speakers
Scott Woodgate
Director of Windows Business Group
Microsoft Corporation
Scott Woodgate is the Director at Microsoft® in the Windows® Business group. He owns the enterprise version of Windows Vista® and Windows 7, Software Assurance Business, and Windows virtualization strategy including new ways to deploy windows on a variety of form factors such as laptops, desktops, and thin clients. Scott created the Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) license for the virtual desktop infrastructure space. He was involved in the creation of the desktop optimization product and in particular the acquisition of Kidaro (MED-V) and SoftGrid (App-V).
Scott has eight years of experience at Microsoft across both enterprise servers and clients. Before joining Microsoft, Scott was project manager in New Zealand building projects for enterprise customers. Scott holds 5 degrees including a PHD in chemistry.
Sumit Dhawan
Vice President, Product Marketing
Citrix Systems, Inc.
Sumit Dhawan is responsible for leading the go-to-market strategy for the Citrix desktop virtualization product line including evangelizing and developing the rapidly emerging application and desktop virtualization markets.
Prior to his current role, Dhawan was director of product management for the company's flagship product, Citrix XenApp™ (the new name for Citrix Presentation Server®), and led the growth of this product line to generate $1 billion in revenue in 2007. Since joining Citrix in 1998, he has held product management, product development and product marketing leadership positions for a variety of product lines and markets.
Dhawan holds degrees in both business and science, with a master's degree in business administration from the University of Florida and a master's degree in computer science from the University of Minnesota. Dhawan graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology.
Exploring VDI's Myths, Limitations and Benefits Webinar
Keith McLaughlin, Escalation Engineer
Keith McLaughlin is a Provisioning Server expert on the Citrix Technical Support Escalation team, joining the team when Citrix acquired Ardence about two years ago. Keith filled us in on the two sessions that he'll present at Citrix TechEdge during Citrix Summit and Synergy 2009: End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center, with a focus on Active Directory integration with Provisioning Server, and then his in-depth session will be on Planning and implementing a Provisioning Server high availability (HA) solution.
Q. How has Provisioning Server improved from a support perspective over the past year?
Keith: The biggest improvement this year is the addition of the Streaming Service Logs. These logs, which came out as part of 5.0 SP1 are extremely helpful in narrowing down the issue.
Q. What Provisioning Server and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?
Keith: This year's session is focused on High Availability. In the session we are going to go over troubleshooting procedures and explain in depth what happens when a Target Device fails over and how to track that failover through the logs files. For the Citrix Delivery Center session, I'll focus on Active Directory integration with Provisioning Server Standard Image.
Q: What Provisioning Server Tech Tip can you give people now?
Keith: When planning your Provisioning Server deployment, give the Target Devices unique names in the Provisioning Server Console. Do not use the hostname of the machine that is being imaged as the name of the Target Device. This avoids conflicts when booting the Target Device from the Vdisk.
Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot Provisioning Server?
Keith: A year of working with the 5.0 is probably the biggest factor. 5.0 had many improvements over the previous version and many architecture changes. Also seeing where customers and end users were running into problems and being able to identify the symptoms because of past experiences greatly cuts down on troubleshooting time.
Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?
Keith: As part of the Provisioning Server Escalation group, I have covered a lot of different issues ranging from Active Directory integration to tracking down possible bottlenecks on customers networks that could be causing timeouts on the provisioning server.
About Keith McLaughlin
Keith's been with Citrix Technical Support for two years. He holds certifications in Citrix Certified Administrator, CCA, for Provisioning Server and XenServer. During his free time Keith loves playing the guitar, and his favorite artist is Stevie Ray Vaughan.
Do you have a Provisioning Server troubleshooting area that you would like Keith to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.
Want to learn more about TechEdge 2009, www.citrix.com/techedge. Stay tuned for our weekly close-up interviews on the TechEdge presenters.
Posts in this series:
- Interview 2: Close-up with Keith McLaughlin
Jamie Baker, Sr. Escalation Engineer
Without a doubt one of Citrix Technical Support's top engineers is Jamie Baker. Jamie works with the Strategic Managed Accounts Resolution team, SMART, which handles 24 hour coverage on critical and high priority issues, and he also is a Subject Matter Expert, SME, in various areas such as Printing, Application Streaming and currently the XenDesktop, SME, for the SMART team. Jamie took a few moments out of his busy day of solving customer issues to answer some questions on the sessions that he'll be presenting at Citrix TechEdge.
The sessions he'll be covering are End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center with a focus on XenDesktop, and then presenting an in-depth session on XenDesktop 3 architecture and design. TechEdge is the new name for the Citrix Support and Engineering Institute of Technology, CSEIT. The event is hosted by top Citrix Technical Support engineers at Citrix Summit and Synergy, and is the event for troubleshooting your Citrix Application Delivery environment
Q. How has XenDesktop improved from a support perspective over the past year?
Jamie: The release of XenDesktop 3.0 has closed a lot of issues, added USB device support which was a big need for a lot of customers and provided pool management failover when using XenServer as the desktop hosting infrastructure. The new failover allows the administrator to configure multiple pool masters for the same XenServer pool in the XenDesktop Management Console and if the original XenServer pool master fails, the Pool Management service will fail over to the secondary pool master. This makes the product much more resilient by eliminating a single point of failure, which is always more supportable
Q. What XenDesktop and Citrix Delivery Center tips will attendees learn at your session this year?
Jamie: We will provide tips on both how to design your XenDesktop infrastructure to take advantage of the new features in XenDesktop 3.0 and how to implement those new features, including USB device support. We will also provide tips on how to configure XenDesktop to take advantage of the robust hosting infrastructure provided by XenServer.
The Citrix Delivery Center Session will highlight how each of the components of the Citrix Deliver Center can integrate to provide secure and robust access to desktops and applications. We'll focus on each product and the features it brings specifically to complement the entire Citrix Delivery Center.
Q. What new tools or techniques are you using to troubleshoot XenDesktop?
Jamie: Besides from having a year's more experience working with customer issues and the new products, we've developed our internal tools to more quickly identify XenDesktop issues. We've updated the CDFControl utility to allow for remote CDF trace on VDA and DDC machines. This allows us to more easily set up a diagnostic trace and resolve issues more quickly.
This year we've also stood up a public symbol server. This allows us to access more diagnostic data through system dumps and memory dumps without having to bring those dump files in house. In time sensitive situations, this can save us hours of time. It also allows customers and other vendors to diagnose issues from dump files more quickly.
Q. What types of cases have you worked on this past year? Why?
Jamie: For me, being on the critical situation team, I've focused on identifying single points of failure and issues that have the potential for wide impact. The pool management service's ability to connect to a hosting infrastructure and to recover quickly in case of an issue with the infrastructure is the biggest issue we tackled this year. As mentioned above, we were able to build in failover when using XenServer infrastructure. The addition of HDX technology has improved multi-monitor display handling as well as USB device remoting and multi-media display.
About Jamie Baker
Jamie's been with Citrix Systems for six years, and all of those with Citrix Technical Support. He started out as a first level frontline support engineer, supporting MetaFrameXP. After two years on the phones, he moved to the Escalation team, and a year later moved to the SMART team. Jamie is currently a Sr. Escalation Engineer, and holds certifications as a CCA in XenDesktop and XenApp, as well as a Windows MCSE.
When Jamie isn't working, he loves to spend time with his wife and three year old twin daughters, exploring all the playgrounds that North Georgia has to offer. On Fall Sundays, you'll find him watching the Philadelphia Eagles and trying desperately to control his emotions so he doesn't scare the dog.
Do you have a XenDesktop troubleshooting area that you would like Jamie to focus on during his presentation? Leave a comment.
TechEdge 2009 sessions:
- End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center
- XenDesktop 3 architecture and design
- Planning and implementing a Provisioning Server high availability (HA) solution
- Integrating and troubleshooting Citrix Access Gateway
- Enterprise Edition Advanced troubleshooting of Citrix NetScaler
- XenServer disaster recovery and automation
- Troubleshooting tools and methodology for Citrix XenApp 5 environments
Want to learn more about TechEdge 2009, www.citrix.com/techedge. Stay tuned for our weekly close-up interviews on the TechEdge presenters.
Posts in this series:
- Interview 1: Close-up with Jamie Baker
What's Citrix TechEdge?
TechEdge, the new name for Citrix Support and Engineering Institute of Technology (CSEIT), started nine years ago as a small in-depth troubleshooting training event hosted by Citrix Technical Support for support agreement customers. Over the years, this event has grown from 50 customers to over 300 customers and now provides training to our support agreement customers prior to Citrix Synergy and to our partners as a part of Citrix Summit. This has become the event for troubleshooting the Citrix Application Delivery environment.
Meet the support experts who can answer all of your technical questions:
Citrix Technical Support's top Escalation team engineers are hosting the TechEdge 2009 sessions. Here are some interesting facts about the team.
- On average these guys work and close 65 to 100 cases each per year.
- There are a total of 65 engineers on the team, so that's over 5,000 cases total per year.
- The average engineer has ten to fifteen years experience in the IT industry; the most common certifications are CCA and MCSE, ANG NetScaler and AGEE.
What they'll cover:
- End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center
- XenDesktop 3 architecture and design
- Planning and implementing a Provisioning Server high availability (HA) solution
- Integrating and troubleshooting Citrix Access Gateway, Enterprise Edition
- Advanced troubleshooting of Citrix NetScaler
- XenServer disaster recovery and automation
- Troubleshooting tools and methodology for Citrix XenApp 5 environments
Who can attend?
All partners who have registered for Summit, Citrix Technology Professionals (CTP) and customers with active support or maintenance agreements as of the first day of the event (May 3, 2009).
When and where?
The event will be at the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on Monday, May 4th from 8:00am to 5:30pm.
Here's what a few past attendees had to say:
"This was probably the most valuable day of iForum [Synergy]. It was extremely technical and really provided a lot of insight into managing a Citrix environment."
"In-depth seminars, get to meet face to face with the people that support us, a wonderful venue."
Check out past event presentations and videos:
TechEdge 2008
October 29, 2008
Orlando, FL
Presentations and Session Videos
CSEIT 2008
May 19, 2008
Houston, TX
Presentations and Session Videos
CSEIT 2007
October 21, 2007
Las Vegas, NV
Presentations and Session Videos
Click here to register for TechEdge 2009
Learn More:
Want to learn more about TechEdge 2009, www.citrix.com/techedge. Stay tuned for our weekly close-up interview blog posts of the TechEdge presenters. Please let us know your thoughts, questions and feedback.
This post is part of a series on the TechEdge event:
- Check out my interview this week with Jamie Baker to discuss his sessions on End-to-end virtualization with Citrix Delivery Center and XenDesktop 3 architecture and design.
We've got a great lineup of events and podcast for you this month on the XenApp 5 Feature Pack. 3 events below.
XenApp 5 Feature Pack explained w/Doug Brown & Vinny Sosa
Date: (Available today) Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Register Here: DABCC Radio at dabcc.com
Summary: Douglas Brown interviews Vinny Sosa, Senior Technical Marketing Manager at Citrix. Vinny and Doug will discuss the recently released Citrix XenApp 5 Feature Pack. Vinny will discuss each new feature along with why this release is so important for you and your business, especially considering the current economic situation. This is a fun, engaging and transparent podcast where we'll also discuss Doug's pet peeves on Single sign-on, what the heck is that EasyCall stuff anyway, Mac and Microsoft preferences, and general techie diversions that always ensue.
Project Virtual Reality Check, a Geek Speak Virtual Webcast
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009 1:00pm Eastern (DST) /10:00 Pacific
Register Here: wwww.citrix.com/geekspeakvirtual
Summary: With XenServer now a part of XenApp 5 Feature Pack, you'll want to join two renowned virtualization gurus - Ruben Spruijt, Solutions Architect at PQR and Jeroen van de Kamp , CTO at Log-in Consultants, as they discuss the results of Project Virtual Reality Check (VRC) - a joint research venture on optimal configuration for the different available hypervisors (hardware virtualization layers). The project arises from the growing demand for substantiated advice on how to virtualize and scale for Terminal Server and Virtual Desktop (VDI) workloads. The first phase of Project VRC compares the performance of virtualizing Windows XP and 32-bit Windows 2003 Terminal Services on ESX, XenServer, Hyper-v, and bare-metal hardware.
TechTalk on XenApp 5 Feature Pack
Date: March 31, 2009
Time: 2:00pm Eastern/11:00am Pacific
Register Here: gotomeeting.com/register
Citrix has just released XenApp 5 Feature Pack. In this TechTalk session, we'll discuss the technical aspects of the new features, with focus on the following:
- Provisioning services, Load testing services and XenServer virtualization
- Profile Management
- Workflow Studio Orchestration
- Citrix Receiver, including iPhone plugin
There are a lot of things to do in Vegas, such as seeing a show, riding a roller coaster and of course, becoming a high roller; however, none of them come with a guarantee that you will go home with something more valuable than you arrived with. At Citrix Synergy, not only will you leave with new and/or renewed connections with other professionals in the industry and at Citrix, but you will leave with knowledge that will deliver more value to your company and to you as an individual.
Sure, there are multiple valuable conferences within a conference at Synergy (iForum, Network World Live! and Virtualization Congress) but my personal favorite is GeekSpeak Live! If you haven't seen or attended a GeekSpeak session (examples Shawn at Synergy and Michael with GeekSpeak Roadtrip!) , you need to check this out. These sessions are where true unfiltered technical interactive discussions occur, many sessions are led by Citrix CTPs such as Charles Aunger , Ruben Spruijt & Jeroen van de Camp, and Brian Madden and many more, but you also have the ability to lead and/or change a discussion topic on the fly.
This year we have expanded GeekSpeak Live to not only include our traditional evening sessions, but we also have the GeekSpeak SpeakEasy sessions on the exhibit floor and we have woven GeekSpeak session through the traditional conference tracks as well.
As we get closer and closer to Citrix Synergy, I will be posting more information about our GeekSpeak sessions and presenters. Please feel free to leave a comment on this blog, check out the GeekSpeak forum or drop me an email if you are interested in a topic or being a GeekSpeak session lead.
Before I go, I wanted to share a discussion I had with a Citrix Synergy attendee. The discussion started regarding the GeekSpeak session, but quickly transitioned to "I am planning to attend, but my boss/finance team is really leery of spending on technology conferences (especially in Vegas), given the negative press that AIG and others in the industry have gotten regarding conferences. Do you have any advice for me?"
We at Citrix are completely aware budget constraints and have pulled together some information on the topic for you. The fact is that from a cost perspective, Vegas is a value compared to other cities hosting technology events Vegas is 20%-60% cheaper from an attendee perspective. With the data we provided, she was able to assure her management that Citrix Synergy was not a boondoggle!
I look forward to seeing you at Citrix Synergy and Geekspeak Live! , perhaps the one time that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas" isn't true! 
Let the games begin...before you even get to Las Vegas!
Register for Citrix Synergy before April 24 for seven chances to win self-paced online training from Citrix Education valued at $2,000!* Simply indicate your desire to enter the Lucky 7 drawing under the Options section of your event registration form and qualify when you complete Synergy registration.
This newly-released delivery format allows users to benefit from the cost savings and convenience of training from the comfort of home or office. Featuring a robust technical curriculum and 30 days of unlimited lab access time, self-paced online training equips learners with the skills and hands-on experience to master their Citrix solution.
Winners will be posted at the Citrix Education booth during tradeshow hours. Visit the booth to find out if you are one of the Lucky 7!
Register Now
Already registered for Synergy?
Access your My Synergy account to update your event profile and enter to win.
*Please see terms and conditions for eligibility.
Join us for this LIVE webcast designed specifically for Citrix & Microsoft Partners.
Webcast: Desktop Virtualization - Turn the Hype into Money
Date: Tuesday, February 24 at 2:00pm ET
Host: Scott Bekker, Editor in Chief, Redmond Channel Partner
Come join our webinar and discover how to 'Turn the Hype into Money' in the escalating virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) market.
Virtualization is hot and virtual desktops are the fastest growing virtualization market today. VDI is growing at an estimated 90% year over year for the next 5 years, making it a $12-15 billion dollar market by 2012.
For IT organizations, it's all about reducing management costs and ensuring business continuity and data security. Learn what desktop virtualization is and what solutions are available now to centralize and deliver desktops as a service to users anywhere, while dramatically reducing total cost of desktop management.
Be at the forefront of VDI technology, so that you will be able to offer end-to-end, virtualization solutions to your customers and boost your sales in 2009.
I originally posted this in mid-December, but many of you many have missed it due to the Holidays and vacation time.
Our Events team is putting together the content for Citrix Synergy 2009 now. The team would like your input on the content. Please answer the poll questions below -
Our Events team is putting together the content for Citrix Synergy 2009 now. The team would like your input on the content. Please answer the poll questions below -
Join Citrix Education at Summit and participate in our many educational activities geared towards Citrix partners:
- ENTER TO WIN access to ALL Self-paced Online technical training courses for 1 Year
- TAKE the new CCA for XenApp 5 exam at NO COST and select others at 50% OFF
- GET Hands-On with Technical Learning Labs
- LEARN about the latest enhancements to the Citrix® Solution Advisor Program and Certification Structure
Click here for more information on these offerings.
Special Certification Offer for Partners - Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008 exam at NO COST, select other exams 50% OFF
Citrix Education offers partners the opportunity to get Citrix certified during Summit! Partners can take the latest certification exams at our on-site testing center at a 50% discount and take the newest CCA for XenApp 5 exam at NO COST!
Partners, reserve your spot today and take advantage of this SUMMIT ONLY offer. Seating is limited and will be assigned on a first come first serve basis to those partners registered to attend Summit. For more information on this special offer and to pre-register for an exam, click here.
This is the very first edition of a highly buzzed virtualization event held in London, UK, from Oct 14 to 16. The event is three days long: first day (Oct. 14) is dedicated for distributors and resellers, second and third day are for the attendees.
But wait a minute. Another trade show? The answer is, Not really!
So what makes Virtualization Congress special, VC is shaping up to be a truly unconventional conference.
- No Slide allowed on Stage - Only 1-hour long demos: the product is being showed while applied to a specific use case, hopefully matching the ones that attendees may have back at their datacenters.
- It's independent, following the very successful model we know from BriForum, Virtual Congress is an independent and unbiased conference.
Never mind the level of expertise attending the conference: Simon Crosby, Mark Russinoivch, Richard Garsthangen, Scott Herold and many others.
Citrix as usual will be there supporting the conference as a platinum sponsor and deliverying the keynote, you will be able to interact with our top experts and product specialists, so feel free to stop by our booth and say hi to myself, Simon, and others.
Anything else? Yes. Citrix Certified individuals (CCA, CCEA, CCIA) will receive an amazing discount to sign-up for the conference, an amazing 25% off the regular price or $400 US dollars for a pass. *Details coming soon, stay tuned.
I'm looking forward to this event and I have here a video invite from Simon to share with all.
In the meantime you can check out the following links for more information.
See you in London.
best,
Gus