You are invited to the next meeting of the New Jersey Citrix User Group

Twitter: http://twitter.com/nycctxusrgroup

The User Group provides members with an opportunity to share and learn about common issues and utilization of CITRIX technology. Additional discussions include technology design and infrastructure, enterprise solutions and ideas, trends, and upcoming activities of interest.

Agenda

• 9:00AM Opening Remarks - Mediator 9:15AM Citrix Announcements - Citrix Product Updates
• Beta Announcements
• Tech Releases 9:45AM Scheduled Presentation - TBD
• Feature Requests 10:30AM Open Discussion - ALL

Click below to learn more:
http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/events/event.asp?eventID=1858386

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0 の English-On サポートを開始！

先日リリースされた Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0では、日本語OS上で、英語製品をサポートする English-On サポートのテストが実施され、これで晴れて、Mac クライアントの日本語環境での使用がサポートされました(テクニカルサポート
の提供を含みます)。

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0 からの接続先として、下記環境に対するテストが実施されました。

• 日本語 Citrix XenApp 5.0 (for Windows Server 2008)
• 日本語 Citrix XenApp 5.0 FP2 (for Windows Server 2003)
• 日本語 Citrix XenDesktop 3.0
  

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0 のダウンロードはMyCitrixから可能です。

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0
https://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1856482&productId=163057

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0 Readme
http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX122226

Plug-in for Macintosh Administrator's Guide
https://www.citrix.com/site/resources/dynamic/dlshareddocs/Citrix_Plugin_for_Mac_Administrators_Guide.pdf

また、先日リリースされた Access Gateway Plug-in for Mac OS X Version 1.0.2.23 は、日本語へローカライズされており、Access Gatewayを通じたセキュア接続も日本語のMac環境から行えます。

Access Gateway Plug-in for Mac OS X, Version 1.0.2.23
https://www.citrix.com/English/SS/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1857838&productId=15005

Citrix Online Plug-in for Mac - Version 11.0 から Citrix XenApp 環境へ接続した際のイメージです。

Two weeks ago, we introduced XenDesktop 4, an exciting new product line that I personally believe will make virtual desktops a mainstream reality for the first time ever.

The initial response to XenDesktop 4 has been overwhelmingly positive. Over the past two weeks, I've had countless conversations with customers, prospects and partners. In the course of these discussions, three themes in particular seem to have struck a real chord:

• Customers of all sizes like the fact that XenDesktop 4 with FlexCast goes well beyond VDI-only products, giving them the flexibility to deliver any type of virtual desktop to any user - from one, centralized solution.
• Including XenApp as a built-in feature makes virtual desktops far more cost effective and gives customers one seamless solution for desktop and application delivery.
• Many customers have commented on the long list of enhancements to our HDX™ technology and can't get wait to get their hands on it to try out, plus test the 90% bandwidth savings in comparison to other solutions.

Amidst all the positive responses, however, it also became clear that we missed a few important things on the licensing and packaging front in our initial announcement. Feedback from numerous surveys and 1:1 conversations found that some customers needed additional flexibility to license virtual desktops based on devices, rather than users. Other customers new to desktop virtualization told us they needed a simple "VDI-only" solution with more flexible licensing to make the transition easier as they ramp up. Finally, we heard from a number of K-12 and university customers who needed a simpler, more cost-effective program customized for the unique needs of the eductional market.

So what do we think about these suggestions? The short answer is "we agree". Your feedback has been invaluable in helping us make sure XenDesktop 4 enables the broadest set of virtual destkop scenarios possible. As a result, we've decided to make three important new enhancements to XenDesktop 4:

1. NEW device-based licensing option.
2. NEW VDI Edition available in both user/device and CCU licensing
3. NEW Campus-wide Licensing Program for customers in the education industry

Flexible licensing based on user or device

Customers in some industries have scenarios where multiple users share the same device. These situations include retail kiosks, warehouses, branch banks, labs, and the like. To help with these situations, we've decided to enhance XenDesktop 4 licensing to offer more flexibility by adding a new device license option - available at the exact same price as the user-based license. This means that users can access their XenDesktop from an unlimited number of devices with the user-based license option, and devices powered by XenDesktop can be used by an unlimited number of users with the device-based license option. As a result, your XenDesktop 4 product license can now be assigned to either a user or a device. Please also note that our user licensing doesn't require you to manage a bunch of named users or specific device lists. We've tried to make it as simple, easy and flexible as possible.

A killer "VDI-only" solution for people getting started with virtual desktops available in user, device or CCU licensing

While most customers were overwhelmingly positive about the power of FlexCast to deliver any type of virtual desktop to any type of user or device, we found many customers were still just testing the waters with VM-based "virtual desktop infrastructure" projects, commonly referred to as VDI. These customers wanted a flexible, VDI-only solution they that could trial in a wide variety of VDI use-cases. Because many were just getting started, they also needed flexible licensing that made it easy to ramp up as they got more familiar with the technology.

In response, we're creating the new XenDesktop 4, VDI Edition available for $95 per user/device, or $195 per concurrent user (CCU). XenDesktop 4, VDI Edition gives customers the ability to deliver best-in-class VDI-based desktops with a true HDX experience, and scale them up with our built-in provisioning services, profile management, and StorageLink™ technology. As with all the XenDesktop editions, the new VDI edition lets customers use any hypervisor, including XenServer or Hyper-V (both of which ship with all XenDesktop editions) as well as VMware ESX or vSphere. I'm confident customers who compare the alternatives will conclude that XenDesktop 4, VDI Edition is hands down the best VDI product on the market, at a far better price than any other competing solution.

Desktop Virtualization in Education is ready to go Campus-Wide

K-12 and university customers told us that they love XenDesktop 4 and want to use its desktop and app virtualization capabilities across a broad diversity of students, faculty, labs, and administrative facilities. They also want the flexibility to deliver either the full Windows desktop, or just some applications to a wide variety of use cases, including enabling access from smart phones, etc.

To address this customer requirement, we're adding the Citrix Campus-wide Licensing Program. This program, available starting November 16th, will offer extremely compelling prices to accredited educational institutions in K-12 and university campuses who adopt XenDesktop 4 for campus-wide use.

Putting it all together

Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, VDI Edition - Best-in-class VDI-only solution available at $95 per user or device, or $195 per CCU
Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, Enterprise Edition - Enterprise-class desktop virtualization solution available at $225 per user or device
Citrix XenDesktop™ 4, Platinum Edition - Best-value comprehensive desktop virtualization solution available at $350 per user or device

Remember, the user-based licenses are available not for per named users but the users as they login to their virtual desktops. You do not have to manage the user lists yourself.

Thanks for making XenDesktop 4 even better

Thanks to all of you who provided all the great feedback over the past couple of weeks. Your input was invaluable in helping us understand the additional use cases we missed the first time around. In short, your input helped make XenDesktop 4 even better, and for that, we are grateful.

As we approach the General Availability date for XenDesktop 4, I'm more excited than ever about the impact this product is going to have on customers of all sizes, across every industry sector. The best part of my job is watching the reaction of customers when they see XenDesktop in action. Even more fun is talking to end users who have discovered the power and flexibility of virtual desktops and would never go back to a traditional installed desktop. That's the power of desktop virtualization. And, XenDesktop 4 makes it real for even a broader set of use cases now!

Congratulations to Simon Crosby for having his blog recognized by Datamation as one of the Top 40 Enterprise Tech Industry Blogs. Datamation annually compiles a list of the top 200 Tech Blogs categorized into multiple categories including our Enterprise software segment. No doubt Simon's technical insight and opinionated positions have put his blog on the short list of many IT pro's and industry watchers.

To Quote Datamation:

" Crosby, CTO of Citrix's Data Center and Cloud Division, is a fierce partisan for the Xen virtualization software. He's also a canny and witty analyst of cloud computing and the larger tech landscape."

Take a look you may find some other interesting Blogs to follow as well.

Datamation Top Tech Blogs

As previously announced, three legacy Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator™ (CCEA) and Citrix Certified Integration Architect™ (CCIA) certifications will expire on June 30, 2010. After this date, these credentials will no longer be current and will be listed as "expired" on Certification Manager transcripts. These certifications are:

• CCEA for MetaFrame XP Presentation Server

• CCEA for MetaFrame Access Suite3.0

• CCIA for MetaFrame XP Presentation Server

So how do you update or keep your certification valid if you hold one of the above?

Before Expiration Date of June 30, 2010

• You may take advantage of update paths* for the new Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer™ (CCEE) and CCIA for Virtualization, available in January 2010. With the update path, only one exam is required for updating to CCEE and one additional (two total) exams are required for CCIA. To learn more about the update paths, visit www.citrix.com/CCEEupdate or www.citrix.com/CCIAupdate

After Expiration Date of June 30, 2010

• If you have achieved three or more requirements towards the Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA) for Citrix XenApp (Presentation Server 4), complete the track. Doing so will extend the validity of your CCEA and enable you to take advantage of the CCEE and CCIA update paths.

• If you have not made any progress towards updating your CCEA or CCIA, begin completing requirements for the new CCEE for Virtualization. The new, streamlined requirements consist of a total of five exams, and if you possess any of the recent Citrix Certified Administrator™ (CCA) or Citrix Certified Advanced Administrator™ (CCAA) certifications, you may have already fulfilled part of the requirements.

*PLEASE NOTE: The update path is recommended for seasoned professionals who possess knowledge of, or hands-on experience in, Citrix virtualization technologies. For those without experience in these technologies, following the complete CCEE and CCIA paths is recommended. Please note that individuals with versions of the CCEA and CCIA for XP expired in 2005 are not eligible to use the update path and are encouraged to take one of the two courses of action indicated above now. Visit Certification Manager to confirm your certification status.

If you have any questions about this expiration notice, or about how to maintain your certification status, contact training@citrix.com.

Unless you've been living on a desert island in the mid-Pacific for the past few months (actually, that sounds pretty good!), you've probably heard something about a new Microsoft OS called Windows 7. By all accounts, this OS looks set to be a huge catalyst for Desktop Virtualization and the adoption of Citrix XenDesktop for Knowledge and Power Users. So not only will companies be looking to upgrade their existing physical PCs to this wonderful new OS, but the availability of Win7 will inevitably bring about a re-assessment of the corporate desktop estate. That re-assessment will of course consider the prospect of lowering management costs by moving from physical machines to a virtual desktop environment; Win7 seems much more 'VDI friendly' than any of its predecessors.

So....a company-wide OS upgrade is coming.... A migration from physical to Citrix XenDesktop is also coming.......

You might be thinking a couple of things about this....
1. "Will I see my family again?"
and
2. "I want to make this upgrade really work. I'm not going to have any support calls on this and I'm going to use this to reduce my costs...."

Well, done correctly - of course you will see your family again, in fact with the reduction in desktop management requirements you should actually see them even more!

Let's break the problem down into two parts; 1. upgrading to Win7 on the physical PC, and 2. the migration to a virtual Win7 environment.

1. Upgrading to Win7 on the physical PC

Win7 is quite different to XP. You may very well have problems running legacy or homegrown XP apps on Win7. In order to solve this problem, you may wish to consider leveraging application virtualizing and streaming these troublesome apps rather than wait for upgrades from multiple app vendors.

Another problem you'll have is the user profile data and desktop setup scripts. It's highly unlikely that anything the user has done to the XP or Vista machine to personalize it (at both the OS and the application level) will be 100% compatible with the new Win7 desktop. This is because XP uses a completely different User Profile format and structure to that of Win7, meaning it is not as simple as re-using their old profiles on the new OS. The result? All your upgraded employees have to re-personalize their desktop. I don't know about you, but I've done a lot to personalize my desktop and applications over the years. I have all my apps just the way I want them, my email signature and rules are set just right and there's probably a hundred other settings I've forgotten about and wouldn't know how to re-do on a new OS. What a great start to my Win7 experience....a bland, impersonal machine. By the way, the same thing goes for policy settings, such as printer and file drive access as well as other 'logon processes'. So, one of the most important considerations in your Win7 migration is to retain all this user-specific information (we call it the "user personality") from the existing desktop and simply 'inject' this back into the new Win7 desktop following upgrade to ensure a seamless experience to the user.

2. Migrating from an XP PC to a Win7 virtual desktop

Rather than just upgrading physical PCs, you might want to take this opportunity to move employees over to a virtual environment. Not only does this provide the user with a nice, new Win7 desktop, it will also provide huge desktop management cost reduction opportunities; no need to upgrade the desktop machine with hardware capable of running the new OS (as this can now be re-purposed as a 'thin client'), centralized management of desktops, monitoring of the environment to reduce support costs etc . However, the real big opportunity to reduce costs here lies in the use of a single, standardized and leveraged Win7 desktop image across the entire company. Imagine creating ONE standardized, corporate Win7 desktop (possibly with a selection of baseline corporate apps such as Outlook and IE) and to have this freshly provisioned to each employee as they require it. When the employee goes home, the desktop is deleted. No need to store and manage lots of desktops....instead they're delivered on an 'as-needed' basis. Citrix technologies provide an ideal solution to enable such an environment.

However, this standard Win7 image is by no means personal to the user - not if it's being used by thousands or tens of thousands of employees! This is where the user personality comes in. By centrally managing the user personality independent of this standard Win7 desktop, it can then be applied to the desktop when needed. So you now have a low cost, standard Win7 estate, with employees experiencing the same working environment as when they were using their desktop PC. Sound like heaven? This is in fact a reality, and being done to great success today - check out Daniel Fellers 'Ask the Architect' and podcast pages within the Citrix Community site. Daniel interviews Sandy Kingdon from CSC and together they discuss how they by managing the user personalization separate from the desktop CSC and Citrix + User Environment Management has enabled the personalization of thousands of desktops for geographically dispersed users from just a minimal set of desktop component images.

Win7 will be a game-changing event in the corporate desktop world. It will essentially be the catalyst to a whole new way of looking at and managing the desktop - and what we know to be true is that the user aspect of the corporate PC must now be treated as a separate entity unto itself - enabling the business tools (apps and OS) to be standardized and their delivery automated, leading to huge reductions in cost (management, storage, licensing) and productive employees.

Here are some of the things I believe you must consider as part of your Win7 migration. Remember all these things are possible today.

• Low cost, low risk migration to Win7 on your physical PCs
  Seamlessly decouple all aspects of the user from the employees existing PC (XP, Vista), and reapply this data into a fresh, standard Win7 PC. The employee sees no change to the personal settings post-upgrade.

• Eliminate the costs associated with using legacy scripts and bloated user profiles
  Your Win7 migration affords the opportunity to replace outdated and management-intensive methods to manage the user experience on the desktop. Complex, often large login scripts can be replaced and selectively executed dependent on the user needs. Maintenance is reduced, as is the user logon time.

• Low cost, low risk migration to Win7 in a virtual desktop environment
  Decouple the user personality from the existing PC and store this independent of the desktop. The user can then be redirected to a low cost, standard, virtualized Win7 image, where their personality is applied on-demand. A low-cost physical-to-"Win7 virtual" migration process, with the employee seeing no change to their PC experience.

• Ensure seamless user experience in multi-OS desktop estate
  Regardless of whether your desktop estate is a mix of XP, Vista or Win7, the same centralized, independent user personality is able to seamlessly 'roam' across each OS version. This enables you to implement Win7 into your desktop estate gradually, without having to create multiple user profiles for each OS version.

• Establish lowest cost Win7 desktop environment through standardized, personalized desktop images
  Desktop management and storage costs can be reduced significantly by standardizing on your Win7 corporate image. By having one standard Win7 desktop provided to employees on-demand, desktop management becomes much easier and less risky. Including personality management into this scenario enables this standard desktop to be dynamically personalized on-access, providing the employee with their familiar PC-type experience.

• Personalize virtualized applications
  Many legacy, home grown and XP-based applications are unsuitable for use in a Win7 environment, making application virtualization a necessity. Unless the company is prepared to virtualize each individual employee's applications, virtualized applications must be standard and therefore non-personal in nature. Applications must be automatically configured for each specific user and/or connecting device, and automatically personalized to the user based on their personality. You can now accelerate the Win7 roll-out since incompatible applications are virtualized, yet still remain personal to the employee.

• Quickly and easily scale Win7 implementation with no impact to user experience
  The user is provided with a consistent personal experience across multiple client OS versions, multiple delivery technologies, multiple accessing devices and accommodates the employee context (e.g. security level, accessing location etc).

• Ensure quality user experience as your Win7 implementation scales through visibility and remediation
  Migration to Win7 in your organization is a significant and on-going event. Adherence to SLAs and reducing support loads are paramount during this process. In addition to ensuring a consistent and personalized user experience during the Win7 migration process, you must also provide desktop optimization and remediation through reporting, monitoring and auditing of the user personality.

Win7 is coming, and this is a great time to use Citrix Virtualization Technologies to accomodate the migration, centralize desktop management and reduce associated costs.. all while ensuring the best user experience.

Thanks
Gareth.

http://twitter.com/garethkitson

NetScaler has long had the ability to take network traces and analyze it in tools like WireShark. Network traces can be captured in standard tcpdump format or a NetScaler specific format. The NetScaler specific format has additional connection information that makes it easier to troubleshoot issues. For a long while, NetScaler engineers used a modified WireShark version (previously called Ethereal) to view and analyze NetScaler traces.

Recently, our developers contributed this patch to the open source Wireshark development and the next version (1.3.0) of Wireshark will include the ability to understand NetScaler format packet traces. In the interim, the modified Wireshark version is available for download at CTX122313. This version will work on Windows. The article also shows how you can use the NetScaler traces to use the additional data.

To capture a network trace on the NetScaler, you need to log in to the command line interface and get into the shell (by typing shell).
To capture a trace in the NetScaler format, type in
#nstrace.sh -sz 0

-sz 0 captures the full packet. With no argument (default), only the first 164 bytes of the packet are captured.

You can also use the GUI to capture traces (under System/ Diagnostics).
#nstrace.sh -help
details the other options available.

Upload the file to using ftp, scp etc and analyze using the modified Wireshark.

To capture traces in the tcpdump format,
#nstcpdump.sh
(Most standard tcpdump options are supported)

Recently, I have heard many talk about how to deliver better application experience over WAN to branch users with flat or shrinking IT budgets?

Is delivering a better IT experience to branch or mobile users truly "priceless"? Or do you really need to demonstrate ROI?

It usually takes a lot longer than a year for something to become a 'cliche'. But the current global economic recession has created one of the quickest 'cliches' - 'Flat is the new Growth!' - flat revenues, and flat IT budgets alike.

Faced with flat or shrinking IT budgets, many organizations are clearly and rigorously prioritizing the highest ROI projects, focusing on doing more with less. Increasingly, the following lexicon has taken on a new level of significance and has become part of the IT budgeting process - time-to-ROI, payback time, hard or direct ROI, soft or indirect ROI and so on.

WAN Optimization is one of the very few technologies where IT spend is actually growing while spend on many other technologies is shrinking. In earlier blogs, I blogged about how good the user experience can be with the right WAN optimization solution. But if you are an IT decision maker, you are looking for hard dollar ROI to justify those investments.

We recently published a web-based ROI calculator, designed to show our customers the great savings opportunities available with Citrix Branch Repeater for XenApp and XenDesktop customers. Why don't you try out the calculator and let us know your feedback? We are looking to updating this tool soon based on your feedback.

You may cut and paste the URL in your browser: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1858204.

I look forward to your comments or feedback.

Happy ROI!,

Sai

AppSense, the leading provider of User Environment Management solutions for the enterprise, are pleased to announce full support for Citrix XenDesktop 4,a groundbreaking new Citrix product designed to make virtual desktops a mainstream reality for hundreds of millions of corporate employees for the first time ever.

"AppSense has been working closely with Citrix and our joint customers for many years and we commend Citrix on this bold and significant move. By combining two market-leading products and introducing FlexCast technology to accommodate every user type, Citrix has been instrumental in further reducing the barriers to mainstream virtual desktop adoption," said Charles Sharland, Chairman and CEO, AppSense. "As an enterprise solution recommended by Citrix to provide comprehensive desktop personalization for all users, we look forward to providing our Citrix customers a way to scale their virtual desktop estates at lowest cost and with maximum user adoption."

AppSense, a Citrix partner of over 10 years with some 4,000 joint customers around the world, provides technology solutions that enable low-cost, standard desktop images to be delivered to employees as fully personalized desktops. This ensures maximum user adoption from just a few corporate base images, reducing cost, complexity and risk. Their User Environment Management solution is the only technology to provide on-demand desktop personalization across all delivery methods and operating system versions.

Based on this unique level of customer experience, AppSense is well positioned to work in conjunction with Citrix FlexCast to provide centralized management of the user personality for task workers, knowledge workers and power users in both server and client-hosted desktop environments.

"We look at the desktop in a different way at AppSense," states Pete Rawlinson, VP WW Marketing at AppSense. "We effectively separate the desktop into three layers; corporate operating system, corporate applications and the user. By managing all aspects of the user independent of the desktop, IT are able to standardize the corporate operating system and applications, delivering them on-demand only when needed. The combination of Citrix XenDesktop 4 and AppSense User Environment Management enables companies to truly eliminate unnecessary desktop management costs while ensuring users of all types receive the very best working experience - even in the most heterogeneous environments."

This layered model looks to be the way forward for mainstream virtual desktop adoption, as Rachel Chalmers of The 451 Group states:

"Separating out operating systems and applications and provisioning them dynamically means that desktops can be assembled per session and disposed of when the session is over. To make all of this work like a physical PC, though, administrators need to store stateful user settings and preferences elsewhere. Separating out this layer of user data is what we call user virtualization. Citrix ecosystem vendors pioneered the art of maintaining these user profiles in terminal services environments, and AppSense has led the way in adapting it to desktop virtualization."

AppSense will be a sponsor at the upcoming CitrixLive global online event on October 20, 2009, "Secrets, Lies and VDI: Dispel the Myths and Uncover the Truth about Desktop and Application Virtualization".

Click here to register your place…

Now that XenDesktop 4 includes numerous ways to deliver virtual desktops, (Greater description of the FlexCast technology), we need to take a look at how those applications are integrated into:

1. Hosted/Shared desktops
2. Hosted VM-based desktops (VDI)
3. Hosted Blade PC desktops
4. Local Streamed desktops
5. Virtual Apps to Installed desktops
6. Local VM-based desktops

(BTW, this also aligns with a CIO magazine article on Desktop Virtualization's 5 most important flavors) 

And this is a question that Cole M sent into Ask the Architect.  As always, the short answer is "It Depends", but I try to do a little better than that in the latest Ask the Architect Video. 

Daniel - Lead Architect

Follow me on Twitter: @djfeller

Follow the latest in desktop virtualization

Send Desktop Virtualization questions to: AskTheArchitect@Citrix.com

We are proud to announce that several Citrix virtualization solutions have been nominated for both the SYS-CON Virtualization Reader's Choice Award and the Cloud Computing Readers' Choice Awards. We have been nominated in many categories and we are honored to be nominated for these awards. Citrix XenDesktop and XenServer have been nominated for two awards each. Thus, proving that Citrix has the best-in-class end-to-end solution for the enterprise (but you already knew that).

Casting your vote and voicing your opinion is easy, simply click on the links below and cast your vote for Citrix!

Virtualization Readers' Choice Awards

-Best Application Virtualization - Citrix XenApp
-Best Desktop Virtualization Platforms - Citrix XenDesktop
-Best Device Virtualization - Citrix Receiver
-Best Network Virtualization - Citrix NetScaler
-Best Server Virtualization Platforms - Citrix XenServer
-Best VDI - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure - Citrix XenDesktop
-Best Virtualization Management Tools - Citrix Essentials

Cloud Computing Readers' Choice Awards

-Best Cloud Infrastructure Solution - Citrix XenServer
-Best Cloud Services - Citrix C3 Product Line

About the SYS-CON Virtualization Reader's Choice Award:

SYS-CON Virtualization Readers' Choice Awards and Cloud Computing Readers' Choice Awards recognize excellence in the virtualization and cloud-based software, solutions or services provided by the industry's top vendors. To determine these top vendors and products, SYS-CON is asking readers to vote on nominated products.
The voting period for these awards is now open and will end on Oct. 23. To vote, please visit the Virtualization Readers' Choice Awards and the http://cloudcomputing.sys-con.com/general/rcawardsvote.htm voting pages. You will need to include your e-mail address and select one product in each category. Then, place your vote by clicking "vote now" on the bottom of the Web page. Award winners will be announced the week of Nov. 2.

( Citrix employees our vote --@Citrix.com has already been counted )

Thank you for your support!

Yo! Twitter-ers, you can follow the Citrix and HP partnership on twitter here - http://twitter.com/CitrixHP It's fresh, live and twitter-tastic.  Ok - that was bad.      (but the twitter feed is good now, and the following is growing rapidly!)

Citrix Geek Speak is an event format that allows Citrix, Citrix partners, other IT resellers and customers to exchange their know-how in free discussions following a defined subject around the main subject "Desktop Virtualization".

Date: 11/12/2009
Time: 14.30 CET - 21.00 CET
Location:
Europaplatz 1
CH-6005 Luzern
Switzerland
Hosted by: Citrix Central Europe
Venue: KKL Luzern / Kultur- und Kongresszentrum

Click below to learn more:
http://www.citrix-eventservice.de/geek-speak/termine-und-orte/#2009-11-12

Citrix Geek Speak is an event format that allows Citrix, Citrix partners, other IT resellers and customers to exchange their know-how in free discussions following a defined subject around the main subject "Desktop Virtualization".

Date: 11/2/2009
Time: 14.30 CET - 21.00 CET
Location:
Karlsplatz 13/011
A-1040 Wien
Austria
Hosted by: Citrix Central Europe
Venue: Technische Universität Wien / Hörsaal 6

Click below to learn more:
http://www.citrix-eventservice.de/geek-speak/termine-und-orte/#2009-11-02

Citrix Geek Speak is an event format that allows Citrix, Citrix partners, other IT resellers and customers to exchange their know-how in free discussions following a defined subject around the main subject "Desktop Virtualization".

Date: 10/27/2009
Time: 14.30 CET - 21.00 CET
Location:
Kurfürsten-Anlage 52-60
69115 Heidelberg
Germany
Hosted by: Citrix Central Europe
Venue: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG / Print Media Academy

Click below to learn more:
http://www.citrix-eventservice.de/geek-speak/termine-und-orte/#2009-10-27

    Three years ago, one of our premier customers came to us and asked us to build a platform that would allow them to deliver 3D applications remotely. There were a few products in the market at that time, both software and hardware based, that could support remote access for 3D graphics. But all of them required at least 5Mbps and latencies below 75 milliseconds. The customer's requirement was for us to build a solution that provided a usable experience with 2Mbps of bandwidth and tolerate up to 150ms round trip latency.    Thus began our journey to create the best 3D virtualization platform. The project has had many names over the years:  Pictor, Apollo and Prism. We have invested hundreds of man-years of effort and filed multiple patents. Today I am proud to say that we have accomplished what we set out to do three years ago. We have created XenDesktop 4 - a breakthrough desktop virtualization platform for 3D graphics.

    3D graphical applications, like CATIA, Pro/ENGINEER, Autodesk, etc. are used daily by CAD/CAM designers in the manufacturing sector. Research scientists use 3D graphical applications for oil exploration in Oil and Natural Gas companies. These are computationally challenging applications that need high end GPUs (graphical processing units) manufactured by companies like nVIDIA and AMD. These applications often require the most advanced workstations - fastest possible CPU and GPU and the largest amount of memory.

    3D applications are difficult to virtualize because performance is key in these applications. The CPU-GPU interaction has been designed to optimally deliver the highest number of frames per second (fps). Any software that is inserted in the middle can reduce the fps delivered to the user and cause a poor user experience. For example, for some complex models with hundreds of thousands of rendering triangles the workstation may create 2-3 frames per second. If the virtualization platform reduces the display rate to 1-2 fps, the difference is perceptible, and the end user will not want to use the application.

    In XenDesktop 4, we have extended the latency tolerance optimizations already presented in our HDX technology and added a few new compression algorithms, including some that use the GPU itself to do compression. The result is a 3D virtualization platform that meets the market requirements and delivers the best possible user experience. On the LAN, our solution can perform even better than locally installed applications, because server side GPUs can be more powerful than desktop GPUs. On the WAN there is no other solution that can deliver a usable experience at 2Mbps with 150 ms round trip latency.

    You will see this technology platform bear fruit in other areas that affect larger numbers of users. The new Microsoft OS - Windows 7  - leverages the GPU to deliver cool 3D graphical user interfaces. Our experience with high-end 3D graphics will help us effectively solve these problems for millions of users as they migrate to Windows 7. Stay tuned.

At Citrix Education, we are often asked the following question:

What is the difference between CXA-201-2I Implementing Citrix XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008 and CTX-1259BI Citrix Presentation Server 4.5 and XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003?

The easiest answer to this is simply, the operating system. CTX-1259BI applies to XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2003 and CXA-201-2I applies to XenApp 5.0 for Windows Server 2008. However, the more complicated answer is...a lot of smaller differences, like features.

During the development of courseware, Citrix products, including XenApp, continue to evolve and change. We manage this constant change in two primary ways:

1. We plan an update/maintenance cycle
2. We include features late in development (if they have been announced)

These two approaches, while capturing most changes, cannot reflect all changes to the product. That's why you may see a difference between what the courseware describes and what you can actually view in the live product. This, essentially, is the other fundamental difference between CXA-201 and CTX-1259. They each represent XenApp (on a different OS) at different times in XenApp evolution.

CXA-201-2I, available October 2, 2009, is the latest full course update on Citrix XenApp. It contains the most current and complete picture of XenApp on Windows Server 2008. CXA-201-1I, was the first release for the WS 2008 platform, and released in May of 2009. The features included in that course reflected XenApp 5 and nothing that has happened since...clearly, it was time for an update! Learn more about the delta between CXA-201-1I and CXA-201-2I (document also posted below).

In November 2009, we will release an update to CTX-1259BI. It will contain information including Feature Pack 2. Because it is available after the release of CXA-201-2I, it will become the course with the most current feature set of XenApp (WS 2003). Learn more about the delta between CTX-1259BI and CTX-1259CI (document also posted below).

In short, the main difference is the OS. The best choice for which class to take should be based on the OS on which you wish to learn. Or, if you are preparing for a platform migration from 2003 to 2008, we recommend CXA-201. To stay up to the minute current on new XenApp features, you can always reference the XenApp product pages.

If you have any questions or suggestions for the next release of XenApp courseware, please send them to training@citrix.com. We want to hear from you!

CXA-201 version overview

CTX-1259 version overview

Prepare your calendar for another one of those great meeting of the minds events that brings together the best presenters and attendees for collaboration on all things Citrix. The next bi-annual DocForum event is going to be held on December 5, 2009 at seines highs in Courbevoie, France. I've included information about the event below in both English and French

About DocForum

The meetings at DocForum are non-commercial and all about technologies around Citrix, Terminal Server and SBC in general.
The goal of these meetings is to bring together the best in the French IT sector together to exchange experiences and know-how.
DocForum meetings are held bi-annually in June and December, with free registration.
The next DocForum event is on December 5, 2009

À propos de DocForum

Les DocForum sont des rencontres non commerciales autour des technologies Citrix, Terminal server et SBC en général.
Le but de ces journées est de réunir les meilleurs IT Francais du secteur, pour échanger leurs expériences et leurs savoir-faire.
Nos rencontres sont bi-annuelles, en Juin et Décembre, libre d'inscription.
Prochain DocForum le 5 Décembre

About the Event

The second bi-annual DocForum event registrations are open. As for the first opus, this happen a Saturday, December 5 at Courbevoie in seines highs.

For the second DocForum we will have a true Hall with 40 seats with all the equipment due to this day. This will always be a day without sponsor, so of technical presentations without trade.

Given the number of registered persons, first DocForum that do are not come (unfortunately without warning). We will ask you a symbolic contribution from 5 € per person*. Such participation will be used to validate your subscription, so it is best that you use the same e-mail between PayPal and the form below.

A propos de l'événement

Les inscriptions au deuxième DocForum sont ouvertes. Comme pour le premier opus, cela se passera un samedi, le 5 décembre à Courbevoie dans les hauts de seines.

Pour le deuxième DocForum nous aurons une vraie salle de 40 places, avec tout l'équipement dû à cette journée. Ce sera toujours une journée sans Sponsor, donc que des présentations techniques sans commerce.

Vu le nombre de personnes inscrites, au premier DocForum, qui ne sont pas venu (malheureusement sans prévenir). Nous allons vous demander une participation symbolique de 5€ par personne*. Cette participation servira à valider votre inscription, il est donc préférable que vous utilisiez la même adresse email entre Paypal et le formulaire ci-dessous.

For more information about the event click below:
http://www.docforum.fr/

T-Mobile and Microsoft announced that a Microsoft subsidiary had suffered a "data-service disruption" that wiped out all Sidekick users' contacts, calendar entries, to-do lists, and photos. In the joint statement, Microsoft/Danger and T-Mobile said its teams were working "around the clock in hopes of discovering some way to recover this information." However, it noted that the likelihood of doing so "is extremely low." - From NewsFactor.com (Oct 12, 2009)

Google Search and Google News performance slowed to a crawl, while an outage seemed to spread from Gmail to Google Maps and Google Reader. From ComputerWorld (May 4, 2009)

It's hard to believe in this day and age that we should hear of data recovery being an issue, isn't it?  Even the government has explicit input into this worrisome problem.  Yet in the past six months we've seen two major Cloud Computing corporate faux pas.  More correctly, here we are talking about Business Continuity or drilling down one level, Workforce Continuity. 

One of my colleagues, who shall remain nameless, was aghast with these news releases and asked if it would negatively affect the push we are seeing in industry toward consumption based delivery of IT services.  Specifically, if Citrix technology was associated with one such disaster as a part of the Citrix Service Provider program, would we end up with a "black eye" and thus a negative brand implication?

Ironically, when I was working on our CSP TCO/ROI calculator, the question came up about Disaster Recovery and whether or not service providers offer it as a part of their subscription/hosting business.

The next logical question is 'Do service providers also provide some form of disaster recovery for themselves?'  It's one thing to back up data for the end customer, but what if the service providers' whole farm goes down?  Well... this is really a great question, but as we've seen from the recent press, it may be a matter of big fish vs. small fish.  For example, smaller hosting/service providers can and do back up their data using larger enterprises such as Amazon's S3. Why?  The costs are relatively low and the processes relatively easy to use. 

Also, because storage arrays are relatively inexpensive and technologies such automated failover are available, many smaller scale service providers opt to use their own backup and recovery systems on premise.

So one might ask, what about the big guys (Google, Amazon, Microsoft)?  Who provides their data recovery systems?  Well... based on the performance recorded in the press over the past few months, that appears to be a very good question.  There are speculations that because large Cloud Compute companies use (very) low cost equipment (servers and storage arrays) that duplicating real-time data for instantaneous recovery is just a part of their operations.  But is it really?

One of the challenges with scale is that you have to have enough compute power and storage to not only service the masses, but to provide continuity (and backup) in the event of a catastrophic failure.  Will negative press such as that from Google and Microsoft's "Danger" (what a name for a DR company!) keep businesses from using service providers for their mission critical data?  Anecdotally I've got to say no... at least at the SMB level because the data shows an increase in off premise IT services.  But maybe Google and Microsoft need to take a closer look at how they handle these types of services, especially for the large enterprises.

I've got a question for you. When was the last time you actually tested your Business Continuity system?  I mean, really tested a failure to see if your processes meet your users' expectations?  Don't get caught in the news answering the question like these guys did!

Did Brian Maddenmake a valid point about VDI and desktop virtualization that most people missed?  

Brian discussed a VDI€‰challenge, user-installed applications, which was in response to a desktop virtualization postI recently wrote about the same topic. Brian's premise was that each user needs to be able to install their own applications and should be allocated 2 virtual desktops:

1. First one locked down by IT
2. Second one is open where users would have full control

When I first read this I thought, well yes that would work but talk about a nightmare situation.  Many of the comments posted were extremely funny and I encourage you to read them (especially the one that said "Steve Ballmer must be smiling"). But seriously, if you think about what Brian is saying, it does have validity, if done correctly.

Sure there are tools/solutions that can allow users to install their own applications but we should not open the flood-gates and allow users to install whatever they desire. Not only are you looking at a management nightmare, but you are also looking at security risks, legal risks, and productivity risks.  What I can see happening is an environment that is suited to what the user needs. Something like the following...

1. Each user gets their IT-delivered desktop that includes all known corporate applications.  These applications are delivered into the desktop either through installation, streaming or hosting.  Users will inevitably try to install apps/plugins/tools into the corporate-delivered desktop.  The app will work until the user reboots (assuming shared image mode).  Once rebooted, the app is gone and the cycle starts again.  If the application is a new business requirement, there must be an IT process in place where users can request a new application. IT must have SLA's in place that allows them to assess the validity of the request, profile the application and deliver it to the virtual desktop in a timely manner (a few days to a week). Until the application is ready for delivery by IT, the user can continue to install or request a second virtual desktop (step 2 below).
2. Each user has the "ability" to self-service a second virtual desktop that can be used as a "playground".  Many power users have a need to install, test, evaluate different tools to make their jobs easier. Most users only need these applications for a few days or weeks, at least until a project is complete. Other users only need the application until IT is able to properly deliver the application into their corporate-delivered desktop.   This is where a second virtual desktop, i.e. a self-service desktop, could be requested. This is something like Brian recommended, 2 desktops. But the second desktop is only used if it is needed and requested through a self-service process. Of course because IT does not know what users will do to this desktop, proper security precautions must be taken into account.  With this option, users would have the ability to:
   1. Select the OS
   2. Select the life of the desktop (days, weeks or months)
   3. In the background, workflows are initiated that creates a new desktop, assign it to the user, and allow changes to be stored within the writable, user image.  When the timeframe expires, the desktop is deleted from existence.  

This option solves many of the challenges users experience in a virtual desktop world.  How to install temporary applications. How to use a new business application until IT is able to assess and deliver it properly.  

The point is that we must understand the users and their needs.  Most users can get along perfectly well with the applications delivered from IT.  But a sizeable portion of the user group needs autonomy, freedom, experimentation... A Playground. The one size desktop does not fit all.  Some user's might have two different desktops, others only 1.  We need to change the way we think about delivering desktops to users.  And in order to meet user expectations, we need systems (technical and process oriented) in place that can accommodate the users in a timely manner.

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Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions