Are YOU ready to Get The Facts about Citrix XenDesktop & VMware View?

Learn how YOU can be the hero!

http://tinyurl.com/CitrixandVMwareGetTheFacts

We look forward to seeing you there!

Jessica Demers

DC & MD Field Sales Manager

I moved to California from London just over 11 months ago. Obviously there is a significant cultural and climatic shift involved and a settling in period is a necessity to find your feet. Having travelled all over the world I have embraced as many aspects of different cultures and enjoyed experimenting.

One such aspect I have noticed here in California and in fact right throughout the US is the love of cheese.  A meal  smothered in cheese is normally accompanied by a side dish of, guess what, MORE cheese. Normally I reserve this dairy delight for a cracker or with some wine but 'Here' it is on everything.

Ordering a Cheeseburger with no cheese always raises a quizzical look from the waitress and a thought process which starts with "You are weird" and progresses to "Is he a serial killer?". Even the lactose intolerant demand that their lunch, dinners and daily snacks have heavy cheese content. Asking colleagues, "why do they have so much cheese on their food?" the simple answer was, "it tastes so good with cheese".

One technically gifted colleague decided to explain this using the analogy that Citrix XenApp and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services(the technology formerly known as Terminal Services) have the same relationship as cheese and hot meals(zzzz). The hot meal is the platform, Microsoft, and the cheese is the value-add, XenApp, which brings the  meal to life. Beating this analogy to a quick death, then Citrix has a number of cheeses, Citrix XenDesktop, Essentials for Hyper-V and Branch Repeater which embrace and extend the Microsoft Platform to supply a sumptuous meal.

All of these great combos can be found here at the New Microsoft/Citrix Community Portal where we've consolidated all related news, blogs, articles, videos, etc... into the feeds section of this page. We've also created an area that highlights all related forum threads and postings. Look for answers to your burning questions, participate in an existing discussion, or you can tell us if our cheese is good or if it stinks - let me remind you that all the best cheeses stink  

PS Does eating cheese in the evening give you nightmares? 

I was in San Diego last week at the Catalyst Conference 2009 hosted by the Burton Group. Desktop virtualization was one of the main tracks and for some of the Burton Group analysts, desktop virtulization or VDI or virtual deskops were the most frequently discussed topic with their customers.

Personally, I met with over 2 dozen enterprise customers, including some that have already implemented the technology. I also co-presented with Burton Group on the topic of future of desktop virtualization. It was very encouraging to see that customers are increasingly becoming aware of desktop virtualization and are considering desktop virtualization to free themselves up from the PC refresh cycle. I think that we are nearly at the tipping point - where the success from early adopters will spread to the majority of the IT environments.

Here are my top 3 findings:

Virtualizing a desktop is not the same as virtualizing a server

There was a consensus here among all customers who have already implemented virtual desktops. IT often starts with virtualizing desktops with the assumption that it is the same as virtualizing a server. However, it turns out that there are some stark differences. We have talked about this before but Some interesting quotes:

• "2000 virtual servers is a lot of virtual servers but 2000 virtual desktops common for an enterprise"
• "Server VMs - goal is to keep them up, Desktop VMs - goal is to keep them up to date"
• "Server VMs - multiple workloads to virtualize without any personalization, Desktop VMs - Single workload to virtualize but with user personalization"
• "Server VMs - all about up-time (easy to measure - 99999999....), Desktop VMs - its all about user experience (user satisfaction, performance, easy to access)
• "Server VMs - if virtual center is down - no big deal, Desktop VMs - virtual center is down means users are unable to connect!"

Existing customers of first generation VDI are rapidly upgrading and expanding with new virtual desktop solutions

I spoke with customers that started with virtual desktops about 18 months ago and did so with 1:1 user mapping to VMs. It was interesting to learn about how customers were able to make successful business cases in virtual desktops even with those first generation or primitive architectures that involved managing multiple instances of desktops in virtual machines, high storage costs and not the best user experience. Business cases were based on simplifying distributed dekstop management while giving users the flexibility to access their desktop from anywhere.

In the past 12 months, several of the limitations of the first generation virtual deskops have been eliminated. All these early adopters are now rapidly upgrading to these new generation of virtual desktops where they can manage a pool of virtual desktops using a single OS image, and single of instance of apps. Most were planning to start with virtual applications gradually starting from the ones that are the hardest and most complex to manage and update. This will give them the ability to simplify virtual desktop management and cut down the cost of storage infrastructure.

Most of these customers said that they are rapidly expanding their virtual desktop solutions as it will help them migrate to Windows 7 much more easily.

Picking the best desktop for every user helps virtual desktop solutions

During my presentation on the future of desktop virtualization, there were two topics that resulted in many good questions and positive feedback.

1. Best virtual desktop solution for different user types - I have written about this before. I had several conversations with enterprises looking at hosted virtual desktops or VDI regarding how to get the best fit desktop using other technologies including blade PCs, terminal server based or even local virtual desktops. In almost all cases, mapping different options to different user types led to eliminating several barriers to hosted virtual desktop or VDI model, including TCO, user mobility & power user scenarios.
2. Local virtual desktops - Huge interest in Citrix XenClient. Security, manageablity and BYOC became the three top discussion topics with the customers. In fact, Citrix CIO Office presented Citrix's BYOC implementation at the event and it was one of the most popular sessions.

Overall, it was a good event, well attended, with lots of good, in depth discussions. It is great to see the positive momentum of customers moving from physical PCs to virtual desktops.

Get more information on Citrix's desktop virtualization

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Take a moment and do a Google or Bing search on VDI vs TS.  How many hits do you get?  I get quite a few. Some from Brian Madden, many from Vmware, and more from other VDI providers.  It's an important topic, or at least that is what some people want you to believe.  I've heard about these debates, I've attended conferences where there were sessions specifically dedicated to this topic and the room was packed. I've attended these discussions and sessions before but I've left most of them thinking, "That was entertaining, but I just don't get it". 

I've been doing the TS thing for more than 10 years.  Over the last few years I've also been spending a lot of time focused on VDI. Throughout all of this time, I've interacted with desktop groups as well as more users than I could count.  And being a TS and VDI user myself (Yes, I use both), I feel comfortable giving you my thoughts on this debate.

The debate is flawed!!!

The debate doesn't make sense!!!

If you really understand the underlying premise of both solutions you will quickly see why.  It's like asking someone if they want wine or lobster for dinner.  They are two different things. One is a food, the other is a drink.  When you put them together, you have a very nice meal.

So what is my take besides saying the debate is flawed?  Well, for that I need a little more of your time (about 1 hour).  I'll be spending 1 hour talking about this exact topic during Part 1 of the XenDesktop Ask the Architect TechTalk series on August 11.  If you want the full story, I recommend you attend. 

This is part 1 of a 3 part Ask the Architect TechTalk Series

• Part I: VDI or TS: Selecting the Best Solution
• Part II: Designing a VDI Solution with XenDesktop
• Part III: Migrating Users from Physical to Virtual Desktops

Note: This blog was brought to you from a hosted XenDesktop virtual desktop with a XenApp-streamed Firefox browser.  

Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/danielf

1. Best User Experience - Wyse http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/377
User experience has always been a key concern for IT planning to rollout XenDesktop to new users. Increasingly these users are knowledge workers with higher demands and expectations. This includes things like boot-up time, peripheral support and no compromise Multimedia.

Doug Brown : I loved how Wyse was able to show off not only video running through XenDesktop but also a real time video camera! This use case has become more and more needed in today's world! Nicely done!
Sumit Dhawan : The collaboration function demonstrated was impressive. Nicely done.
Chris Fleck : I liked the Wyse demonstration of full Webcam functionality, this is a growing requirement for knowledge workers moving from PC's.

2. Best Management - IGEL http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/530
A key driver for desktop virtualization is the control it affords IT administrators and the cost savings it achieves. Thin clients form a key component of the broader value equation. Example of demonstrations to illustrate management and TCO can include Management console and functionality

Doug Brown : The video was short and sweat and in the short time IGEL was able to show how simple it is to use their management tools to make changes and rollout users. Impressive!
Sumit Dhawan : The best demonstration on management, and creatively shared.
Chris Fleck : IGEL gave a informative demonstration of their management console and capability that would be useful for Thin Client deployments with XenDesktop.

3. Best Security – HP http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/688
Security is a key driver in the adoption of desktop virtualization. In a world where security concerns gains increasing importance, please demonstrate how your company's device complements the security associated with XenDesktop. Examples can include, but are not limited to, support for Smart Cards and the ability to harden, lock down and securely manage endpoint devices.

Doug Brown : I thought HP went above and beyond in their video detailing their security enhancements to XenDesktop. By far the best video detailing security along with being very well produced.
Sumit Dhawan : Solid videos showcasing security - no one came close in demonstrating the security capabilities
Chris Fleck : HP added features such as USB port control and Smart Card support are important to many customers considering XenDesktop as a more secure and controlled environment.

4. Best Form Factor 10ZiG http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/672
Show how your company's device brings the ideals of form and function together to deliver a XenDesktop access device that is not only cool to look at gets users excited about getting their hands on, but is easy and useful, delivers a better user experience, can lower cost of ownership and is more secure.
Doug Brown : Not only are the 10ZiG clients small and pretty but I liked how 10ZiG showed how easy it is to hide them away behind a users monitor. Pretty cool stuff...
Sumit Dhawan : Small, good fit behind the monitor - and a great demo of form factor
Chris Fleck : The 10ZiG devices are small and look good.

5. Best Innovation HP http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/677
Innovation is a key way for partners to differentiate their offerings to add value above and beyond that provide by XenDesktop. This category is for partners to highlight complementary hardware or software features that have been added to achieve greatest value add to XenDesktop customers.

Doug Brown : I was very impressed with everything HP packed in to their videos. They truly showed us the amazing innovations they are making with their thin clients.
Sumit Dhawan : The video was comprehensive showcasing the end to end approach - a hallmark for innovation
Chris Fleck : HP innovations around multi-monitors, device management and quick-release mounting feature are all great examples of how to enhance Thin Client deployments.

6. Support for Locally Streamed Desktop Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/676/
Citrix has recently highlighted the ability of XenDesktop to be used to stream the operating system to the endpoint for local execution. The submissions in this category will highlight how the partners' solutions are ideally suited to receive streamed desktops. Examples of ways to illustrate value are inclusion of the Operating System streaming client and the ability to include hardware resources (CPU, GPU) required for local execution.

Doug Brown : DevonIT did an amazing job showing us a streamed XenDesktop and they explained it all and showed it all in a really "cool" fashion. Good stuff!
Sumit Dhawan : DevonIT demonstrated this the best - showing the most challenging use case
Chris Fleck : DevonIT makes use of the Citrix Provisioning Server Streaming OS feature of XenDesktop yielding a great admin and user experience.

7. Best overall Video ( Expert Panel Vote ) Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/673

Doug Brown : DevonIT went above and beyond in this video. It was funny, explained their total value add and did I mention it was just downright funny? A must watch and many kudos to them. A stellar video! (Unless you try to steal one of their thin clients and get hit in the face with it!)
Sumit Dhawan : Creative, fun, informative - and excellent use of marketing. Great way to drive traffic by making the front screen of the video appealing for the target audience to click on
Chris Fleck : DevonIT's video presentation was a creative and informative way to highlight the benefits of Thin Clients including XenDesktop and the TC5. A sign of more to come ?

8. Best overall Video ( User Community Vote ) Devon IT http://www.citrix.com/tv/#video/673

The Community spoke with their views, votes and comments, the DevonIT views are at 1028 and counting, with an average of 4 stars.

Congratulations to DevonIT and all the category winners ! Well Done. Thank you for participating in the challenge and thanks to the Citrix community that voted with their views and rankings. ( and thanks Vishal Ganeriwala for putting this challenge together )

Citrix XenDesktop: The Clear Choice for Desktop Virtualization

If you're looking for the best virtual desktop solution or want to improve your existing one, you should know that Citrix XenDesktop™ delivers a host of benefits that VMware View can't, including:
 

* 10X lower bandwidth requirement for LAN or WAN
* Unmatched user experience on any device
* Unique performance monitoring of desktops
* Scalable, single image management                                            
* Lowest TCO with both hosted and streamed desktops
 

Come see XenDesktop in Action - See dual monitor support, apps delivered (streamed) with XenApp, including multimedia, USB device support, virtual remote technical support. And then see the experience when working from home - see the desktop session resumed exactly where it was in the office, and automatically refactored for single display.
        -------------------------------------------------------
Register Now!

Thursday, August 13^th, McCormick & Schmick's Pier 5 Inner Harbor
 

Agenda
11:30 - 12:00 - Registration
12:00 - 1:30 - Presentation, product demonstration and lunch
1:30 - 2:00 - Q&A and Wrap-up 
 

**All attendees will receive the "VDI Comparison Kit". It includes expert reviews and industry insights into what you should consider in choosing a VDI solution.

"Citrix Systems' XenDesktop is a state-of-the-art product for hosted desktop virtualization and may be the gold standard by which other products are judged in a feature-for-feature comparison."  Virtualization Review, April 2009

We recently had a very successful VDI Expert Series Webinar on July 16 with both analyst firm EMA and storage provider Netapp titled "Storage Best Practices for High Def VDI." Not only did the live event draw close to 400 attendees, over 3/4 of you stayed on through the end of the webinar.  For those of you who might have missed the webinar, do not despair.   You can watch the archived webinar On Demand Here.  As promised, we have listed the FAQs as well as the unanswered questions from the webinar below: 
 
FAQ:  We are interested in implementing VDI but are concerned about the upfront Capital Expenditure.  How can I roll this out cost effectively, given a limited budget?
Answer:  While a complete cutover from distributed desktops to hosted VDI entails significant capital expenditure, it is possible to implement VDI using a phased approach.  You can use your older legacy (> 3 years old) desktops with hosted virtual desktops, thereby extending your desktop refresh cycle.  For desktops which are already up for refresh, consider using your desktop refresh budget to replace your desktops and laptops with thin clients in a complete hosted VDI approach.  Then when your older legacy desktops must be replaced, you can subsequently replace them with thin clients and/or laptops.   
 
FAQ: Is there any kind of guideline (CPU, memory, etc.) for deciding between productivity, knowledge, and power worker/user? Miscategorizing someone could be a painful mistake.
Answer:  This is certainly a "your mileage may vary" area, but we have published some discussions about designing desktops for a variety of use cases in a design paper on our website.  Typically pilots start with similar allocations of CPU and RAM as the physical device they are currently using.  The nice thing is that in a VM you certainly have the ability to adjust the virtual resources without a screwdriver
 
FAQ:   What differentiates the Citrix + Netapp VDI solution from the one from VMware?
Answer:  As outlined in the detailed competitive comparison on our website,  the Citrix + Netapp VDI solution differs from the one from VMware in four key areas: 
1.       User Experience:  Citrix's HDX Technologies optimizes the user experience by leveraging integrated client/endpoint-, server-, or network side technologies to allow users an optimal high definition user experience to a broad range of applications - streaming media, Flash, audio, 3D graphics, etc - over both the Local Area Network and the Wide Area Network.  This is in stark contrast to VMware View, which will work for LAN use cases, but not for the WAN.
2.       Application Management:  The Citrix + Netapp VDI solution includes integrated XenApp, Citrix's proven application virtualization solution, which works with 1000's of Windows applications, in either a Hosted or Streamed mode.  VMware View integrates with VMware's ThinApp application virtualization technology.  However,  the VMware View solution requires bundling all delivered applications into the VM, which makes application delivery much more cumbersome and difficult to manage.
3.       Flexibility:  The Citrix + Netapp VDI solution offers IT organizations the flexibility to use a variety of VM Infrastructure - Microsoft's Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, or VMware ESX.  By contrast, VMware View ties an IT organization to only VMware ESX.  This gives the customers the flexibility to choose the most powerful cost-effective best-of-breed VDI solution.
4.       Policy-based access control:  The Citrix + Netapp VDI solution leverages a familiar Microsoft and/or Citrix management user interface for managing granular -  by user groups or individuals - access to data and applications. 

Question:  When backing up and restoring a user's virtual desktop, is it possible to only backup/restore a user's MyDocuments or data folders?
Answer:  Yes, it is possible to use Netapp technology to back up entire VM's or just specific sets of user data.
 
Question:  Today we obtain OEM licenses for Windows OS via the HW vendor. If we use VDI - do we have to buy expensive Microsoft OS licenses? Doesn't that increase our costs?
Answer:  While VDI requires purchasing Microsoft Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop OS licenses, the net costs can be approximately equivalent to what one pays today for local desktop OS licenses.  You need one Microsoft Virtual Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD) license per device, which allows the licensed device to access up to four virtual desktops  concurrently. More desktop instances could be centrally stored, but not accessed at the same time by the same device, without purchasing an additional VECD license. 
 
Question:  What kind of servers (RAM, CPU) would i need to host let's say about 200 PC's, for basic Microsoft Word, Outlook and printing?
Answer:  You may find this Citrix VDI design paper useful, because it provides technical guidelines for many different scenarios.
 
Question:  What about  support for USB devices? Special keyboard (like Bloomberg), video cameras, multi-button mice, etc...
Answer:  Citrix XenDesktop supports many USB devices via its HDX Technologies.  Many USB devices such as SmartPhones, mice, keyboard, scanners, printers, smart cards, graphics tablets work right out of the gate.  There are a couple keys on the Bloomberg keyboard that require some more devleopment work to claim complete support.  Support for isochronous devices - like webcams - is under development and planned for an upcoming release.  Please see the following support article for details. 
 
Question:  Is there a subscription model of VDI services that a SMB market segment can subscribe to?
Answer:  The SMB market segment may possibly leverage a subscription or hosted model of VDI.  Citrix partners are working on making this available.  Please visit http://www.citrix.com/xendesktop for updates.
 
Question:  What is the best way to handle Outlook OST files inside a Thin Provisioned virtual machine? We have a client that must have cached mode on in Outlook, and using Standard Image Mode, we would have to flex that giant file with the user's profile.
Answer:  Yes, a best practice for handling Outlook OST files is to store the OST files on a network-shared and accessible drive so the user Outlook data follows the users, wherever he or she may be.  It is therefore necessary to store the user OST files with the user's profile accordingly. 
 
For more detailed storage and image management best practices, please take a look at the Optimizing Storage and Image Management blog posts part 1 and part 2.  For more detailed information about Citrix XenDesktop, please visit the XenDesktop product page.   

 For those who travel for business the need for offline access to your desktop has always been a requirement but with internet coverage growing .....Broadband WiFi, cellular data cards, and now even on commercial flights with Delta and other airlines offering en route satellite based internet service things are changing.   Last week flying back to Atlanta I thought I would pony up the $9.95 and see how my vista xendesktop performed at 34,000 ft and 520kts. I was excited to find great usability and performance. Here is the recorded xendesktop session I  posted below. 
http://goview.com/?id=d7f6c237-1844-45da-9f04-aba5d9add98b

This was posted some time ago, but I suspect that there are many that may have missed it since there are so many new virtual desktop projects springing up all the time. So I'm bringing it back up to the top for more exposure!

This blog has been invaluable for our field, for our technical marketing staff and for our event demo preparations. It's called "Windows XP Performance Optimizations for XenDesktop and Provisioning Server vDisks."

There's more to be discussed on how to successfully make that P2V conversion of a desktop, and we are working on additional white papers that will outline some of the real world best practices we've uncovered - so stay tuned!

Are YOU ready to learn how Citrix can lower your TCO by up to 40%?  Become PART of the BUZZ instead of just hearing it!!!  Contact us so we can set up a 60min onsite educational meeting so YOU can learn what all the BUZZ is about! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello All!  My name is Jessica Demers and I am the Citrix Field Sales Manager responsible for all NON-Federal Citrix business in Maryland & Washington, DC. 

Our PRE-SALES Team:

Jose Parada | Lead Territory Manager | 954.229.6849 | jose.parada@citrix.com

• Drives Operational Territory Management | Citrix Florida Headquarter Office
• Conduit for All Citrix Products & Services

Jessica Demers | Field Sales Manager | 410.533.2322 | jessica.demers@citrix.com

• Drives Strategic Territory Management | Local
• Conduit for All Citrix Products & Services

Andrew Kloman | Systems Engineer | 202.579.5231 | andrew.kloman@citrix.com

• Drives Technical Awareness, Helps Architect Solutions, & Runs DC|MD Citrix User Group | Local
• Conduit for ALL PRE-SALES Citrix Products & Services

Lowell Malesky | Application Networking Sales Manager | 703.338.0598 | lowell.malesky@citrix.com

• Drives Strategic Territory Management | Local
• Conduit for All Application Networking Solutions

Sri Subbian | Application Networking Systems Engineer | 301.530.8117 | sri.subbian@citrix.com

• Drives Technical Awareness & Helps Architect Solutions | Local
• Conduit for ALL PRE-SALES Application Networking Solutions

Dan Kuchem | Channel Development Manager | 703.738.8846| daniel.kuchem@citrix.com

• Drives Channel Development & Management | Local
   

Follow us on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/DC_MD_CitrixRep

Citrix XenDesktop is a finalist in the Virtualization category for the "Best of TechEd" award from Windows ITPro magazine.

If you are attending TechED 2009 in Los Angeles, please vote for XenDesktop as the "Best of TechED" at this link -

http://windowsitpro.com/awards/teched_finalists_2009.html

(you must be logged into to MSTechEd.com and attending the event to vote).

Follow the Twitter feed for "Best of TechEd 2009" here.

Follow the official TechEd 2009 Twitter feed here

Government, healthcare and financial organizations are heavily evaluating virtual desktops, and due to the nature of these industries, one of the big requirements is for secure authentication via smart cards. Frankly, when XenDesktop first came out, it didn't have the goods in the smart card + VDI department, but no one else did, either. There was no integration to speak of, from either Citrix or VMware, and this meant these industries could only deploy VDI in limited use cases.

Citrix quickly addressed this in product updates, and the newly released Feature Pack 1 for XenDesktop 3 includes even more functionality. VMware has been kinda quiet on the smart card integration front - so I was curious, how are the two products faring in head-to-head evaluations in customer accounts? So I went and polled several of our SEs, some partners and some customers and learned a few interesting tidbits in some key categories:

-          Seamless integration of authentication: With XenDesktop, you get the typical black "carbon fiber" log in screen on boot-up, then you insert the Smart Card and are prompted to enter your PIN. Just like a normal desktop. We've heard reports that for some reason View is requiring PIN entries for the broker, then the desktop - and for every desktop subsequently. Seems complicated for end users.

-          Active Directory object clean up: With XenDesktop, when virtual desktops are opened and closed, the AD objects are created and removed cleanly. We've seen customers struggle with how View creates the objects for each virtual desktop, but then fails to clean them up and leaves them orphaned. So in a typical enterprise, this can result in thousands of AD objects being created every day and clogging up the works.

-          Coffee breaks: If a user leaves for a coffee break and takes their card with them (as proper policy would mandate), the desktop should lock. When the user returns and enters the PIN, it should unlock with the and return the user to their desktop as they left it. XenDesktop handles this, but it seems that customers have reported View "loses" the Smart Card when it is withdrawn during a session. Re-inserting the card does nothing, and the desktop has to be fully shut down and the user has to start from square one to get back into the desktop.

-          Multi-card reader roaming: A lot of organizations don't have identical readers at each endpoint, but the user needs the same desktop. Feature Pack 1 adds the ability to roam between different devices even when different readers are attached.

-          Endpoint device support: With Feature Pack 1, XenDesktop offers both Windows and Linux endpoint support for Smart Card readers. At this time, View's ability to support Smart Cards (with the above integration challenges) is limited to Windows endpoints.

Obviously, with these considerations taken into account, XenDesktop is winning these bake-offs. But I don't think it's just about smart card integration. It's a fundamental understanding of the virtual desktop experience that is burned into the Citrix DNA - the smart card functionality is just a manifestation of that know-how.

A couple months ago, I posted about a VMware-sponsored report that compared View 3 to an older version of XenDesktop. I've gotten a lot of good feedback on that response, and a lot of agreement that sponsored third-party analysis needs to be absorbed with a cautious eye. I don't think it at all means  that sponsored work isn't valuable or useful, but it needs to have a sound, transparent methodology and provide enough data and detailed context that it actually ends up being useful to the audience.

Regardless, any paid-for review is going to be viewed with skepticism, right? So that's why I'm so excited about this completely independent, non-sponsored pair of reviews that were conducted by Infoworld:

• "VMware View is good news, bad news: VMware's VDI solution makes virtual desktops real, but not particularly easy to manage" This is a brand new review of VMware View, with a final score of 7.5.
• "Citrix hits the VDI high notes: Citrix XenDesktop 2.0 leverages streaming applications, server virtualization, and swift tools for a scalable and manageable virtual desktop infrastructure solution" This review is a little older, from September 2008, based on our first "real" release of XenDesktop, and we scored an 8.3 way back then. Since then, we've added many new features and capabilities for both user experience and manageability.

We were really pleased with the XenDesktop review when it first came out, but we lacked the context of how it compared to an in-depth review of VMware's product. Now that the review of View is out, I personally think the score is even more impressive.

So if you're skeptical about paid reviews, have a look at the two independent reviews above! Then come back to www.citrix.com/xendesktop and learn more about the product and our latest enhancements.

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 

Learn more about Microsoft VDI

Learn More about Citrix XenDesktop

I've just wrapped another long day at VMworld Europe in Cannes, France. I've got lots of thoughts on many things I've seen and heard here, but I thought I'd start with a topic that Brian Madden  brought up in his blog about how VMware is misleading everyone on TCO.

Brian saw the partner-facing version of the VMware View TCO session on Monday - I saw the same basic session repeated on Tuesday for the  general customer audience. By this time, the VMware representative must have read the blog and specifically noted, "This is not intended to compare View to other alternatives, like Terminal Services." Okay, cool.

Now the part that I have contention with is a part that I actually agree with VMW 100% on - let me explain. In the session, she talked about how the cost and ROI analysis should be broken into 3 buckets - capex (infrastructure acquisition costs), opex (support, management, adds/moves/changes) and then end-user costs/benefits. Rightly so, she point out that end-user costs/benefits are hard to quantify so approach with caution, and for the most part, the case for VDI will not be made on capex savings. That leaves the bulk of the savings being generated from efficiencies in Tier 1/2/3 support, application management, etc. Oh, and by the way, she repeatedly mentioned, Gartner put out a report saying that the TCO savings in this area were up to 50%. WHOAH!!!!

The slide was comparing traditional managed PCs to VMware View, and Gartner said you could save 50%?? That would be big news, wouldn't it? Wait a darn second... I get every Gartner report on the space and I don't remember seeing anything like that....

Turns out that the Gartner report being referenced is entitled, "Total Cost of Ownership Comparison of PCs With Server-Based Computing." If you are at all familiar with Gartner taxonomy, you know that VDI equates to Hosted Virtual Desktops (HVD), and Server-based Computing (SBC) equals...... Terminal Services (TS) and XenApp. If I'm not mistaken, there's no TS or XenApp in VMware View (not seriously, anyway), so that leaves me to assume that VMware think the TCO case for VDI can be made by taking the numbers from a completely different solution architecture.

In Brian's "VDI vs. TS" session at VMworld (bravo, by the way, great session), he made a good case for VDI and TS to both be considered SBC. I buy that there are some inherent benefits that apply to any centralized, server-hosted infrastructure, so some generalization might be appropriate.  But Gartner get paid the big bucks to be VERY precise about taxonomy and TCO. They factor in things like server density, app patch management, etc. for SBC that are completely unrelated to VDI. Munging the two together is just a raw misapplication of the research and misleading to say the least!

That said, I have to mention that I think the only misleading part is associating the savings with View - the savings analysis fits perfectly for XenDesktop! With XenApp baked in as part of XenDesktop, you indeed get the benefits of SBC as part of the solution, as well as single image management from our provisioning services, user productivity from HDX technology, etc. So I think the approach for using the SBC TCO analysis in the context of VDI was spot on, it was just done for the wrong product!

Check this out, another bond in the relationship with our friends at HP:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/2009/090211a.html

Another proofpoint that the strategy around XenDesktop is not just about VDI, it's all about a flexible system for desktop delivery (whether they are hosted on VMs, hosted on blade PCs, or streamed to endpoints).

Recently we've seen a report circulating that our friends at VMware sent out. It's a report that they contracted the Tolly Group to write. The document attempts to provide a comparison of VMware View 3 with Citrix XenDestkop 2.1. Ironically, this document is being released just after we've launched XenDesktop 3, making the report immediately obsolete.

There's a prominent sidebar that in the report that states that Citrix declined to participate in the testing - this is true, and I was the one that actually made that call and discussed it with Tolly Group. To their credit, Tolly Group did call us prior to beginning the testing and informed us of the project and shared the statement of work prepared for VMware. We asked some questions and provided some feedback about the testing methodology. I had serious concerns that the proposed tests did not reflect true customer use cases. For example, the user experience testing was only for a few productivity applications in a LAN environment - that was all that was planned, and it didn't seem to realistic based on what we've seen in real customer environments. Tolly took note of our concerns and asked VMware as the sponsor of the paper whether they would alter their approach.  Later we learned that VMware (not surprisingly) had rejected our suggestions and was not open to changing the proposed tests. At that point, it was clear that it made no sense to participate because:

a)      The test would not be based on our current product at the time of publication

b)      The proposed testing environment did not reflect real world customer requirements 

c)       Critical elements of a virtual desktop solution were not going to be included in the test, things like application management, service level assurance, diversity in client endpoints, WANs, etc.

We've been having great success with XenDesktop, and we're winning consistently in competitive situations. And we've been winning based on precisely the types of scenarios and solution capabilities that were excluded from this testing.

Despite these fundamental issues with the report, people will still ask questions about the claims within it. So here's some brief responses to the 5 highlighted claims in the report.

Claim 1 - Complex Installation - This claim would hold some merit if the two products were comparable in terms of overall functionality. A spreadsheet is easier to install than an enterprise CRM or ERP solution - but that doesn't make it better suited for the job at hand.

Claim 2 - Simple Image Management - VMware claims that XenDesktop requires dedicated images in order to support persistent desktops, and that it needs third-party products to manage the user's personal environment. Both these points are invalid with XenDesktop 3. The report doesn't mention that VMware recommends or requires third party add-ons to achieve similar functionality that is built-in to XenDesktop.

Claim 3 - Manual Configuration of Active Directory & DHCP - Again this is not a valid claim for XenDesktop 3. Manual configuration of Active Directory is not required.

Claim 4 - Management of ALL VDI functions through a single, Web-based GUI - Xbox 360 game controllers have a lot of buttons. The Atari 2600 controller had one button.

Claim 5 - Equivalent end-user experience on LAN as Citrix for Microsoft Office applications - How about when the users start to use other apps, move to other networks, and access desktops from other client devices? Check out www.citrix.com/xendesktop3 and  www.citrix.com/hdx for information on our approach to user experience experience - be sure to check out the videos.

We fully understand that The Tolly Group's role is to validate the results of a testing methodology designed by the sponsor. We've commissioned several similar reports ourselves, and made every effort to make them as valuable to customers as possible.

To wrap this up: We didn't participate in this study because we knew it would be outdated at the time of publication. We also felt that the testing environment did not provide an accurate representation of customer requirements. Finally we didn't participate as the scope of the project only evaluated a subset of the functionality needed for a complete solution.

For every 200 licenses of more of XenDesktop Platinum Edition you place an order for, and you are entitled to a license of GoToAssist. It is actually a benefit of your active Subscription Advantage.

 I get a lot of questions about this, mostly starting with "Huh? Only 1 out of 200 of my users can get support?"

GoToAssist isn't licensed like other 1:1 remote viewing software, like GoToMyPC. In those cases you have software for each seat, both on the host and the guest side. GoToAssist is specifically designed for the tech support department, and the license goes to the support rep - NOT the user - who can then interact with as many end users as they need to. Since it's designed for even some of the largest external support teams (like vendors who supply support to their customers), it is also designed so that you can initiate a session with pretty much anyone, anywhere on the fly.

So, we took some industry data and came up with a starting place ratio of 200:1 - estimating that 1 support rep seat can handle about 200 virtual desktop users. This will be high in some industries and low in others, but it's a starting point.

The other thing to remember is that G2A isn't just remote viewing software. It's a complete remote tech support system, that can track end user feedback, rep productivity/efficiency, etc., and can integrate with your existing incident tracking solutions as well.

Now that the covers are off on our 2nd and 3rd big announcements of 2009 so far - XenDesktop 3 and HDX technology- I've been getting lots of followup questions.

• "Is it immediately available?" Soon! We officially said February 2009, so we have a few weeks yet in the month to stay true to that
• "What does HDX stand for?" The official answer is "High Definition User Experience" but I have seen "High Definition Xen" and "High Def Extensions" which are kinda cool, too - but wrong... So be an insider and get it right!
• "Is HDX just a new name for ICA or SpeedScreen or..." NO. HDX is a much broader technology statement and vision than just a protocol or individual technology. Just like they say it takes a village to raise a child - it takes a delivery system and a community of partners to truly create the best user experience. HDX signifies a strategy to essentially do whatever it takes to create that user experience - and we're not thinking just inside the boundaries of what a protocol can do...
• "Is Desktop Streaming related to Project Independence?" No - not at this time anyway. Desktop streaming is part of the way that we extend the concept of single image management and desktop delivery to LAN-connected office workers using fairly standardized PC hardware. Independence is part of our strategy for addressing mobile worker use cases and BYOC initiatives.

That's it for now, I'll add to the list as I get more frequently asked questions.

Prediction #1: The iPhone goes Enterprise

- The iPhone will gain rapid adoption in the Enterprise driven by user demands including executives, road warriors, and knowledge workers asking for access to the apps they need ( including windows apps ) from anywhere. IT will increasingly support the effort based on new improved security capabilities and productivity gains ( including for themselves ).

..	Choose
I am in IT and we will support the iPhone in 2009 ! ( I need the Citrix Receiver now... )
Blackberry reigns in the Enterprise, no change for '09 ...

..	Choose
We already are saving significant $$ by enabling safe access from home PC's
We are planning to allow controlled access ( via Citrix ) from home PC's in 2009
Status quo, corporate laptop access or none at all.

Prediction #3: Virtual Desktops grow beyond a niche

- Improvements in user experience capabilities of VDI solutions combined with the reduced support cost model will drive increased adoption of VDI beyond the initial niche deployments.

..	Choose
We are moving from VDI pilots and special use cases to broader deployment
VDI is not ready for the masses, we will wait and see

Prediction #4: IaaS Cloud Providers are no longer just for web startups

- The recent Windows offering by Amazon will validate the IaaS ( Infrastructure as a Service ) model as a viable platform for companies small and large looking to add test and targeted production capacity without capital and facility costs.

..	Choose
We have started to use Cloud VM's or Storage for test and plan broader use in '09
What is IaaS ? No way are we putting anything in the cloud...
Not sure, need to try it first

Prediction #5: Netbooks drive Servers, Clouds and Linux clients

- The rapid adoption of Netbooks based on low cost and light weight convenience will increase the desire to run server hosted apps ( Web and Windows ). A significant number of the new mini laptops will be used for occasional use vs a primary PC which makes maintaining local apps and synchronizing data problematic. This in turn will help break the traditional model of running Windows apps installed on PCs and laptops.

..	Choose
We are getting more and more requests for access from Netbooks, all they need is Citrix and a browser.
Netbooks are just toys for kids ...  ( small & big )

Agree / disagree ? what are your predictions ? 

Also seen at Sys-Con Cloud Computing Computing Journal