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Small and Medium businesses. The SMB! Why are they so important to the market we are in? Because there are over 50 million of them worldwide. Who services them and how much money is there to be made in this space? Some say that the SMB will be the key to recovery from this worldwide recession.
SMBs are not so different from larger enterprises. They have employees, products, and even computers and software applications. Just like larger enterprises they have a top line (Revenue) and a bottom line (Profit). They also have operations costs that come between their top and bottom lines. Which is where they spend money on things like Information Technology.
Most SMBs go through plateaus in their growth where they make major decisions about their operations and IT is no exception. When a company reaches about 99 employees they begin to be faced with a major decision... What am I going to do about all of these information technology issues I have today? This ranges from Customer Relationship Management (CRM) to Communications (Email and VoIP) to plain old vanilla business productivity applications (Microsoft Office). The problems begin to occur at this growth period because there are enough software application versions and data repository issues that day-to-day operations could be at risk with any and all disruption caused by IT. And so, for the most part IT becomes a necessary evil that requires additional outlay of cash to keep it under control.
But now there are products that come through the "Ether" and don't require an entire staff of IT professionals to run them. So when the guy who has to cut the check each month is looking at decreasing profits because he keeps paying for applications to be loaded (and they don't seem to work together because of a lack of version control or service packs missing or O/S problems) it shouldn't surprise anybody that he is looking for alternatives. He keeps hearing about this thing called "Cloud Computing" but can't quite get his head around how "The Cloud" is going to help him with his bottom line.
Enter the Citrix Service Provider... These companies are supplying services to the SMB so that they don't have to worry about application version control and O/S service packs and additional IT staff. It's really kind of funny because I was on the phone with one of our large enterprise customers this week and he told me "what these Citrix Service Providers are doing is exactly how I run my IT group". In other words, the Citrix Service Provider is kind of like a co-op for the SMB so that they can get the same economy of scale that a large enterprise gets, only without the encumbrance of a full fledged IT staff.
There is a company in Manchester, U.K. that provides just these types of services... IT Farm. They've got a nifty 90 second demo of just how easy it is to offload all of your IT issues and let someone else deal with it... Just sign up and overnight you've got instant access to all of the applications you want without the worries of having to do-it-yourself. And they are firm believers that Citrix is the only company on the planet that has the technology to fit their business model. Dr. James Huntington, the Managing Director at IT Farm had this to say about it... "IT Farm has enjoyed a long lasting relationship with Citrix. With the advent of the newly developed Citrix Service Provider program, we now have the ability to rapidly expand our base and provide our customers with the best technology on the market for the delivery of applications and desktops." With over a hundred SMBs serviced with their offering, thousands of desktops are no longer a problem for the guy who writes the check.
Would you believe that up to twenty percent of the 50 Million SMBs worldwide are at this stage of growth and trying to find companies who will offload their IT... that's about 10 Million by my count. So if you're one of those companies who want to get in the game and become "the Cloud" for the millions of subscribers looking for an alternative, what's stopping you? We have the technology if you've got the desire!
In what could quite possibly be the best quote from any 80s movie, the character Mike Damone said in Fast Times at Ridgemont High "wherever you are, that's the place to be." Well, that's definitely true if you're visiting the new Citrix Community page for Intel.
Within this one page you'll have all information on the Citrix and Intel relationship available at your fingertips...or mouse click so to speak.
Interested in learning about Citrix's latest activities with Intel? We know your time is valuable and that's why 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 post a new thread. Epitomizing the true nature of community... this page is here for you!
Did you know that Citrix and Intel are working together to jointly develop a bare-metal Type-1 client hypervisor? Learn about and stay up to date on our joint collaboration of Citrix XenClient. View demos, read blogs and let us know what you think about this upcoming solution.
But it doesn't stop there! Get information and results on our joint product validation, benchmarking and scalability tests. You can even let us know how you're working with Citrix and Intel solutions together in our Community Verified area.
You're only one click away from all things Citrix and Intel. Stop by the Citrix Community page for Intel and check back often! And don't forget to follow us on Twitter!
To finish off with another Damone line, "isn't this great?"
In this installment of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers how to create storage repositories (SRs) with the StorageLink console.
In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed. In Part 3 of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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Have you ever needed to demo Citrix XenApp to a colleague or customer ? Or perhaps just needed a reference connection to validate a client is working properly ? You may have also have wanted to check out Citrix Dazzle based on a demo account vs your production environment.
Now you can easily check out a live demo XenApp system hosted in the Cloud. You only need to enter your email to get your own credentials to check out a variety of apps that run as expected. ( not canned Flash demos ) . You can also simply send someone the link for them to get their own credentials, as well including links to client downloads if required. The current system will provide access from PC's Mac's, WinMo and iPhone's ( any where, any device ).
Give it a try and spread the link @ http://CitrixCloud.net
In this installment of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve Umbehocker covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console.
In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Citrix Engineer and Graphics Guru Juan Rivera (@juancitrix) on the HDX MediaStream for Flash and graphics remoting. How it works, why is it important and general technical musings are prevalent in this information packed episode. Episode 4, Season 1.
View this Episode and Subscribe to the XenApp Expert Series
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XenApp Expert Series - Informational, News, Interviews (2009) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest research and technology news on XenApp application virtualization. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Citrix Engineer and Graphics Guru Juan Rivera (@juancitrix) on the HDX MediaStream for Flash and graphics remoting. How it works, why is it important and general technical musings are prevalent in this information packed episode. Episode 4, Season 1.
- Listen to archived episodes:
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When you're setting up a User Store for Profile Management, you configure the location in the GPMC under "Path to user store" (as described in http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX118944 ), and in the simple case, that's a single location, such as \\server1\profiles .
(Actually, you'd also include the username and probably the userdomain variables as well, and a system environment variable to indicate the profile version or platform e.g. \\server\profiles \ %USERNAME%.%USERDOMAIN% \ %ProfVer . However, it all gets very verbose, and I'll assume you can add these bits yourselves in the discussion below.)
Anyway, we've had a couple of requests recently on how to load-balance User Stores for Profile Management across multiple servers, and we came up with a couple of approaches which might be helpful generally.
A couple of reasons for load-balancing came to light:
- simply to balance the load across several servers
- where an organisation operates several datacenters, each serving one or more geos.
The customers didn't want to use DFS, because they recognised that replication would take place of all profiles between all DFS servers, which would waste bandwidth. I seem to recall that Microsoft doesn't recommend DFS for storing profiles, anyway.
One administrator asked if he could use %homeshare% on the assumption that %homeshare% ought to reference a local server. No, because %homeshare% is a user environment variable, and Profile Management can't see user environment variables ... but AD does have a property #homeDirectory# which holds the same information. So if you're OK to put profiles on the same share as the users' HOME directories, configure the "Path to user store" as #homeDirectory#\profiles
The other approach is more general, and may require some AD configuration and/or some DNS hackery.
If you can find an AD attribute, such as #c# (country) or #l# (location - that's #L# but lower case), then the job may be easy - just set the "Path to user store" to \\FileServ#c#\profiles (say) - this should expand to \\FileServUS\profiles or whatever your country happens to be. Similarly #l# could be used, but if your office is in "Ashby de la Zouch" or "Llanfairpwllgwyn..." (you know the place I mean, in Wales) that may cause grief when used as part of a server name!
So if there are spaces or just a very long name, you'll have to get your AD admins to create and populate a new attribute, such as #geo#
What if you've got a #l# attribute, short, with no spaces, but you want to map several different values to the same server? In Citrix, for example, we have several geographically close offices sharing a single datacenter, and some offices which have had different names in their history, e.g.
Chalfont (CHF), High Wycombe (HW), Gerrards Cross (GX) and even London (LON) all actually refer to the same office, so \\FileServ#l#\profiles will expand to
\\FileServCHF\profiles or \\FileServHW\profiles etc...
The trick here is to configure multiple names in DNS with the same IP address, so that, regardless of what's configured in #l#, it all maps to the same physical server.
In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In this next installment, Steve reviews the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed.
The Enterprise Edition includes the full version of StorageLink, Dynamic Provisioning Services for Server Operating Systems, and complete WorkFlow Orchestration.
The Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V adds in Lab Manager to provide a complete cost effective virtual lab solution, and Stage Manager to automate the process of migrating newly tested and verified configurations from the virtual lab directly into production. You can download a evaluation copy of the Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V at http://www.citrix.com/ehv.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
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Earlier this week, we launched version 1.0.2 of the Citrix Receiver for iPhone. Citrix Access Gateway expands support for Receiver to connect to Access Gateway Enterprise Edition (versions 8.1.57 / 9.0.69 / 9.1.95) in addition to the Access Gateway Standard Edition that was already available. With this release, Access Gateway further enhances mobility by offering secure mobile access on iPhone for the Enterprise Edition.
Citrix Receiver is our lightweight software client that makes accessing virtual applications and desktops on any device simple and easy. It brings together multiple application delivery clients in one single client - all updated automatically, while greatly simplifying client distribution and updates for the IT administrators.
If you are an iPhone user, you will find this latest release very useful. The app is now available to the general public via AppStore on your iPhone or iPod Touch. More importantly, as a corporate user, you will find Doc Finder a 'must-have' for your iPhone. Part of Citrix Receiver, Doc Finder provides fast, one-click access to important documents stored on the corporate network. You can even join a webinar from anywhere - straight from your iPhone. Since these documents are stored in the datacenter and delivered over a secure encrypted link, data and applications always remain completely secure.
Best,
Sai
StorageLink is one of the components of the new Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V product.
Citrix StorageLink™ technology lets your virtual server infrastructures fully leverage all the resources and functionality of existing storage systems. StorageLink supports all third party storage architectures and delivers deep integration with leading storage platforms allowing you to switch seamlessly between XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V™ platforms. Citrix StorageLink provides organization with:
- Reduced cost and complexity by leveraging existing investments in storage systems.
- One click access to native storage services.
- Simplified, wizard-driven storage setup and maintenance.
Steve Umbehocker of the StorageLink Development team recently recorded a series of videos that guide you step by step through installing and configuring StorageLink. The first video, Installing StorageLink, is below.
The Enterprise Edition includes the full version of StorageLink, Dynamic Provisioning Services for Server Operating Systems, and complete WorkFlow Orchestration.
The Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V adds in Lab Manager to provide a complete cost effective virtual lab solution, and Stage Manager to automate the process of migrating newly tested and verified configurations from the virtual lab directly into production. You can download a evaluation copy of the Platinum Edition of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V at http://www.citrix.com/ehv.
Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress
StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar
StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv
StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V
Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials
Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management
StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791
Follow me on Twitter.
Long before Neo said "whoa" ... civilizations throughout history have relied heavily on the wisdom and information provided by oracles.
In The Matrix, the Oracle says "if you can't find the answer, then I'm afraid there may be no tomorrow for any of us." Well, maybe that's a bit extreme in this case... but with the amount of information available within the Citrix Community page for Oracle, I don't think we'll have to worry about finding out.
Not only will this site provide a variety of information and wisdom on the Citrix and Oracle relationship, but you will also have to opportunity to contribute and become an "oracle" yourself. You can even view Oracle apps working on the iPhone with Citrix Receiver. Consider this page a library of resources for all things Citrix and Oracle...or a "shrine of information" so to speak.
From this page you'll have access to news, blogs, community discussions, and Tweets from the Citrix and Oracle communities as well as third-party sites. This information is aggregated into a single area within the page and provides all related information in a simple-to-use format. You can also follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute information.
Got questions? Related discussion forums are also consolidated within this page. Review existing discussion postings and threads to find answers to commonly asked questions. You can even join in the discussion and post new threads. Got knowledge? Become a contributor! The true nature of community is to share information. Remember, it takes a village...or a community in this instance.
We also want to know if and how you're using Oracle in your Citrix environments. Let us know in the Community Verified area. It's easy to use and takes only minutes of your time. Simply identify the Oracle application and Citrix product and you're done!
According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, "each man is a hero and an oracle to somebody." So be a hero within the community and become an oracle for the Citrix & Oracle relationship! Participate in the Citrix Community page for Oracle.
Following on from our earlier annoucement this week with Microsoft, a great short video put together by Kurtis Moody to answer many of your questions.
- Shows the Microsoft App-V plug-in delivered via the Citrix Receiver.
- Shows a user self serving an App-V application subscription via Dazzle.
- Demonstrates our ability to leverage Citrix Application Streaming side by side with App-V
Thanks for working on this Kurt!
When I first started selling WinFrame in 1996, I used to turn up on a customer site, convince them to unplug the fax machine so that I could get an outside line, and then demonstrate the 'amazing' performance of our database running on WinFrame over a 28.8 modem. The response was usually of surprise, followed by something along the lines of "I didn't think that was possible".
Thirteen years later, one of the great things about working with XenApp Fundamentals with SMB customers is that we still hear that same response. Things may have changed dramatically in terms of connectivity -dial up is a thing of the past and the Internet certainly has the ubiquity we were promised - but the fundamental (yes, pun intended -again
) requirement for amazing performance is still there. In fact, users have come to expect high levels of performance as the norm, and although we have significantly more bandwidth than we dreamt of back in the dial up days, bandwidth consumption has also grown significantly because we now use the same pipes for voice, multimedia, etc. And with more and more people requiring 'head office' performance for their 'line of business' applications from home, customer sites, etc, we may have more bandwidth available but the same limitations of Windows apps running remotely still apply.So to get to my point - it demos better than it pitches. The one question my team is asked more often than any other is 'what is our value over Terminal Services?', if you do a high level feature by feature comparison, it looks like Terminal Services is all you need. But here's the thing - in 2006, we introduced a version of XenApp Fundamentals without TS CALs for customers who were already running Terminal Services yet needed the simplicity, usability and performance of XenApp Fundamentals. This is actually the best area of sales performance and customer feedback of our XenApp Fundamentals business today, and it speaks volumes to me about our added value.
With those early memories of WinFrame and now just like HD ,'seeing is believing' , we have recently introduced a new 30 day evaluation of XenApp Fundamentals. Whether you are a prospective customer or a partner - watch it, look at it, use it, eat it, dream it... oops sorry, gone too far... but you get my point. PowerPoint just does not do it justice. And if the upfront costs of a server are too much to ask, then take advantage of the brand new two-user eval of XenApp Fundamentals running on Amazon for 12.5 cents per hour. Read Chris Fleck's blog to see how easy it is to experience it for yourself.
Follow us on twitter @citrix/smb
Don't forget to register for next Thursday's (July 23rd, 1-2pm EDT) TechTalk on XenApp power and capacity management. We will not bore you to death with slide ware. Majority of the presentation will be a live demo with lots of time for Q&A. You will learn
- How to better manage your XenApp capacity (and subsequently save some power as well)
- How to simplify XenApp server maintenance (software patching etc) by understanding how capacity management does load consolidation
- How this feature can simplify migrating users to new XenApp server farms
- And how easy it is to implement this solution in your "existing" XenApp server farms
I downloaded the updated 1.0.2 Citrix Receiver for iPhone this morning which is *newly* available on the UK App Store today (Fri 17th July) and also on other App stores around the world.
I am glad to say it still works well in connecting me to our corporate apps hosted on our XenApp farms.
This version now supports Access Gateway Enterprise Edition in addition to the AG-SE.
The excellent usability of the iPhone (with v3 OS) and Receiver + Doc Finder combination is a really high benchmark for other Receivers we aim to release on Windows Mobile , Blackberry etc
[twitter.com/keithwturnbull]
Hi Everyone,
I'm glad to report that Apple has approved the release version 1.0.2 of the Citrix Receiver for iPhone. The app is now available to the general public via AppStore on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
If you have previously installed Citrix Receiver 1.0.0 or 1.0.1, an update request will be displayed next time you visit the AppStore on your device.
If you don't currently have the Citrix Receiver for iPhone installed on your device, you can download it here.
What's new on Citrix Receiver 1.0.2?
- Support for Netscaler v9.1 (AGEE)
- Enhanced support for NetScaler v9.0 (AGEE)
- Bug Fixes
For help setting up your XenApp Environment to support iPhone connections, download the Citrix Receiver for iPhone Admin Guide.
You can visit our Support Forums for help as well as the Citrix Receiver for iPhone Community Site for technical details.
best,
Gus
I am glad to share with you all the news about our Citrix Branch Repeater 5.5. Building on our momentum with XenApp optimization (via the ICA acceleration feature) released earlier this year, we announced today the availability of our newest Citrix Branch Repeater 5.5. Among the many benefits this release delivers, check out the following key highlights:
- Microsoft Exchange (MAPI) optimization accelerates Exchange email for branch and mobile users by up to 50X while reducing bandwidth consumption. You also get these benefits if you are streaming Microsoft Outlook with XenApp or Microsoft App-V because streamed Outlook application behaves just like a native application from a network perspective - a streamed Outlook will talk MAPI to the Exchange server in the datacenter. Here is a sneak peek of email acceleration benefits from an upcoming performance whitepaper (available soon):
- Branch Repeater with Windows Server 2008 enables consolidation of essential branch services with Microsoft's most advanced server operating system - Windows Server 2008. Customers now have a choice of deploying Branch Repeater appliances built on either Windows Server 2003 or Windows Server 2008. As before, we continue to offer the non-Windows version of Branch Repeater as well.
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- Of the many powerful capabilities in the Windows Server 2008 operating system, the Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) feature is one I would like to highlight. RODC allows you to securely deploy Domain Controller in a branch office for faster Windows authentication and login times. This also helps improve the security posture of IT infrastructure in branch offices.
- With the availability of Repeater Plug-in for Citrix Receiver Branch Repeater now provides WAN acceleration benefits for the already easy-to-use Receiver software client. Receiver provides a consistent and intuitive user experience, and simplifies client distribution and updates. For instance, if you want a single client that provides secure access, SSL VPN client and WAN optimization benefits, then Citrix Receiver is a great way to simplify the client distribution and improve the user experience. This now truly provides simple, fast and secure access to applications from anywhere, whether you are working remotely or in a branch office. I encourage you to try it out and share your experiences with us.
Stay tuned for a series of blog posts that explore some of the features in detail.
I encourage you to check out the newest Branch Repeater 5.5 and share your experiences with me at sai.allavarpu@citrix.com.
Sai
If you need to get back on the rails with Citrix XenApp and more importantly if you are a Service Provider just getting started with XenApp then boy do we have an event you won't want to miss. Two of our best field readiness managers, Jo Harder and Craig Marinella will be leading a webinar on the 22nd of July to cover the following topics.
XenApp Premium Overview -
Designing and Implementing XenApp - App Delivery and Management
Designing and Implementing EdgeSight - Your built in reporting tool
Information Resources and References
Don't miss this great opportunity to learn about implementing the technology used around the world with 230,000 customers and servicing over a million users for application delivery.
Just click on the links below to get access to this invaluable session from Citrix... the new kid on the block for Windows based SaaS.
EMEA - XenApp Premium Overview
Americas - XenApp Premium Overview
APAC - XenApp Premium Overview
...and if you missed the Business Overview Webinar for CSPs you can take a look at the recorded session link below...
There are three myths that exist about Citrix's desktop virtualization or virtual desktop offering. Unfortunately, most of these have been propagated via misinformation being packaged as customer education by Citrix's competition! I thought it'd be good for me to share the truth behind each myth:
Myth #1 - Citrix cannot handle personalized desktops, it can only do locked down desktops
Truth - Citrix offers solutions for a range of workers, locked down desktops for task workers, pooled virtual desktops for office workers and dedicated virtual desktops to power users
Task workers need fully locked desktops with few apps - XenApp provides the lowest cost solution for delivering a locked down server based desktop.
Office based departmental users - need personalized desktops with ad-hoc access to apps - XenDesktop provides a way to deliver personalized desktops along with ability to manage a single image for the OS and each app. Just because you are managing a single image doesn't mean that you cant deliver a personalized environment - XenDesktop provides the ability to manage user profiles for personalization without having to deal with messy roaming profiles.
Power users - that need full admin access and ability to install their own apps - XenDesktop enables virtual desktops for both blade PCs and VMs in the data center, enabling you to setup a 1:1 image per user with complete control over the image.
So - you get the required level of flexibility along with centralized enterprise class management and unmatched HDX technologies for best possible user experience.
Myth #2 - Citrix doesn't understand virtualization
With XenApp, Citrix and over 200,000 Citrix customers have been doing desktop virtualization before anyone actually called virtualization. With the acquisition of XenSource, we have the top industry experts and support from a vast open source community in developing virtualization technologies.
XenDesktop has become the industry leading product, as reviewed by several independent reviewers (not paid for by Citrix), along with quotes such as:
- "The gold standard by which other products are judged" - Virtualization Review
- "...we were impressed with XenDesktop 3.0..." - InformationWeek
- "All in all, the Citrix XenDesktop is a well thought-out product." - InfoWeek.
Truth - we have built the best product in the market without any technology understanding. Good days for our customers - the products will only get better once we know a bit more about the technology
Myth #3 - Citrix doesn't have any big VDI implementations and XenDesktop is complex
Truth - Customers are implementing small scale pilots and mid-large scale production implementations of XenDesktop every day
And some great examples include one customer planning to use XenDesktop for 40,000 users (as announced at Citrix Synergy) and we another is Collier County using XenDesktop for over 12,000 desktops expanding it for use to 20,000 desktops this year. Here are some of the successful customer implementations of XenDesktop.
Now that we understand the truth, I want to go a step forward and encourage everyone to not fall into these selling traps by asking the right questions:
- What will be the network requirements for virtual desktops?
- Will the virtual desktop solution work for remote use, even if it is occasional? What about branch offices?
- Will it require any special hardware upgrades on the server or the client? How much will that cost (now or overtime)?
- How will IT manage multiple images of a desktop, even if they are cloned?
- How will you manage applications within the desktop?
- How will the solution help you monitor user experience and troubleshoot problems proactively?
I encourage everyone to do the required due-diligence in picking the right solution that addresses your needs today and in the future. These are the questions (among others) we are using to build our desktop virtualization solution - XenDesktop.