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!

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!

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.

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.

• Twitter: @djfeller
• Ask the Architect - Next-Generation site
• Questions - Then Ask The Architect
• See me talk about designing your XenDesktop solution on Citrix Live

Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions

I just returned home from attending this year's CUGtech Autumn 2009 event in Geilo, Norway hosted by Citrix User Group Norway. It was my first time attending this event, and even with hearing all the great things about this event, I don't think I was even remotely prepared to experience at how truly impressive of an event our friends in Norway put together.

One has to keep in mind that this is a Citrix User Group run event, but this is no ordinary users group, they are at the top their game in every respect. Yes they hold regular users group meetings in the traditional sense of what one would expect to be a users group, but they also hold bi-annual CUGtech events, which one could say are on par with or one could say even compete with some of the other corporate run industry events. I think that it is great to see a users group evolve from being a local community to become a global community that attracts people from all over the world.
To get a better understanding of why I was really impressed by this event and Citrix User Group Norway, I guess I have to start off with talking about what they put into the making of this event happen from the planning to the execution.

We all need an identity and or something to represent. Having a logo is a good start, and I've got to say that Citrix User Group Norway has got to have one the snazziest logo's yet for a users group. Being one who loves visuals I think that a visual identity is very important aspect of any group or organization.

They have also taken this identity and applied it to documentation, banners, singage, and swag for the event, like any major industry would do.

But where would we be if everything was just dressing, we need a little substance to that eye candy right. Well, it was very interesting to see how much substance there was at this event. The planners of this event like so many others these days have also had to come to terms with the fact that we can no longer have a single track event. There are just so many products and technologies to talk about, and not to mention the focus, such as being technical or operational in perspective, that it is not possible to hold an event these days without running dual tracks to cover it all. If you have ever had the pleasure of trying to organize any type of event you can certainly appreciate all the planning of that goes into making a schedule like this.

CUG Agenda

Choosing where to hold an event is always an interesting challenge. One has to try and choose a location that is something more than a place to hold and event, as we all want a venue that has a little something more to offer than just a conference hall, or is a place that is easy to travel to while keeping cost to a minimum. I think that at first glance some people, and I could be wrong about this, would view traveling into the mountains of Norway as not being the easy part to travel to. But you have to remember that this is Europe, and they have the whole train thing down very well. The event was held in Geilo, Norway which is one the major Ski resort areas in Norway, and is only about a three hour train ride from Oslo.

For me the train ride was part of the whole event, as we traveled there with many of the attendees of the event, and it gave all of us an opportunity to get know each other a little better, Oh and did I mention there was bar on this train.

Usually most events are held in places rich in night life, but don't let the location fool you, as I soon learned that this played into the events favor, as it didn't suffer from the usual disbursement of attendees being side-tracked to other attractions. If you take a look at the schedule you notice that this event goes very far into making sure it is a great time for all, the actual schedule for the first day's events go from 8:00 AM until 2:00AM, and let me tell you what a day that was, the first word that come to mind is WOW! The event planners really outdid themselves, as we went from a day of sessions to having a grand dinner together, to having a Ski party where everyone dressed up in the favorite Ski gear, to having a Geek Speak session at 1AM. They even had a kicking band playing for pretty much the entire night, to along with the pinball machines, and arcade skiing machines.

The Citrix User Group Norway would not be possible if weren't for the dedication of its members, leaders, and sponsors that over the years have grown this community to where it is today.
I would like to thank Kenneth Beck, Bjørn Uddal, and all of the many great people from Citrix User Group Norway for putting together such a great event. It was great to be a part of it all, and to meet so many people who are truly passionate about Citrix Technologies.

I would also like to thank the many sponsors that have also given their support like Atea, Commaxx, Logica, RES Software, and Steria.

Well its time to catch a plane, but I hope I have given you enough of a slice of what CUGtech is all about, and if you ever get the opportunity to attend one, I wouldn't hesitate on doing so.

It's no wonder that the recent announcement of Citrix XenDesktop 4 is the hot buzz around town. Citrix XenDesktop 4 delivers optimized delivery for every user, making it the best way to manage applications and the best user experience. It is the first-ever solution to provide all the desktop and application delivery technologies needed to bring desktop virtualization to every user.

So now that you've heard the news, it's time to get geared up with partner Sales Tools designed especially for Citrix XenDesktop 4. This includes a whitepaper about the future of desktop virtualization, a whiteboard, technical overview presentation, proof of concept quick demo kit, a product reference card, and a whole lot more. 

Also, in store for you is a FREE Citrix XenDesktop 4 training offer, where you can gain an overview of the Citrix XenDesktop 4 technology in less than an hour! In this training course, you'll learn about key product features, editions, strengths, and how XenDesktop addresses traditional desktop management challenges. Also covered are the key aspects of FlexCast delivery, architectural diagrams, and the steps to move to desktop virtualization.

For added insight, get the complete 411 at the Citrix "Secrets, Lies and VDI" event being held tomorrow, Oct 13 just for Citrix partners. This is not-to-miss event that will unravel the myths and uncover the truth about VDI to give you a clear, strategic view of desktop virtualization today. You'll get a complete understanding of what desktop virtualization really means. Some of the event features include a Keynote Address and sessions, as well as Ask the Expert Q&A. Registration is still going on - don't miss out!

Okay, now you have it - complete sales tools, free training, and a super, hot event!

Virtualization - it's a Citrix world now!

Looking for a clear way to get up to speed on Citrix desktop virtualization? Check out the Learning Path for Desktop Virtualization - a guide to help you determine the training you need, based on your key virtual desktop learning objectives. This learning path includes the hypervisor, provisioning/delivering desktops and delivering apps on-demand, as well as advanced virtualization solution training. Learn more

72 hours after the XenDesktop 4 announcement

In the past 72+ hours after the announcement of XenDesktop 4, I have seen several positive comments written up by esteemed bloggers such as Chris Wolf (Burton Group), Dan Kuznetsky, Brian Madden, Doug Brown, the 451 Group, and more, reinforcing our mission to make desktop virtualization as the solution to the outdated desktop management practices.

In addition, I have personally had several 1:1 conversations with customers and partners and the feedback I have received has been extremely positive. In fact, I was visiting a healthcare customer today and when they heard about XenDesktop 4 - they loved it and when I told them about the Trade-up program, they were excited and wanted to move forward with it ASAP.

Licensing - what? why? hmm!!!

Licensing for XenDesktop 4 has certainly created some discussions in the blogosphere. The user-based licensing in XenDesktop 4 means that customers pick the users they want to deliver virtual desktops or apps to. In addition, it offers the ability to reassign a license from one user to another. For example, in a scenario where an employee quits an organization - the license can be reassigned to another employee. The licensing works perfect for the mainstream use cases where customers are rethinking their desktop management and applying the power of all types of virtual desktops and applications across a range of users. And, the licensing makes even more sense when you implement local VM-based desktops with offline use. In my conversations with the customers and partners, we have found that the licensing works well for majority of customers and prospects.

However, we have also seen comments that user-based licensing does not work for certain use cases, for example - student labs in schools or Universities or shared devices in a healthcare facility. First of all, I want to state that majority of these comments have reinforced that XenDesktop 4 is a solid product that addresses customer requirements, and customers are extremely interested in using the product for their implementations. Citrix's goal is to enable organizations to adopt desktop virtualization and address all enterprise use cases and not restrict usage for any specific use case scenario.

Is Citrix doing something about it?

We have received the customer feedback and we are actively investigating appropriate licensing programs for XenDesktop 4 to address these use cases. We believe that all customers should be able to adopt desktop virtualization enterprise-wide and reshape their desktop computing, and we stay committed on that mission. We are in the process of collecting some more information and we plan to share our solution to address these requirements within 30 days.

How can you help?

Finally, we recently launched a survey to collect more information on how our customers plan to start their desktop virtualization projects with XenDesktop 4. It takes less than 5 minutes to fill it up with mostly multiple choice questions. I encourage everyone to give us your direct input on your use cases. It will help us enhance our product offering overtime and guide us to offer appropriate licensing programs immediately. CLICK HERE TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK

Thank you for interest and support in Citrix and XenDesktop 4. We are open to input so we can serve you with the right products and programs.

Don't forget to attend our online event - we will talk licensing a bit more then!

The Citrix XenDesktop 4 announcement has already generated plenty of positive buzz about the product and its exciting new capabilities. If you're ready to learn more and delve deeper into the technology, check out free training course CXD-100-1W: Citrix XenDesktop 4 Technology Overview.

In less than an hour, you'll learn about key product features, editions, strengths, and how XenDesktop 4 addresses traditional desktop management challenges. Also covered are the key aspects of FlexCast delivery, architectural diagrams and the steps to move to desktop virtualization.

Visit www.citrix.com/xdtraining to get started on this free training today! For more XenDesktop learning, including the learning path for desktop virtualization, click here.

Citrix Support is focused on ensuring Customer and Partner satisfaction with our products.
One of our initiatives is to increase the ability of our Partners and Customers to leverage self-service avenues via our Knowledge Center.

Our Licensing team in Citrix Support receive lots of questions everyday around How to retrieve licenses for XenApp Platinum or How to license XenServer, etc...

The most common questions asked are documented in the Citrix Knowledge Center.

Below you will find a list of the most common questions asked.

David
Twitter - http://twitter.com/citrixreadiness
Citrix Support on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/citrixsupport

Now that XenDesktop 4 is a few days old and people are starting to digest the many new capabilities of the product, I thought I'd spend a little time what exactly "FlexCast™ delivery technology" means.

I find that it helps me to think of FlexCast more as a strategy for delivering desktops, than as a specific technology. It's about thinking of all your virtual desktop and application delivery methods as a toolbox that enable you to directly address the different performance, security, personalization and mobility requirements of all your users. This approach is dramatically different from the way most other vendors are looking at desktop virtualization. They try to force fit a single desktop virtualization approach to all use cases, even when it doesn't make sense. FlexCast is revolutionary in comparison, but the idea is quite commonplace if you think of some analogies.

For example, instead of talking about how to run an IT service, let's say I'm running a different kind of service - a restaurant. A hundred people come to my restaurant one night, and they walk in with the expectation that they can order what they like to suit their tastes and hunger. But instead of taking their orders, I don't even offer a menu, and I serve everyone a plateful of chicken, green beans with almonds and potatoes. For the lighter eaters, this is way too much food, and for the folks that skipped lunch, they are woefully underfed. Then there are those that have strict dietary requirements, like a nut allergy, and they can't eat any of it because almonds touched the plate! You might please a few patrons, but you've wasted your inventory by giving too much food to some, the wrong food to others, and not enough to the remainder. And at the end of the night, none of them want to come back ever again.
Of course, this would never happen in the real world, but for some reason this one-size-fits-all approach is how other technology vendors have treated desktop virtualization. XenDesktop 4 with FlexCast is your extensive menu of options for giving users what they want and what they need.

That said, I'll give a quick drill down on each of the FlexCast delivery models and describe them each as plainly as I can. The names we chose to assign each model might be a little different than the current lingo - but this was necessary to be more precise, because no one has ever really talked about them all in the same context before:

• Hosted shared desktops. If you are a XenApp customers today, you think of these as "published desktops," and we estimate that you are using this delivery model for over 10 million users today. The problem with that name is that the term "published" can describe nearly every delivery model! Not very helpful. Hosted shared desktops are built on the Microsoft Terminal Services (or now Remote Desktop Services) platform, where users share effectively one configuration of a Windows Server desktops via independent sessions. In this model, there's a lot of IT control over the configuration, and personalization is minimized or disallowed. This model is attractive not only for the standardization it enables, but also the maturity of the technology, its massive scalability and low TCO - up to 500 users could share a single server. These traits are what make it ideal for factory workers, retail clerks, bank tellers, nurses' stations and the like.
• Hosted VM-based desktops. You know these as VDI or hosted virtual desktops. Each user's desktop runs in its own virtual machine, enabling multiple users to share a single physical server while running their environments in isolation from each other. This affords each user more potential personalization, a familiar Windows desktop environment, and compatibility with applications designed to run on a desktop OS. Scalability is good, with about 50 production desktops per server, and getting better all the time - but still not of the scale of hosted shared desktops.
• Hosted Blade PC desktops. In reality, these could be blade or rack workstations, or simply PCs relocated in the datacenter. In this model, you have one user per hosted blade PC, so clearly massive scalability isn't your goal. Going back to the restaurant analogy, this is what you pull out of the kitchen when the local football team's offensive line comes in to eat . Workers with heavier computational requirements, like engineers, scientists, researchers, etc. would get these.
• Local Streamed desktops. This model is truly one of the hidden gems of desktop virtualization, often overlooked but very useful and cost-effective. You may have heard this type of model referred to as "network boot " or diskless PC. Let's say you have an environment with lots of standardized PCs that you've just purchased in the past couple years. Perhaps they are attached to some specialized peripherals that are particularly "chatty" with the desktop OS. Desktop streaming enables you to leverage the CPU and RAM of that PC and give a truly local experience, but also centralize the management of those desktops. A "provisioning server" in the datacenter streams the OS bits needed to run the desktop to local memory. A single server has enough horsepower to serve a few hundred users, so the scalability is somewhere between hosted shared and hosted VM-based desktops. The re-use of existing PCs also contributes to the cost-effectiveness of this model. You need fairly standard PCs and a LAN connection, but this works great for all those users that work from the office primarily anyway.
• Virtual apps to installed desktops. For current XenApp customers, this is what most of you are doing today. You are either hosting or streaming apps to rich clients with locally installed OSes. You get the benefits of reducing overall desktop management costs by simplifying application management - the more apps you virtualize, the lower your costs. This model is often the simplest, most "traditional" way to start with desktop virtualization. Virtual apps can be used both online and offline for mobile workers. Only issue is that you still have to deal with the OS at the endpoint, and this is something many IT shops are looking to desktop virtualization to solve.
• Local VM-based desktops. This model is enabled by a client hypervisor, which, to be clear, isn't quite here yet, although Citrix has publicly discussed and demonstrated XenClient. This model means that virtual machines live on the endpoint, and virtual desktops are delivered into those VMs. A robust solution incorporates encryption, security policies, and synchronization for OS, apps and user data with the data center. This client hypervisor would enable a centrally managed, virtual desktop to be taken offline, so it's ideal for the fast-growing laptop using population. This isn't part of XenDesktop 4 today, but it is definitely a significant part of our overall FlexCast delivery technology strategy.

So there you have it - a quick overview of FlexCast delivery technology in all its flavors. It's a powerful concept, and a technologically involved one. The real takeaway is that, for Citrix, despite involving many technologies, it is indeed ONE comprehensive strategy, designed to meet many requirements.

Learn more about Citrix XenDesktop 4

• Official Press Release - http://citrix.com/xd4/pressrelease
• XenDesktop 4 Virtual Launch Event - http://citrix.com/citrixlive
• XenDesktop 4 Web Site - http://citrix.com/xd4
• XenDesktop 4 Executive Video - http://citrix.com/xd4/video
• XenDesktop Developer Network - http://community.citrix.com/cdn/xd
• XenDesktop 4 Blogs- http://citrix.com/xd4/blogs
• XenDesktop Product Page - http://citrix.com/xendesktop/

Follow XenDesktop on http://twitter.com/xendesktop

With so many articles flying around about desktop virtualization and VDI, have you ever seen or heard of anyone actually implementing this solution? And even if you have, I bet you, like me, have many questions to ask.

Well, I've had the opportunity to sit down with Sandy Kingdon, a Dynamic Desktop architect for CSC. Sandy is working on a large XenDesktop implementation and I was able to speak with her about it. It is an interesting discussion and architecture in that it uses Citrix XenDesktop, VMware ESX and AppSense User Environment Management

• Current Capacity: 1,000 users
• End of Year Capacity plan: 10,000 users
• End of Project Capacity plan: 40,000 users
• Virtual desktop specifications: Based on customer analysis and experience
• Antivirus requirements and updates design
• Application integration with the user desktop images
• User-installed applications requirements and design
• End-point device configurations

This discussion was focused on the architecture, design considerations and experiences.  I can imagine as this project continues to grow to their 40,000 user goal we can have additional discussions on lessons learned, tips/tricks, etc. 

If you want to hear more and see what else we have going on around desktop virtualization architectures, I recommend you visit the Ask the Architect site. Also, if you or someone you know who is currently or already completed a desktop virtualization implementation, I'd be eager to hear from you.

• Sandy Kingdon (CSC) Podcast
• Ask the Architect - Next-Generation site
• Questions - Then Ask The Architect
• Twitter: @djfeller

Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions