The blog..

New job with Conecto A/S

So as some of you may know, a couple of weeks back i changed from my former employer to a new company Conecto A/S. I moved to Conecto to join a few others like me in a dream to build the best Citrix Technology Consultant business, first in Denmark and later … the world ofcourse
This in no way means i am not still focused on what goes on with VMware and especially Microsoft. It just means that from a consulting and implementation viewpoint i will be working deeply with Citrix Technologies and focusing more on features, architecture and analysis on the other products. This is simply done because i must admit it is impossible to be an expert within all three major virtualization vendors, so i have chosen to work with features, technologies and analysis on all the three major vendors and focus my implementation specialization on Citrix technologies. If i come across cases which fit better with another vendor there are highly skilled people out there to refer to.

So what..

So, what does this change have to do with the BlackBerry Receiver?.. Well for a long time Conecto has been a leading implementer of BlackBerry solutions in Denmark, and highly specialized in optimizing Citrix ICA traffic for thin connections like GPRS and 3G. This has positioned Conecto as a strong and experienced mobility partner. This fact mixed with the more recent focus on becoming the most specialized and competent Citrix Partner gives great synergies, i think a lot of us tried out the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone, i am loving the Citrix Receiver for iPad, with its more usable screen features. And ever since i started with Conecto i have grown more and more fond of my BlackBerry device, not because it has a huge appstore, or touch screen, or any of that stuff i love in the iPhone, but because it works.. it makes sure my emails are always synced, my contacts and gives me access to internal company ressources. So in short i have grown very fond of BlackBerry when it comes to productivity, work stuff(when it comes to looking cool and trendy, the BB sure does not keep up with Apple, perhaps they should work together?). 

And now.. Citrix announced the release of their BlackBerry Citrix Receiver, and i have to say it looks great, i wanted to share a few screenshots with you all which i made on my BB device this morning:

First we have the new Citrix icon in the BlackBerry Menu, and after configuring my CitrixCloud account i was presented with the Citrix Application list on the right.

Next we can see i choose to add the Microsoft PowerPoint application to my favorite applications, i will get back to why. And last but not least the information showing supported systems, in this case XenApp and XenDesktop.

Sadly i was unable to take screenshots after launching the application, but i have to say it works splendidly, perhaps even better than the iPhone receiver with the Zoom features and then the TrackBall/Pad for Mouse control. The mouse interaction is alot more natural than we have it in the iPhone receiver.

So.. what apps work?

Marketing answer is .. ALL APPS! .. all windows apps on the blackberry dream come true! ..  the real answer is the same as with the iPhone and Windows Mobile receiver.. all applications which can be navigated easily without use of shortcut-keys and a minimum need for zooming in and out. And the Perfect applications?.. applications designed for the End-point device screen. SoftwareFX announced an interesting thing at Citrix Synergy. They announced XenApp Gadgets i wrote more about this here. In short this solution allows for manufacturing of applications designed for a specific endpoint, and then easily integrating with backend databases etc. This gives the user in the far end the best experience and the information needed in the right format. But i chose to add Powerpoint as a favorite, because in presentation mode, that is actually usable to show something to a customer or colleague. Easy navigation from slide to slide, and great visualization using slides. So a good fit as well.

So whats included now?

Tim Graf was kind enough to put out a blogpost with detailed information and these are the features:

• Favorites Apps
• Multiple farm support
• Zoom Control
• Pan/Scroll/Cursor movement
• Enterprise access using BES
• Support for 3G as well as WLAN
• Auto configuration of receiver by Email
• Supports touch capabilities including Gesture support
• Support for XenApp Cache, Delaware and Parra releases
• Support for XenDesktop 4.0
• Capability to reconnect to any XA/XD Session created from any device

Also linking to this introductory video: http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/2280

To download the Client look here(accessing this URL from your BB Device should prompt install): http://www.citrix.com/English/ss/downloads/details.asp?downloadId=1865165&productId=1689163

Rene Vester