The entire event is under NDA so there wont be much reporting from the
evemt, however i can share some of the thoughts i have and areas which
i hope to discuss and be educated.

1. Mobility
At Citrix Synergy in Berlin, Citrix launched their project Goldengate,
a windows application which adapts to the device connecting to it,
giving a great almost integrated experience when connecting to your
emails using Citrix from an iPhone, iPad, Android and other mobile
devices. This opens up for me in a cool way for companies to integrate
their mobile devices in their excisting infrastructure in a secure
fashion.

My thoughts in this area is how Citrix will proceed in this area, was
this project only to show other vendors how apps can be devoloped to
support mobile devices in a Citrix infrastructure, or will there be
more value add for Citrix customers generated here?

2. Cloud..

Citrix in Berlin spoke highly about their investment in stuff like the
CloudBrigde, i do hope this will become even more concrete and show
how these initiatives will help customers adopt the cloud in their
infrastructure. There is no doubt Cloud computing(IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) is
here to stay but we do need more tools to help overcome the fears and
insecurities of organisations. Hope to hear more about this are during
this week in Fort Lauderdale.

3. XenDesktop5

XenDesktop was announced at Synergy in Berlin, we were shown the
desktop director and other cool gadgets for XenDesktop5, i look
forward to even more of a technical dialogue on what will be the next
Virtual Destop delivery mechanism.

4. iMobile..

Hoping Gus Pinto will be present it is always legendary to hear his
view on what is next in the areas of mobile receivers, true, Gus might
be a bit apple oriented, however he has a brilliant view on how
mobility could be for our users.
For me personally i spend more and more time enabling users to connect
to their Corporate infrastructures from their mobile devices and
companies are investing in this configuration and enablement even when
it is just a small group pf users, so i guess the organisations have
seen the value in access from the devices we always carry around with
us.

5. The future..

Where are we going, i do not always agree with Citrix, however that
does not change the fact that o think Citrix is clearly in a
leadership position when it comes to Desktop and Applicstion Delivery,
so it os always very cool to hear their view on the future, and if
asked i will gladly offer my views

Now i just have to finish the last 12 hours of traveling and i will be
ready for tomorrows action packed agenda.

/Rene Vester

I am very happy that Synergy is a success in Europe and i hope it leads to more pan-european events just like Synergy. Where my frustration comes into the picture is with the fact that european partners and customers are now unable to attend and refered to a SynergyOnline concept which will bring a few keynotes and most popular sessions.

Normally a sold out event would just mean exactly that to me, a great success for the people doing the event and also for the participants, so why is it that i am irritated by this? Well yes, the reason this Citrix Synergy is such a huge success, in my oppinion can be contributed to the fact that Citrix has an extremely loyal network of distributors, partners and customers who are fully devoted to the strategy and the products. So when Mark Templeton goes on stage in Las Vegas and says “We are going to make a european event, full scale event, just like the one we have had in Las Vegas, and i hope you will all help us get people to attend”(essense of his words, not a direct quote) .. Well the european partners, distributors and customers start preparing. I think for several reasons:

• Bringing this to europe would save travel costs and make it easier to attend
• Making this a success would encourage Citrix to give the european event the same focus as the us-based.
• For distributors and Partners, making a european event like this sends a signal to customers that Citrix cares.

So.. what happend after the announcement from Mark Templeton in Las Vegas? Well the local Citrix offices started focusing on gathering people for the local event, participation from the local offices in europe at the San francisco event was almost nothing compared to earlier, and customers were told, wait! Berlin will be great! And who are the big liars now? The partners and distributors? Maybe we should not have suggested customers wait for Berlin, as i remember there were still available seating at the Synergy in San Francisco.

And Citrix, yes.. you should have known.. you could have prepared, you promised a fullscale event in Berlin, and booked room for like 50% more attendants than you have previously had at local German events..

Want alternatives?

Citrix has done a few things to help ease the pain on some of the people unable to get tickets for the real event, one of which is Synergy Online, more infomation can be found here: http://www.citrixsynergy.com/about/synergyonline.html

I will be blogging and tweeting from Synergy so stay tuned, if YOU are blogging from Synergy, let me know i will make a page with links to blogs from Synergy in Berlin.

And if you have the time and budget an alternative to get the information would be to attend Pubforum Berlin. Pubforum Berlin will be held right after Citrix Synergy in Berlin, and will be featuring sessions with “Best from Synergy” and some of the speakers from Synergy will also be present at Pubforum. For more information about Pubforum check www.pubforum.net . Pubforum is an Expert to Expert european event and there will be no sales sessions.

It is ofcourse all under NDA, but i think i wont get shot if i just say that there is a lot of cool stuff under way, some which most likely will be announced this wednesday/thursday at Synergy keynotes, and some may be for Synergy in Berlin later this year.

So today for me it is Citrix Summit time, the Citrix Partner event and that is also under NDA, luckily though this afternoon kicks off Citrix GeekSpeak. First with a couple of Citrix GeekSpeak Live! sessions and then follow up sessions in the Expo hall in a more relaxed form, Citrix GeekSpeak Easy.

i wrote more about GeekSpeak here.

You can see more about the GeekSpeak this year here: http://www.citrixsynergy.com/agenda/geekspeaklive.html

/René Vester

One cool thing i want to bring to your attention is the fact that GeekSpeak is heavily available with this years Citrix Synergy. I like GeekSpeak and the format of being unfiltered sessions delivered by the most passionate to anyone who will listen.

GeekSpeak is available in 3 shapes this time:

• Geek Speak Tonight: The fan favorite that we ran at Synergy 09 returns, where a combination of Citrix Technology Professionals (CTPs) and CTOs lead discussions and debates on pre-determined topics, and the audience takes center stage and joins the conversation! This event will kick off Synergy on Tuesday, May 11 at 4:30 – 6:45 p.m., giving you a chance to begin the conference with a breath of fresh, unfiltered air. Refreshments will be served. Get there early to claim your seat!

• Geek Speak Track: Not your typical formal breakouts! These sessions are complete with open, unfiltered discussion on a variety of technical topics led by CTPs, Citrix CTOs, and other respected industry thought leaders. Held May 12-14 alongside the formal breakout sessions.

• Geek Speakeasy: Geek Speak Live! comes to the Solutions Expo Hall with a relaxed lounge format for conversational sessions, and a lab format for "bring your own laptop" sessions with industry leaders and technical experts from the community. So grab a snack and head over to the Geek Speakeasy for an action-packed set of sessions from May 11-13!

And the invitation was laid out by Laura Whalen like this:

Are you:

• Tired of dark, stuffy conference rooms where you can hear a pin drop?
• Interested in desktop virtualization, client hypervisors & cloud computing?
• Looking for uncut, unfiltered, and unprecedented discussion and debate?

Do you:

• Want to speak your technically focused mind, and all you need is a stage?
• Enjoy mixing it up with master discussionists of the IT universe?
• Write you name in binary code for fun & watch "The Matrix" for the 5th+ time, just because it’s on?

Time for GeekSpeak?

I for one will be there as much as i can.. its usually great, so if you are at Synergy og Summit, do go join the GeekSpeak sessions

For more information have a look at Laura Whalens blogpost here: http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=141099044

Rene Vester

This time however i have the pleasure of presenting, and i am very much looking forward to that. We are just now finishing up on second presentation draft, and i think it is going to be, like Tony would say, Greeeeeeeaat!

I have the pleasure of Co-presenting with a good friend Jacob Berg in a session about Macs and iPhone in the corporate infrastructure. To me it is a topic which often comes up when discussing future solution architecture. A lot of our users have grown happy with the Apple way of doing things, some starting from the graphical industry, others just falling in love with the iPod ..

Our session will be: SYN321- Supporting Macs and iPhones in your corporate infrastructure

Session Description:
Mac computers and iPhones are getting more and more popular among the users of corporate IT infrastructure. BYOC concepts are introducing more Mac’s into "no-Mac" companies. With the introduction of more operating system platforms, IT organizations face new challenges to handle these non-Windows user devices. In this session we will layout the options with live demonstrations of Mac/Citrix use cases to show how this new type of user device can be incorporated into existing or planned Citrix infrastructure.
In this session you will learn:
• How Citrix technologies complement the Mac and the iPhone
• How to get the most out of Citrix on Mac/iPhone
• Best practices on how to implement Citrix solutions on Mac

So.. that is going to be fun i think, and hopefully you will join us

Aside from that i have been given the great pleasure of participating in a panel discussion on cloud at the GeekSpeak Tonight! event more info here: GeekSpeak Tonight! for me the GeekSpeak atmosphere is always a blast, unfiltered discussions.. its what we all need

And last but not least i have the pleasure of presenting in the Expo-Area in the GeekSpeak Easy lounge with Alexander Ervik a good friend and fellow CTP from norway. We will take you through “The essentials to a virtual datacenter”, but more on that when you get to San Francisco

Hope to see you there!

/René

Desktop Focused CTPs:

Carl Webster
Denis Gundarev
Gabe Knuth
Simon Bramfitt
Tim Mangan

Datacenter & Cloud Focused CTP:

Alessandro Perilli

Network Focused CTPs:

John Smith
Joseph Melika
Rick Rohne
Robert Morris
Timco Hazelaa

you can find more information about the program here:

http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2010/04/21/Meet+Our+Newest+Citrix+Technology+Professionals+%28CTPs%29

/René

Anyways.. i have not been blogging lately and even my participation in the forums have fallen to a nonexistant level, and ofcourse i chose to blame my son 100%.. but what i started thinking about the other day was, how lucky i am to actually miss this, there has been times where i wondered if i blogged for myself or for everyone else, so the last few months spend getting to know my son, surely told me it has been just as much for myself as anyone else. No doubt an extra little guy in the house will take more time, but luckily i have been able to turn my focus back to what i truly love, virtualization technologies and especially Citrix which naturally has a special place with me.

I will be working with Citrix more focused looking ahead and i am looking forward to share my experiences with you all.

The Danish Citrix User Group is just now planning the next Meetup, and shortly there will be news and information available on www.dkcug.dk

Just as importantly, the preparation for Grand Pubforum Frankfurt 2010 is under way and it looks great so far, i truly believe this might end up being the best Pubforum ever. It is being held in the hometown of the Father of Pubforum, Alex Juschin, and information will be released to www.pubforum.net as it is finalized, book the flights now.

Citrix User Group Norway is also in the middle of preparations for their spring event in Lillestrøm, just outside Oslo, these guys never cease to amaze me, so i am truly looking forward to the finalized agenda! you can keep up to date here: http://cug.no/xenzone/

/René

This is GREAT news, i think it is just what we need.. a hands-on lab with guided exercises to give everyone a better understanding of VDI and especially XenDesktop and the Hyper-V platform integration.

Personally i spend a lot of time working with companies on Proof of Concepts to decide whether or not Virtual Desktops deliver the value-add their company needs. I think this is virtual lab is a great innovation in the quest to spread understanding of both the several hyper-visors available and the concepts needed to build a viable Virtual Desktop proof of Concept.

Deciding whether or not Hypervisors A or B is the best platform for your organization may not be easily decided over this virtual lab, but i think it clearly shows what Hyper-V can offer in the aspect of a virtual desktop host. And let there be no doubt, when you are talking about virtual desktops, the cost of the hypervisor is a parameter.

Citrix XenDesktop to me is the best positioned Virtual Desktop broker in the market. This is from my point of view because of the close integration with the older brother Citrix XenApp, this integration makes it possible to spread your virtual desktops over a dynamic virtual desktop platform, and the much cheaper “shared virtual desktop” platform which Citrix XenApp delivers.

What i do not understand is why VMware has not tried to incorporate terminal services(now RDS) support in a much better way to help accommodate the users which does not need to have their own OS, and by that lowering the total cost of the deployment… but that’s just me.. i do not buy the hype, i did the math.. And if you do VDI without doing the math.. “Oh boy..”

To get more information on this new lab cooperation between Citrix and Microsoft have a look here: http://community.citrix.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=116033898

Click here to try out the lab: https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=281742e3-2613-42da-bd58-2c3578f039b4

or watch the video here:

I guess i could put in a guide to solve the challenges here but i chose not to. Citrix and MS did a good job on guiding through the challenges and delivering a good lab to work in.. good job!

I Really wish we could see this from more virtualization vendors! this is the way to show off your product!

This is an example of that:

So far Office 2010 looks great, cant wait to see how it runs in Remote Desktop Service and Citrix environments on a production level. My concern is always that the extra ressources required will have most customers redesign or heavily expand their platform.

Rene Vester