So i have been working a lot with Desktop as a Service lately and i have been super interested in how Onlive(www.onlive.com) has been able to deliver free windows 7 Desktop Access through their Service. It has been impossible to get any validated information, and i have been super frustrated.

I was super happy to see that i was not alone and that Simon Bramfitt, good guy and fellow CTP also had the same challenges and he wrote up a super blog post on the circumstances around the Onlive Desktop initiative, i strongly suggest you read it: http://blog.simonbramfitt.com/2012/02/onlive-desktop/

It is a bit long, but it is worth it and gives a great understanding into this “new” Desktop as a Service provider and Simon also updated the post with the fact that there is no public announcement stating Microsoft has validated the model, and that if Microsoft were to take action against Onlive, it could mean downtime for users of the service, as SLA’s are nonexistent.

All this being said, i am seeing a lot of great DaaS initiatives and i am sure the right model is out there for enterprises of all sorts and sizes, not to mentions schools and public offices.

/René Vester

Arrived in Barcelona late last night, got up early after a few hours of sleep and now i am ready for todays CTP meeting. Great list of CTPs here this time, so am sure someone will most likely start a debate during the day.. so hopefully today will be awesome like usually.

Barcelona itself did not show itself from its nicest side today, raining when we got out of the hotel, but it seems to be getting better outside now, so hopefully we will see great spanish weather along with great technical sessions.

It will be super interesting of course the real action starts with the keynote on wednesday, and then onwards at the Citrix Synergy, but today is an all day CTP meeting under NDA and tomorrow is CTP meeting combined with a bit of Citrix Partner Summit, also under NDA.. but it will be good.

The venue and sessions here this time looks good, so just waiting to see what kind of great swag Citrix has come up with this time around.

/René Vester

I am thrilled to see that VMware has joined the scene and that Pubforum now delivers the best from both Citrix, Microsoft, VMware and supporting technologies. I think this Pubforum is going to be the best yet. Sadly i will not be able to go for personal reasons, but my thoughts will be in Dublin!

To register visit: http://www.pubforum.info/pubforum/REGISTER.aspx

And if you want to relive, or see how Pubforum has been in the past, be sure to visit the download section here: http://www.pubforum.info/pubforum/Downloads.aspx Most Sessions from previous Pubforums are uploaded in a spirit of openness and to allow the message of speakers and vendors to reach even more entusiasts and experts.

Have a good time at Pubforum Dublin 2011! If anyone is looking to go but are unsure about logistics or have other questions, feel free to contact me or Alex

/René Vester

/René Vester

The new Citrix Receiver can be downloaded from the the Apple AppStore and if you are already running the receiver a simple upgrade should be available. To list some of my favorite new features:

• OnScreen TrackPad, use the screen as a Trackpad to better support a “normal” application handling where Touch is not preferred
• International Keyboard Support.. yippie, we get our native letters.
• Support for Bluetooth keyboard
• Integration of Self-Service (what we used to know as the Dazzle Concept)
• And many other.

You can view all the new features and download the app from the appstore here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/citrix-receiver-for-ipad/id363501921?mt=8

This version makes the iPad much easier to adopt for the enterprises as it is both an enhancement to the user experience but also enables features like Bluetooth keyboard and the OnScreen Trackpad which brings the iPad even closer to the “Nirvana Device” which especially Citrites have spend a lot of time searching for. Wouldnt it be greater to work if you could do all your work from a device as slim, easy to carry quick to boot as the iPad.

Well it just took a step closer to delivering Nirvana with the 4.2.1 release.

The Team at Citrix has done a great job on this receiver, i hope this team is an inspiration when it comes to innovation and adaption of new user experience options, the team has done a great job. This is not to say the other teams at Citrix  has not done great things, but the innovation which Citrix has delivered around the iPhone and iPad is super impressive and Citrix truely enabled a couple of very non-business ready product lines to true business innovation devices. Good job guys!

If you want to get a bit of a view of some of the new features check this video from Citrix Synergy Berlin, Gus Pinto is demoing some of the new features in a very early version of this receiver  Citrix Receiver for iPad Demo in Berlin

Now get it, Have fun with it!

/René

P.S .. Now Mr. Gus Pinto, go home and get some sleep!

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.

Under MSDN Microsoft has launched a new site called http://gps.cloudapp.net this site is awesome! The site will allow you to search for group policy settings, filter by Internet Explorer version, office version and others and browse by registry or by policy.

But this tool makes it much easier to find the right settings and apply them either with registry hacks or policy objects.

This is a quick example of a search on hide drives which is pretty commonly used but still..

There is not much more to it, but a great tool for sure, one of my new favorite online tools

The tools is naturally powered by Azure