Archive
#XenMobile and the #Citrix Mobile Workspaces Architecture – #BYOD
This is a great blog post by Christopher Campbell and good picture to show the overall capabilities and architecture of the Citrix offering!
You’ve heard us talk about Mobile Workspaces and if you’re a techie you’re probably wondering if Citrix really has the architectural components (a complete, comprehensive and fully integrated architecture) that can deliver any app and data to any user on any device over any network?
Well let’s first identify a few of the market leading technologies that make up the Citrix Mobile Workspaces solution:
- XenApp mobilizes and secures Windows apps on any device
- XenDesktop securely delivers virtual Windows desktops and apps on any device
- XenMobile manages and secures mobile, web and SaaS apps on mobile devices
- GoToMeeting empowers people to meet and collaborate with anyone, anywhere
- ShareFile shares and syncs corporate data securely from any location
- NetScaler optimizes and secures app delivery and on any network
- CloudPlatform orchestrates and provisions apps, desktops and IT services from any cloud
OK, OK. We know you have the products but do they really integrate?
Yes. Don’t believe me? Well as they say a picture is worth a thousand words. This is what the Mobile Workspace Architecture looks like.
OK. I get it. You have the architecture but that doesn’t necessarily translate to a seamless user experience.
Still don’t believe huh? Well this is what the user experience looks like.
XenMobile is a key ingredient in delivering a mobile workspace. Along with XenApp and XenDesktop it allows organizations to deliver on giving users access to any app from any device. In fact, if you’re an existing XenApp or XenDesktop customer, XenMobile seamlessly plugs into your existing architecture.
If you’re a XenDesktop or XenApp customer this is what your environment probably looks like.
Now this is what you need to enable EMM for BYO and COPE (Corporate Owned, Personally Enabled) devices and add that MDM, MAM, Secure Email, Secure Data…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#BYOD + #Messaging + #Collaboration + #Data securely = How??
Yes, how do you solve this?
I’m running into this topic lately with a lot of people and customers….
It’s around the whole BYOD and unmanaged devices and how useful they are in an enterprise world and all the capabilities and way of working that you’re used to in a secure and still cost effective way (and let’s not forget in a USER FRIENDLY way)!
One question that I’ve not yet found an answer to is:
How do we have all offline capabilities needed for an “Office” worker on a BYOD in our enterprise landscape? How do we ensure that you can use our Messaging, Collaboration and Data/Info services on this totally unmanaged device in a SECURE way?
This is a tough challenge! I guess that most of your users are used to using the Office suite locally on their managed device where they can use Outlook offline, work with data/files in Excel and Word etc offline. But what happens if you tell them to use an unmanaged device or their own personal device of their choice?
All of a sudden there is no real good way of providing them with offline messaging and collaboration (Outlook Anywhere and Lync for instance) capabilities in a secure manner. This BYOD/unmanaged device is not a part of your AD, you have no control and cannot enforce anything! So Outlook that is installed on it may use your Outlook Anywhere service but then its data sits on that unmanaged device unencrypted and unsecured!
Think of the picture above (yes I know it’s a mess but I just want to illustrate the issue), you have BYOD devices that are running Windows 7, XP, 8 etc and also Mac OS X. What if you open up your Outlook anywhere service to those devices, then all your emails etc. will be unsecured on them!
Citrix and others are focusing on providing this email capability in a secure manner on all mobile OS’s like iOS and Android etc through it’s Citrix Worx apps for mail and also the newly announced Hosted MobileMail. But these are more or less just targeted against mobile devices (smartphones and tablets), but what about the standard laptop users!?!?! They need something as well!
And Windows RMS and other solutions just wont fit very well here… Citrix XenVault was something that could have worked to enable offline support for corporate Messaging services but it’s not there… I’d like to run corporate apps locally on the device offline in a secure and controllable container!!
The same issue you have with Data!!!
ShareFile doesn’t support encryption on Windows or OS X!!!
But it does on mobile devices.. I guess you have to trust your users and BYOD devices that they are encrypted using BitLocker or FileVault etc…. but can you?
So please enlighten me here what the missing puzzle piece is!! Because I have a hard time taking away a managed device form a user and tell them that they on their BYOD device HAVE TO BE ONLINE TO WORK! It’s a step back from a usability and productiveness point of view… but it may be a cost saver though… but is a BYOD/unmanaged device and a VDI or Hosted Shared Desktop always a good option to provide business apps to that laptop? NO! I guess everyone have understood that making business apps and functions web-based or mobile app based is good and a lot of focus is there, but we cannot forget the traditional productive device that the laptop is!
If you know the magic solution to these challenges please let me know! 🙂
Cheers!
//Richard
#CitrixSynergy keynote – What will be announced?
So here we are! Keynote is about to start!
what can we expect? This is one thing that I definitely like to see:
– MDM + MAM + MIM + XA/XD= one solution/service! Have they finally made some progress into integrating Zenprise, AppController and StoreFront into one “App Store” and policy governance model so that we have one (1) app that handles both MDM, MAM and MIM from a device/user perspective?
Let the show begin! 🙂
//Richard
#Citrix Knowledge Center Top 10 – March 2013
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.
Find below the Citrix Knowledge Center Top 10 for March 2013.
Top 10 Technical Articles
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX129229 | Recommended Hotfixes for XenApp 6.0 and Later on Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX129082 | Application Launch Fails with Web Interface using Internet Explorer 9 |
| CTX804493 | Users Prompted to Download ICA File, Launch.ica, Instead of Launching the Connection |
| CTX132875 | Citrix Receiver Error 2320 |
| CTX105793 | Error: Cannot connect to the Citrix server. Protocol Driver Error |
| CTX127030 | Citrix Guidelines for Antivirus Software Configuration |
| CTX115637 | Citrix Multi-Monitor Configuration Settings and Reference |
| CTX133997 | Citrix Receiver 3.x – Issues Fixed in This Release |
| CTX325140 | Manually and Safely Removing Files after Uninstalling the Receiver for Windows |
| CTX101644 | Seamless Configuration Settings |
Top 10 Whitepapers
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX131577 | XenApp 6.x (Windows 2008 R2) – Optimization Guide |
| CTX132799 | XenDesktop and XenApp Best Practices |
| CTX101997 | Citrix Secure Gateway Secure Ticket Authority Frequently Asked Questions |
| CTX136546 | Citrix Virtual Desktop Handbook 5.x |
| CTX136547 | StoreFront Planning Guide |
| CTX133185 | Citrix CloudGateway Express 2.0 – Implementation Guide |
| CTX129761 | XenApp Planning Guide – Virtualization Best Practices |
| CTX134081 | Planning Guide – Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop Policies |
| CTX130888 | Technical Guide for Upgrading/Migrating to XenApp 6.5 |
| CTX122978 | XenServer: Understanding Snapshots |
Top 10 Hotfixes
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX136714 | Hotfix XS61E016 – For XenServer 6.1.0 |
| CTX132122 | Hotfix Rollup Pack 1 for Citrix XenApp 6.5 for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX126653 | Citrix Online Plug-in 12.1.44 for Windows with Internet Explorer 9 Support |
| CTX136483 | Hotfix XS61E014 – For XenServer 6.1.0 |
| CTX133882 | Hotfix Rollup Pack 2 for Citrix XenApp 6 for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 |
| CTX133066 | 12.3 Online Plug-In – Issues Fixed in This Release |
| CTX136253 | Hotfix XS61E010 – For XenServer 6.1.0 |
| CTX136482 | Hotfix XS61E013 – For XenServer 6.1.0 |
| CTX136085 | Hotfix XA650R01W2K8R2X64061 – For Citrix XenApp 6.5 |
| CTX136674 | Hotfix XS61E012 – For XenServer 6.1.0 |
Top 10 Presentations
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX135521 | TechEdge Barcelona 2012 PowerPoint and Video Presentations – Reference List |
| CTX129669 | TechEdge 2011 – Overview of XenServer Distributed Virtual Switch/Controller |
| CTX121090 | Planning and implementing a Provisioning Server high availability (HA) solution |
| CTX133375 | TechEdge 2012 PowerPoint and Video Presentations – Reference List |
| CTX135356 | TechEdge Barcelona 2012 – Understanding and Troubleshooting ICA Session Initialisation |
| CTX135358 | TechEdge Barcelona 2012 – XenDesktop Advanced Troubleshooting |
| CTX133374 | TechEdge 2012 – Monitoring your NetScaler Traffic with AppFlow |
| CTX135361 | Troubleshooting Tools: How to Isolate and Resolve Issues in your XA and XD Env Rapidly |
| CTX135360 | TechEdge Barcelona 2012 – Planning, Implementing and Troubleshooting PVS 6.x |
| CTX135357 | TechEdge Barcelona 2012 – Implementing and Troubleshooting SF and Rec for Windows |
Top 10 Tools
| Article Number | Article Title |
|---|---|
| CTX122536 | Citrix Quick Launch |
| CTX135075 | Citrix Diagnostics Toolkit – 64bit Edition |
| CTX130147 | Citrix Scout |
| CTX111961 | CDFControl |
| CTX106226 | Repair Clipboard Chain 2.0.1 |
| CTX109374 | StressPrinters 1.3.2 for 32-bit and 64-bit Platforms |
| CTX124406 | StressPrinters 1.3.2 for 32-bit and 64-bit Platforms |
| CTX113472 | Citrix ICA File Creator |
| CTX123278 | XDPing Tool |
Continue reading here!
//Richard
How to leverage the new multiple datastore options of VDI-in-a-Box 5.2 – #VDIinaBox
Another good Citrix blog post, thx Richard Khan!
Last year with version 5.1, VDI-in-a-Box introduced the ability to take advantage of two separate data stores, allowing VDI-in-a-Box to better leverage the direct attached storage of servers. When using the Hyper-V or ESX hypervisors, VDI-in-a-Box allows you to define a second datastore to separate the storage of golden images, and linked clones. Now with version 5.2 of VDI-in-a-Box we have introduced the option for a third datastore. In addition to the datastore options for golden images and desktops, there is now an option to store the personal vDisks associated with personal desktops on a separate datastore. Administrators now have the ability to store images, desktops, and personal disks separately or together on the datastore of their choosing. Best of all, this option is available on all supported hypervisors.
Upon initial configuration, the vdiManager uses a single datastore. This primary datastore contains all of the golden images, desktop instances, and the vDisks associated with Personal Desktops. Enabling the multiple datastore feature in vdiManager’s advanced properties makes it possible to separate these three types of data onto their own data stores.
The flexibility of multiple datastores can be leveraged by storing pooled desktops on an SSD datastore for improved IOPS performance. Since pooled desktops…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#Citrix VDI-in-a-Box 5.2, now supports CloudGateway etc. – @VDIinaBox, @CitrixCG
Ok, now VDI-in-a-Box is becoming more and more “complete”! This release delivers some of the features many have wanted for a while! For instance the support of the latest hypervisors as well as CloudGateway!
Read more below taken from the Citrix blog post:
Version V5.2 is now ready for prime time. The focus of this release was to support the latest hypervisors and Citrix components. Actually we did a lot more because we added a few features that our users have been clamoring for.
Support for the latest hypervisors:
As always we need to stay current and so version 5.2 supports vSphere 5.1, XenServer 6.1 and Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012. The latter should increase desktop density quite a bit. We’d love to hear your experiences along those lines. Please post on the forum what sort of density increases you are experiencing.
Unified access to VDI-in-a-Box desktops and your applications and data:
Version 5.2 now supports Citrix’s Cloud Gateway and allows you to access VDI-in-a-Box through it. Cloud Gateway provides a unified application and data store allowing you to access Windows, web, SaaS and Mobile applications seamlessly and so we felt it important that VDI-in-a-Box work with this application and data aggregation service.
Real-time collaboration with Microsoft Lync:
In addition, we support Microsoft Lync via the Citrix HDX RealTime Optimization Pack for Microsoft Lync. Now users can seamlessly participate in audio-video or audio-only calls to and from other HDX RealtTime users and other standards-based video desktop and conference room systems. This is especially good for call centers and the like who want wide ranging soft phone functionality with their virtual desktops.
Highly available Personal Desktops with PVD:
Many had asked that we provide some form of high availability for Personal (PVD) desktops. We provide this by allowing you to place PVD desktops on shared storage. Here’s how it works. You specify a third datastore which resides on shared storage and VDI-in-a-Box will honor this request and store all Personal desktops using PVD on it.
Turn old desktops into locked down thin clients:
Kids will be kids and so many school lab administrators have asked that we provide a way to lock down the devices used in their labs. Now, you can download the Desktop Lock from the VDI-in-a-Box download page on the Citrix web site. It will allow you to lock down the physical device and essentially turn your old desktops and workstations into a thin client that connects directly to VDI-in-a-Box and keeps the kids from doing any mischief.
Fully automated software update with our Touchless DTagent:
And since we’re always looking for ways to make things simpler, with V5.2, we now have a fully automated way for you to upgrade the VDI-in-a-Box software. We had two issues in the past. First, you had to manually install the VDI-in-a-Box desktop agent on a golden image (that is then used to stamp out multiple desktop instances). Second, when you upgraded the VDI-in-a-Box software, you had to manually update the agent on each existing golden image. In Version 5.1, we automatically install the agent on all new images. With V5.2, we now provide you a list of existing golden images whose agents need to be updated and once you click yes, we walk you through a wizard to automatically upgrade the agent and test the golden image. For more details on this, see the blog by David Liu: http://blogs.citrix.com/2013/01/22/viab-5-2-makes-updating-desktop-agents-easier/.
Continue reading here!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 