Archive
Your 10 Apps + an AppDNA Trial = Application Compatibility Insights
This I find good, go ahead and try out AppDNA for your most crucial business apps and evaluate what kind of added value this product could add to your software management service and processes!
“Did you know you can perform no-charge application compatibility testing for 10 of your own enterprise applications with the Citrix AppDNA application migration software trial?
If you’re just starting to plan your Windows XP migration or looking to add a new virtualization technology, trial the AppDNA application migration software to see how your applications will behave on a new OS or virtualization technology.
With the AppDNA trial, you can test the application compatibility for 5 MSI-based applications and 5 web applications and use the trial software for 30 days. Determine if Windows 7 migration will affect some of your business-critical applications. Learn if your web-based applications will have critical issues with IE8 or IE9 migration. See any challenges to virtualizing your most requested line of business applications.
Obtain a report to show why virtualization is the best route for your organization. Impress your boss with the detailed costing and planning reporting. Gauge the readiness of your staff to field the difficult application remediation issues AppDNA discovers in your applications.
Plus, you don’t have to go open a PO or find any budget. There’s no charge. Just register, download and start testing.”
Continue reading more about it here…
//Richard
Online File Sharing service review
Personally I must say that Citrix has a compelling E2E solution going on that is very interesting for many reasons but mainly from an end-user experience point of view. Having both SaaS, iOS, Android, internal/external web apps, Data (ShareFile), XenApp apps and desktops and XenDesktops all delivered into a common look & feel of the Receiver, that’s a story no one else has I have the guts to say!
But of course the technical solution has some more capabilities to offer until it’s ready from an enterprise perspective, like why can’t we as a customer maintain the keys for encryption of the Amazon “blob” storage used and why isn’t the local data stored on all devices encrypted? And another interesting question is why the ShareFile role administration isn’t better? I’d like to control the device/client settings based on roles so that for instance certain user groups cannot access data while offline, but some may etc. This needs some work…
But all in all they are the best E2E provider of a mobility solution as I see it!
This was an interesting comparison! Read it for yourself and see which service that may fit you best.
Comments?
//Richard
App Orchestration – Citrix Blog series
Ok, I know it’s just a re-post! 😉
But I must say that the blog series is good and gives a good explanation on what the Citrix view is.
The series consist of the following posts;
- Concepts
- Architecture
- Provisioning machines Part 1 & Part 2
- Managing Tenants
- Managing Advertisements
- Managing Subscriptions
- Patching Workload Machines
- Understanding Workflows Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- Troubleshooting (coming soon)
- Integration with CloudPortal Services Manager (coming soon)
I suggest you have a coffee and sit down and at least give the “Citrix view” a go!
//Richard
Another great blog : Virtualizing XenApp Hosted Shared Desktops on Hyper-V
Thanks a lot for this blog post!
“My latest adventure into density testing for Citrix solutions centers on XenApp (XA) Hosted Shared desktops. For those unfamiliar with the XA Hosted Shared model, it combines application and session virtualization, relying on a single OS instance on a Citrix XA server to publish familiar Windows desktops and applications. The Hosted Shared model centralizes application delivery and management (securing data and applications in the data center), and it scales well to support large user densities. It is designed to provide a locked-down, streamlined, and standardized environment with a core set of applications, making it ideally suited for task workers where personalization is less of a focus. While the XA server can be hosted directly on a bare-metal server on Windows Server 2008 R2, my recent testing explores the densities you can achieve when XA runs in a virtualized environment.”
Continue to read here!
//Richard
Vulnerability in Citrix Receiver with Online Plug-in for Windows could result in arbitrary code execution
Severity: Medium
Description of Problem
A vulnerability has been identified in the Citrix Receiver with Online Plug-in for Windows that could potentially allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the client device in the context of the currently logged in user.
This vulnerability is present in all versions of the Citrix Receiver for Windows up to and including version 3.2 and all versions of the Citrix Online Plug-in for Windows up to and including version 12.1.
For more information click here!
//Richard
Interesting – Citrix acquires Beetil
Today Citrix announced that it has acquired Beetil!
“Beetil helps technical support professionals provide exceptional customer assistance and streamline technology costs through the delivery of easy-to-use, yet powerful incident tracking, end user self-service, configuration, change management and release management functionality.
The acquisition enables Citrix to expand the capabilities of its market-leading, cloud-based support product line, Citrix GoToAssist, with the addition of an integrated IT service desk solution. As a result, Citrix has the ability to offer support professionals an essential set of cloud-based services from a single platform for remote support, monitoring and service desk management.”
To read the complete announcement click here!
I must dig a bit deeper into this acquisition and see how it fits the overall Citrix offerings!
Citrix does need something in this space but most of all I’d like to see something happening in the “ITSM-area”, today I find most of the products to be technology driven and an enabler for functionality, but not so much how you can integrate all these technologies into a managed service E2E.
//Richard
OpenStack vs. CloudStack – IaaS – PaaS – XaaS
Ok, so what are your thoughts, findings and view on which will become or already is the best solution out there for IaaS/PaaS services?
I must admit that this is not my area of expertise but it’s an area of interest and I like reading about it to get more up to date on where they are from a service readiness perspective. Are they ready for enterprise usage, or are enterprises stuck in their mindset of adopting the open source initiatives and technologies that exists around them. If yes; then why? Is it due to that it doesn’t fit the existing way of how they buy or deliver existing IT services, or is the technology not ready from an ITSM point of view with SD, SLA, SLO and delivery models that we have with the “old” traditional technologies like vSphere, XenServer and Hyper-V if you put a large enterprise organization and governance on top of it?
BYOD = reality or just a vision? – Part 2
Ok, where did we end part 1.. yes, it was around my personal view around why it’s not that easy for enterprises to adopt a BYOD concept similar to what we at EnvokeIT have.
(If you haven’t read part 1 you can do that here.)
So why can we work this way and not the enterprises, well there are many answers to that question. One reason may be that they have IPR etc that is important to protect and a legacy IT environment that has been around since the mainframe era with a lot of in-house developed apps, it’s a legacy that we newcomers don’t have! And they also have a much more complex organization with difference roles and requirements. It’s sometimes hard to tell a developer to work on any device with no development tools installed locally and only work in a remote desktop which requires him/her to be online. These users would perhaps want to be able to perform their development work from their vacation cabin up north with limited connectivity or wherever they can’t be connected. And the whole world doesn’t have the connectivity that we in europe are used to.
Oldie that’s worth another look…Logon Optimization Guide – XenApp/XenDesktop
Ok, it’s been around for some time. But we every now and then find a lot of implementations where the architect/SME that built the environment haven’t thought of the basics and best practises that are documented and out there for free!
Citrix Logon Optimization Guide – XenApp/XenDesktop
Have another go at reading it, just as a reference/checklist! 😉
Cheers!
//Richard
Citrix XenServer Multiple Security Updates
Ok, seems like we may have to update some XenServers… Have a look at this Security Bulletin for multiple Citrix XenServer Security updates.
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 