Archive
#Ubuntu for phones – backed by #Canonical
I must say that this is really cool and looks great!!
iOS is there as a stable platform that companies can rely on in terms of that SW development on this platform for native apps are great due to that Apple provides both the HW and the SW and therefore simplifies build of apps, you don’t have to make like 150 versions for all the device types out there that you need if you’re developing native apps for Android that uses complex features of the device. I guess the same scenario will come true for Ubuntu unless they only ship it with a small range of devices and keep the focus on true HTML5 apps as long as it fulfills the need…
I wonder how and when Canonical or others will take this Ubuntu platform on and bring it to market on a broad scale…. Anyway it looks very promising!
Read more here and go through the great feature set and design!
//Richard
#Citrix #Receiver 3.4 and 11.7 = is the #SmartAccess story more real now? – #CloudGateway, #AGEE, #NetScaler, #StoreFront
Citrix has now released version 3.4 of the Receiver for Mac and Windows, but what is the main added value with this release?
First of I’d like to ask you to review my previous post where I questioned the Citrix SmartAccess story that I believe is not there end-to-end and that really is a lacking feature for scenarios where you’d for instance want to support more BYOD models etc. You need to determine the person accessing the service and also what what type of device it is, trusted or not etc. And I in the previous post I argued that Citrix doesn’t deliver according to their SmartAccess story;
#Citrix #SmartAccess = A complete story or not? – #NetScaler #AGEE #EPA
And for you that haven’t read about the new Receiver 11.7 or OS X and 3.4 for Windows check these posts:
Receiver for Windows 3.4 released
Receiver for Mac 11.7 Released
The table below is from the previous SmartAccess post and my theoretical review right now is that the SmartAccess story for Windows and Mac OS X clients have improved. As you can see in the two rows for Receiver 3.3 and 11.6 where you would access through a Receiver through an AGEE you would NOT be able to perform host checks using the EPA scans.
This was just not possible though the native Receiver didn’t have that capability to trigger the EPA scans. And the EPA plugin itself was not available in the native Receiver on the OS X, it was bundled into the Access Gateway plugin.
| Client | Access method | EPA/Host-check possible on AGEE | Comment |
| Windows with Citrix Receiver for Windows 3.3 | Receiver 3.3 | NO | You’ll never be able to do host-checks on this device if Receiver access is used due to that the Receiver does not have EPA scan capabilities. |
| Windows with Citrix Receiver for Windows 3.4 | Receiver 3.4 | YES | Now when the Receiver is communicating with the Access Gateway plugin and shares login credentials then you can leverage the AGEE plugin to perform EPA scans and then allow different session policies and profiles depending on the EPA scan result, and at the same time of course also pass that through to StoreFront/WI and into XenApp/XenDesktop.It does however then require that you get the AGEE plugin installed on the devices, which may be another dilemma… |
| OS X with Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.6 | Receiver 11.6 | NO | You’ll never be able to do host-checks on this device if Receiver access is used due to that the Receiver does not have EPA scan capabilities. |
| OS X with Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.7 | Receiver 11.7 | YES | Now when the Receiver is communicating with the Access Gateway plugin and shares login credentials then you can leverage the AGEE plugin to perform EPA scans and then allow different session policies and profiles depending on the EPA scan result, and at the same time of course also pass that through to StoreFront/WI and into XenApp/XenDesktop.It does however then require that you get the AGEE plugin installed on the devices, which may be another dilemma… |
Free online Computer Science courses from #Harvard College
Ok, this is really interesting (at least for a nerd like myself)!
I just stumbled across this website where the Harvard College hosts some of its courses online, you can view video recording from classes, get access to all slides, source code etc and take the course for free yourself!
They now have the following courses up there;
- Computer Science 50: Introduction to Computer Science I – Introduction to the intellectual enterprises of computer science and the art of programming. This course teaches students how to think algorithmically and solve problems efficiently. Topics include abstraction, algorithms, encapsulation, data structures, databases, memory management, security, software development, virtualization, and websites. Languages include C, PHP, and JavaScript plus SQL, CSS, and HTML. Problem sets inspired by real-world domains of biology, cryptography, finance, forensics, and gaming. Designed for concentrators and non-concentrators alike, with or without prior programming experience.
- Computer Science 164: Mobile Software Engineering – Introduction to principles of software engineering for mobile devices and best practices, including code reviews, source control, and unit tests. Topics include Ajax, encapsulation, event handling, HTTP, memory management, MVC, object-oriented design, and user experience. Languages include HTML5, JavaScript, Objective-C, and PHP. Projects include mobile web apps and native iOS apps.
- Computer Science E1: Understanding Computers and the Internet – This course is all about understanding: understanding what’s going on inside your computer when you flip on the switch, why tech support has you constantly rebooting your computer, how everything you do on the Internet can be watched by others, and how your computer can become infected with a worm just by turning it on. In this course we demystify computers and the Internet, along with their jargon, so that students understand not only what they can do with each but also how it all works and why. Students leave this course armed with a new vocabulary and equipped for further exploration of computers and the Internet. Topics include hardware, software, the Internet, multimedia, security, website development, programming, and dotcoms. Through optional hands-on sections and workshops, local students have opportunities to dissect as well as upgrade a computer with additional hardware, search the Internet more effectively, build a wireless network, create digital images, eradicate spyware, and design webpages. Problem sets offer online students similar opportunities. This course is designed both for those with little, if any, computer experience and for those who use a computer every day.
- Computer Science E76: Building Mobile Applications – Today’s applications are increasingly mobile. Computers are no longer confined to desks and laps but instead live in our pockets and hands. This course teaches students how to build mobile apps for Android and iOS, two of today’s most popular platforms, and how to deploy them in Android Market and the App Store. Students learn how to write native apps for Android using Eclipse and the Android SDK, how to write native apps for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads using Xcode and the iOS SDK, and how to write web apps for both platforms.
Continue reading and take the courses here!
Happy coding! 😉
//Richard
#Microsoft #Surface prices released – $499
Microsoft has now released the price of the Surface RT model!
Now we’ll see how it will be received by the market. Will users buy it? Are corporations ready to adopt them as BYOD devices or will they now see a tablet that they could introduce more quickly as a part of the managed client services?
Microsoft Prices Surface Starting at $499 to Rival IPad
A lot of questions and we’ll see how it goes….
Will I buy one? Don’t think so…. Will U? But I guess that this is easier for IT to adopt as an “OK” device for different reasons I’ve heard even though I don’t necessarily agree. Stop managing the devices and the old way of thinking, manage and control the apps, data/info and IPR and ensure that you’re device independent!
//Richard
Enterprise mobility management options: MDM, MAM and MIM
The influx of mobile devices in the enterprise and the barrage of products to manage them has sparked debate over enterprise mobility management — specifically, whether IT admins focus on managing mobile devices, applications or information.
With more than 100 vendors in the enterprise mobility management market today, it’s a major challenge to cut through the noise and identify the best tools and techniques to enable viable, sustainable, cost-effective mobile IT strategies. Perhaps the biggest questions relate to the feature set required for successful mobile operations and how to deploy the right combination of products and services. But with so many new technologies and products appearing on the market, there’s a danger that functional overlap and complexity could quickly sink even the most well-intentioned and well-thought-out processes. Simplicity is the key to success, but as always, such simplicity is never realized on day one.
Continue reading here!
//Richard
HTML5 or Native for Mobile Apps? Try hybrid
Another interesting blog post from The HTML5 Center with some statistics from developers around their plans to adopt HTML5 for mobile apps.
HTML5 or Native for Mobile Apps? Try hybrid
What is your strategy? I guess that it’s HTML5 all the way so that you don’t have to make X number of builds for the various Android devices out there etc, but will the app perform as expected and will you be able to access all the features needed on the device, or will you revert to an hybrid or native approach like Facebook did?
//Richard
Mobile Application Management (MAM) = Complete Mobile Workplace?
Ok, so I’ve been looking at some of the players out there that say they have a “MAM” product and everybody seem so hooked on talking about MAM and how that’s gonna solve all the needs of a Mobile Workplace… and to be totally frank I think that people tend to run to fast with new cool and hip buzz-words or solutions.
To start of with, what is the definition of a MAM system? This is a pretty good summary I’d say that I stole from WikiPedia;
“Mobile Application Management (MAM) describes software and services that accelerate and simplify the creation of internally developed or “in-house” enterprise mobile applications. It also describes the deployment and management of in-house and commercially available mobile apps used in business settings on both company-provided and “bring your own” smartphones and tablet computers.
Mobile application management has also been defined as “the strategy and process around developing/procuring, securing, deploying, accessing, configuring, updating and removing (business) applications from mobile devices used by the employees. To read more at wikipedia click here…”
And does a solution like this provide all the capabilities for businesses today for a complete Mobile Workplace?
Web Interface 5.4 vs. StoreFront 1.2 – What has changed since last comparison?
Hi all,
Ok, let’s start this post by thanking Thomas Koetzing for his newly updated post! Thx a lot man and keep up the great work!
Thomas has summarized most of the features that Web Interface 5.4 offers and how StoreFront matches that, it’s a really good table and one that all of you architects out there shall review and plan accordingly. What are you using today and what are the needs going forward, then once you have your business needs and requirements you have your wanted position and it’s just to make a roadmap of how your service gets there, or not if features are missing, then call Citrix!! 😉
I think that Thomas’s summary is good, one thing to consider though that I really urge you to think of is if you’re planning to use multiple access points around the world for an enterprise. How would this work? What if you have one in Europe, APAC and Americas? You would probably have a couple of NetScalers with AGEE and use GSLB to nicelly provide a simple URL for everyone and network proximity or so to direct the users to the closest entry point. But that regional NetScaler would most likely have its own set of StoreFront servers including a pair of AppControllers to ensure that you don’t have a single point of failure in terms of your internal WAN to get to another regional StoreFront/AppController setup from the local NetScaler AGEE? And if you then think like me; how are you going to do this?
The StoreFront server is relying on the DB for the subscriptions that the end-users have done in terms of selection apps etc for his “workspace”, and the same is with the AppController! There is no “supported” way today that I’ve found where you can synchronize two or multiple sets of HA-pairs of StoreFront or AppControllers so that no matter where the end-user is logging on he/she doesn’t get the same set of subscriptions (apps, desktops, SaaS, etc.) and neither his/her SSO credentials if AppController is used. And just imagine how it would be if you integrate and use the federation of SaaS applications on all locations and an end-user is logging in and subscribing from multiple AppControllers agains for instance Salesforce, and how would you do the overall enterprise reporting? This is the enterprise feature I’m missing and I’m hoping that we could see some solution to this fairly soon!
And it’s now you should start evaluating StoreFront, this is key to understand what it offers now so you know where you are compared to your As-Is architecture with Web Interface and map that to your wanted position going forward!
But a part from that I must say that Thomas did a great job in his comparison and read more about it in detail here!
//Richard
Receiver for Win8 – Requires Storefront and Access Gateway Enterprise
And all of a sudden we have a new week with new opportunities! 🙂
One interesting news is that the Preview of the Receiver for Windows 8 (WinRT) is out! I’ll try it out ASAP but one thing that many has noticed is the requirement that it has in terms of Storefront, and if you want to secure your connection then Access Gateway (Enterprise Edition) is needed! I wonder how this will be received amongst all of you out there if that requirement will be there when it’s released…
I guess that Citrix has some work to do in terms of adding all Web Interface features into StoreFront ASAP otherwise I think that many will be quite upset.
This release of Receiver for Windows 8 (WinRT) provides:
- Application and desktop virtualization
- Deployment through the Microsoft App Store
- Self-service account management and favorites
- Supported on Intel-based (32- and 64-bit) and ARM architectures
- Native Metro design
- Native gesture support
- Support for Storefront Services including follow me applications
- Support for Access Gateway Enterprise Edition
- In-session clipboard support
- In-session network printing
Citrix release blog of the preview version:
“You’ll need the Windows 8 RTM (release to manufacturing) version on your device. You’ll also need CloudGateway Express ( Storefront Services ) for desktop and applications access and a properly-configured Access Gateway (Enterprise Edition) for remote access.”
For more info see the edocs documentation here!
Have a great week!
//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
The IT Melting Pot! 