Archive
Delivering #Citrix #XenApp on #Hyper-V with PVS and #McAfee – via @TonySanchez_CTX
Good Citrix blog post from Tony Sanchez!
Architectures—whether physical or virtual—should be flexible enough to adapt to different workloads, allowing them to support changing business needs. Although implementing a new IT architecture takes time and careful planning, the process to test and validate an architecture should be easy. In the case of a virtual desktop architecture, test engineers should be able to follow a repeatable pattern, step by step, simply changing out the workload to validate the architecture under different anticipated user densities, application workloads, and configuration assumptions. The procedure should be as easy as learning a new series of dance steps (think PSY’s Gangnam Style, the most watched dance video on YouTube). The point causes me as a test engineer to ask the question: in the case of VDI, why can’t a hypervisor simply learn a new workload just like I might learn a new sequence of dance steps?
Luckily for test engineers, Citrix FlexCast® provides the ability to learn and deliver any workload type by leveraging the power of the Citrix Provisioning Services® (PVS). Recently I worked with engineers from Citrix and Dell, collaborating to build a FlexCast reference architecture for deploying XenApp® and XenDesktop® on Hyper-V on a Dell infrastructure. Testing of this reference architecture looked at how XenApp and XenDesktop performed under various workloads, altering hypervisor configuration settings and examining the overall user experience and user densities. At the drop of dime, FlexCast and PVS enabled a simple switch of the architecture to a new workload.
Based on that reference architecture effort, we recently began a Single Server Scalability (SSS) test using the latest hardware and software releases available. This blog focuses on that effort — what I call the “XenApp dance step for FlexCast style” and how XenApp workloads perform on Hyper-V. (A follow-on blog article will focus on an alternate “dance” sequence for XenDesktop.) The focus of this blog is how the configuration of the McAfee virus scanning software can impact performance and scaling.
In previous blogs, I describe the testing process and methodology that leverages the Login VSI test harness, along with key tips for success. Since those same methods and recommendations apply here, let’s review the configurations we used for this scalability testing as well as the workloads and actual test results.
For background reading, I highly recommend that you review Frank Anderson’s post on XenApp physical versus virtual testing results with Hyper-V. Frank is my colleague and a great resource for insights about testing, including implementation tips and general best practices. In addition, the related Dell and Citrix white paper describing the FlexCast reference architecture for deploying XenApp and XenDesktop on Hyper-V is available here.
Continue reading here!
//Richard
Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms – #Gartner, #EPP via @rspruijt
Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms
VIEW SUMMARY
The endpoint protection platform provides a collection of security utilities to protect PCs and tablets. Vendors in this market compete on the quality of their protection capabilities, the depth and breadth of features, and the ease of administration.
Market Definition/Description
The enterprise endpoint protection platform (EPP) market is a composite market primarily made up of collections of products. These include:
- Anti-malware
- Anti-spyware
- Personal firewalls
- Host-based intrusion prevention
- Port and device control
- Full-disk and file encryption, also known as mobile data protection
- Endpoint data loss prevention (DLP)
- Vulnerability assessment
- Application control (see Note 1)
- Mobile device management (MDM)
These products and features are typically centrally managed and ideally integrated by shared policies.
DLP, MDM and vulnerability assessment are also evaluated in their own Magic Quadrant or MarketScope analyses. Longer term, portions of these markets will get subsumed by the EPP market, as the personal firewall, host intrusion prevention, device control and anti-spyware markets have in the past. EPP suites are a logical place for convergence of these functions. Indeed, 53% of organizations in a recent Gartner survey1 already use a single vendor for several of these functions, or are actively consolidating products. In particular, mobile data protection is the leading complement to EPP and purchasing decisions regarding the two products are increasingly made together. For most organizations, selecting a mobile data protection system from their incumbent EPP vendors will meet their requirements.
In 2012, the large enterprise EPP market is still dominated by Symantec, McAfee and Trend Micro, which together represent approximately 68% of the total revenue of Magic Quadrant participants. Sophos and Kaspersky Lab are the two other global leaders that are competitive across multiple functions and geographies, and push the combined Leaders quadrant market share to 85%. Despite the introduction of new players, the displacement of incumbents is still a significant challenge in the large enterprise market. The biggest impact of the Magic Quadrant Challengers and Visionaries is to push the dominant market players to invest in new features and functionality (sometimes via acquisitions) to stay ahead, and to keep pricing rational. In the less demanding small and midsize market, competition is more intense. A number of Niche Player solutions are dominant in specific regions.
The total EPP revenue of the Magic Quadrant participants at year-end 2011 was roughly $2.8 billion, up 4% from 2010. We attribute this growth primarily to increased buying of more-expensive suites, offset by lower prices for low-end malware-only solutions. Consequently, EPP revenue growth is more a result of an inflow of revenue from other markets. We anticipate that growth will continue to be in the low single digits in 2013.
Microsoft is the best vendor in a position to challenge the incumbent Leaders, primarily due to attractive pricing in its enterprise agreements. Approximately one-third of enterprise buyers1 indicate they are actively considering Microsoft or plan to do so during their next renewal periods. However, Microsoft’s slow development, the lack of a single unified security management interface and mediocre test results will temper its adoption. Longer term, we believe that increased displacement of Windows endpoints with application-controlled OSs (such as Microsoft WinRT and Apple’s iOS and OS X Mountain Lion) is the biggest market threat. These solutions shift the value proposition of EPP solutions from traditional anti-malware to MDM and data protection capabilities.
Magic Quadrant
Source: Gartner (January 2013)
Vendor Strengths and Cautions
Arkoon Network Security
Arkoon Network Security’s StormShield EPP solution (formerly offered by SkyRecon Systems) is designed as a seamless integrated EPP with a focus on behavioral protection. Arkoon’s Ability to Execute score is hampered by its relatively small market share and limited geographic presence, as well as its still-maturing management capabilities….
Continue reading here!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 