Archive
Microsoft is progressing quickly! – SkyDrive Pro updated to 25GB and improved sharing – via @BasvanKaam
I must say this once again, Microsoft looks to be on the right track when it comes to getting back as one strong supplier of services in the future/present “BYOD” world. As I wrote in my post #Microsoft – On the right track! – #Windows, #BYOD, #Citrix now Microsoft is actually targeting to solve many of the gaps that we see with today services for BYOx scenarios. For instance how to manage what you want on top of the device (Azure, Intune, SkyDrive, Work Folders etc…) in a controllable fashion and not a full managed device that costs you a fortune to manage… and ShareFile, Box and others are great solutions that have many features that SkyDrive doesn’t have. But there is one thing that they all lack (or please enlighten me!!):
Encryption at rest on Windows, OS X and Linux OS’s/distributions, here all providers are leaning on that you already have hard drive encryption like BitLocker etc. But who manages that then? Can you then say that your service is “BYOD-compliant”? I wouldn’t say so… It’s not only SmartPhones and Tablet devices that we loose… but here Microsoft and SkyDrive may be the first to come with encryption on at least Windows 8.1 devices and somewhat manageable…
But again back to the announcement from Microsoft and SkyDrive:
Microsoft announced today that it is giving business users more storage space and a better way to share files across multiple devices. As first reported by TechCrunch, through its SkyDrive Pro accounts, employees will now receive 25GB of storage to start out with, a sharp increase from 7GB — and even this capacity can be increased to 50GB or even 100GB. Additionally, using SkyDrive’s Shared with Me view, users can share files with their friends and co-workers securely and in real-time.
According to Microsoft Senior Product Managers Mark Kashman and Tejas Mehta, the new storage space limits will be available for both new and existing customers.
This certainly makes the service standout among its competitors, namely Dropbox and Box. It was only about a week or so ago when the latter heralded in the launch of a new pricing plan aiming to increase the number of small businesses using its service. For personal users, Box also wound up doubling the amount of free storage they received.
Here’s how you can figure out the overall storage for each user:
With Office 365, you get 25 GB of SkyDrive Pro storage + 25 GB of email storage + 5 GB for each site mailbox you create + your total available tenant storage, which for every Office 365 business customer starts at 10 GB + (500 MB x # of user(s)1).
While Dropbox, Box, and Hightail certainly are some of the popular services out there today, SkyDrive isn’t something to be trifled with either. Through its integration with the Surface, Windows Phone, and other Microsoft products, along with iOS and Android devices, it has the potential to be a very powerful service.
As for the new sharing feature, just like you would perhaps see in Google Drive or any other cloud storage service, SkyDrive Pro is now offering a Shared with Me view that lets you take a shared document and view, edit, re-share, download, and more — all as if it were in your own storage bin.
But Microsoft isn’t stopping there, as it is adding several minor, but interesting enhancements to SkyDrive. The company has also increased the overall file upload limit to its SharePoint Online service to 2GB per file. Files placed into the recycle bin will now remain…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
A look at Work Folders – #Microsoft, #WorkFolders, #MIM, #BYOD – via @STEALTHPUPPY
This is an interesting new feature by Microsoft. I’ve touched upon the topic in my earlier post: #Microsoft – On the right track! – #Windows, #BYOD, #Citrix
And here you have another good blog post from Aaron Parker around the topic!
Microsoft announced some interesting new features in Windows Server 2012 R2 at TechEd 2013 and one of those that piqued my interest is Work Folders. I’m not the biggest fan of Redirected Folders and Offline files, but it’s essentially the only enterprise solution Microsoft provides today for taking your data offline. Microsoft needs to provide a completely new method of syncing file data – one that is designed for todays use cases and computing environment.
Work Folders is a brand new direction for enabling access to data in offline scenarios, along the lines of Citrix ShareFile and Dropbox, but without the web and sharing features. Like most Microsoft OS features, Work Folders is tied to a specific release of Windows; however according to this Channel 9 video, Microsoft will release Work Folders for Windows 7, iOS and “other devices” (presumably Android). This is excellent news.
Here’s a short look at setting up and connecting to Work Folders using the preview releases of Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows 8.1 – what’s version 1.0 going to deliver?
Server Configuration
For a more detailed walkthrough on deploying Work Folders, download this document: Windows Server 2012 R2: Enabling Windows Server Work Folders.
Work Folders is a component of the File and Storage Services role in Windows Server. I’ve installed Windows Server 2012 R2 into a virtual machine and am using local storage.
Once installed, Work Folders is managed through Server Manager:
Creating a new sync share is performed via a wizard which will first ask where the Sync Share will be located. This can be a new folder or an existing share – mixing user home drives and Work Folders should be possible. Note that at this time, Work Folders only supports providing users with exclusive access to Sync Share location – there is no provision for providing access to shared data. Read more…
#Microsoft – On the right track! – #Windows, #BYOD, #Citrix
I don’t know if you all agree but I find that Microsoft is making some really good strategic decisions to align themselves and be ready for the “next generation” workplace and client services. Everyone has been talking about BYOx and that everyone will bring their own device and consume business services and functions on that device in parallel to doing personal stuff.
But has BYOD taken off yet?
I personally think that it hasn’t to the extent that many thought it would, there are some companies in some countries that have adopted it for some use cases and user categories, but the majority is still struggling with it though their business apps and functions aren’t really there to support this way of working yet.
Even if they have a NetScaler or similar remote access capabilities with some sort of Desktop and App virtualization (like Citrix XenDesktop) to run the apps it’s still not enough. How do you solve the offline working scenario? And isn’t hosted apps and desktops just a legacy workaround until those business processes have been SaaS’ified? And what about “dropbox” alternatives, H: drives and G: drives, Sharepoint data etc. There is still a user data mess (read my earlier post on this) that needs to be solved and especially a “mega aggregator” tool for getting data/content and synch across devices in a secure manner (data also encrypted at rest on ALL devices and not just mobiles)…
Microsoft is kind of stepping up here I must say from a strategy point of view that makes me believe in them, even though I’ve said that no one ever will take my MacBook Air from me! Have a look at the features that are coming with Windows 8.1 to support a more “semi-controlled” or “semi-trusted” device, and the new cloud services like Azure AD, Windows Intunes offerings in combination with the online messaging and collaboration Office 365 services. And they are apparently also working on a “legacy” cloud service to offer desktops as a service (DaaS) as I wrote in a previous blog post as well.
I think that Microsoft is moving in the right direction towards offering the next generation enterprise IT services and to support the new way of working, and fast!
Have a look at these posts/articles on the news in Windows 8.1:
Everything you need, right from (the) Start
Microsoft is focused on delivering one experience across all the devices in your life. The centerpiece of that strategy and experience are the Microsoft services and apps that come right from (the) Start on your new Windows device.
This is the first blog post in a series that will highlight the apps and services driving toward this “one experience” vision. This experience comes to life through more than 20 new and improved Microsoft apps and services that come as part of Windows 8.1, including a new one that we are announcing today – Skype, right from (the) Start!
It’s where you want to go today….
Top 10 #CitrixSynergy sessions…watch them today!
Have a look at the 10 most popular Citrix synergy sessions! They are now uploaded and ready for you to see:
- SYN501: Geek Speak Tonight! (Desktop Virtualization panel) & SYN501 (Mobility panel)
- SYN415: Advanced best practices for migrating from Web Interface to StoreFront
- SYN321: Next-generation desktop and app delivery with XenDesktop 7, Microsoft System Center 2012
- SYN334: What’s new in XenDesktop and XenApp Platinum
- SYN320: XenDesktop 7: what you should know about FlexCast management architecture and XenApp migration
- SYN299: One Step Beyond – An audience with the Citrix CTO’s
- SYN322: XenDesktop 7: reinventing HDX for mobile, 3D graphics and beyond
- SYN222: Architecting a global XenApp farm with regional users using NetScaler and StoreFront
- SYN404: Introducing the Citrix Diagnostic Toolkit
- SYN206: What’s new in ShareFile Enterprise
Continue reading here!
//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 #XenMobile #MDM Integration With #Cisco ISE for #BYOD
Interesting and a good blog post by Sameer Mehta.
World of BYOD
Bring your own device (BYOD) initiatives are enabling employees to bring their own personal devices to work and allowing them corporate access to services such as Email. We did a recent audit using our ability to integrate with security incident and event management (SIEM) systems for a customer. The audit provided visibility into their ActiveSync traffic and found devices that belonged to executives that were not under IT management. Here’s a snapshot of their BYO devices.
There are several reasons to enable such access – for example, to boost employee productivity or convenience of accessing email from any device. Having said that, as Uncle Ben puts it, “with great power comes great responsibility”, and this responsibility is on the IT administrator from a security point of view. It’s IT’s responsibility to make sure that corporate data is not compromised or leaked in the following scenarios:
- What happens when this personal device is lost or stolen?
- What happens if this device is jailbroken or rooted?
- What happens if this device ends up outside an approved geofence. For example, outside of the US?
- What happens if the user inadvertently installs an application that has the ability and access to the entire device memory, thereby having unauthorized access to corporate data?
End User’s perspective on Enterprise Mobility
End users want access to corporate services such as email, intranet, ability to share and collaborate over documents, and also use 3rd party applications such as Evernote, Quick Office or GoodReader. With mobile solutions such as XenMobile MDM, CloudGateway, ShareFile and GoToAssist, Citrix provides ubiquity i.e. ‘access any app. from any device’, and a unified view for applications with an enterprise app store, documents via ShareFile. Having said that, since the user is accessing multiple applications; end user experience is a key component of mobility solutions. For example, bootstrap authentication and provide single sign on (SSO) to other applications.
Enterprise IT perspective on BYOD
As IT is providing access to corporate services, the main concern is around data loss prevention (DLP) and protecting corporate content on the mobile device. This means, encrypting data at rest for application data, and documents that are hosted either on Sharepoint, Network File share or Cloud storage. From a DLP perspective, for security conscious organizations, the mobile solutions bundle, which includes XenMobile MDM and CloudGateway…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#Citrix Nails Its Enterprise Mobility Strategy – #XenMobile, #BYOD – via @ekhnaser
Read this great article and see if you agree! 😉
Citrix Nails Its Enterprise Mobility Strategy
I have been very pleased with the strategy, execution and the road map that Citrix has developed around Enterprise Mobility. With the announcement of XenMobile MDM and the Mobile Solutions bundle, I can very easily say that the Citrix solution is the most complete and feature-rich offering on the market today.
XenMobile MDM is simply a name change for Zenprise, which Citrix acquired a few months earlier. I expected Citrix to simply change the “Z” to “X” and keep the name, but I guess Citrix marketing did not find that as amusing. That is not the only change that occurred: A new version of “Zenprise” also accompanies this release, and XenMobile MDM now brings it to version 8.0.1.
Many customers and colleagues have asked me why Citrix acquired an MDM provider — what are the value-adds and isn’t the world moving towards MAM anyway? To answer, we have to make a clear distinction between the use cases. I agree and concur that for BYOD initiatives, MAM is a better, cleaner way of doing this things and that MDM is not the ideal solution.
That being said, there are plenty of use cases where MDM is the only solution that makes sense and I will give you real-world examples. Have you heard of the “Belly” card? It is a customer recognition and rewards program from a company HQ’ed in Chicago that offers merchants a locked down iPad for display in their place of business. Customers can come in and scan their mobile phones on the iPad provided and after a certain number of check-ins they are offered a reward for their loyalty. In this case, belly would have very little use for MAM; they need an MDM solution to manage the thousands of iPads they have deployed.
Another example: United Airlines and American Airlines allow customers to use mobile devices in the cabin to purchase goods in-flight. Obviously, the airlines don’t want the flight attendants to use their own device for this, MDM shines again here.
Finally, what about financial institutions that want to continue to issue corporate-managed devices of different flavors? It’d be for security reasons, obviously. In this case, MDM shines.
When I see bloggers and analysts disqualify MDM, they are not thinking beyond BYOD, where the business world could have a use case built around an application they issue on a mobile device.
Did Citrix strike gold with its acquisition of Zenprise? I will say this much: It was one of the best acquisitions the company has ever made. The natural follow-up question is, what about CloudGateway? And my answer is, it is the glue that holds everything together and is the most important product in the Citrix solution today. Everything will go through CloudGateway moving forward and at version 2.5 has the following features:
- Enterprise app store with identity management capabilities for a single sign-on like experience
- Windows Applications and Desktops through XenApp and XenDesktop
- Mobile applications integration, provisioning, etc.
- SaaS applications integration, provisioning, etc
- Integration with Citrix ShareFile for enterprise DropBox functionality
CloudGateway also has a connector for Citrix Podio, and here I’ll be critical of Citrix the same way I’m critical of VMware for not integrating SocialCast. Why Citrix doesn’t make Podio…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
#Citrix #BYOD Architecture overview – #XenMobile, #Mobility
I must say that this blog post is of course Citrix “twisted”, but I really like it! And it shows how Citrix provides a pretty complete offering in order to deliver Mobility- and BYO-compliant services.
The Citrix blog written by Christopher Campbell makes sense and I also agree that a picture is worth a thousand words! 🙂
I’m going to make this real easy and simple. As my grandfather would say “A picture is worth a thousand words”.
If you’re a XenDesktop or XenApp customer this is what your environment probably looks like.
Now this is what you need to enable BYOD and add that MAM, MDM, MIM (Data) and overall EMM functionality you’re looking for.
This is what your environment looks like after you enable BYOD.
Didn’t get that? OK, here is what BYOD looks like with multiple vendors.
Now, here is what BYOD looks like with Citrix.
Got it?
Read the whole blog post here!
//Richard
#Citrix #AppController 2.6 released as part of #MobileSolutions #Bundle #BYOD
As a part of the Mobile Solutions Bundle that now is available on MyCitrix you can find a new version of AppController.
AppController 2.6 supports the following new features:
- Certificate support. When you configure AppController for the first time in the web-based management console, you can add or create certificates on the Active Directory settings page.
- Microsoft Hyper-V support. You can install the AppController 2.6 virtual machine on Windows Server 2012 with Hyper-V enabled or on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012.
- Migration support to AppController 2.6. You can upgrade to AppController 2.6 from AppController 2.0 or from AppController 2.5.
- Mobile store support. You can upload mobile apps from the Apple App Store or Google Play to AppController. You can use the Citrix App Preparation Tool to wrap iOS and Android apps from the Apple App Store or Google Play. When you wrap the app, you can secure access and enforce policies. When you upload the app to AppController, you can configure the policies. You can also upload an app from the App Store or Google Play to AppController without using the App Preparation Tool.
- Secure connections to Active Directory. You can configure secure connections to Active Directory when you configure AppController 2.6 for the first time.
- ShareFile updates. In previous AppController versions, when you configured ShareFile, the domain sharefile.com was automatically appended to the domain name. In this release, the domain sharefile.com does not automatically append to the ShareFile domain name. You must enter the entire ShareFile domain name.
- Support for mobile links. You can configure mobile links to retrieve the name and description of apps automatically from the Apple App Store. For apps available through the Google Play Store, you enter the name, description and URL of the app. When you configure mobile links, links appear in Receiver with the Play Store or App Store name.
- Web proxy user name format. When you configure the web proxy, you can use either the SAMAccount format or the User Principal Name (UPN) as the user name.
Read more about it here!
//Richard
#XenMobile, #MobileSolutions – Is this what we’ve been waiting for? – #Citrix, #ZenPrise, #BYOD
Ok, so Citrix has now presented their new offering after merging Zenprise into their product portfolio. And is this what you have been waiting for?
My personal answer to that is probably yes, now you have all the capabilities (almost) out there to get your BYOx program/strategy and architecture in place or if you just want to add additional capabilities to your existing service offerings.
I must say though that the packaging is compelling and VERY interesting!
Citrix Mobile Solutions Bundle
The Citrix Mobile Solutions Bundle, which is comprised of XenMobile MDMand CloudGateway, offers a complete enterprise mobility management solution that enables IT to manage and secure devices, apps, and data.
XenMobile MDM Edition
XenMobile MDM Edition offers market leading mobile device management capabilities that deliver role-based management, configuration and security of corporate and employee-owned devices.
What I’d like to see is a roadmap where Citrix becomes an even more complete provider of technology in the Mobility segment. I still believe that Mobility is not only about smartphones and tablets and all the apps that you shall deliver to those devices and non-managed and non-corporate owned devices. There is still a need to provide device management of corporate assets that are not smartphones and tablets! And why should you have to implement another device management service/product for those.
So please Citrix = add Windows 7/8, OS X and Linux device capabilities as well in your almost complete Enterprise Mobile Management offering!
The offering is of course also today an early release where the former Zenprise product and CloudGateway is provided under the same marketing and price bundle but I’m waiting for when we have one (1) enterprise app store! And all capabilities from one technical architecture and product that you enable each capability on a need basis and are licensed accordingly.
But this is a great step for Citrix and I must say that I’m looking forward to see where this is going, I mean the feature set is pretty awesome!
Compare Features |
XenMobile MDM Edition |
Mobile Solutions Bundle |
| Enterprise MDM | ||
| Device management |  |
|
| Configure policies | |
|
| Security and compliance | |
|
| Scalability and high-availability | |
|
| Ease of administration | |
|
| Provisioning and self-service enrollment | |
|
| Enterprise integration | |
|
| Monitor and support | |
|
| Decommission devices | |
|
| Secure email, browser and data sharing apps | ||
| @WorkMail | |
|
| Email attachment encryption | |
|
| @WorkWeb | |
|
| ShareFile integration | |
|
| Microsoft SharePoint integration | |
|
| Mobile app containers | ||
| Mobile application management | |
|
| MDX Vault | |
|
| MDX Interapp | |
|
| MDX Access | |
|
| App wrapping | |
|
| Unified app store | ||
| Enterprise app store | |
|
| Follow-me apps | |
|
| Identity management, single sign-on and scenario-based access control | ||
| Active Directory integration | |
|
| Instant application and data provisioning | |
|
| Single sign-on to apps and data | |
|
| App requests | |
|
| Instant application and data de-provisioning | |
|
| Strong authentication | |
|
| Secure remote access | |
|
| Policy enforcement | |
|
More information about the technologies have also been added to eDocs!
Of course also made their competition table:
Compare the Mobile Solutions Bundle to other enterprise mobility solutions
These are exciting times and I’m looking forward to play around with the whole bundle!
Read more about XenMobile/Mobile Solutions here!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 