Archive
Microsoft Intune May updates – #Intunes, #EMM, #MDM, #Mobility, #EnvokeIT
Thsi week Microsoft is going to roll out some new updates like Android Wrapping Tool and new features for iOS, Android and Windows Phone to Microsoft Intunes.
We are excited to share with you the next set of Intune features that will be released between May 19 and May 26. With our monthly release cadence, we continue to focus on providing you with best-in-class experiences that help keep your users productive while protecting your company’s sensitive data. You can expect to see the following new Intune standalone (cloud only) features in this release:
- Ability to extend application protection to your existing line-of-business apps using the Intune App Wrapping Tool for Android (Intune App Wrapping Tool for iOS made available in December 2014)
- Ability to assign help desk permissions to Intune admins, filtering their view of the Intune admin console to only provide access to perform remote tasks (e.g. passcode reset and remote lock)
- RSS feed notification option added for Intune admin to subscribe to be alerted when new Intune service notifications are available for their service instance
- Improved end user experience in the Intune Company Portal app for iOS with step-by-step guidance added on how to access corporate email by enrolling for management and validating device compliance
- Updated Intune Company Portal app for Windows Phone 8.1 to provide enhanced status notifications for app installations
- New custom policy template for managing new Windows 10 features using OMA-URI
- New per-platform mobile device security policy templates for Android, iOS, Windows, and Windows Phone, in addition to new Exchange ActiveSync policy template
- Ability to deploy Google Play store apps that are required/mandatory to install on Android devices
Also, as announced last week, several new hybrid features are now…
Contact us at EnvokeIT if you like assistance with Intunes or continue reading the blog post here.
//Richard
#XenDesktop 7.1 Service Template Tech Preview for System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager – #SCVMM
This is interesting! Really good and can’t wait to try it out!
Introduction
Let’s face it, installing distributed, enterprise-class virtual desktop and server based computing infrastructure is time consuming and complex. The infrastructure consists of many components that are installed on individual servers and then configured to work together. Traditionally this has largely been a manual, error prone process.
The Citrix XenDesktop 7.1 Service Template for System Center 2012 Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM) leverages the rich automation capabilities available in Microsoft’s private cloud offering to significantly streamline and simplify the installation experience. The XenDesktop 7.1 Service Template enables rapid deployment of virtual app and desktop infrastructure on Microsoft System Center 2012 private clouds. This Tech Preview is available now and includes the latest 7.1 version of XenDesktop that supports Windows Server 2012 R2 and System Center 2012 R2 Virtual Machine Manager.
Key Benefits:
- Rapid Deployment – A fully configured XenDesktop 7.1 deployment that adheres to Citrix best practices is automatically installed in about an hour; a manual installation can take a day or more.
- Reduction of human errors and the unwanted consequences – IT administrators answer 9 questions about the XenDesktop deployment, including the VM Network to use, the domain to join, the SQL server used to host the database, the SCVMM server to host the desktops, and the administrative service accounts to connect to each of these resources. Once this information is entered, the Service Template automation installs the XenDesktop infrastructure the same way, every time, ensuring consistency and correctness.
- Reduction in cost of IT Operations – XenDesktop infrastructure consistently configured with automation is less costly to support because the configuration adheres to best practice standards.
- Free highly skilled and knowledgeable staff from repeatable and mundane tasks – A Citrix administrator’s time is better spent focused on ensuring that users get access to the applications they need, rather than lengthy production installation tasks.
- Simplified Eval to Retail Conversion – Windows Server 2012 and later, as well as XenDesktop 7.1, support conversion of evaluation product keys to retail keys. This means that a successful POC deployment of the XenDesktop 7.1 Service Template is easily converted to a fully supported and properly configured production deployment.
- Easy Scale-Out for greater capacity – SCVMM Service Templates support a scale-out model to increase user capacity. For example, as user demand increases additional XenDesktop Controllers and StoreFront servers are easily added with a few clicks and are automatically joined to the XenDesktop site.
The XenDesktop Service Templates were developed and tested with the support of our friends and partners at Dell, who, in support of the release of XenDesktop 7.1 and the Service Template technical preview, are expected to launch new and innovative solutions that include these and other automation capabilities this quarter. These solutions are based on the Dell DVS Enterprise for Citrix XenDesktop solutions.
Simplification of Distributed Deployments
The XenDesktop 7.1 in-box installation wizard is a fantastic user experience that automatically installs all the required prerequisites and XenDesktop components in under 30 minutes. The result is a fully installed XenDesktop deployment, all on a single server, that is excellent for POCs and product evaluations. The installation and configuration challenges occur when you want to install XenDesktop in production, with enterprise-class scalability, distributed across multiple servers.
Manual Installation Steps
New v3 #AWS CloudFormation Template for #XenApp with support for #NetScaler and #StoreFront
Great info and post from Peter Bats!
Since Paul Wilson and myself first introduced a CloudFormation template in the blog “Jumpstarting your XenDesktop Farm in AWS with a CloudFormation Template,” we’ve added support for multiple Regions and Availability Zones in a v2 version of this CloudFormation template in the blog “Announcing the Multi-Region AWS CloudFormation Template for XenDesktop”.
We are now announcing the third version of our AWS CloudFormation template which adds the new Asia Pacific Sydney region and support for StoreFront and NetScaler Access Gateway Enterprise. This release makes use of the NetScaler VPX instances available via AWS MarketPlace, and replaces Web Interface with StoreFront to be able to support all the advanced features of our latest Citrix Receivers.
Version 3 of the CloudFormation JSON template can be downloaded from here.
We’ve also made a video available for you that walks you through the whole process on Citrix TV. Check it out here.
For detailed instructions on using the v3 CloudFormation template, download the setup guide here.
Using this new template, in only a couple of hours you’ve constructed a XenApp farm in your selected Region within the AWS cloud using Netscaler and StoreFront technology. You can use the farm for a number of purposes, including:
- Application Testing
- Business Continuity
- Proof-of-Concept
- Testing XenApp performance in the cloud
- Learning how to manage AWS resources
We welcome your…
Continue reading here!
//Richard
The IT Melting Pot! 