It has already been six months (a little over) since my last update, time for version 4.0 – a lot has happened in the meantime, as a result, you’ll see some noticeable changes. Not only from a feature/functionality perspective but from a vendor/company perspective as well. From now on I will be focusing on the big three: Citrix, with App Layering – former Unidesk, VMware App Volumes and Liquidware FlexApps.
Continue ReadingNutanix & Citrix… A match made in heaven. In 30 minutes we will tell you why!
Average time to read: 8 minutesThe title of our slide-deck, which we presented at the 7th Dutch Citrix User Group (DuCUG) over at Cisco Systems in Amsterdam (Friday the 25th of September). ‘We’ in this case are Kees Baggerman, Sr. Solutions Architect over at Nutanix, and myself. We talked about Nutanix in general, why XenApp and/or XenDesktop both perform so well on Nutanix, the Acropolis infrastructure, the Distributed Storage and App Mobility Fabric, and of course, last but not least, the Acropolis Hypervisor, the latest addition to the Citrix Certified portfolio. We also touched on some of the services and features already available today (fully supported of course) and briefly highlighted some features which will be available in one of the upcoming Acropolis releases. I also included our slide-deck.
What you need to know about Windows Server 2016 and containers going forward!
Average time to read: 4 minutesMicrosoft has just released Tech Preview 3 (TP3) of their Windows Server 2016 Operating System introducing local container support among some other goodies. In this short post I’d like to share with you some ‘nice to know’ facts with regards to Windows containerisation as it stands today and moving forward.
Sh*t just got real… The Nutanix Platform Expert Program!
Average time to read: 3 minutesLast week Nutanix launched their flagship certification program, the Nutanix Platform Expert. Let me start by pointing out that the NPX program is not ‘just’ another IT certification and that it’s not to be taken lightly by any means. It is set out to become, and I quote, the most rigorous technical qualification in enterprise computing. NPX candidates are expected to have a considerable amount of IT industry (hands-on) experience and to be expert technologists, consultants, and solution architects with portfolios of work reflecting this expertise, with a strong focus on hyper-converged architectures. And no, I’m not trying to scare you. Curious? Learn more about the Nutanix Platform Expert (NPX) program they’ll gladly provide you with everything you want or need to know.
Powered by Nutanix! Check out the new Dell hyper-converged XC series!
Average time to read: 4 minutes
Back in June, the 24th to be exact, Nutanix announced their global (OEM) agreement with Dell. Here’s what Nutanix had to say about it back then “This strategic Relationship Significantly Expands Access and Distribution of Nutanix Solutions with Dell’s World-Class Hardware, Services and Marketing” Today at Dell World they revealed the new Dell XC Series, Web-scale Converged Appliances equipped with Nutanix Software. The general availability date is set for next week at November the 11th.
VIAB and Windows Server 2012 R2’s Data Deduplication
Average time to read: 11 minutesThis article was originally written as a guest blogger for intense School IT educational services. Now I wouldn’t directly call this part three of my VDI series, although it’s probably not that far off. Rather think of it as the ‘hidden bonus track’ an extra addition if you will. During some of my previous articles I already talked about VDI, storage, IOPS and more. I also highlighted some of the newly introduced Windows Server 2012 R2 features offering us divers methods in building and managing our public and private cloud infrastructures including technologies like Domain join, Work Folders and a few more. For this article I’d like to combine two worlds and technologies; Citrix’s VDI-in-a-Box, yes, another way to do VDI, this might just be what you’ve been looking for all those years, and Microsoft’s Windows Server 2012 R2, focussing on (VDI) data deduplication in particular.
How to… Install and configure your Host Infrastructure
Average time to read: 6 minutes
Just a quick note I’d like to share with you all. During the setup of my XenDesktop 7 lab environment not to long ago I ran into an error (because I wasn’t paying attention) when configuring my Host Infrastructure, which, in my case is Microsoft’s Hyper-V. While were on the subject I’ll fisrt start by explaining and showing you the concept behind the Host Infrastructure which is often used in combination with either Machine Creation Services and or Citrix Provisioning Services. Of course, ‘normal’ provisioned virtual machines can be hosted on there as well.
VDI, storage and the IOPS that come with it. Part 1 & 2.
Average time to read: 17 minutesThis article was originally written as a guest blogger for intense School IT educational services. One of the topics I’d like to discuss throughout this article is VDI and some of the common issues we (might) run into when it comes to storage, IOPS and image management. At the same time I’d also like to point out some possibilities, or better said, technologies, we have at our disposal in addressing these issues and talk a bit more on IOPS, block vs file level storage and image management. During part one I’ll primarily focus on VDI in general, describing its use and some of the common pitfalls we might encounter with part two primarily focusing on some real world solutions.