During Citrix Synergy a ton of new and exciting announcements were made. I wasn’t there to witness it myself but luckily, I was able to enjoy the Keynote (amongst other sessions and announcements) from a sunny and warm terrace (cold beers included) since the weather here in the Netherlands was some of the best we’ve seen in a long time. Of course, the 9-hour time difference also helped.
Focus on Citrix (or VMware, or Microsoft) – not printing!
I’ve always had a big interest in printing. It’s something I have written about and presented on extensively in the past. Throughout the years I have had my fair share of failure when it comes to printing in Citrix/RDSH/VDI based environments (who hasn’t?) so I decided to dig in a bit deeper. Not too long ago I got introduced to Tricerat, a very simple, yet effective and efficient solution when it comes to taking care of all things print related within Citrix environments, or any other type of environment, for that matter. Throughout this post I’d like to share with you how they simplify print management and let you, the IT Administrator, focus on Citrix – not printing!
The application layering technology cheat sheet, version 4.0!
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 ReadingThe IGEL UD Pocket. At only 3.3 grams, the world’s smallest and lightest thin client
Average time to read: 6 minutesBeing a member of various communities, the IGEL Tech Insider program, in this case, has its perks from time to time. Just recently I received the (USB) IGEL UD Pocket thin client (and ‘thin’ it is) for testing purposes. Don’t let its size fool you – it’s only 12.2 mm wide and 22.4 mm high, but comes with a ton of options. It is equipped with an 8 GB memory module.
The ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet – Version 2.0
Average time to read: 87 minutes
About two and a half years ago I published the ultimate Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet, version 1.0 and it turned out to be a big hit. In the meantime, it has been viewed over 80.000 times already. All the more reason to start working on version 2.0. Since I have been writing about Citrix technologies for the last couple of years I have built up a broad archive, which I can now partly (re) use and re-write to come up with an even more detailed edition, version 2.0 of the Citrix XenDesktop 7.x internals cheat sheet. I would strongly advice you to download a .PDF copy – If you like the blogpost, you’ll love the .PDF, trust me! It includes a full Table of Contents making it easier to navigate.
The one-stop shop for Citrix Smart Check – sneak peak of upcoming version included
Average time to read: 6 minutesIn the past I have written numerous times about Citrix Insight Services, or TaaS before that, which stands for Tools as a Service (don’t be confused, Insight Services was just another name change from TaaS). Smart Check builds upon these services and offers (at least) the same type of pro-active checks (equal to Insight Services) keeping your XenApp and/or XenDesktop Site healthy at all times. However, it is important to note that Smart Check is a completely new service on its own, part of the Smart Tools portfolio (formerly known as Citrix Lifecycle Management Services), which are a 100% Citrix cloud based, though they can be applied on-premises as well. This post is meant to provide you with all relevant information on Smart Check available today as well as any future developments going forward.
Going to Citrix Synergy? Don’t miss these CTP hosted sessions – complete overview
Average time to read: 8 minutesDuring Citrix Synergy, the CTP hosted sessions are among the highest rated, and with good reason. They are, almost without exception highly technical and will provide you with an unbiased view in every way possible. Below you will find an overview on all Synergy session presented by Citrix CTP’s, or Citrix Technology Professionals in full. Note that I’m not saying other sessions are less interesting or of a lower quality, not at all. It’s just that being a CTP myself I’d like to advertise the program (and its members) from time to time, that’s all really.
For your convenience – 100+ Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop FMA facts listed!
Average time to read: 15 minutesI like, no wait, I love lists… there, I’ve said it. But no, really, I think (bulleted) lists are one of the best ways to share facts and knowledge. That’s also why I used multiple lists in my book, dozens of them containing hundreds of bulleted (FMA) facts. Throughout the various chapters I highlight multiple so-called ‘FMA facts’, 116 in total to be exact and I conclude each chapter with a list of key takeaways. This post is meant to share with you most of the FMA Facts that I came up while writing The FlexCast Management Architecture, though I did slightly alter quite a few of them.
The application layering technology cheat sheet, version 3.0!
Average time to read: 2 minutesThroughout the past year and a half I have had some very positive feedback on the application layering cheat sheet, needles to say that I will continue to update the sheet going forward. Currently I am up to version 3.0 already. The main goal is to highlight some of the most important features and capabilities of each product and changes/additions when compared to the previous cheat sheet, version 2.0 in this case, though I will never be able to include all changes, features, and so on of every product. As such, this is by no means meant as an exclusive list.
In detail — VMware’s Blast Extreme protocol
Average time to read: 6 minutesIf you are using VMware Horizon/View for VDI, publishing applications and/or Hosted Shared Desktops you have the choice between three protocols: PCoIP, RDP and Blast Extreme, with RDP basically being the fallback protocol when all else fails. Here it’s important to note that Blast has been around for some time in the form of a HTML5 client used through HMTL5 compatible web browsers — available as of VMware Horizon View 5.2 Feature Pack 1. It is the ‘Extreme’ part that is (still relatively) new.