It is hard to come up with a topic to write about when it comes to the Nutanix product portfolio. For one, there is just too much to choose from. I mean, just have a look at the list of features they introduced with the release of AOS 5.0 and it will get your head spinning. Secondly, their own documentation is just outstanding. Their product fact-sheets, website and of course Steven Poitras’s The Nutanix Bible, which contains just about everything you might want to about Nutanix and the bits and bytes involved. Never mind the endless list of community (Blog) rock stars working for or surrounding the company.
Two factor (SMS) authentication — done right with SMSPassword!
I have always been a fan of two factor authentication, or 2FA in short. Almost all companies and customers I have worked for and with used it in some shape or form. Especially SMS based 2FA — from an administrative perspective it is easy to set up, configure and maintain (if it isn’t you might want to consider switching vendors) and next to that it is also extremely user friendly and secure, when properly implemented that is. And of course, there is no need for any additional (expensive) third party tokens.
SURVEY (pre) announcement. The state of public cloud services – the 2016 community edition
Earlier this month I published a post named ’13 reasons that might prevent companies from successfully leveraging public cloud services’. Again, this post wasn’t meant to negatively position the cloud, not at all. I just wanted to point out some possible downsides and highlight a couple of, potentially important factors that need to be taken into consideration when ‘the cloud’ comes into play. With this in mind I thought it might be useful to put together a survey specifically aimed at public cloud computing services – consider this post a warm-up.
13 reasons that MIGHT prevent companies from successfully leveraging public cloud services
Cloud computing seems to be the holy grail, at least that is the impression I get when I scroll down my Linked-in and Twitter timelines. Don’t get me wrong, like everybody else I’m also excited about everything that is going on around ‘the cloud’ and the potential it brings to the table, never mind the type of public cloud service used. I mean, no upfront investments, flexibility, burst capacity (up and downscaling) at our fingertips, ease of management and maintenance and so on, what’s not to like? But, ‘the cloud’ is also just getting started, it isn’t ‘mature’ and/or seen as proven technology by many – there are still a bunch of reasons why companies might wait to leverage (public) cloud computing in general, go hybrid or perhaps won’t join the cloud movement at all, at least not for the first couple of years. I just wanted to put this out there and see what you guys think.
The ultimate Citrix printing internals cheat sheet! BIG Takeaway list included!
In this article (part two) I’d like to focus on the Citrix printing pathways, how they differ and when one or the other will, or can be used. I’ll also highlight the universal print driver, server and printer together with a whole bunch of CTX defaults, best practices including some of the most common troubleshooting tools and a BIG list of takeaways. However, knowing what happens after a user hits print and how traffic flows throughout our infrastructure is probably the best place to start. I have also included a BIG list of takeaways, which is available as a separate download as well.
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.
HP Moonshot revisited. Well… by me anyway
Average time to read: 12 minutesDuring the last year or so I have had my eye on the HP Moonshot platform. I followed what other community members had to say about it, how HP marketed the product and of course the announced partnership between HP and Citrix, introducing the Workspace Pod series at Summit not that long ago. I was rather skeptic, and I guess I still am. On the other hand, I also acknowledge that times are changing and that, if the use case fits, HP Moonshot might be a valuable solution, it just depends.
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.
Troubleshooting Citrix XenDesktop & XenApp 7.x ? Read this !
Average time to read: 15 minutesWhen I was thinking about what to write next I thought it might be a good idea to use something ‘from the field’, an issue that I’ve been involved in personally during the past two weeks or so. Then I figured, why just discuss one specific use case when there is so much more to tell. So I won’t, instead I’ll focus on troubleshooting in general and use my ‘real world’ example as a reference throughout this article.