Windows Server 2003 is dominant today in Citrix XenApp environments. In fact we are currently at the peak (or nearly so) for a W2k3 installed base for Windows servers in general. As our customers look forward they will be faced with some potentially thorny issues when moving to Windows Server 2008. The main question is whether to go to the first W2k8 release (I will call it "R1" for the sake of simplicity) which includes both 32-bit and 64-bit versions or to skip R1 entirely and go with the recently released R2 which only supports 64-bit.

Based on several discussions we have had with partners and customers there seems to be a continuum of opinions. On the one extreme we hear folks saying that they will stick with 32-bit until it is ripped away from their cold, dead hands. These are among the more conservative who fear the expense and churn of having to validate all of their thousands of 32-bit applications on a 64-bit environment. They have told us they will stay on W2k3 until extended support is complete and then probably go to R1 and milk that for all it's worth to avoid the inevitable. That would mean sticking with a 32-bit OS until possibly 2018 (should we all be retired by then?) going by the Microsoft Lifecycle table for Windows Server 2008! On the other extreme are a few bleeding edge types who have decided to skip R1 and go directly to R2 and bite the 64-bit bullet at the same time as they migrate their environment from W2k3 to the newer OS. In between are those who will move cautiously if begrudgingly over time to the new OS version to avoid falling into the extended maintenance window.

One of the main concerns is, of course, that R2 is 64-bit only. While Microsoft has been stating for some time that Windows on Windows 64 (WoW64) will solve the problems associated with running 32-bit apps on x64 platforms, many customers are still worried about 32-bit apps with 16-bit installers and the ever-present 32-bit drivers. Not to mention, 16-bit apps. None of these will not work on WoW64 environments. On the other hand, don't customers have to test all their apps when transitioning from one OS platform (W2k3) to another (R1 or R2) anyway? What extra work is involved when validating apps on x64 versus just transitioning from one version of the OS to another? Of course out lives would be easier if everyone hopped to the new OS version ASAP so we did not have multiple platforms to support but the reality is quite different. We need to know what your thoughts and plans are on this one.

So this brings me to my questions for the community:

• What do you have to say as customers and partners?
• Will you stick to 32-bit as long as humanly possible?
• Do you have older apps with 16-bit installers or 16-bit apps? What is the plan there? Re-write or retire?
• What will you do about 32-bit drivers? Printer drivers? Will XenApp's Universal Print Driver solution be the answer?
• What has been the experience for those who have made the switch to 64-bit?

Give us your comments and take the poll below.

For future updates, follow me on Twitter.

If you currently hold a Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA) or Citrix Certified Integration Architect (CCIA) certification, did you know that update paths are available for both the upcoming CCEE (Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer) and CCIA for Virtualization? These update paths give seasoned Citrix pros the opportunity to update their credentials without taking five or six exams. The idea behind these update paths is to test candidates on new required skills, not on skills they already possess through previous certification.

To find out more and how you can prepare, go to www.citrix.com/CCEEupdate or www.citrix.com/CCIAupdate

The recent announcement of the Terremark Cloud offering has raised significant attention especially because of the competitive pricing and EC2 like features of elastic capacity and hourly charges with no commitment. On the surface the Terremark entry price of $0.036 per hour seems very low compared to Amazon EC2 at $0.10 but it's worth picking a few examples to provide a more apples to apples comparison.

..
Not included in the comparison is the difference in storage costs which can be small or very significant depending on the circumstance. Amazon provides up to 160 GB of instance storage for a small image or 850 GB for a large included in the hourly cost. If you have only a small instance say 10GB that adds $ 2.50 to the monthly price at Terremark ( @ .25/GB ) however of you needed the 850 GB included in the Amazon Large image that would add $ 212 to the monthly Terremark costs. Also not included is bandwidth costs, however both charge the same $0.17 GB for data transfer out . ( Although Amazon charges $ 0.10/GB for data in vs Terremark $ 0.17 data in ).

Some the bigger differences will more likely depend on how the VMs are utilized. The numbers stated above assume a full month of 24x31 operation. With Amazon EC2 it's possible to save in S3 ( bundle in Amazon terms ) an instance and then shut down ( terminate ) the VM and the billing stops. With Terremark however although you can shut down the VM, the hourly charges do not stop. Only deleting the VM ends the billing, there does not appear to be an option of saving with the hourly charges turned off and allowing a new instance from the saved image to be started at a later time. This appears to be a big advantage for Amazon although I need to learn more about the Terremark offering to fully appreciate the capabilities.

Certainly economics is not the only factor in selecting a Cloud infrastructure provider. Vendor Lock-in and VM portablity often come up as concerns. Security is also a factor in regard to Cloud computing and this was a motivator for Amazons recent Virtual Private Cloud offering which provides a dedicated VPN connection from a customer premise to an isolated Cloud inside the Amazon infrastructure. I also have to admit I was impressed with a recent tour of the Terremark data center in Miami , this place was like a high tech Fort Knox when it came to security. The entire topic of Cloud security is worthy of specialized consideration not covered in this simple comparison.

Ease of use is another consideration that is worth evaluating. The Amazon Web Console is limited in function but easy to use plus includes access to many partner and community provided ( including Citrix C3 Lab ) templates that are prebuilt and ready to launch. In Amazon EC2 for example its now possible signup and launch your own XenApp server in as little a 15 minutes.

Terremark also provides a web base console that looks straight forward however I have not used it myself yet. Terramark does not provide the same portfolio of 3rd party templates however they do provide more granularity in the size of VMs and RAM plus they offer multiple versions of Windows Server.

As the options for Cloud Computing continue to expand the economic analysis of Cloud vs Premise will extend to Cloud vs Cloud, as Service Providers continue to provide dynamic cloud type offerings.

Cloud Economics 101 Part 1 - Premise vs Cloud vs Colo
Cloud Economics 101 Part 2 - Premise Plus Cloud
Cloud Economics 101 Part 3 - Amazon Reserved Pricing

http://twitter.com/chrisfleck

Get ready for another European Geek Out event at this year's CUGtech event being hosted by Citrix Users Group Norway on Oct 7 through Oct 9 at the Dr. Holms Hotel in Geilo, Norway

This will be HARDCORE technical stuff with some of the best geeks in the world!
Shawn Bass and Benny Tritsch are coming! So are Alex Yushchenko, the founder and master of PubForum! We also have our danish friend Rene Vester from DKCUG on the speakers list! From Citrix we will have speakers from Citrix Support and Citrix Consulting, and from US our dear friends Rich Crusco and Rick Dehlinger are coming.

If you don't know about Citrix Users Group Norway, climb out from under that rock you have been living under, and come and join us at one of Europe's premier independently run Citrix Users Group events.

Click below to learn more:

CUGtech Autumn 2009: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/
Location: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/location/
Transport: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/transport/
Speakers: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/speakers/
Agenda: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/agenda/
Master Classes: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/master-classes/
Register: http://cug.no/cugtech-autumn-2009/register/

Stay tuned for more announcements about when registration will be made avaialble

After my first blog, I received a few comments focused about user-installed applications and how there isn't much talk about them.  Faisal posted a comment that stated he was doing a pilot with XenDesktop.  Right now the biggest complaint is that users can't install their own "personal" applications  and this is one of the big questions regarding virtual desktops.  We had a few comments from others wanting to know the same thing (some really good posts). Well, here are my thoughts

With a physical desktop model, users could essentially do just about anything to their workstation.  How much of a good thing was this?  It makes the user happy, but what are the associated risks? 

1. Managing the endpoint became a nightmare. Hard to know what application conflicts will ensue with these unknown applications.
2. Introduction of viruses, malware, spyware, etc.  Many of the applications users install are freeware/shareware from untrustworthy sites.  If it is on the desktop, does it now have the freedom to inflict damage to the rest of the network?
3. Workstations became bloated and eventually slowed to a crawl resulting in IT having to completely rebuild the workstation.
   

Let's now move to the desktop virtualization model.  If we are using hosted virtual desktops, that typically means the desktop is now operating within the confines of the data center.  If you allow users to install applications onto their hosted virtual desktop, in my opinion, you might as well just open the doors to your data center and let anyone in because that is what you are doing if you let users install anything.  Doesn't that concern you?  If not, try telling this to a security person within the organization. After they recover from their stroke, they will tell you why this is not a good idea.

Now I'm not saying that we can't and shouldn't allow user-installed applications, I just want to make sure everyone understands the risks with doing such a thing.  With the 3rd party solutions that are out there (AppSense and Atlantis Computing were mentioned in the comments from a previous blog post), my question would be

1. How do we protect the data center from unknown apps.
2. How do we keep the virtual desktop optimized and supportable. I don't want manage more bloated desktops By the way, this makes a great case for a Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC or BYOPC) model.
   

I do just want to add one more point.  I've been using a hosted virtual desktop for about 2 months now with a shared disk, so any changes I make (application installs) go away after reboot.  Truthfully, I haven't had much of a problem.  I did need to download and install a few freeware tools to help me finish a project, but I only used those items for about 2 hrs.  The nice thing, in this instance, was after I rebooted, they were gone.  I don't plan on using them again. And if I do, I'll just re-install. Of course this isn't an application I need. 

So the final question is should we really allow user-installed applications to persist or should we have a process in place where IT can quickly virtualize and deliver these applications to the respective users through a standardized application delivery approach?   

Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
Follow me in the Blogs: http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/danielf
  

Starting next week, Citrix will be accepting speaking proposals for our big Synergy conference, May 11-14 in San Francisco.   Synergy is focused on the growing convergence between virtualization, networking, and cloud computing.  Because interoperability and openness are central to this theme, we'd like to encourage technical experts and thought leaders around the industry to contribute proposals that focus on a wide range of real world topics, not just those that center exclusively on Citrix technologies. While we're obviously very proud of our own solutions and welcome submissions that feature Citrix, we also believe customers are best served when vendors provide open forums that deal with the real challenges and issues they face every day, especially when those issues involve getting products from multiple vendors to work well together.

With this in mind, we'd love to hear your ideas for topics you think would make great sessions at Synergy. This is your chance to share innovative ideas about how to break from the costs and complexities of the distributed computing status quo and build a SIMPLER and more cost efficient computing environment.

Synergy call for topics submissions will be judged by a selection committee that includes independent analysts, journalists and enterprise IT professionals - we will be naming names soon, and promise a few surprises!   The committees will be looking for compelling, technically rich content that details proven and innovative ways to use virtualization, networking and cloud computing concepts to create a dynamic, agile IT infrastructure.  Don't be afraid to be edgy, provocative and creative. We want sessions that tackle the real world technical and business issues customers are dealing with today, not just vendor sales pitches.

In general, we are looking for submissions that address trends, technologies, and proven solutions in the following areas:

• Desktop virtualization
• Application virtualization
• Server virtualization
• Cloud computing
• Application networking

Check out the Synergy site for more information and to submit your topic!  We're really looking forward to getting input from the larger community since there seems to be a great deal of energy for an open conference on these topics. We want to hear from you!

I don't care what anyone says, it's really not that hard to virtualize a desktop.  The hard part is delivering virtual apps and desktops to users in a way that's so fast... so smooth... so seamless, they don't even realize it's not running locally. Believe me, THAT is no easy task. Introduce a slight mouse delay or drop a few frames, and users go nuts.

Citrix has spent more than 20 years refining and improving user experience for virtual desktops and apps. During that time, we've faced every imaginable combination of users, devices, networks, drivers, peripherals and applications. And for each new challenge, we've gone back to the drawing board to develop, optimize and refine technology from the datacenter to the device to ensure a "high-definition experience," using the least bandwidth possible. When you do something for more than 20 years, you tend to become fanatically focused on the details. You also tend to get really good at it. That's exactly what the HDX Technology in our Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp product lines is all about.

But while I'll stand our HDX Technology up against anything in the industry, there is one class of applications that have admittedly been almost impossible to do well in a virtual desktop environment in the past. Apps with high-end 3D professional graphics such as Dassault Catia, Autodesk Inventor, ESRI ArcGIS or Siemens NX are so demanding, they have simply been impractical to do in most cases without running the app and all its data on a local PC or workstation. 

This is unfortunate since the manufacturing companies who are the heaviest users of these apps are often those who have the most to gain from the flexibility, security and cost saving benefits of virtualizing these apps and running them centrally.  Because many of their users are in offshore locations, intellectual property concerns are high.  And since offshoring partners tend to be a long distance away and can only work with data that stays securely in the customer datacenter, WAN performance is absolutely critical. When it comes to engineers and designers working with complex 3D models, you simply can't afford to settle for anything less than a true high-definition experience.

Earlier this week, we officially unveiled our new HDX 3D technology, breaking through this barrier for the first time ever. Many of those familiar with Citrix, however, know that we've been working on the technology needed to deliver these high-end graphical apps (and the enormous data models they use) for a few years now.  During that time, we've had several high profile projects underway to address various aspects of this problem, including Projects Pictor, Apollo and Prism... all of which you've probably heard about in blogs, events and user conferences.  So which of these efforts lead to the final breakthrough that is now HDX 3D? Here's the inside scoop on how it played out.

From early on, there were a number of technologies on the market designed to "remote" 3D graphical apps. At the same time, it was pretty clear from the beginning that none of them worked in a true WAN environment.  While this was obvious from our own testing, it was even more apparent by the number of customers who asked us for a solution even after purchasing other 3D graphical application remoting solutions (some quite expensive, I might add).  Issues like lag, overshoot and mouse delay were driving users crazy as they constantly chased their models around the screen and waited for skittish refreshes.  As I mentioned above, it's not hard to virtualize a desktop or an application - it's just hard to make it feel like it's local. 
While figuring out how to perform seamlessly over a WAN was obviously critical, we also found out that unlimited bandwidth LAN environments could be just as much of a challenge as tightly constrained WAN scenarios.  While virtualized 3D apps tend to perform better on the LAN, customers quickly discovered that they could easily consume up to 30 to 40 Mbps of bandwidth on average. 

Clearly this too was a non-starter. In many ways it reminded me of when I bought my last car. After all the papers were signed, the salesperson walked me through all the buttons and dials, and casually slid into the conversation the fact that the car took only the most expensive grade of fuel. Not the kind of surprise you want to find out about after-the-fact.

Probably the best news of all from a customer perspective is that HDX 3D is a built-in feature of Citrix XenDesktop Advanced, Enterprise and Platinum editions at no additional charge.  It runs on a dedicated blade or server with a dedicated GPU, but is managed alongside regular XenDesktop users - providing a single infrastructure that serves everyone.  

It's pretty easy to sum it all up:  HDX 3D for does the same thing for 3D graphical applications as the rest of our HDX technologies do for regular applications.  At the end of the day, it all boils down to user experience and cost.  You can talk all day about the flexibility and security benefits of centrally managed desktops, but if users have a bad experience... or if you blow out your network costs in the process, you haven't solved the problem. Luckily with HDX you have both.  And with our new HDX 3D technology, we've finally broken this barrier for the most demanding professional graphics apps in the industry.

But now for the REAL question on the mind of all you Citrix fans who have been following us on this journey... "Which of those graphics acceleration projects we heard so much about became HDX 3D?" Was it Project Pictor? Or Project Apollo? Or maybe the more recent Project Prism?" Or were these all really just the same thing under different names to keep people guessing?

The answer is actually pretty simple. Project Pictor, our first major investment in this area, was based entirely on a XenApp architecture.  Project Apollo, a parallel effort that started a bit later, set out to accomplish the same goals on a XenDesktop based architecture.  As we worked through these two projects, it became clear that both had strengths and weaknesses.  At the end of the day, we decided to combine the strengths of both projects under a new initiative dubbed Project Prism. It is this final combined effort that will debut later this month as the new HDX 3D feature of XenDesktop. 

I have personally tested all of the other solutions in the market today and can assure you that XenDesktop with HDX 3D provides the best user experience over the WAN hands down... AND uses dramatically less bandwidth over the LAN. Getting there was no easy task, but I can promise you that taking the time to get it right was well worth the journey.

Over the past several days I have been assisting one of my colleagues with troubleshooting a Web Interface for SharePoint (WISP) 2007 "Unknown Error" issue.

The problem we initially had was that the error as stated was... Unknown!

Installing, deploying and activating the WISP Solutions and Features was successful. Its when you try to access any of the Citrix Administration links in Central Administration was where we had problems.

So we had to figure out a way to reveal the true error. After trawling through the Citrix Forums for several hours we came across a post which described the steps to turn on error reporting. Once we were able to see the true error, fixing the issue was easy.

Here are the steps we took to turn on error reporting in SharePoint 2007:

Locate the web.config file for the web application associated with your site.

If this is the default web application, this will be at:
C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80\web.config

If this is for the Central Administration site then the location will be:
C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS

Open web.config and make the following changes:

1. Locate the <customErrors> tag and change it to:
<customErrors mode="Off" />

2. Set callstack="true" as shown below:

<configuration>
<SharePoint>
<SafeMode MaxControls="200" CallStack="true" DirectFileDependencies="10" TotalFileDependencies="50" AllowPageLevelTrace="false">
</SafeMode>
</SharePoint>
</configuration>

This will cause the actual error to be displayed, for example:

The expression prefix 'WISP' was not recognized. Please correct the prefix or register the prefix in the <expressionBuilders> section of configuration. at System.Web.Compilation.ExpressionBuilder.GetExpressionBuilder(String expressionPrefix, VirtualPath virtualPath, IDesignerHost host)
at System.Web.UI.ControlBuilder.AddBoundProperty(String filter, String name, String expressionPrefix, String expression, ExpressionBuilder expressionBuilder, Object parsedExpressionData, Boolean generated, String fieldName, String formatString, Boolean twoWayBound) 
at System.Web.UI.ControlBuilder.PreprocessAttribute(String filter, String attribname, String attribvalue, Boolean mainDirectiveMode) 
at System.Web.UI.ControlBuilder.PreprocessAttributes(ParsedAttributeCollection attribs) 
at System.Web.UI.ControlBuilder.Init(TemplateParser parser, ControlBuilder parentBuilder, Type type, String tagName, String id, IDictionary attribs) 
at System.Web.UI.ControlBuilder.CreateChildBuilder(String filter, String tagName, IDictionary attribs, TemplateParser parser, ControlBuilder parentBuilder, String id, Int32 line, VirtualPath virtualPath, Type& childType, Boolean defaultProperty) 
at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ProcessBeginTag(Match match, String inputText) 
at System.Web.UI.TemplateParser.ParseStringInternal(String text, Encoding fileEncoding)

David
Twitter - http://twitter.com/citrixreadiness
Citrix Support on Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/citrixsupport

Summary

Project Kensho OVF technology provides the Citrix ecosystem with excellent tools to create and consume virtual appliances based on the OVF standard.  Project Kensho OVF technology is currently available in two utilities: 

• Project Kensho OVF Tool
• XenConvert 2.0.1

This article aims to describe basic use cases of each tool and where it fits within the greater context of deploying and consuming virtual appliances using the Open Virtualization Format (OVF).

Background

Project Kensho is a Citrix Labs endeavor tasked with de-risking and improving our understanding at applying DMTF OVF and CIM technology to XenServer. 

In the case of OVF, the standard is new and exciting. Its potential to reduce costs and improve virtual machine deployment for Citrix internal and external partners and customers is enormous.  Today, it is one of the most exciting technologies in the world of virtualization.

Project Kensho OVF technology is present in both the Project Kensho OVF Tool and XenConvert 2.0.1.  Each tool is unique in how it uses OVF and its position in the user community. 

In the simplest terms, the Project Kensho OVF Tool is aimed at OVF based virtual appliance creation and consumption where as XenConvert 2.0.1 is a P2V/V2V conversion utility supporting OVF virtual appliances.

Each offers the user different paths to create, convert and import OVF based virtual appliance content into XenServer.

Project Kensho OVF Tool

First released in October 2008 as an ongoing series of Tech Previews, the Project Kensho OVF Tool targets the creation and consumption of OVF based virtual appliances. This utility is part of the Project Kensho Tech Preview suite consisting of the Project Kensho OVF Tool and the Project Kensho XenServer CIM Interface. 

The Project Kensho OVF Tool is a full featured import/export utility offering users the latest OVF capabilities. The utility accommodates both the XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors and has the ability to directly import VMware OVF/VMDK content without conversion.

Unlike XenConvert, the Project Kensho OVF Tool is not targeted at static file format or physical to virtual conversion.  The utility requires the user to have administrative privilege to the hypervisor.  It interfaces directly with the hypervisor enumerating VM content for export and identifying hypervisor hosts for import.  The Project Kensho OVF Tool's primary function is to manage movement of OVF packages into and out of the hypervisor.

Project Kensho OVF Tool – Appliance Creation (Export)

Virtual appliance producers have the ability to create virtual machine appliances by exporting one or more virtual machine guests as an OVF package from either the XenServer or Hyper-V host. 

OVF supports one or more virtual machines within a single package.  This enables virtual appliance producers with the ability to package entire datacenter suites into a single file.  This is very useful when distributing suites like XenApp or other multi-server products.  Currently, the Kensho OVF Tool is the only Citrix utility capable of exporting OVF content directly from a hypervisor.

When exporting the appliance, the user has the ability to embed an End User Licensing Agreement (EULA) into the OVF.  The EULA is presented during import forcing the consumer to agree or decline the terms of use of the appliance. 

For added security, the user can digitally sign the OVF file and encrypt the virtual disk content.  These features add additional value to the virtual appliance's integrity.  Users can also compress and add a file manifest to OVF package.

Project Kensho OVF Tool – Appliance Consumption (Import)

Consumers of the OVF package have the option to import the virtual appliance into a XenServer or Hyper-V hypervisor.  Among other features, the Project Kensho OVF Tool enables this process with features such as hardware mapping and integrity validation of the OVF package.

Hardware mapping eases post virtual appliance import configuration steps.  For example, a user could map the network interface card (NIC) described in the OVF to the virtual networks unique to the target XenServer. The same support exists for storage and system mapping.

One highly useful feature is the direct import of VMware OVF/VMDK content into a XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V environment.  This capability reduces time and costs as Project Kensho implements fix up capabilities making migration of the VMDK easier and less time consuming.

XenConvert 2.0.1

As the first mainstream XenServer utility to adopt OVF, XenConvert 2.0.1 applies Project Kensho OVF technology to the conversion process.  As a Physical to Virtual (P2V) and Virtual to Virtual (V2V) converter, XenConvert 2.0.1 now gives virtual appliance users a number of options to either create OVF content for import into XenServer or convert OVF content produced by 3rd party products like VMware. 

Unlike the Project Kensho OVF Tool, XenConvert 2.0.1 does not require administrative rights to a XenServer in order to convert physical or virtual machine assets into formats compatible with XenServer.  The utility can perform its conversion functions without any XenServer interaction.  However, in scenarios where the user chooses to import into XenServer as part of the conversion process, the utility conveniently offers this capability thus requiring the user to authenticate to a XenServer with administrative credentials.

In the P2V scenario, XenConvert 2.0.1 facilitates the creation of an OVF based virtual appliance by using a physical machine as the appliance reference.  This is a unique use case as the creator of the virtual appliance now has another avenue of flexibility in determining the source of the virtual appliance.

One helpful use case is converting an existing XenServer XVA virtual disk to an OVF/VHD package.  This gives virtual appliance users the option to easily convert the XVA to a standards based virtual appliance format.

Another use case is converting from a VMware OVF/VMDK to XenServer.  Kensho OVF technology allows XenConvert to convert and import VMware OVF content into a XenServer environment.  This is very helpful when moving between hypervisors and gives users the freedom of OVF interoperability at the virtual disk level.

There are many more possible use cases employing Project Kensho OVF technology found in XenConvert 2.0.1.  XenConvert 2.0.1 supports OVF packaging options like compression, digital signatures, encryption and archiving the OVF package as well as attaching EULA information to the virtual appliance.

For use cases where P2V and V2V conversion is a must, XenConvert is an excellent tool to convert and import OVF content into XenServer.  And, it represents yet another method of creating and consuming OVF based virtual appliances. 

Conclusion

Project Kensho OVF technology offers users a variety of options whether using the Project Kensho OVF Tool or XenConvert 2.0.1.  Each utility allows creators and consumers of OVF based virtual appliances a variety of paths into XenServer creating flexibility for all users of the technology. 

By providing tools to address the conversion of physical and virtual disk formats to XenServer as well as the import and export of OVF content, Citrix is actively positioning customers and partners for the move into the virtual appliance world.

After 16 years with a Golden Retriever it is safe to say my family loves dogs.  When she went to the happy hunting ground (doggie heaven) we decided to get another.  My wife wanted a small dog so that it could live in the house and she could hold it and snuggle up.  Well, I got her a small dog... at least it was when we bought it .  He was the cutest little guy ever and weighed in at a meager 12 lbs (about 5.5 Kilos).  Unfortunately, he grew at a rate of 5 lbs (2.3 Kilos) per week after that for a long time.

It may seem like a stretch, but a lot of companies are shopping for just the right size Cloud provider to handle all of their IT needs.  On the one hand there are huge Clouds that provide a great service if you're looking for an endless amount of capacity and you have the technical savvy to create a virtual data center inclusive of applications, profiles, back-up utilities and a schema to run the whole thing.  On the other hand there are smaller Micro Clouds (another word I just made up) that will offer up services but don't look or act like their huge Cloud cousins.

The bottom line is that there are all types of companies with differing needs when it comes to Information Technology and the emergence of Clouds.  The problem is that companies who need the care and nurturing a Micro Cloud provider can offer really get confused when they go to buy a service they think will be able to cuddle up with them only to find that they have purchased a monster that is growing up to be something larger than they expected.

So what's the point of all this as it relates to my typical diatribe on Citrix Service Providers?  If you want to get into the business of Cloud provision, make sure you know what your purchasing ahead of time... otherwise you might find that what you thought you wanted, turns out to be something way more than you bargained for and you might just be spending a lot of time in the dog house feeding it!

Just like the puppy I bought that now weighs 145 lbs (70 Kilos) and pretty much rules my house!

What's new in desktop virtualization?  Well, lots of announcements from different vendors trying to peddle their wares, but I haven't seen or read anything very thought provoking. 
<rant> (Man, I'm totally geeking out here)

I'm trying to keep abreast of the latest happenings in the desktop virtualization space from a design and architecture perpsective, but honestly, there isn't much.  There are tons of solutions out there, some better than others. There are many point solutions out there that solve 1 issue for desktop virtualization.  Heck, even Brian Madden commented about the one-hit wonders in a recent blog. 

I'm also on twitter (@djfeller) and I try to follow VDI/Desktop Virtualization, I have Google Reader alerts setup (You can follow my shared items but there isn't much I've found useful). What do I typically see? One post about a new feature, then I see it retweeted a zillion times (Ok, I'm exaggerating a little, but still).  I see articles about why companies aren't doing the VDI/Desktop Virtualization thing yet.  Why? It's not because there aren't solutions. There are. They might not solve every use case, but they can solve some for some users. So what's the holdup?   No one is showing them how to get it done. 

It's time for a REAL discussion. Let's start focusing on designing a desktop virtualization solution.

</rant>

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you desktop virtualization is easy. It won't be a walk in the park unless your park is full of mountains, rivers, mosquitoes, coyotes, wolfs and bears.  So, why would we attempt to do something like this? Because the alternative is even worse. With so many different user requirements you can quickly see how the current distributed desktop environment is a disaster waiting to happen (or already happened over and over again).

But let's not dwell on the ugliness of the current model. Let's instead focus on designing a better solution.  Let's start talking about design, and my oh my there is a lot to talk about, which is why I'm about to start a blog series on designing a desktop virtualization solution with XenDesktop.  I plan to focus on the main design decision areas and giving you my thoughts and recommendations based on what I've seen so far. I'm positive many of you have seen different things, which I encourage you to comment so we all can learn. 

This should be a great series and I can't wait to hear some of your comments.  (BTW, I got a lot of great comments for all of you during our Provisioning Services for XenApp blog series and hope to get the same level of feedback.)

Daniel - Lead Architect - Worldwide Consulting Solutions
Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/djfeller
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Summary

This article provides a basic overview of the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) specification as used in Project Kensho and XenConvert.

Background

Virtual Machine deployment and use has exploded in recent years. Many vendors, including Citrix, have been instrumental in the widespread adoption of virtual machines in today's computing climate. New use cases, including the distribution of virtual appliances, require a more standardized way to describe and deliver virtual machines. This article aims to shed some light on OVF as used in currently shipping Citrix products.

What OVF Is

Comprised of the Virtualization Management Initiative (VMAN), the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) standards body created a standard representation of virtual machine metadata named Open Virtualization Format (OVF).  OVF seeks to allow virtual machine hypervisor vendors and the users of virtual machine technology to create and consume virtual machine metadata free from proprietary formats.

Virtual machine metadata includes a virtual machine's name and configured memory as well as CPU, network and storage settings among other attributes. A standards approach to creating and consuming virtual machine metadata eases the ability to move a virtual machine from one platform to another as well as distribute virtual appliances to end users.

However, OVF goes beyond just the description and virtual hardware attributes. OVF allows a virtual appliance vendor to add items like a EULA, comments about the virtual machine, boot parameters, minimum requirements, security attributes and a host of other features.

An OVF is not just limited to a single virtual machine. An OVF can describe multiple virtual machines. These virtual machines can be packaged as a virtual appliance suite all wrapped up in a single file. Creators of the appliances also have the ability to encrypt, compress and digitally sign OVF content.

With these capabilities, there is a wide range of packaging and deployment possibilities when using features provided by the OVF specification found in Citrix utilities.

What OVF Is Not

OVF is not a specification that describes a virtual disk. To import OVF content requires hypervisor compatibility with the associated virtual disk.

For example, to import a VMware produced OVF, which includes a VMDK disk into XenServer, the user needs to convert the VMDK into a virtual disk format compatible with XenServer.. The same process is needed to import a XenServer OVF which includes a VHD into a VMware hypervisor.

To assist end users with dissimilar disk formats, Citrix provides XenConvert 2.0.1 which converts VMware OVF/VMDK content into a XenServer compatible format (OVF/VHD). The Project Kensho OVF Tool enables direct import of OVF/VMDK content into XenServer without converting into an intermediate format. Using this method, the Project Kensho OVF Tool reduces migration time by ~ 40%.

With Microsoft Hyper-V content, no conversion is necessary as XenServer natively supports the VHD format. The Project Kensho OVF Tool facilitates the import and export of OVF based VHD content for users of Microsoft Hyper-V.

OVF File Components

From a file perspective, OVF is not just one file. It is a collection of files representing everything from virtual machine metadata, virtual disks, manifests, certificates and archive files. These files can be encrypted, digitally signed, compressed and archived.

The most apparent file is the metadata file. It is an XML document that has the extension of .ovf. This file contains the metadata describing one or more virtual machines and contains the location of the virtual disks associated with the virtual machines. It also contains information about how to manage the virtual machines during import, EULA information and other capabilities described in the specification. A file of this type could appear as myappliance.ovf.

Accompanying the .ovf are one or more virtual disks. Citrix uses the .vhd format for virtual disks associated with a Citrix produced OVF. The .ovf file provides the location to one or more VHD disks. VHD disks can be relative to the OVF or can be a URL.

The OVF specification defines two specific groups of files:

OVF Package
An OVF package is a group of files required for importing the virtual machine.

• The .ovf file containing the metadata. Example: myappliance.ovf
• One or more .vhd virtual hard disks. Example: myappliance.vhd
• A manifest file describing the package and checksum. Example: myappliance.mf
• If a user chooses to digitally sign the OVF file, a certificate file. Example: myappliance.cert

OVA Package
An OVA package is a single file archive of the .ovf file, .vhd file, .mf file and, if applicable, the .cert file. The OVF specification requires an archive to be in the TapeARchive (TAR) format. TAR is a Unix derived archiving format.

• All files associated with the OVF are included in this file. Example: myappliance.ova

The OVF specification allows users to compress an OVA.

• OVA compression uses the gzip algorithm. Example: myappliance.ova.gz

OVF and XVA

OVF is the natural successor to XVA. Accompanying an XVA package is a file named ova.xml. This is XenSever's proprietary metadata descriptor. Citrix utilities like XenConvert 2.0 convert an XVA into an OVF/VHD combination. XenConvert is useful in creating distributable virtual appliances based on the OVF standard from existing XVA content.

DMTF VMan OVF Specification

There is much more to OVF than the simple description above. To learn more about it, please refer to the OVF specification on the DMTF website.

DSP02431.0.0 Open Virtualization Format Specification

I just finished reading an internationally acclaimed book about "how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant".  Wow!  Can I really do that?  Well, maybe not me specifically, but entrepreneurs who have the right stuff can.  At least that's the premise of the book by the title of this blog (minus the "and Citrix).  Why then did I add "and Citrix" to the title?  Because according to the author, "value innovation" is the paradigm required to enter into a new market space, or "Blue Ocean" and Citrix provides the innovation creating value to end customers. From page 12 of the book, "Value innovation is the cornerstone of blue ocean strategy.  We call it value innovation because instead of focusing on beating the competition, you focus on making the competition irrelevant by creating a leap in value for buyers and your company, thereby opening up a new and uncontested market space."

These are the crown jewels of the service provider partner who uses Citrix technology to create an innovative value to end users who are looking to displace their IT services.  Think about it.  Five years ago no self respecting IT manager would be looking outside of his company to get help from someone else.  His job would have been at stake... well here we are in 2009 and guess what?  If IT managers don't look outside for help (or another way to do business more cost effectively) their job is at stake.  What a difference a few years make.

So now we've got a perfect storm where companies are trying to outsource parts (or all) of their IT and we have the emergence of service providers who can meet that demand.  I talked to one of them this morning and they are creating a Blue Ocean of services through innovation created by Citrix XenApp.  The company is ExtrinsicaGlobal and they've got a unique Blue Ocean approach.  Started about four years ago they provided IT services to Agencies of the Government of the UK.  They began to develop a core of personnel who could ostensibly relocate entire IT resources. 

But the founder and Managing Director, Simon Smith didn't stop there.  He realized that if he could provide these types of services to the Government, why not to the SMB market as well.  And so he began to embark on the journey of creating a Blue Ocean Strategy of IT services using Citrix XenApp and subscription licenses to provide any application, to any SMB, anywhere in the world.  To embody that approach, Simon supplies IT services to the Kawasaki World Superbike team that travels on a world-wide circuit.  At every stop, ExtrinsicaGlobal is there to supply IT services on-the-go.  Simon told me "we expect to expand this business to tens of thousands of subscribers.  With Citrix technology, it isn't hard to see that scaling is just a matter of constructing your data center to handle the load." 

Why is this so important to businesses today?  Well for one thing, using the same old methods just won't work in this new world economy and businesses are waking up to that fact every day.  Good thing Citrix is at the forefront yet again of "value innovation" creating an environment for hosting the desktop in a new Blue Ocean.  If you want to find out more about how to get going with subscription services and make your competition irrelevant, just take a look at our web site or you can also visit our CSP Community online.

A new FREE self paced online training class for Essentials for Hyper-V is now available.

h2.CEV-100-1W Getting Started with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V

In this course, learners will be introduced to Citrix Essentials™ for Hyper-V™ and gain the knowledge needed to perform basic installation and configuration tasks. Through online simulations, students will install and configure key features and explore product capabilities, such as virtual storage management, provisioning services, lifecycle management and workflow studio.

Audience

This course is designed for IT professionals, architects, systems engineers, server administrators, engineers, Citrix Partners and Microsoft Partners.

Preparatory Recommendations
Prior to taking this course, it is recommended that students possess the following knowledge/experience:
• A basic knowledge of the purpose and goals of virtualization technology
• An intermediate familiarity with Microsoft® Hyper-V
• An understanding of computing architecture, including network and storage devices, device drivers and operating systems
• Basic experience installing and administering Windows Server™ 2003 or Windows Server 2008
• Intermediate knowledge of network devices and site architecture, including configuring vLANs
• Basic knowledge of storage terminology and technologies, including partitions, SANs, LUNs, iSCSI, and NFS and CIFS file shares

Key Skills
Upon successful completion of this course, learners are able to demonstrate the following objectives:
• Identify requirements and process for a basic implementation of Essentials for Hyper-V
• Describe the key features including:
o Dynamic provisioning
o StorageLink
o Lab management
o High availability
• Execute basic functions including product installation, and demonstrate familiarity with the Administrative consol and user interface for basic operations and maintenance
• Describe the high-level concepts of Workflow Studio

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Between speaking at Microsoft Tech Ready, a much needed vacation and travel for some meetings, I have not had the opportunity to close out this series of posts. Here is the next one.

In this section of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve takes you through how to add storage to existing Hyper-V virtual machines using StorageLink.

In Part 1, Steve Umbehocker reviewed the installation of the StorageLink component of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. In Part 2, Steve reviewed the initial configuration of StorageLink after it has been installed. In Part 3 of the StorageLink Step by Step Series, Steve covers connecting to Storage Systems via the StorageLink Manager console. In Part 4, he covers how to create storage repositories (SRs) with the StorageLink console. Next, on Part 5 Steve takes you through how to create Hyper-V virtual machines from storage templates.

Express Edition Download
http://www.citrix.com/ehvexpress

StorageLink Deep Dive Webinar - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/04/13/StorageLink+-+Essentials+for+Hyper-V+Deep+Dive+Webinar

StorageLink Demo Videos
http://www.citrix.com/ehv

StorageLink Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/02/23/StorageLink+in+Essentials+for+Hyper-V

Provisoning Services Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/20/Provisioning+for+Hyper-V+with+Citrix+Essentials

Lab Manager Overview - http://community.citrix.com/blogs/citrite/barryf/2009/03/19/Essentials+for+Hyper-V+with+Lab+Management

StorageLink Install Install Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120789
StorageLink User Guide - http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX120791

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Tim Greene over at Network World has just posted a great article titled The ABCs of WAN Optimization Savings. The article walks through the various functions of today's WAN optimization devices and how these technologies add up to big savings for IT. Citrix is singled out in the article for our dominance in speeding up virtual desktops and applications, something we have offered since delivering ICA acceleration with Branch Repeater 5 back in February.

As part of the HDX technology framework, Branch Repeater includes a suite of WAN optimization technologies that have been adapted for virtual environments. Since the underlying WAN optimization technologies are discussed in the Network World article, I will explain how Branch Repeater is unique in applying these to accelerate and optimize virtual desktops and applications.

Compression and caching - By default, XenApp compresses all ICA traffic to optimize individual user sessions. Branch Repeater automatically negotiates with XenApp to disable the native ICA compression in order to cache common graphics and data locally in the branch and compress traffic across multiple user sessions. Branch Repeater is the only WAN optimization solution that can inspect the ICA virtual channel to help determine whether to store cached data objects in memory or on disk. This helps to minimize latency for interactive traffic (screen updates, mouse movements) while maximizing compression ratios for bulk transfers within ICA (printing, file transfers).

TCP acceleration - Like any TCP-based traffic, ICA performance can suffer due to high latency and packet loss common on long distance WAN connections. Branch Repeater overcomes these issues with adaptive TCP flow control that senses these conditions and responds by optimizing TCP behavior.

QoS and traffic prioritization - In many networks, ICA shares the wire with other bandwidth hungry applications. Network congestion can 'starve out' ICA traffic causing slow and inconsistent performance. Branch Repeater prioritizes traffic and allocates bandwidth to ensure reliable, high-performance for virtual desktops and applications. However, not all data transmitted within ICA should receive equal priority. For instance, interactive screen data should be prioritized above print jobs. To address such conflicts, Branch Repeater provides the only ICA-aware QoS engine that can granularly allocate bandwidth based on virtual channel priority tags.

Branch Repeater ICA acceleration goes beyond optimizing each of these core technologies for virtual desktop and application delivery. Virtual environments tend to be far more dynamic and flexible than traditional enterprise applications. For this reason, Branch Repeater is fully integrated with XenApp and other HDX technologies to apply the right mix of optimizations for every scenario over any network. And since many of the techniques involve peering inside the ICA session, Branch Repeater works with native ICA encryption (Basic and Advanced RC-5) so there is no compromise to end-to-end security.

The Network World article wraps up by suggesting that businesses consider WAN optimization gear when deploying new applications. Rolling the cost of WAN optimization into a larger IT project - such as desktop virtualization - can be a cost-effective way to pay for the solution. So if you are considering deploying virtual desktops (VDI) in your organization, be sure to include Branch Repeater as part of your plans.

In a recent HP webinar and accompanying ServerWatch posting, Michael Diamant of MoreDirect discussed using Xen to virtualize Exchange, but reported that he had issues with it that were leading him to A Certain Alternative.

Exchange can be a very persnickety workload to virtualize - it was legendary up until recently as one to avoid.

But now that Diamant is stepping up to the challenge, we'd like to point out that there's an alternative to his "alternative," and a better one for his purposes - Citrix XenServer (preferably with Citrix Essentials added for advanced virtualization management).

He reports that he chose Xen because the earliest workloads his company chose to virtualize were Linux-based. But among the added value of Citrix XenServer is its optimization for resource-intensive Windows workloads like Exchange. From our high-performance networking and disk I/O support in XenServer Tools to our tuning and testing, we've made on of our main goals for XenServer to deliver great Windows performance, even on challenging resource-intensive workloads.

How well does XenServer do? Well, don't believe me... believe the numbers, as shown by my colleague Bernie Hannon: performance is excellent, even under significant user load. And the added capabilities of Citrix Essentials for XenServer increase ability and manageability. If you want to see the results in more detail, you can download the technical white paper for more info.

So Xen-driven virtualization is definitely the right choice for Exchange and other resource-intensive Windows workloads. But it has to be the right Xen for the job, and that's Citrix XenServer.

Over the past couple of years I've had a number of customers and prospectives ask me for different ways of evaluating XenApp because they wanted to show someone how it worked really quickly without having to use their production system. Or, they got the Receiver for iPhone but didn't have their system configured to use it. Or, they were meeting with the head of another department at work and wanted to show them the power of application virtualization with Citrix XenApp.

Well, now you can with 3 easy ways to get an evaluation system to meet your specific needs.

• Eval in the Cloud - A pre-configured, rapid evaluation system that anyone can use to see the power of virtualizing applications for themselves. This system is great for anyone from an end-user to a non-technical family member. It requires no investment or hardware and doesn;t need any installation since it's already configured. EVAL LENGTH: 2 hours, 1-User

• Evaluation Virtual Appliance - A completely pre-configured virtual machine system running XenApp, the EVA runs on Xen or Hyper-V and helps your quickly virtualize your own apps and deliver them to anyone. It's got an illustrated quick start guide that leads you through the process of profiling, publishing and accessing applications. You can even add the machine to your domain. It's perfect for the techie that's new to XenApp but who doesn't want to get their hands covered in grease. This system is also perfect as a test bed for applications and application compatibility. It's also useful for testing scripts created with Workflow studio. Some admin's have even found it helpful for stdying up to take Citrix certification exams. EVAL LENGTH: 60-days, 99-User

• Product Media - This is XenApp installation media that is downloadable from Citrix.com. You can also order physical media from customer care. The great thing here is you'll have everything you need to create a completely customized evaluation environment including licenses which we've made available online. EVAL LENGTH: 90-days, 99-User

So the net-net is that there is now an evaluation option for nearly any scenario and you now have more options for getting demo or evaluation XenApp environments up and running with very little effort, if any at all. Check these options out for yourselves at the XenApp evaluation center.

Please let us know what you think.

Sincerely,
Vinny Sosa

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With the new Xen.org announcement, there is a lot of motivation and excitement at Citrix and the Open Source Community. Adding to this, two weeks ago, Citrix released the latest Project Kensho Tech Preview:  Project Kensho 1.3.

This is an exciting time for Citrix as we strive to improve and build virtual appliance creation and consumption capabilities into the XenServer product line. Project Kensho is the primary driver for Citrix's use of DMTF virtualization standards.  As with previous Project Kensho standalone releases, this release includes support for the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) and the Common Information Model (CIM). Two different utilities are provided at the Project Kensho download site:  The Project Kensho OVF Tool and the XenServer CIM interface.  

In the coming days, the Project Kensho team will provide more information and details on these utilities.  However, before getting too involved in the details, let's quickly highlight what each utility offers.

XenServer CIM Interface

The XenServer CIM interface facilitates access to XenServer management functions from standards based APIs.  This greatly simplifies coding for partners and customers who create utilities to run against a XenServer environment and other hypervisors by reducing the amount of code to maintain for each environment. 

There are quite a few improvements in the interface, let's take a look:

Easy to Use:

•  Simple installation onto a XenServer host 
•  Training video describing installation 
•  Fast, attentive and helpful online support

Interoperable:

•  Enable 3rd party manageability of XenServer using standards based interfaces 

Versatile:

•  Provides access to major classes of XenServer functionality 

Accessible:

•  Built on standards based DMTF VMAN specification 
•  Free of charge; anyone can use 
•  Open source; anyone can build management tools for XenServer 

The Project Kensho OVF Tool

Now, OVF is not new to Citrix.  Citrix has been a driver in DMTF in the creation of this specification.  We also see Kensho OVF technology in XenConvert 2.0.  With the Project Kensho OVF Tool 1.3, we open the door wider to a whole new world for Citrix partners and customers.  By leveraging the OVF standard, Citrix is piloting tools to make XenServer family the best of breed in virtual appliance offerings.  In fact, today, the Project Kensho OVF Tool is the fastest and easiest way to import VMware OVF/VMDK content into a XenServer environment.  More impressive, it can take that same VMware OVF/VMDK and import it into Microsoft's Hyper-V as well.  The Project Kensho OVF Tool manages both XenServer and Hyper-V environments whether the task is creating or consuming OVF content. This utility enables virtual appliance  creation and consumption never experienced before via XenServer.

What makes OVF impressive is that it enables software vendors, integrators and end users of virtuallization technology with the ability to package virtual appliances in ways unattainable until now.  This standards based specification gives virtual appliance packagers and consumers a long list of options to ensure secure appliance packaging, package virtual appliance suites, archive into singe files, compress them, attach EULAs, as well as whole host of other capabilities. Imagine what this flexibility can do for your environment!

Below lists the numerous improvements and features in version 1.3:

Easy to Use:

•  Simple installation on a Windows workstation or server class computer 
•  Easy to navigate, user friendly UI  
•  Can learn to use in minutes  
•  Detailed admin guide 
•  Training videos describing installation and virtual appliance packaging/deployment available from CitrixTV 
•  Fast, attentive and helpful online support

Interoperable:

•  Manage XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V virtual appliance creation and consumption from the same UI at the same time 
•  Consume VMware OVF content produced from any VMware utility in production 
•  Directly import VMware VMDK virtual disks into XenServer or Hyper-V environments in one quick step 
•  Automate fix up of VMware imported virtual machines (Windows or Linux) to boot cleanly into XenServer and Hyper-V environment 
•  Share virtual appliances between Project Kensho OVF Tool and Citrix XenConvert 2.0.1  
•  Compatible with localized Hyper-V hosts 

Versatile:

•  Virtual appliance packaging of one or more virtual machines in to a virtual appliance suite 
•  Compress virtual appliances into smaller files saving space and lowering transport time when copying
•  Create single file archives of a virtual appliance making management of appliance content simple and straightforward 
•  Easy mapping of resources between virtual appliance and hypervisor host during import into XenServer or Hyper-V 
•  Attach EULA to virtual appliance to ensure end user agreement of virtual appliance application content prior to import 
•  Create virtual appliances from virtual machines with snapshots 

Secure:

•  Apply and verify digital signature to OVF to protect against tampering 
•  Encrypt virtual appliance files to protect appliance content from unauthorized use 

Reliable:

•  Create and verify a manifest of each file and its checksum in the appliance package 
•  Verify OVF formatting for errors prior to import 

Accessible:

•  Built on standards based OVF 1.0.0 virtual appliance specification 
•  Free of charge; anyone can use 
•  Open source; anyone can build virtual appliance tools for XenServer 

We are pleased to announce that Citrix XenDesktop and HDX technology is powering the new Smart Business Desktop on the IBM cloud, a public cloud service that delivers desktops for office based workers. This new service enables small to medium businesses to be able to virtualize desktop computing resources, and provide a logical, rather than a physical method of access to the entire Windows desktop experience, including OS, apps, and data - with all the storage and computing services hosted in the public cloud. The service requires no up-front capital making it easier for small to mid-size businesses to adopt virtual desktops.
 
One of the keys to successfully deliver virtual desktops from a public cloud is to ensure that the experience for end users remains unchanged or is better than their physical PCs. Remember, all users in this environment will be accessing their desktop over WAN. This is where Citrix's HDX technologies come into play for IBM Cloud. HDX includes a set of technologies designed to enable a high definition user experience for virtual desktops, and is a key component for IBM public cloud services for virtual desktops. Virtual desktop users from IBM cloud services will now be able to access their desktop from any device in any location and still get uncompromised experience with any kind of content, including rich media. Learn more about Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix HDX.
 
Citrix and IBM Global Technology Services have worked closely together for many years. IBM has been successfully managing XenApp implementation for delivering apps to hundreds of thousands of users for customers worldwide. Centralization and optimization have been the joint focus for Citrix and IBM and we have hundreds of successful customer implementations (see a great example on ATU in Germany through the video at  www.citrix.com/ibm). Citrix XenDesktop and HDX technology will continue to be key parts of IBM Global Technology Services offerings for private clouds within larger enterprise customers. The private cloud offerings now include the entire Citrix desktop virtualization product portfolio - i.e. XenDesktop, XenApp, Netscaler, Branch Repeater and the Citrix Access Gateway.
 
IBM has developed hundreds of consultants with skills that span the entire Citrix desktop virtualization portfolio, making it easier for both large and small businesses to adopt Citrix XenDesktop and HDX technology for delivering virtual desktops to their users anywhere.
For more information about IBM Smart Business Desktop on the IBM Cloud, visit http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/offering/bcrs/a1026737.

Raj Dhingra

General Manager, XenDesktop Product Group