06 Oct 2008 08:02 PM EDT

Those of you who attended Synergy this year may have taken part in our first ever Geek Speak Live, where we ran an "unconference" in parallel with the main event. Folks like Shawn Bass, Doug Brown and Rick Dehlinger got up and spoke about the technical topics on their minds and yours. We also had some open mike sessions as well as Q&A.

Well, the good news is that we will be repeating Geek Speak at our upcoming Citrix Summit that is being held in Orlando on October 26 - 29. A number of the Synergy Geek Speakers have kindly agreed to speak again, and we have agreed on the following topics:

  • VDI vs TS: Rick Dehlinger
  • Pros and Cons of Virtualizing XenApp : Doug Brown
  • The reality of implementing "Green IT": Charles Aunger
  • Best Practice implementations for Tele-commuters, Home Workers and other "Virtual Workers" - Steve Greenberg

In the true spirit of Geek Speak, I and the speakers would like to hear from you on what you think of these topics, and are there other topics you would want to hear in an unfiltered way? Even if we cannot fit them into the Summit schedule, or you can't attend Summit because you aren't a Citrix Partner, they could be added to some upcoming live and virtual Geek Speaks that I am planning. But I'll keep you in suspense by leaving more on those in an upcoming blog .

So please let me know what you think of the topics we could discuss by posting a reply to this blog.

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hey James

does it have to be a technical topic?  You can check out my blog for some of the topics that I talk about www.brianmadden.com/blog/michaelkeen

let me know if there is anything I can do to help after as well.  I'm all for another Geek Speak Road Trip!!!

Cheers
Michael Keen

Posted by Michael Keen at Oct 06, 2008 20:56 | Reply To This

Hi Michael,

 Great to hear from you! It can be any topic that has something to do with technology or the IT industry at large. I'm assuming from our previous experience the audience will prefer more technical topics, but I think there would be a few folks (myself included) that would be interested in discussing something like the current economic conditions effect on IT that you blogged about.

It looks like we have the Geek Speak room till midnight that night, so in the true spirit of an unconference we can add as many subjects as there are people willing to stay to talk about them  .

So suggest away, and I can set up a survey so that folks can vote for them.

-James.

Posted by James Rabey at Oct 09, 2008 17:12 | Reply To This

Hey James,

 I am truly looking forward to the Summit, and what a great news that Geek Speak was going to be on the agenda again

 I would love to see some technical background on some of the newer products, hearing some of the Geeks speaking about how is Provisioning Server, XenServer or XenDesktop making a difference at customers? Not so much the sales slides, but real life expriences good and bad...

/Rene Vester

Posted by Rene Vester at Oct 07, 2008 03:07 | Reply To This

Hi Rene,

Sounds like a great topic. I'm sure we could get a mixture of Citrix SE's and consultants, as well as our reseller partners to participate. If you are willing, you can be the MC for that session.

anyone out there agree that this would be a good topic?

Regards,

James.

Posted by James Rabey at Oct 09, 2008 17:14 | Reply To This

Hi James,

I would like to talk about either one of the following two topics:

Proposed topic #1:

Title: The profile challenge - managing unmanageable data

Subtitle: A realistic look at Windows user profiles

Topics to be covered:

  • User profiles are chaotic agglomerations of data
  • Any application can store whatever it wants in any place it wants
  • No single point of configuration: Application settings can be stored in the registry and/or in the file system
  • No versioning: Different versions of Windows and many other applications store incompatible data in the same location
  • No separation: Applications can overwrite each other's data
  • No size limitation: Applications can store as much as they like

Proposed topic #2:

Title: Windows x64 - it's here yet far away

Subtitle: Why the migration to 64-bit terminal services is so painful

Topics to be covered:

  • On the surface, 32- and 64-bit Windows are identical
  • Migration seems easy, even 32-bit licenses can be used
  • In spite of all that migrations can get very complex
  • What poses problems: existing infrastructure
  • Software deployment
  • Existing scripts
  • Printing
  • More RAM required for same performance

What do you think of this?

If you need a reference: In my blog on blogs.sepago.de/helge I have written a detailed 7 part series on Windows x64 among much other stuff.

Regards, Helge

Posted by Helge Klein at Oct 10, 2008 15:17 | Reply To This

I'd like to see a conversation on OS Virtualization and the vast amount of choices people have for OS virtualization

Topic: Pros and Cons of Homogenous or Heterogeneous Server Virtualization Strategy
Subtitle: XenServer,  Hyper-V, ESX and more... Oh My!

  • Homogenous Solution (any technology) Pros and Cons
  • Heterogeneous Solution (any technology) Pros and Cons
  • Discussion topics around why one may choose Homogenous or Heterogeneous
    • Costs
    • Support from vendors
    • Barrier to Entry (Existing solution or relationships - The good and the bad)
    • 3rd Party Adoption and Solutions
    • Training and In-Depth Technical Knowledge on solutions
    • Maintenance and Support
  • Particular Use Case Scenarios where Homogenous may be a hinderance
  • Particular Use Case Scenarios where Heterogeneous may be a hinderance
Posted by Al Solorzano at Oct 13, 2008 13:54 | Reply To This