05 November 2011

Fresh, bright and breezy from a whirlwind jaunt round London's IP Expo, and a trip to Barcelona to take in Citrix's Partner Summit and Synergy event, I am sat writing up notes for presentations coming in November.

Want to know what I thought of Synergy? In short, Barcelona is a great city, even when very, very wet. I had some splendidly insightful and thought provoking conversations with intelligent and articulate people. I also very much appreciated the opportunity to speak on a Geek Speak panel - where I won the audience vote I'm sure, until it was explained to me - Geek Speak wasn't about winning the audience vote. A mere bagatelle imo :)

I've written more (and will write a follow-up) on www.citrixthings.com, and also on www.virtualizationpractice.com. Different but similar I'll grant you, but worthy of at least a skim.

One thing that did come out of it was the sneak preview that Tim Mangan may well be doing a tour in the UK next year. I'll keep you posted.

This month I do another BrightTalk presentation as part of a Next Generation Desktop Summit, which looks an interesting day I'm sure you'd agree. I look forward to dealing with yet more technical obstacles as I speak about challenges for dealing with consumerisation in delivering a desktop strategy.

I'm also doing a couple of sessions at the E2E Virtualisation Conference (the conference formerly known as Pubforum) in London. There are normally two E2E events each year - I can't recommend them highly enough for the technical content and networking and collaboration opportunities. I expect by now, spaces are limited but I would recommend attending the next one if you can.

And all this in conjunction with pushing out a NxTop pilot, which the users are frankly clamouring for. Working with a ThinApp application virtualization integration with XenApp to deliver different Office versions without silos and working through issues with XenServer 6 and a Drobo SAN. XenServer 6 - very impressive. Drobo 800i - very neat. Together - long days and hotfixes.

Despite being only six and having an imaginary articulate tiger Calvin was right - the days are, just packed.

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Well under, go me.

The Seldom Seen Kid, Elbow

02 September 2011

There has been a flurry of announcements with regards to desktop virtualisation, including Client side hypervisors. Why is this important? I think client side hypervisors can grow beyond a purely security focused solution to offer an alternative view of desktop virtualisation solution that can complement a thin client model, or be used instead-of. I've been thinking this for a while and actively trying out solutions with clients.

I've looked at a range of offerings, with MokaFive's BareMetal and Virtual Computer's NxTop standing out as being the more useful. I'd started on a comparison white paper that built on a published document looking at NxTop (v2) vs XenClient (v1). Since then, Citrix announced that XenClient v2 was released and Virtual Computer announced the imminent release of v4 of NxTop. Luckily, I'd been able to get early heads up on both, but until I've had chance to have a look at the final code the comparison document is going to have to wait a wee while.

That's in addition to updating the white-paper on Presentation Virtualization Solutions given just about every vendor (Citrix, Quest, Ericom, Propalms..) has updated their solution for Microsoft's Remote Desktop Service (RDS) (formerly known as Terminal Services). By all means take a look; you'll only need to sign-up to read it.

Still having a bit of a pause is handy - because it gives me a chance to not only do the day job, but to use that spare time to prepare for a live webcast at upcoming BrightTALK™ Virtualization Management Summit. Of course, please take this as an invite to listen to Performance Management for Desktop Virtualization and Terminal Services”. What are the requirements for applications performance and end-user experience management in TS/RDS & desktop virtualization environments? Is the historical problem of measuring applications performance and end-user experience for Citrix XenApp (MetaFrame/Presentation Server), and Microsoft RDS/TS related to the new problem of measuring applications performance and end-user experience for desktop virtualization solutions?. Find out on 8th September @ 10am BST. The webcast is free to attend. Register for the summit by clicking here - other interesting presentations are available.

Meanwhile, the day job will be a mix of rolling out an updated XenApp 4.5 secure build, considering VMware's ThinApp for delivery of Excel 2007 and scaling up a NxTop PoC for a wider pilot.

And, a spot of running. As you may know, the Gilwood CS Travel Dpt staff spent some time volunteering with the SAFC Foundation earlier this year: a first hand chance to go and see the great work they're doing, and importantly - the difference they are making for a wide range of people in the north east, regardless of the colour of their stripes. They described a passion to make a difference and a desire to help that she found inspiring. I was inspired by it.

So inspired that over the next two months I'll be running in Middlesbrough, in Newcastle in the Great North Run, and in Kielder in a marathon. Seeing the region at its best.. from a road.. while sweating. If you can, feel free to sponsor in the currency of your choice via justgiving here:

http://www.justgiving.com/andyruns4safcfoundation10

Cheers.

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A bit over, but that included a blag for sponsorship so I'm giving me a bye

Yours Truly, Angry Mob, Kaiser Chiefs