23. January 2009 by Tony.

Project Independence

The face of desktop computing will change fundamentally over the next few years. Enterprises have long struggled to meet user demands for flexible computing while controlling costs, improving security and simplifying manageability. Achieving these goals requires the right technology as well as a shift in how IT and the user views desktop computing.

Project Independence is a strategic product initiative with partners like Intel, focused on local virtual desktops. We are working together to deliver on our combined vision for the future of desktop computing. Here are our predictions for how desktop computing will change:

• Prediction #1 – Your company will no longer own your laptop (go ahead, buy that cool new computer)
• Prediction #2 – Your company will spend more on coffee and office supplies than it does on desktop management
• Prediction #3 – You will access your corporate desktop from whatever device is most convenient at the time (just like you do with email today)
• Prediction #4 – You will switch back and forth between work and personal desktops on the same device, without thinking twice
• Prediction #5 – You will never complain about your PC being too slow again

Watch Sumit Dhawan, Vice President, Product Marketing introduce these five predictions and how they will impact the future of desktop computing: http://www.citrix.com/English/ps2/products/feature.asp?contentID=1685500

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23. January 2009 by Tony.

One interesting note for the virualization junkies out there.  Windows 7 supports boot from .VHD file WITHOUT the need for a hypervisor.  This is huge step in client side virtualization and management.  Eventually,  You’ll be able to use a tool like Citrix’s Provision Server to PXE boot your workstation(this part you can do now) and provide an offline version for laptops.  This one .VHD image could be used to run Windows 7 on:

·         Raw Hardware on the Client

·         Type 1 Hypervisor on the Client

·         Type 2 Hypervisor on the Client

·         Streamed to the Raw Hardware/Hypervisor on the client

·         Raw Hardware delivered Remotely

·         Type 1 Hypervisor delivered Remotely

·         Type 2 Hypervisor delivered Remotely

·         Streamed to the Raw Hardware/Hypervisor delivered Remotely

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14. January 2009 by Tony.

from Raj’s Blog

A Few months ago we did a bakeoff between Vmware VDI and Citrix Xendesktop solution.
Few things that are worth a mention for differences between these:
1. Citrix ICA protocol for remote desktop connectivity is better with multimedia apps than RDP 5.x.
2. Both RDP and ICA are bandwidth hogs, ICA might be slightly better over low latency link. Average bandwidth usage over WAN without any policing/acceleration technology was 300kbps with both ICA and RDP.
3. Citrix Presentation server has a great option of saving the disk space for multiple cloned desktops and also upgrading/patching only one master image and refreshing all desktops from it.
4. Citrix Access gateway for secure connectivity from outside seems like a separate purchase.(didn’t test it)

We didn’t go ahead with the whole project at that time.
Now Vmware has announced availability for VMware view that addresses point # 1,3 and 4 above. We are currently doing a bake off of vmware view and I will soon post how it went.

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6. January 2009 by Tony.

Now you can get a 417 page book - Understanding Microsoft
Virtualization by Mitch Tullock free from Microsoft Press.

By Mitch Tulloch (author)

1. Microsoft’s Virtualization Solution
2. Server Virtualization—Hyper-V
3. Managing Virtualization—VMM 2008
4. Application Virtualization—App-V
5. Presentation Virtualization—Terminal Services
6. Desktop Virtualization—MED-V and VDI
7. User State Virtualization
8. Building a Virtualization Infrastructure

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