Adventures in home working

1. Why change Presentation Server to XenApp?
1. The future is going to be bigger than the past
2. Seen as a way to communicate that Citrix is relevant to the mainstream
3. It simplifies the message
2. What is the advantage of XenApp on XenServer?
1. XenApp itself is not always worth virtualising, but some XenApp servers and supporting infrastructure servers will be worthwhile
2. Now that the overhead of XenApp on XenServer is only 7% sometimes its worth virtualising because there is a benefit from everything being virtual, even if the ratio is 1 to 1
3. Some customers would rather have a smaller number of users per server than the hardware allows, hence pushing the ratio to say 4 to 1.
3. Why did Ian decide to develop Xen?
1. A typical open source success story
2. Very close working relationship with hardware vendors, shipping Xen code has features that won’t light up until hardware ships that supports it in 2009
3. Lots of open source innovation on top of Xen and extending Xen
4. Although Citrix say this is not Linux like, I think it is, only the hypervisor is open source, very similar to the Linux kernel.  Both projects by keeping the core deliverable limited in scope allow a lot of innovation around it
4. Will Citrix drop Xen when HyperV comes out?
1. Citrix will leverage Microsoft, but that’s all
2. Think of Xen and HyperV in the same way as ICA and RDP,  my comment – this analogy works provided that HyperV lags behind Xen in capabilities
3. Citrix definitely think they will stay ahead of Microsoft in the hypervisor space
5. General question on integration
1. Citrix are very keen on Powershell
2. Workflow studio integrates well with powershell
3. Several products are optimised to work well together, eg WanScaler for caching streamed apps and shaping ICA traffic
6. Citrix core DNA?
1. To be a good enterprise citizen
2. For example snap into and integrate with other management infrastructures
3. Good partner
4. Pragmatic
5. Will continue to stick to what they do best
6. Not compete by closed lock-in strategies, Citrix will provide best integration with their own products, but will also work well with competing products
7. Will everyone in the world be on XenDesktop tomorrow?
1. XenDesktop is very exciting
2. Its not for everyone
3. XenApp is still more cost effective
4. XenDesktop promise extends uowards to those who need a “higher definition” experience – still not clear to me what they mean by this
8. Is there a Linux host for XenDesktop?
1. Currently no, Citrix claim that this is based on demand, I’m surprised I would expect XenDesktop for Linux being much more cost effective than Windows
9. What’s the roadmap to fix inter application communication with virtualization?
1. This is a key issue, coming out in the next release “real soon now”
10. As the OS moves to the network disk, why not put the apps on the network disk as well like Thinstall (now Thinapp)
1. Citrix didn’t really answer the question, however my comment is that if you pre-cache the apps in the PVS image then the experience is very Thinstall like
2. XenDesktop is still very early, Citrix are definitely looking to move to supporting physical desktops, laptops just as well as they support virtual desktops and hosted apps/desktops
11. Will Citrix provide a different licensing model – eg monthly subscription
1. No, it doesn’t seem to make sense since customers have already invested in the server hardware.  My comment, I’m not so sure – in the flexible datacentre the servers can be reused elsewhere, and subscription licences would allow customers to invest in Citrix only while they are competitive and switch if they stop being

Tags: Citrix, iforum

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