I could list all the reasons I think the iPad + Citrix are a great fit for healthcare, but it may be more meaningful coming directly from Physicians and IT Pros in the heathcare industry. This is a sample of what has been shared on the blogs when we asked what would Citrix Receiver for iPad be used for.
Dr. Paul Altmann says:
” Chris, the combination of Citrix and the iPad will, I am sure, be a huge success in the healthcare setting where the form factor of the iPad makes it the best all round device to access medical records in real time as clinicians care for their patients.Specifically, I am looking forward to showcase this for Cerner Millennium users who routinely access the application over Citrix.
There will be many other settings where the iPad, which is the first really decently sized, light, with good battery life “thin client”, will become very popular.
Dr Paul Altmann
Clinical Director – Health Informatics – NHS South Central & Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
Consultant Nephrologist – Oxford Kidney Unit The Churchill – Oxford OX3 7 “
.. says:
“I would love to be able to use citrix on an iPad. I currently use Citrix to log into our hospitals EMR, Epic, from home. Being able to do so both at home and even in the hospital would be awesome. “
..says:
“So Are you saying that I would be able to use my GE Healthcare Centricity EMR Application from the Ipad? We connect to it using XenApp. This is really the only thing holding me back from getting an iPad is that whether I would be able to run my EMR for work.
..says:
“Please tell us you are working on a citrix client for the IPad. It will be so “revolutionary” if you have one ready by the time the IPad is available. Physicians will love to use an IPad to handle their Electronic Medical Records at bedside, exam rooms.”
“Chris Smith says:
Yes, I think this would be fantastic. Many EHR (electronic health record) applications have developed stylus-driven interfaces for slate PCs (tablets with no keyboard option), so touch interface is a natural easy win for those already developed applications. Many of the EHR applications are also already deployed via Citrix, so this is a serious WIN WIN for Citrix to pursue… and as you mentioned, Citrix has already done quite a bit of work on the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone. This really does have so much more capability, now that you have the larger screen.
Also, multi-touch is supported in Windows 7, so it will be interesting to see how the XenReciever can interact with the Win7 host operating system environment, or even hosted application environment, but having the Receiver bridge that gap in the user experience via the iPad would be amazing!”
..says:
“I work for a health care provider and this could be huge. It turns the iPad from an interesting toy, to potentially powerful tool for business”
Todd Bruni says:
“Being in a large Healthcare environment I also see this device as having huge potential. First for ARRA/Hitech initiatives such as CPOE, BMV, Physician Documentation, etc physicians, clinicians, and/or nursing are going to want, need, demand mobile devices. As multiple people have pointed out one of those devices are tablets. The cost of those devices intended for Healthcare are extremely expensive (Motion Computing, etc). Second, as people have pointed out protecting patient data is a requirement. That is one of the beauties of desktop virtualization whether its hosted shared desktops or hosted dedicated desktops that data stays in the data center. Finally organizations need to hit meaningful use in the not so distant future. Most of the large EMR vendors are not web-based today and organizations have to start taking steps now to meet the meaningful use timelines. That means these applications are client based today which is another reason to do desktop virtualization now until the ISVs solutions are ported to the web.
So how does this wrap back around to this device? Any device that is going to help healthcare organizations start taking steps now to adopt desktop virtualization, mobility, extend battery life, and move data into the datacenter without having to spend $2k on a tablet, $3k on cart solution is a great candidate. Being able to purchase 4 or 5 of these devices at the cost of one tablet makes it very intriguing. Add a docking station with keyboard and mouse for $40-50 in key locations and now you don’t have to worry about real estate on the floors (another huge healthcare issue) and the device becomes easy to stop and make updates to your EMR.
Finally, I don’t remember who said it but I completely agree with whoever said that we won’t know any of this until we get these devices into the clinicians hands we won’t know.”
..says:
“Already have XenDesktop environment pushing around 20 desktops using Nextgen out to several medical clinics in my area. Was able to get budget money for purchasing 5 iPads as a demo in less than 2 minutes. Will be an interesting demo as I have connections to several hospitals that are all looking into the EPIC Haiku Application also being developed with Keiser Medical Group in mind. A current rolling wireless cart with a WYSE Thin Client typically costs a Hospital in Oregon $20,000 after we did our full ROI 2 years ago. Interesting what happened in 2 years! “
Checkout the Heathcare IT Community site http://community.citrix.com/p/healthcare
Learn how to make the iPad work for your healthcare organization at Citrix Synergy.
IT has a number of options to enable remote access for employees wanting mobile access to email and work applications from their iPads. There are however pros and cons for each option as well as some prerequisite questions to consider.
Considerations
Company iPads - For company owned iPads a likely scenario is to treat iPads similar to mobile phones. If company apps or email are allowed to run native on the iPad then Mobile Device Management ( MDM ) software may be necessary to assure corporate security policy is enforced. BES servers may be in place already for Blackberry’s, this type of control may be need to be duplicated for company iPads as well. The forth coming improvements in iOS4 will help with email however additional applications will still require management. If however company data is not allowed to reach the iPad as discussed below, then the management costs and administration could be significantly reduced.
Personal iPads - Many early adopter employees and specifically executives are now bringing their new iPad to work and asking IT for access to company apps. One problem is most companies have policies against storing company data on anything but company owned equipment. While the iPad does include a great email app including support for Exchange, the decision needs to be made to change the company policy or allow exceptions for iPad users. Beyond email, corporate calendars are also supported by the iPad, however most users complain of conflicts and errors compared to Outlook Calendar. The best solution for most companies dealing with personal iPads is to not allow apps or data to run locally. IT can provide safe remote access to hosted email and apps or virtual desktops.
Applications - Beyond Email, determining what apps are required by users and if they are available on the iPad is a big consideration. Many company web apps require specific browsers and are not compatible with mobile Safari on the iPad. Windows apps will obviously not work locally and although iWork and a few Office clones are available, most users will find these limiting.
Other Tablets - Since the iPad was announced it seems like there is a new Tablet announced or rumored every week. Some like the Dell Streak or Cisco Cius run Android but others will run Windows or WebOS or MeeGo or other yet to be named OS. The iPad has a head start but it will not be the only Tablet that needs access to company apps. So solving the problem only for iPads will be another point solution for a growing challenge.
Options
Native iPad Apps - If every app required is available on the iPad, then this may be the right answer for company iPads provided they can be managed through MDM software and administration. The pros for native apps are user experience and offline operation ( app dependent ) For personal iPads however assuring corporate security compliance is a challenge with native apps. Also future support for non iPad Tablets should be considered.
VPN with Web Apps - The iPad does have limited native VPN capability in the OS and can support some web apps. These apps need to be tested and expect many not to be compatible. Again consideration for data left behind on personal iPads needs to be taken into account.
Hosted Virtual Applications - Applications running on Windows servers such as Windows XenApp ( or Terminal Services/RDS ) can be an ideal solution for secure iPad app delivery. In addition to Windows apps, Web Apps that require IE or specific browser plug-ins can easily be delivered to iPads. With XenApp IT can dictate what user gets what app and can easily turn on or off access to applications without managing the iPad itself. Only a single app, the Citrix Receiver is required on the iPad and the configuration can be done via emailed or clicking a link on an intranet web wage. No MDM software is required or concern about company data on personal iPads. A con of this method is that a WiFi or 3G connection is required and apps will not work offline.
Over 200,000 companies already have Citrix XenApp infrastructure that can support the iPad although some may need to configuration changes to enable access. A Citrix Access Gateway is also recommended for secure access, again already in place at many companies. For companies without Citrix, the implementation can be small as a single Windows server with XenApp Fundamentals which is good for between 5 and 75 users.
Virtual Desktops - Hosted Virtual Desktops or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure ( VDI ) such as XenDesktop provides a full Windows 7 environment for each user running on a server in a company datacenter or service provider. Again only the Citrix Receiver is required on the iPad and IT has complete control to turn on or off access. Applications can be installed in the Windows 7 images or be streamed to the image via Application Virtualization. Citrix XenDesktop is required for this solution along with servers supporting the Virtual Desktop images. A free starter edition is available for up to 10 users called XenDesktop Express .
So now that the iPad has topped 3 million units with no slow down in sight, it’s obvious that the tablet form factor has been legitimized and also has a place in business ( or at least remote access to the business ). If you are in IT and considering how to support the iPad let us know your challenges.
It’s been just over a year since I joined Citrix, and this evening I thought I would carve out a few hours and look back on an incredible year. I’ve been exposed to so many new experiences and great people that have helped evolve my thinking. I’ve witnessed major steps forward with the product, but rather than list every product accomplishment and bore you to death, I thought instead I would say thank you. Thank you to my colleagues who have made me feel so very welcome and put up with me pushing us forward. 
Thank you to so many people in the community who always keep me honest, have sincerely opened up to share their insights with me and given me the opportunity to share my thoughts with them. For this I am truly grateful.
Since I am in the mood for reflecting. I felt like scribbling down my thoughts on the evolution of desktop management as I have experienced in my career and relay some of the conflicts and thinking that I see as I have spoken to a broad customer base over the last year and discuss how I think we need to move forward towards a better future.
The evolution of desktop management
In the early days of enterprise desktop computing, desktop images were built with floppy disks/CDs and sneakernet was used to deploy images with applications manually installed using native setup routines. In time these desktop images became personal to the user as they configured them as they pleased and installed software that they wanted. This approach never scaled and inventory was impossible to maintain in an enterprise environment and personalization never persisted when users moved to different machines. This led to a series of innovations.
- Image management technology, that would allow you to clone and personalize a machine became available. Microsoft made it easier to automate image creation with Sysprep and companies like Ghost cloning software became popular later followed by Altiris, which extended the concept to delivering images over a network.
- Microsoft added technologies to Windows such as profiles and folder redirection to enable personalization across machines enabling roaming use cases.
- Application setups started to become more standardized and companies like WinInstall gained early market share with their software packaging format to streamline deployment.
As organizations began to acquire more PC assets, the need to manage the inventory of software and hardware became more important. This led to the creation of systems management tools that included inventory management such as MS Systems Management Server (now SCCM) and Marimba (Acquired by BMC) which also included sophisticated machine focused software deployment at scale.
With the plumbing in place, this set of tools powered many enterprises, but cracks started to appear as things began to scale up and organizations became more complex. Packaging formats like WinInstall required manual admin intervention every time for enterprise deployments of setup programs. I don’t recall ever seeing a WinInstall software package from a 3rd party. There was no consistency in the industry, and application packaging was cumbersome. In addition Windows itself had a problem called DLL hell. Applications that shared DLL components on the operating system would collide with each other. The WinInstall packaging format was not able to reconcile these differences. There had to be a better way.
Two new application-packaging formats began to emerge. MSI and OSD, both with MS involvement. In short despite OSD being a very flexible format, MS Office shipped as a componentized MSI. While this format did not solve DLL hell, it made it easier to reconcile. MSI packages started to take hold within the broad eco system and became an accepted standard. Many 3rd parties began shipping their installers as MSI packages which were much easier to customize by IT. I certainly recall repacking many MSIs when migrating from Windows NT 4.0 to Windows XP, which I think was the big event that really stimulated the change. To make this migration easier, packaging authoring vendors started to emerge like InstallShield and Wise (not the thin client people). Many enterprises and service providers standardized on the MSI format and authoring tools because they could simply modify 3rd party MSI’s as opposed to having to repackage the entire application from scratch. The software distribution (ESD) companies started to embrace enterprise deployment of MSI packages.
This model continued for several years and is still the dominant model in many organizations, and once again after a few years of operation at scale the flaws became evident. MSI’s required high admin skill sets, outsourcing did not make it significantly cheaper and DLL conflicts were still there. In addition the amount of software in the market was growing, changes to existing software were occurring more rapidly and security patching frequency was increasing to a point where zero day vulnerabilities gave customers little if any time to regression test remediation patches on both OS and applications.
The change management problem
As the number and iterations of applications and OS changes began to grow with increasing organizational change, the distributed computing model required governance. With all the moving parts and interdependencies making a change is complex and risky because one does not know how change will affect so many custom distributed images. As a result, organizations have built up sophisticated change management processes and teams that police this complexity trying to enforce some known state.
This usually means that updates are slowly managed into the environment, often going through rigorous testing, qa, uat and phased production deployments. Exceptions are made for security related changes and accelerated processes are available. However this increases the risk of poorly written security patches impacting production environments as evidenced by the recent XP patches in Feb 2010 which affected many customers. As you increase the scope from security patches for the core OS to core applications the complexity and risk becomes exponentially greater.
When a problem does occur, there is seldom a reliable way to rollback a change for security patches or MSI’s and to keep track of the environments state. (I still don’t of any organization who is truly comfortable uninstalling MSI packages at mass scale) This is often addressed with phased rollouts into production after the initially rounds of testing and verification. Even when you have a successful rollout, there is then the task of maintenance. You may have rolled out successfully, but you then need to go and verify the bits actually got there, and all of a sudden you are in the business of configuration management.
Expand the scope once again to include regular applications that require frequent changes, the need to keep the environment stable and the net result is poor flexibility and agility for the enterprise. Developers especially in my experience hated having to go through the whole packaging process and actively started to seek out ways to get around the system that was too slow for them. Java Web Start a simple ESD that pulls from a single source and requires no admin rights started to spring up all over the place, and there was no real way to police it effectively without implementing yet another agent to deal with application whitelisting or blacklisting. That’s what the Java developers did, the Windows developers were stuck and converting their apps to Web apps in 99% of use cases was a pipe dream.
The rise of XenApp and the profile guys
To help address the change management problem one use case for our XenApp customer base is to offer supplementary environments to the corporate desktop where rapid updates are required for a particular application. (A lot of my early experience with Citrix technologies was because developers had an update problem). For similar reasons customers use low cost Hosted virtual desktops for groups of users that are largely similar to enable faster updates and simpler management. However for both of these use cases, there are limitations as sharing an OS does restrict the ability for users to personalize. Sure you can get a long way just using the standard OS features such as roaming profiles and folder redirection. For many application vendors, especially internally developed ones it was not a big deal because those applications would write their customization somewhere within their own infrastructure if the native OS features were not good enough. However not so easy for 3rd party applications. As a result a number of vendors such as Appsense, RES, Tricerat have innovated to make the XenApp environment more customizable per user. In the case of Citrix this is known as the User Profile Management feature which we got from a company called Sepago. Even VMware acquired a company call RTO to help them with this problem, which is currently not part of the View VDI only offering.
However, while this seems obvious to XenApp minded people, it’s not necessarily intuitive to regular desktop admins. A recent blog helps illustrate this point. Many desktop admins have yet to take the first basic step of enabling roaming profiles as opposed to local profiles, which do not allow users to change machines and persist some level of personalization.
So why is there this discrepancy?
I believe to understand this, it’s important to keep in mind that desktop users typically use one device and therefore roam less. With XenApp, users roam all the time from a myriad of devices and share an operating system. As a result they are more sensitized to the challenges of personalization when roaming. As desktop virtualization becomes more common, it’s not a leap of faith to assume that desktops will face similar challenges due to user mobility and device diversity. Therefore I think it will be increasingly important to abstract the user preferences from the desktop.
So application virtualization is the silver bullet right?
Several years ago, various application virtualization solutions started to appear on the market. Softricity (acquired by MS and rebranded as App-V), Appstream (acquired by Symantec), ThinStall (acquired by VMware and rebranded to ThinApp), InstallFree, Xenocode and Endeavors amongst the most well known. At Citrix we have built our own and it’s a feature of XenApp called Application Streaming. XenApp is also compatible with App-V.
The value proposition with application virtualization was that applications could now be isolated from the operating systems to solve DLL hell, simplify application packaging, enabling applications to be delivered by users on demand and to reduce support costs. In addition, the hope was that now one common base image could be applied to all users, with the differences between users delivered via application virtualization and user profiles.
Ok I will say it, we are not at that reality yet. Application virtualization does not offer 100% application compatibility, although this is getting better over time. Other challenges include inter application communication, x64 support in some cases, the need to repackage all existing applications (just like the old days when MSI was adopted) and integration with existing software distribution scaled infrastructures. Certainly that’s not true in all cases, but I am speaking broadly as it stands today but expect this to ramp up as people migrate to Windows 7. IMO, for many customers application virtualization to date has been an evolution not a revolution and they will continue to use existing application management practices until they have a catalyst like Windows 7 and desktop virtualization.
In addition, numerous customers have commented that the benefits of desktop virtualization are many, and that should not mean having to rip out existing systems management processes and tools day 1. These are sunk costs, often political battle grounds with non desktop or Citrix teams that can result in barriers to adoption. Cultural change takes time.
Hmm, so we’ll take this in steps
As a result some customers simply say they will phase in desktop virtualization. First move to the data center, and then adopt systems management changes over time. Other’s of course are more aggressive. Neither are wrong, it’s a question of priorities. I have yet to meet a single customer who is not thinking that moving to a simpler more efficient management paradigm for the desktop does not make sense.
People handle this differently, some simply deploy assigned desktops with existing machine based management tools in place,(usually means they have a clear business need) others brut force it,(forward thinkers) while the unfortunate ones get into circular internal debates and endless POCs that go nowhere.(usually no business sponsor)
So user installed apps are the silver bullet and the best thing since sliced bread?
Once again much debate is brewing over a potential technology solution. The idea here is that a single image could be managed by IT, but users retain the flexibility to install applications. Kind of the ideal fix for lack of current management standards/process, lack of business users understanding why some controls are needed and IT’s inability to provide flexibility. One side argues that a single image solution with the ability to enable a user to install apps on top gives them the ultimate flexibility and management simplification they need. Others argue that this is a stupid idea, because legally users can’t just accept click through software agreements for liability reasons, admin rights are an open door for malware and of course we come back to 100% application compatibility is still not possible with today’s technology. Yet other’s will argue that this is too complex, will take years to mature and the market for it is still not proven. There is validity in each of these arguments.
It sometime feels overwhelming and why not just stick with the status quo.
The scariest thought of all
Sticking with the status quo, yikes! I don’t say that just because I work for Citrix. I fundamentally think the change management problem is only going to get worse over time and status quo is not a sustainable model for the long haul, just like the original desktop models were not. Distributed management of devices, OS, apps and users to me is like a dog chasing his tail. We will never catch it. It will always be complex, heavy and slow. It will not allow users to roam easily across many devices and connect to work from optimal places. IT will not be agile. It represents a machine centric view of the world, when we should be building towards a user centric vision of the desktop. In the future what is a desktop? That’s a great discussion, but what I think will be the same as today is users who want to get to their stuff, easily and quickly. They want that kind of technology, something simple. When I look at other models it is simple. I want to search, I go to Google, Bing, Yahoo etc and it’s just works. I want to buy a book, Amazon. It’s simple stuff to consume as a service on many device form factors. Now those are probably over simplifications and I don’t really account for the session management work the desktop OS does for us with Windows applications, but IMHO we need to create something users want.
I look at the amazing uptake and customer interest in the Citrix Receiver on the iPad. I scratch my head sometimes and wonder why, why do our enterprise customers really like it? To me it boils down to users want it, it’s not a need question. User want to connect to work in a different way. I see that as an incredible shift that is becoming more real everyday. We’ve talked about consumerization for a while and I continue to believe that beyond any vendor it will reshape the landscape. I’ve spent a lot of time talking to customers struggling with how to deal with this shift.
In addition, many CIOs I speak with, tell me that 2/3 of their budget is operational costs, and the remaining is innovation. They want to reverse that balance and build solutions that users value and will enable their business. They are asking themselves questions like, if cloud means at some point IT services will be consumed centrally how will my organization need to adapt to take advantage? These are transformational strategic discussions that are being shaped by forces larger than any single vendor. For many of these folks, desktop virtualization is just part of a transformational strategy to offer new IT services efficiently. In order to accomplish this they are seeking out ways to abstract state from hardcoded infrastructure so that it can be created on demand and used more efficiently. I don’t think any of these shifts towards IT as an on demand service or consumerization are trade secrets. I think everybody in the industry is finding their way with these changing dynamics. In the case of Citrix we are actively working towards and committed to simplifying the desktop and enabling new ways for people and IT to work. I like to think of it as the stateless desktop. Sure we are not perfect and we have work to do, there will be bumps along the way. However I truly believe this is a worthy goal and creates a better tomorrow. It would be far too easy for me to simply give up and stay with the status quo because it is familiar, or become preoccupied with a niche use case constraint. Fortunately I have had the pleasure to meet so many leaders who understand the changing dynamics, the power of a stateless desktop architecture and are navigating their organizations accordingly. Those are some of the most rewarding conversations I have had and why one year in I am still so excited about having an opportunity to help shape the future.
Traditionally Citrix has not been considered to be a key component in an organizations mobile device strategy. Typically mobile solutions include; Exchange integration, BES servers, and more recently Mobile Device Management software. However with increased IT challenges resulting from the explosion of devices and user requirements, Citrix has leveraged its technology into the mobility space, and has made some great progress giving you many reasons to reconsider.
1) Security - This is the top issue for enterprise mobility. With Citrix, apps and data remain under IT control with data stored on company network or XenApp/XenDesktop servers As a result devices do not necessarily need to be managed in the traditional sense and there is no data to remotely wipe.
2) Employee owned devices - The iPhone started a trend that is extending to iPads, Androids and predictably more to come. More employees – including execs and revenue generating users require access to corporate apps to be more productive. Citrix provides IT a safe way to allow access while not letting the data to be stored on the device.
3) Compliance - Most enterprises today have policies against allowing company data to be stored on anything except company owned and managed devices. If you are supporting employee owned devices and your not using Citrix you probably need to change the policy or make an exception with a risk assessment.
4) Email - Every smartphone has a capable email client, however they also have deficiencies for corporate use. iPhone and iPad still have problems with Exchange syncing for Calendars. Androids have security deficiencies. They all have issues with employee ownership. A good alternative is to run a full Outlook ( or Notes ) client on XenApp with columns and reading panes adjusted to fit the real estate of the device. In addition Citrix is developing an Email client for Exchange that looks and feels just like a mobile email app but runs securely under IT control on XenApp. This was demonstrated recently at Synergy from both iPhone and Android, stay tuned for updates.
5) Corporate Apps - Beyond email most employees also want access to the companies apps they may need while mobile. The question is not how many apps are in the Apple or Android app store , it’s how many company apps are accessible on the target device. With Citrix virtually every company app could be available on a mobile device. These will work unmodified, however we also suggest configuring the apps to be Mobile-Friendly when possible. Also many existing tools like Xcelcius or Hyperion can be used to build Dashboards that target the mobile. A new product called PowerGadgets for XenApp can be used by non developers to create great looking mobile apps that run on XenApp and access standard company databases or web services.
6) Build Once, Run Anywhere - It is clear that there will not be a single mobile platform for the foreseeable future. For enterprises that build internal apps with Visual Studio, or other standard platforms, many are now faced with the dilemma of selecting a platform(s) and gaining the skills to build mobile apps. With Citrix, in-house developers can use existing development platforms and skills to create custom apps by following simple guidelines on real estate and usability. The apps can then be hosted on XenApp servers and delivered to any device.
7) User experience - Apple has set a high bar on usability and the touch interface. Citrix leverages the native touch interface for iOS and Android so gestures like pinch, zoom and pan work like native apps. We also have added gestures like vertical swipe for scrolling and horizontal swipe for paging through powerpoint slides or other apps that use right/left key. Even though most apps will run unmodified on XenApp we recommend targeting apps and mobile use cases and following the best practices in 5 or 6 above to provide users the best experience.
Tablets - The iPad has legitimized the tablet form factor and there are new ones announced or rumored every month. In most cases Citrix virtual apps or desktops can be deployed without modifications and minimal effort. Tablets are good first candidates to evaluate Citrix before extending to smartphones.
9) ROI - Most enterprises already have Citrix infrastructure and skills somewhere in the company. If mobile adoption grows significantly then additional licenses/servers may be required but need to be balanced with the alternative costs such as:
A) Cost of a security breach due to a lost device - At a minimum this means impacted IT resources needed to react, contain, and explain the incident. Worse case it could be $ millions in fines, government audits, damaged brands and ruined careers.
B) Employees will buy their own device. Instead of company purchased devices many employees will gladly buy their own device and only get an expense reimbursement for the service.
C) Cost of new Mobile Device Management infrastructure and skills. Also keep in mind continuing to invest in a single platform that only supports one device will satisfy a shrinking percentage of users.
D) Premium data plans cost $40-45 per user/month. Yet with Citrix only a standard $30 data plan is required. This alone can save $180 year per employee.
E) Redundant resources required to develop and maintain apps for multiple devices.
F) Redundant infrastructure to deploy apps to users with different devices.
10) Future Proof - The only thing you can count on in the mobility space is change and growth. Blackberry, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, WebOS, Meego (and the list goes on) all may find there their way into the enterprise. Investment in a single platform will be an incomplete strategy, and investments in multiple platforms will be prohibitively expensive. Citrix will provide Receivers for popular mobile devices now and into the future making any current investment last beyond the hype cycle. Citrix will also be leading the enablement of Workshifting and delivering apps and virtual desktops with new visionary mobile features such as the Citrix Receiver for iPhone 4.0 with Nirvana Phone capability.
If you have not previously considered Citrix for mobility it’s easy to get started. Go to the Apple App Store, Android Marketplace, or Citrix download page and install the free Citrix Receiver. There are cloud demos available to experience a number of apps to try first hand and to share with your peers.
Let us know what you think.
Learn more at http://Citrix.com/Receiver
For all XenApp customers who used Trade-up program to get access to complete desktop virtualization with XenDesktop 4, congratulations! For others who could not, I have some great news.
New Trade-up Promotion to XenDesktop
Today, Citrix announced a new Trade-up to XenDesktop promotion, making it easy and cost-effective for our XenApp customers to join the thousands of other users that are making virtual desktops a reality with XenDesktop.
The Trade-up promotion that ended on June 30th, 2010 was a tremendous success. Many customers took advantage of the opportunity to add desktop virtualization to their proven XenApp implementations for a fraction of the cost. Now, XenApp customers have more time to save big on the industry standard in desktop virtualization, XenDesktop.
Important Announcement Highlights
- Save up to 75% off XenDesktop – With the new trade-up promotion, customers still save up to 75% on the retail price of XenDesktop.
- Attractive options for all XenApp customers – The new Trade-up promotion provides a cost-effective path to desktop virtualization for any XenApp customer, including customers with XenApp Fundamentals, XenApp Advanced Edition, XenApp Enterprise Edition and XenApp Platinum Edition licenses with active or expired Subscription Advantage. All customers can trade-up to XenDesktop Enterprise Edition or XenDesktop Platinum Edition. Additionally, customers with active Subscription Advantage have the unique opportunity to trade-up all of their XenApp licenses and get two XenDesktop licenses for every one XenApp license they already own.
- The industry-leading desktop virtualization solution – XenApp customers that trade-up to XenDesktop keep all of the application delivery functionality their business relies on and add the most comprehensive virtual desktop technologies, including VDI, with our industry leading Flexcast Delivery technology.
- Limited time offer – The new Trade-up promotion will only run until December 31st, 2010.
What’s changed?
The changes in the new Trade-up promotion versus the promotion that ended on June 30th, 2010 include different pricing, and a new 1-for-1 Trade-up path for XenApp Fundamentals customers. Even though the pricing on the new promotion is higher; however, it is still the most compelling offer for all XenApp customers to move up to complete desktop virtualization that they can adopt at their own pace.
The new Trade-up promotion is officially available today.
Learn more
Hear more about the Trade-up in this short video
And, get your Trade-up questions answered with this FAQ
Finally, do your own math with Trade-up to XenDesktop 4 calculator
So my new iPad is already making an impact on my work life. My normal routine in the morning is to scan my email from my iPhone while the coffee is brewing and then take the coffee on the road ( & listen to podcasts for the commute ). I look for all the emails that need urgent attention and may send out a quick reply. Most things with a link I delete or save to read later from my PC at work or home at night. I also check my calender but if I am using the native Calendar app I won’t accept any meetings because strange things still happen between Exchange and the iPhone Calendar app. By the time the coffee is ready I am off to work and following up on things from the office.
This morning however I picked up my iPad and started to check my email. After a quick scan I started going back to emails and reading the entire thread. For emails with useful links ( like press reviews of Citrix on the iPad ) I clicked and went to the website and read the entire column. Instead of taking my coffee on the road as normal I sat down with my cup and soon found myself immersed in email as if I was at work. With access to the full Outlook app I could accept meetings and trust what it told me. Using Outlook I also didn’t need to go in and out of Email, Calendar and Contacts, it was all right there. Before I knew it an hour had passed and I was pouring a second cup of coffee to take on the road.
Not a big deal, but I think this experience may be happening all over soon inside and outside of work. The iPad providing instant access to the apps you need and a great experience may have more of an impact than you expect. Be forewarned !
It continues to amaze me how often people have such a poor understanding of what it takes to deliver real world remote user experience for desktop use cases. Often much of this confusion is a result of thinking that all you need is a protocol for internal LAN use with lot’s of bandwidth and a staged demo to impress the uninformed. Lacking understanding and experience with respect to the desktop, VMware continue to sponsor fud in their desperate attempt to remain relevant in desktop virtualization and lock in customers to expensive commodity virtual infrastructure. So let’s take a look at some of this fud and also talk about where Citrix is innovating next with HDX Nitro Technologies.
The VMware protocol story continues to flip flop
First they were RDP friendly, then Net2Display and now the stable favorite is PCoIP which is from a tiny company in Vancouver Canada, called Teradici. Teradici make hardware based solutions (complete custom lock in from tiny company = risk) and VMware offers a software version of PCoIP that only works with the ESX Hypervisor. PCoIP is not a desktop user experience solution. It is only a protocol and not usable in the real world except for very niche use cases.
PCoIP does not offer printing solutions or profile solutions. VMware has partnered and acquired options to address these gaps. These are still not integrated in View 4 and View 4.5 seems to be suffering from all the integration complexity of bolt on baggage. VMware have had to embarrassingly delay their latest release, see here. Irrespective it’s clear, native PCoIP does not provide these basic features for real world use. Therefore, I find it rather amusing when I hear claims like PCoIP is designed from the ground up to deliver desktops. It just demonstrates a lack of understanding of the desktop and frankly is a naive claim.
If you want to use a HTTP-SLL web front over the internet to access your View environment, it’s not supported with PCoIP. You have to revert to RDP with View to accomplish this. Something VMware likes to sweep under the rug, as it represents more bolt on 3rd path baggage for alternatives that force you to change your access infrastructure. This is basic stuff, if you understand that a core value proposition of VDI is the ability to connect from anywhere. HDX technologies with XenDesktop handle this today.
Let’s extend the connect from anywhere thought. We’ve already established that you can’t connect for a key use case with PCoIP, but even if you could how would you manage policy? How would you prevent data leaving your organization from your central desktops? PCoIP has no understanding of this. HDX provides Smart Access policies integrated with Access Gateway technologies.
Now let’s pretend for a second that all these problems could be solved. Then comes the issue that PCoIP is purely UDP based. Anybody who has worked in any marginally complex environment knows that the ability to inspect UDP traffic is a nightmare on a network and requires opening up more firewall ports. I am sure this is going to result in plenty of interesting conversations between View PCoIP customers and their respective security teams. Additionally, if you want to accelerate traffic over the wire, you will have a fun time using your existing WAN accelerators which typically focus on TCP optimization, just like Citrix’s own Branch Repeater technology which is part of HDX. Now despite all this, I do believe that UDP is great for delivering some rich media content types, but to use it exclusively to deliver user experience is just plain dumb for real world application.
PCoIP consumes plenty of bandwidth. Don’t believe the fud, see here. Page 8 tables 2 and 3 provide a good dose of reality and shows you what happens when you start to provide richer resolutions and move to multi monitor environments. I shudder to think what happens when you put multiple users in a branch office on a shared link! Now I am sure the fud police at VMware will quickly point out recent improvements and upcoming enhancements in View 4.5. But do they really expect people to believe they have performed a miracle? It’s not just me pointing these things out, as you can see here. As a technologist, I think it’s interesting that they may be improving things over time, but I also know from experience that this stuff takes years to get right if you really understand the difference between just a basic protocol vs. delivering rich user experience, hello….
It starts to get even worse
I am editing this blog on a flight to Citrix Synergy San Francisco connected over wireless on my Mac and using my XenDesktop. My iPad also connects just fine to a published Powerpoint 2010 presentation at 35,000ft. Currently I am using my iPad as a second screen to view the presentation as I type on my main laptop screen. Try doing that with PCoIP. Even if PCoIP could handle the bandwidth, securely traverse a firewall etc, it still won’t help. PCoIP is only able to support Windows clients. I would hate to be a MAC user at a company where some genius in IT thought that just because they virtualized a few servers on ESX that PCoIP would solve all their client diversity needs.
PCoIP only works on ESX. Are you kidding me? Why will people keep spending obscene amounts of money on a commodity infrastructure? Hypervisor diversity is going to be the norm. If you don’t believe that, then you believe that as the cloud matures everybody will use a single hypervisor. Nonsense! It’s like saying everybody will use one hardware vendor for all servers….
At desktop scale the cost of the virtual infrastructure with VMware will just keep on growing. What is the benefit for the desktop? I bet in most cases that the number of desktops in an organization is far greater than servers. So the economics should be clear, even if VMware keep giving away View as part of ELAs to lock you in. Why will you continue to pay $$$$ fees for vSphere/ESX when Hyper-V and XenServer are essentially free minus the advanced management capabilities which are still a lot cheaper. Do you really believe that the Hypervisor as it stands today is cost effective at desktop scale? Why would you lock customers out of all other Hypervisors with just a protocol? I can certainly understand if it’s certain features, but a complete lock out, it’s ridiculous!
You also miss out on all the flexibility of having desktop virtualization options as opposed to VDI alone. How’s VMware doing in terms of flexibility? Well, they are rapidly back peddling on CVP and still only offering a VDI only model. With no sign of View 4.5, it’s empty promises all around.
It is no wonder that customers are choosing Citrix XenDesktop so often and why we are the leaders. It’s why smart customers are running from the fud and not wasting time with View or PCoIP. They get that it in the real world you need more than a protocol and flexibility.
HDX Nitro technologies
However, this does not mean at Citrix we have been sitting on our hands amusing ourselves at the fud. HDX continues to be the most widely deployable user experience technology across devices and networks. We understand and believe that our 20 year history and know how of how to deliver real world user experience needs continued innovation as content continues to get richer. We are not here to pretend that toy Lan use cases represent solutions for diverse customers.
To further raise the user experience bar. We are announcing HDX Nitro technologies. Our next generation of Citrix HDX technologies focused on increased performance and efficiency. We have broken this down into 5 key areas of focus. More details will follow but here are some of the highlights.
Mach 3- 3x faster performance (Breaking the speed barrier with high-definition virtual computing)
- Advances in Citrix Receiver deliver radically faster end user performance
- Matches the speed of your network with zero overhead
- Dedicated, parallel processing of virtual channels yields efficient performance
Zoom- 2x Instant app startup (Instant startup of on-demand apps)
- Advances in HDX broadcast technologies deliver unprecedented launch speeds
- Connect to session in half the time
- Silent session pre-loading produces unparalleled responsiveness
Laser- High speed printing (Faster printing at at fraction of the bandwidth)
- High speed printing from anywhere
- Advances in HDX Plug-n-Play reduce print data and increase performance
- Automatically discovers and creates printer connections in real-time
- Use 10% of current bandwidth requirements
Mercury- Faster WAN performance (Breakthrough WAN speed and efficiency)
- Faster HDX performance over the WAN
- Advances in HDX WAN Optimization and HDX MediaStream optimize HDX traffic
- Highly responsive up to 300ms network latency
- Compress, caches and prioritizes traffic
Dynamo- Adaptive HDX performance (Dynamic sense-and-respond rendering)
- Adaptive HD performance
- Advances in HDX Adaptive Orchestration sense & respond to the user’s environment
- HDX RichGraphics enhancements render a crystal clear, 3D Windows 7 experience
- Intelligent Quality of Service (iQoS) provides prioritized, policy -driven performance gains
User experience will remain a continued area of focus for us
With HDX, no need to lock into hardware, no need to lock into a hypervisor, any device, any network, secure, everywhere far beyond just VDI. PCoIP is a protocol only. It is disingenuous for VMware to continue to spread PCoIP fud to customers when they don’t understand what it takes to deliver real world desktop user experience. Sure you can use VMware in a small environment, on a LAN with high bandwidth, perhaps even risk a WAN with a tiny number of users and assume nobody will ever want to connect externally…..
Ask your friendly VMware field rep next time, how much quota they accept for View. That’s the dirty little secret that nobody tells you. If there is one thing that has been abundantly clear since I moved from being a customer to a vendor, it’s listen to what the field team sells and what they are willing to take quota on. This will tell you where a company is investing. Then ask yourself is VMware serious about the desktop, or is this just a game to monetize vSphere with ESX until they can figure out how to monetize vSphere with their recent acquisitions of SpringSource (Java) and Zimbra (Email). Still want to handcuff yourself to VMWare View and PCoIP fud for the desktop?
The survey results are in and the numbers continue to demonstrate high interest that both individuals and business have for using the iPad as a business tool. Aside from the surprising high support from IT allowing personal iPads in the workplace ( BYOC ) this survey indicates that businesses are also planning to buy iPads as well to put them to work. As with other business tools this may be relegated to job category and justification, but higher numbers than most would expect.
Thanks to all that participated in the survey. Also congratulations to Neil from Partners Healthcare who won the iPad drawing. Feel free to share the results with your organization if you are considering iPads at work.
Note that this informal survey was completed by 558 individuals who came to the Citrix web site and had an interest in the iPad. This means they are predominantly Citrix customers who understand the capability to safely enable access to company apps and data in the data center. And do it with no or minimal support of the individual iPads. I suspect that business and IT support for the iPad at non Citrix customers would be significantly lower due to security concerns, end point management and lack of access to business applications.
This is the most striking statistic that has come out of a current survey that Citrix is conducting. The 494 respondents so far have indicated a high adoption rate and anticipation of the iPad as a business tool. To be clear this is not cross section of all businesses, rather it is mostly comprised of Citrix customers and those that have come to our website and have interest enough in the iPad to take a short survey.
The high level of support for personal iPads seems to reinforce the notion that the iPad will be the door opener for BYOC at many companies. The fact that IT can safely provide access to company apps, data and virtual desktops without managing the device will make the iPad a game changer for business beyond just the form factor and features. This device will provide the leading example of how IT can keep control of the data, apps and compliance yet enable their users to maximize their choice and productivity from anywhere.
Perhaps another reason for the IT support is the fact that so many IT pros plan to use the iPad to be more productive themselves. (This is based on another Citrix survey showing that iPad use by Mobile IT pros as one of the top business uses of the iPad.)
Some of the other finding from the survey so far include
• 80% will purchase and use the iPad for business
• 84% of organizations will support personal iPads; 50% expect their organization to purchase for them
• Primary app to be used on the iPad are productivity apps with 87% response rate
• 90% of respondents will use ipad for business email, closely followed by the ability to view, edit and create presentations. Nearly 60% of respondents indicated that they will use iPad for online meetings and to access critical business information
• Largest benefits: 90% indicated increased mobility to work remote, at home, or anywhere, 74% indicated improved productivity and satisfaction
It’s not too late to participate, the survey runs through May 31 and you will get a chance to win an iPad ( regardless of your answers ) . Let us know your vote and comment below if you have other thoughts or opinions on the results so far. I will do a follow-up with all the details when all the results are in.
Citrix Receiver for iPad is now top of the charts number 1 ranked free app in the App Store business category ! And GoToMeeting is number 4 !
So even though the initial flurry is over the downloads for Citrix Receiver continue to grow. More and more people are downloading the top rated app and putting it to work. Sometimes from home and sometimes from work. That’s part of the beauty of the Receiver on the iPad, being mobile has never been so productive.
Some useful links if you have have bought an iPad or are thinking about it.
Dan Fellers blog post with recommendations for IT on how to prepare your corporate environment.
Mick Hollison’s post on Consumerization of IT.
Harry Labana’s post on The iPad, Citrix and BYOC.
Top 10 Business uses for the iPad Take our Poll.
CitrixSynergy iPad site Come learn how to prepare for the iPad first hand and make your organization more productive ( and happy )
