#CitrixSynergy Keynote – Executive Summary

Posted on May 22, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — 1 Comment ↓

Citrix Synergy keynote from Mark Templeton started with The Who & is now over with great announcements for this year. The show is very exciting and inspires me a lot. I really love the open culture and things people do and talk. For all who are not able to visit or join the conference, I’d like to provide you a short high-level overview.

The main message of today and Citrix Summit was: Citrix is going mobile.

Why? Mobile is the number one topic dominating CIOs mindshare. The most common answer of CIOs: “I want to mobilize my business”.

20130522-131637.jpg

As the reason why this is so important, Citrix understands the following reasons for it:

  1. Consumerization (Diversity in Devices, Apps, Computing, BYOEverything)
  2. Generations (Workforce born digital, addressing the work style requirements)
  3. Disruptions (Earthquakes etc.)

Another one

So the answer to all this is Mobile Workstyles. Mobile Workstyles includes:

  • Workflow Transformation
  • Workforce Engagement
  • Workplace Reinvention

Product announcements:

  • DesktopPlayer for Mac (Access to Windows virtual desktops, transition between local and hosted desktops, BYOD for Macs)
  • Citrix Excalibur evolves to XenDesktop 7 (VDI, App, Enterprise and Platinum Edition); available in June
  • XenApp 6.5 FP2; available in June
  • XenMobile (MDM, App & Enterprise Edition)
  • Workx App SDK
  • ShareFile StorageZone Connectors

Another thing I’d totally agree is the concept about that velocity and magnitude increased in time:

20130522-140106.jpg

Citrix XenMobile in combination with HDX mobile really was

Worx App SDK => MDXSDK/FunctionRename.h everything you really need?

Strategic partners mentioned in the keynote:

  • Microsoft
  • Cisco
  • NVIDIA itself on the stage

Finally one more thing:

Let me know your thoughts about this post, drop me a comment or send me a tweet.

Thanks!

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Posted in BYOD, Citrix, Desktop Virtualization, Mobility, Uncategorized, Virtualization, Workspace

Why #CitrixSynergy moved to Anaheim and #Citrix bets on #Excalibur

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — Leave a comment ↓

Finally arrived yesterday in Los Angeles for Citrix Summit which starts today. First impressions of LA are different compared to San Francisco, and still wondering why Citrix moved the show from SFO to LAX. Waking up early this morning I’ve got it.

Citrix bets on Excalibur which is part of Project Avalon:

Citrix Project Avalon

So the conference is at the convention center in Anaheim nearby Disneyland – one moment – Disney?

Disney Cinderella Castle

Now, that was the reason to move the conference. It’s Citrix Avalon time at  Disneyland ressort!

Just kidding. I am really curious about the new release of XenDesktop and XenApp. Citrix Excalibur will change the way how virtual workspaces will be provisioned to end-users.

Second, I believe mobility and the Zenprise acquisition will play a major role at the show.

Looking forward for a great show!

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Posted in Citrix, Desktop Virtualization, Virtualization, Workspace

Paradigms & Models: Event experiences that made me think

Posted on April 21, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — Leave a comment ↓

Good guy, bad guy. Black and white. Extreme positions help people to articulate themselves better even if they know that those positions are something in between.

This week I was able to attend a user conference in Berlin with lots of customer case studies. The thing I was surprised is that the speakers were too close to their vendors positioning. This surprise reminded me at the golden circle from Simon Sinek.

Golden Circle

I don’t want to convince speakers to talk about “what” technology they use. But I’d love to discuss the standpoint not to lead with technology or vendor first, instead to talk about the “why” and challenge. It is much easier to lead with the “what” and talk about the “how”. I really recommend the video from Simon Sinek about “How great leaders inspire action”.

Simon used another great concept about life cycles. This concept is common in literature, where I want to refer to Geoffrey Moore and his technology adoption lifecycle:

Innovation Adoption Lifecycle

Looking back to the conference speakers presenting technologies from their used vendors I was surprised how pragmatic and easy discussions started with the audience about the same bugs and challenges of their technology they use. Another learning how vendors marketing propaganda really work, if customers talk and exchange about products they use. Really impressive! You only need to change the master from powerpoint, that’s it. For example, one speaker used the Windows 8 fonts, so you wouldn’t even need to change it for a Microsoft presentation.

Another cultural validation: Most Germans are convinced followers. It is hard to find innovators or even early adopters.

Looking now forward for Citrix Synergy in May. I am very convinced about the vendor, but like to step on step back when writing about them.

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Posted in Experience, IT Strategy

PC Sales Dropped 14% in Q1 compared 2012/2013 – but the PC is not dead!

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — Leave a comment ↓

Big news hit the PC industry this week when press and analysts announced that PC Sales declined year over year in Q1 with 14%. Three tweets as an example for further sources:

1. Gartner with data:

2. CITEworld with data:

3. Forrester with Mark Twain analogy:

The week before I have read a really nice post Arthur Cole at ITBusinessEdge.com who really hit the mark from my perspective:

The PC is no longer dominant – not dead! And this is exactly what has happened through the rise of mobility and everybody is talking about. What I do not like on those discussions is the bad about PCs. They are not bad at all. Terminology about “Fat Clients” which implies all negative aspects of “fat” is wrong and discriminating. I love the terminology “Rich Clients” because that’s what they are compared to devices with less power and depended on network availability.

I am still waiting for a technology driven person who has terminated to use a PC. I have never met one and believe that will take more years to find this person. Today’s hardware and form factors don’t allow me to replace my PC with another device. A tablet does not solve all my requirements; my smartphone neither and I have not tried the nirvana phone yet, but believe it is not a PC replacement as well.

An explanation and speculation from my side why PC sales dropped of might be the overall available budget and purchase of smart devices. PC sales are just postponed due to purchasing other equipment. The economics call it complementary goods, which means that PC sales decreased due to the low price of smart devices. Thin client strategies might be another explanation in combination with virtualization. PCs are the primary device to create content, smart devices instead are the primary device to consume content. Second point could be the weak adoption of Windows 8 in enterprises. Windows 8 seems to harm investments from enterprises as it is seen as a consumer platform not ready for the enterprise. The new metro style and technology is a new paradigm for IT and end-users, and old ways die hard – especially with such a radical change in a mainstream area.

Different view or thoughts? Please let me know. Thanks!

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Posted in Apple, Microsoft, Mobility, Personal Cloud, Post-PC, Workspace

Today’s Workspace Complexity: Product Vendor Technology Matrix for End-users – an attempt

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — Leave a comment ↓
Workspace Product Vendor Matrix

In my last post I have explained a little bit about my view on “Convergence of IT technologies and enterprise business processes“. Today I’d like to dig a little bit deeper into vendor offerings in those areas, especially when it comes to the technology stack explained in my first post “Defining Desktop virtualization – a first attempt“:

Layering the computer stack

 

Graphic: Example of layering the computer stack

This graphic should illustrate abstraction between multiple layers of user devices, either local or hosted. Virtualization offers much more technologies, but I’d like to focus on the concept of abstraction of:

  • Data
  • Profile
  • Application
  • Operating System
  • Hardware

Those layers define a end-user workspace for me. Hardware could be a PC or smart device, either a server running in the data center. Each layer could be owned personally or provisioned by the enterprise.

In general this concept defines today’s workspace for end-users. The end-user still needs a device to consume and create business related content. It is much more complex compared to a Microsoft and Windows only world.

From a provisioning perspective those layers are delivered to the end-user’s device:

  • Local
  • Hosted
  • Streamed

From this perspective I have tried to match product vendor solutions into this concept and to create a matrix on the big three software vendors from an enterprise view. My goal is to show the complexity of today’s workspace from an administrators view what products he could choose to architect the end-user workspace. Here is the result:

Workspace Product Vendor Matrix

Table: Vendor Product Technologies for End-user Workspaces

I am not that satisfied with my research, good chances that there might be a technology or product missing =). The view on mobile technology is missing

Looking forward to get some feedback regarding the concept and matrix, would love to hear from you.

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Posted in BYOD, Citrix, Cloud Computing, Desktop Virtualization, IT Strategy, Microsoft, Mobility, Virtualization, Workspace

Convergence of IT and business processes in today’s enterprise

Posted on March 29, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — Leave a comment ↓

In my previous posts I have written about the Post-PC era as well as about convergence of technologies. Since my last post about the importance about mobility, I would like to update the view on convergence of IT and business processes in enterprises:

Convergence of IT & business processes

In this graphic the inner circle stands for IT technologies and is like a hybrid infrastructure approach:

  • Laptop and desktop PCs: Mature technology, but changing more into an internet device. 
  • Virtualization: From server to desktops over application and user virtualization, the range of isolation is broad and technology bridging the gap between legacy and new platforms. Virtualization is the key technology to deliver cloud services. Example vendors are Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft etc.
  • Smart Devices: Number one driver – smartphones, tablets and phablets flood the market for end user devices; substitute for PCs but still missing the “killer device” to replace the PC. Mobile Application Management and Mobile Device Management vendors like Citrix, Airwatch, MobileIron, Symantec etc. take care to manage those devices within the enterprise.
  • Cloud computing: The cloud computing technology stack (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) is the most interesting and influencing sector on the long term. Enterprise cloud services can be private, public and hybrid. Today’s examples are Microsoft Office 365, Evernote, Salesforce, ServiceNow etc. All vendors offer different technologies with their implicit advantages or disadvantages, but deliver an IT service.

The outer circle should visualize the business process view on IT technologies. Usually IT departments focus less on business processes and end-user experience and satisfaction. The question is how to orchestrate IT technology within a business process no matter what technology is used. The underlying thesis is: Business processes leads IT technology and End-user computing (EUC). Disciplines of business processes are well known from ITIL, I have picked those examples interesting for EUC:

  • User Self Service
  • Service Catalog
  • Access & Authorization
  • Provisioning & Automation
  • Billing & Metering
  • Workflows
  • User Management
  • Helpdesk Support
  • Compliance

Gartner named this section “Workspace Aggregators” where vendors and products like VMware Horizon, Citrix CloudGateway & CloudPortal and Centrix WorkSpace really fit. The biggest challenge for those vendors is the supported vendor ecosystem, applications and cloud services.

Vision for me could be an IT as a service (ITaaS) independent from the technologies an enterprise is using and need to support.

I wish all readers Happy Eastern!

Feedback? Let me know your thoughts.

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Posted in BYOD, Cloud Computing, Desktop Virtualization, Mobility, Post-PC, Virtualization, Workspace

#Mobility shift should be number one focus for software vendors

Posted on March 17, 2013 by Virtual Patrick — Leave a comment ↓

As a Product Manager I am preaching mobility like a pastor. It started 2011 for the first time, when Smartphone shipments outpaced PCs where I liked the terminology of the Post-PC era. This year 2013 analysts forecast that tablets and smartphones will double PCs. That is a huge turnaround and it will continue if  for example BI Intelligence is right:

Business Insider

Nevertheless Phablets are the latest mix of phones and tablets. Discussions about Phablets are only marketing hypes and hopes that this terminology is only temporary will continue. As mobility is still one of the hottest areas in IT and will continue to grow new devices will evolve and “Phablets” will stay.

The rapid adoption of mobile devices in combination with existing PCs is changing the software industries focus to mobile user experience. Mobile devices and access to business critical applications are continuing to be the number one problem for enterprises. Software solutions like areas of Mobile Device Management and Mobile Application Management continue to evolve to a bigger perspective like Enterprise Mobility Management.

Additional or different thoughts? Please comment this article.

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Posted in BYOD, Mobility, Post-PC
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Virtual Patrick

Virtual Patrick

Product Manager focus on Virtualization & Cloud Computing

Product Management is my profession, virtualization and cloud computing my current activities, experienced in IT Service Management & Systems Management formerly known as Client Lifecycle Management since 2004. Worked as a Business Analyst to introduce Basel 2. Diploma in Business Administration with main focus at Business Informatics and Marketing at Goethe-University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

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