June 2011 Newsletter: Citrix Summit News
"The buzz was all about virtual desktop
computing; everything was geared toward that. It's becoming more
affordable for small to medium businesses, and becoming more
feature-rich for the enterprise client.
Citrix's joint venture with Google to
present a client receiver for their Google Chromebook was a big
industry advancement and had been a much anticipated release.
Citrix is really extending their reach. They're really branching
out their offerings, and now they're taking those products and
doing more joint ventures with companies like Google, bringing out
the Mac desktop, etc. What an exciting meeting!"
-- CONNECT's Lynn Souza from the Citrix Summit,
San Francisco
Turnkey VDI for Less than a PC?
YES!
VDI-in-a-Box, Virtual Desktop for the
Masses!
Part of the buzz at the Citrix Summit last month was over the
unveiling of VDI-in-a-box. This is a great desktop virtualization
choice for companies watching their budgets and looking for fast
ROI.
Citrix's new product offering stems from their acquisition of
Kaviza, who designed VDI-in-a-Box. A true "turnkey solution," it
gives you all core VDI functionality in a single virtual appliance.
If you're looking for dynamic desktop provisioning, load balancing,
high-availability, user and desktop management all built-in, here
it is - and for a reasonable price.
Many smaller businesses are looking for simple, server-hosted
virtual desktops that cost less than a PC and are easier to set up
and manage. VDI-in-a-Box fits the bill, offering affordability and
broad-based scope, without the complexity. VDI can be very
complicated. Kaviza came up with one server that does all the roles
required, launching Citrix services into the SMB market. Very easy
to upgrade, it syncs itself and is up and running quickly. It's a
simplified, less complicated (but also less feature-rich) way to
create virtual desktops.
To deploy VDI-in-a-box, companies simply run the virtual
desktops on off-the-shelf servers using local storage. As a virtual
appliance that runs on the same servers and manages them as a grid,
no additional management servers are needed. The system can be
scaled on demand by adding more servers.
The low cost of VDI-in-a-box means your company can deploy
virtual desktops for less than the cost of a new PC. The new
product complements the full Citrix suite of virtualization,
networking, and cloud computing technologies, and is available
beginning July 1, 2011. [Top]
Rich Media + WANs + External
Cloud=Citrix HDXtm
High Tech You MUST Check
The market leader Citrix HDX™ now has upgraded technology giving
it better performance, fidelity and bandwidth efficiency for rich
media services (video, audio and 3D graphics). If you need rich
media delivered over wide area networks or from external cloud
environments, here is the technology you need.
With end users moving ever more quickly toward the cloud and
away from PC-only environments, they need corporate applications
and desktops delivered to a wide and growing variety of devices and
locations. Success requires a secure, high-definition experience
that seamlessly blends private enterprise clouds with public cloud
services. The cornerstone of this user experience is the ability to
consume multimedia content, collaborate via both voice and video
and securely access data - from any location, across any network,
to any employee-owned device.
Breakthrough Citrix HDX technology advances the user experience
beyond competitive desktop virtualization solutions. Customers can
transform distributed desktop computing into private desktop clouds
that deliver desktops, apps and data as a high-definition,
on-demand service.
To see this in action, check out this session from the Summit,
covering how Citrix HDX technologies give users a seamless
desktop computing experience. It covers how the new generation
of HDX technologies make applications, printing and media work at
real-time speeds for all users. [Top]
NetScaler: The Doorway to it All
Go Anywhere. Get Anything.
Get ready to rethink the delivery and management of apps and IT
services! Citrix's introduction of NetScaler Cloud Gateway at last
week's Summit revealed a powerful new tool that collapses and
eliminates application silos, and provides a single entry point
from which from which to manage apps from private or public
clouds.
Every company we know is racing to adopt new cloud-based apps
and SaaS services, seeking to capitalize on agility improvements
and savings opportunities. While those do exist, there is also a
hidden cost in migrating to cloud services as administration of
applications, networks and security gets fragmented. Companies can
wind up with more application silos, identity management schemes,
and access control processes to manage, which drives costs up and
makes management more complex.
Cloud Gateway gives you a simpler, service-oriented approach to
streamline old silo-based architectures. Citrix tauted it at the
Summit as the "Power of One" - an effective way to think about
Cloud Gateway, we'll give them that! It provides your users with a
single point from which to access any app, using a single login for
any app or service they need. And it gives your IT department a
single point of control, with the ability to enforce consistent
policies for compliance, access control, auditing and quality of
service. We love it when everybody wins!
Cloud Gateway supports all leading browsers and all versions of
Citrix Receiver™, a universal software client that provides users
with easy, self-service access to all their apps from any PC, Mac,
tablet or smart phone.
What makes Cloud Gateway different than competitors in this
space? Its full support of seamless and secure access to any
Windows app or desktop. If you're looking for more than just basic
browser access, think about this: the Citrix Receiver client
provides a rich, native device experience with custom designed
support for literally thousands of devices, from HP TouchPads to
BlackBerry Playbooks and Google Chromebooks. The mere announcement
of Citrix teaming up with Google was a steaming hot topic at Citrix
Summit per Lynn Souza, who attended the conference.
Citrix's website lists these Cloud Gateway advancements for your
endusers:
- Full self-service support for all apps and devices through
support for Citrix Receiver.
- Single-sign on, enabling users to log in once to any app, and
be automatically signed into any other app they choose.
- Common identity and subscriber credentials to access any
application, including hundreds of popular SaaS services.
- View, request and launch any application from a self-service
app store using any device with a high definition user
experience.
- Full application request workflow support.
You'll want to know more about leveraging Cloud Gateway for your
business, we're sure of it. Call Alan or Bob at Connect for details. [Top]
Tablets
The right prescription for your users
now?
When netbooks arrived on the scene a few years ago, businesses
started thinking they might be able to use them as a lower-priced
option to the standard laptop. But their lack of computing power
made the excitement wane. The winds are shifting again, with
tablets on the rise and end users expanding their use in business,
as well as consumer, applications. Here's a quick, upbeat interview
with Brian Gorgas from Chartis Insurance at the Citrix Summit.
He describes how he loaded Citrix Receiver on to his users'
tablets, so that no matter the device they were using to work on,
their virtual desktop would work well on it. The interview explores
what virtualization really means for his
business, including challenges customers face in a remote
environment and the growing use of tablets for business
apps. [Top]
Angry Birds on a Virtual Desktop,
Anyone?
Now for MACs: Citrix XenDesktop
Okay, so you hope your
employees aren't busy with those annoying birds during the workday.
But seriously, if you need to run desktops and applications for
more than just Windows, here's your solution. It uses the same HDX
technology, and even runs Android apps too. Teaming with Google,
Citrix's new Chromebooks will have a client receiver to access
applications. Something for everyone!
Toner and Ink Specials
CONNECT sells toner and
ink for almost all of the printers our clients use. We guarantee
the best pricing, even over the office super stores, with $3.50
shipping on orders over $100. We maintain complete listings by
client to make the restocking process simple. Compare pricing, call
203.333.4444 or contact one of our sales associates. [Top]
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