KVM should join Microsoft's Server Virtualization Validation Program

Recently, Brian and I spent some time in Sunnyvale, Calif. working with Qumranet testing their Solid ICE VDI solution. Solid ICE uses an open-source hypervisor called KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) to host Windows XP VM's. Qumranet is the...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on August 20, 2008.

How did you spend your summer?

So how have you spent your summer (technologically speaking)? If you haven't noticed I've been MIA for the past month or so.  Where have I been?  No, not high on Makalu, or attempting a 5.15a pitch on North American Wall in...

Blog Post by Michael Keen on August 18, 2008.

Microsoft announces licensing changes, frugal admins rejoice!

At last, Microsoft has announced a virtualization-friendly change to the license agreements for 41 server products. The changes will allow administrators to run software on more than one physical piece of hardware, which, in the world of VMotion,...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on August 19, 2008.

A Conversation with VMware CTO Steve Herrod

This past May, Brian visited VMware's headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif and spoke with several key people within the company. In this first of three podcasts, he speaks with Steve Herrod, CTO and Senior VP of Research & Development.

Podcast by Brian Madden on August 18, 2008.

Coming soon - the latest release of XenApp!

Get an in-depth look at the upcoming XenApp release in our first Citrix Delivery Center Live virtual event. Attend keynote sessions with live Q&A, chat live with Citrix product experts, participate in forums, network with other...

News item from The Official Citrix Blog, on August 18, 2008.

How do I update my base images in XenDesktop?

XenDesktop offers a powerful way to update all virtual desktops just by updating your shared base image.  Most of this functionality is provided via the Provisioning Server component of XenDesktop.  Some storage vendors offer...

News item from The Official Citrix Blog, on August 16, 2008.

BriForum Video - The Excruciating Detail of the XenApp Logon Process

This week's BriForum video is always a popular session during the show: The Excruciating Detail of the XenApp Logon Process (2008 Version). Brian Madden and Kevin Goodman have been doing this session since BriForum 2006 in Washington, D.C.,...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on August 14, 2008.

VMware Update 2 wrap-up, Plus - what can we do in the future?

It's been a few days now since VMware's VI 3.5 and ESX 3.5i Update 2 problems, so I thought it prudent to wrap up what's gone on. Those of you directly affected are probably already aware of what's gone down. As of Wednesday...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on August 14, 2008.

Oops! VMware's VI 3.5 Update 2 locks out customers, pulls Update 2 download.

Word on the street is that VMware Infrastructure 3.5 Update 2 and ESXi 3.5 Update 2 have been affected by a licensing bug left over from development. This bug renders any powered off machine incapable of being turned back on, suspended machines...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on August 12, 2008.

Brian Madden is now a Citrix Certified Administrator (CCA)

I'm often asked whether I'm Citrix-certified. For the past five years, my answer has been "no." I used to be Citrix-certified. Back in September 1998 I passed the 1Y0-302 exam, "Citrix MetaFrame 1.0 Certification," with a...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on August 11, 2008.

BriForum Video - Xen vs VMware by Ron Oglesby

Back in April, I posted a session from BriForum Amsterdam comparing Xen to VMware ESX.  The only problem was that enough had changed in the time between BriForum and the release of the video that some people found it wasn't relevant.So, in...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on August 07, 2008.

Symantec acquires a desktop broker. Combined with past Altiris and AppStream acquisitions, we now have another major player in the VDI space!

Looking to "redefine endpoint virtualzation," yesterday Symantec announced that they bought connection broker software vendor nSuite Technologies. Known mostly in the medical field, nSuite's Desktop Connection Broker product manages ICA...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on August 06, 2008.

New Video: App-V Sequencing with Tim Mangan, Episode 8

I know.  It's summer and there just isn't much new news until the fall.  But in addition to working on my golf swing I've been spending my summer kicking the tires of the new version of SoftGrid, or as it is now known App-V...

Blog Post by Tim Mangan on August 05, 2008.

The Clouds are Building in Iowa

It's been known for some time that Iowa was full of corn, pigs, soybeans, etc, but now it's starting to become known for data centers.  More interestingly, cloud computing data centers.  With cheap electricity (of which 8% of that...

Blog Post by Michael Keen on August 05, 2008.

BriForum 2008 DEMO Lab video podcasts now online

Those of you who attended BriForum probably noticed us filming Brian in the DEMO Lab . We were recording videos of the vendors showing off what they brought to BriForum. Links to the videos are available at the bottom of this blog post. ...

Blog Post by Jack Madden on August 04, 2008.

Xtreaming Technology releases VHD CMS Professional 1.0 of its diskless OS-streaming product

Xtreaming Technology Inc. is a new US-invested start-up company working out of Shanghai, China investing in building diskless related products.  Their Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) product uses OS-streaming and allows any PC to boot up a full version...

Blog Post by Ruben Spruijt on July 31, 2008.

Citrix sells off the part of Ardence that isn't Provisioning Server

Just a quick note to clarify a recent Ardence/Citrix related announcement that's making the rounds this week.Yesterday, Citrix announced that it had sold off Ardence's embedded software business, which has been stuck in Citrix purgatory after...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on July 29, 2008.

Quest Software releases Provision Networks Virtual Access Suite 5.10

That's "five-point-ten"—the version after 5.9—not "five-point-one-zero." This is the first release of Provision's product that had direct feedback from Rick Mack, Jeff Pitsch, Michel Roth, and Patrick Rouse....

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 29, 2008.

"What I learned at BriForum" Webcast - Wednesday 7/30

Our sixth BriForum conference took place in Chicago about six weeks ago. It was our biggest event yet, with over 400 people and 75 hours of technical breakout session content. A few weeks ago I was talking to another presenter, Kevin Goodman, (the...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 28, 2008.

BriForum Video - Technical Review of Citrix XenApp Web 5.0

Today we wanted to show some of the great content that we had at BriForum last month. In this video, Thomas Kötzing of www.ThomasKoetzing.de discusses XenApp Web 5.0, otherwise known as Web Interface 5.0 in a session titled "Technical...

Blog Post by Gabe Knuth on July 22, 2008.

Are you using x64 Terminal Servers or Citrix? Why or why not?

At BriForum last month, Steve Greenberg, Joe Shonk, and I led a breakout session about using the x64 version of Windows for Terminal Server and Citrix Presentation Server. It was an interesting conversation, and something that's worth discussing...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 22, 2008.

If You Could Wave a Magic Wand...

If you could wave a magic wand and have any one single feature in the next release of Citrix XenApp, what would it be? While XenApp has literally hundreds of features that have been added over the last 10 years as the product...

News item from The Official Citrix Blog, on July 18, 2008.

Understanding all the Application and Desktop delivery solutions in 30 minutes

IntroductionThe “Application and Desktop Delivery solutions” diagram has been developed in order to be able to provide a complete overview of the various applications and desktop delivery solutions. This article was written by Ruben...

Blog Post by Ruben Spruijt on July 17, 2008.

Citrix ICA client for the iPhone. Would you care?

Last month, Citrix showed a mockup of what an ICA client for the iPhone could look like: This video created a lot of excitement. Personally, I don't understand what the big deal is. There have been ICA clients...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 16, 2008.

Qumranet testing day one: a new method for benchmarking. Also, XenDesktop hangs and VMware withdraws.

Gabe and I are in Sunnyvale, Calif., this week working with Qumranet. Last week we wrote a blog post about our project describing our plans and asking the community for input as to how we should conduct our testing. (The short version is that we are...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 15, 2008.

How do you lock down a Terminal Server?

Two friends of mine, Christa Anderson and Kristin Griffin, are collaborating on a Windows 2008 Terminal Services book for Microsoft. Part of this project includes small "tips from the field" entries written by different people. They asked...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 11, 2008.

We're planning to benchmark Qumranet (KVM) vs. Citrix XenDesktop vs. VMware ESX for VDI workloads. Help us design the tests.

Qumranet made a big splash at BriForum last month. Those of you who were there saw a demo of their "spice" remote display protocol, which showed a four-monitor Windows XP desktop running remotely with full motion high def video, skype,...

Blog Post by Brian Madden on July 09, 2008.