Archive for category Client Virtualization

The Rumble in the Jungle–Debating the Necessity of Virtual Desktops

This year’s Gartner Catalyst conference is shaping up to be a memorable event. Catalyst has always been known for cutting edge sessions and this year is no different. Some of you may recall the Thrilla in California in which Citrix’s Simon Crosby debated VMware’s Scott Drummonds. The full debate was made available online and generated over 4,000 views in the first three days. Numerous bloggers weighed in, and this short post really captured how Simon and Scott felt about each other following the debate.

This year Simon is back with a new challenger – our very own Gunnar Berger. (Read more...)

No Comments

Desktop Virtualization Trends at Gartner Data Center

At the Gartner Data Center conference in Las Vegas last week I asked several polling questions regarding desktop virtualization adoption plans and trends, and thought that they were worth sharing. Note that the poll was taken in my session on “Desktop Virtualization: Tales from the Trenches,” so the audience was already at least considering the technology.

The first question I asked was regarding business drivers.

image

As you can see above, the majority of respondents wanted to use the technology to reduce TCO, while giving users a “Follow-me desktop” was a close second. We have multiple clients that have been able (Read more...)

No Comments

Catalyst 2012 and Mobile Futures

This year at Catalyst we are going out with a bang, with industry heavyweights Brad Anderson (Microsoft) and Simon Crosby (Bromium) offering keen insights into mobility, application, data, and endpoint futures. If that’s not enough, some of my Gartner colleagues (Tom Austin, Larry Cannell, and Ken Agress) will share their knowledge of mobility futures as well. If you’re at Catalyst, be sure to stay through the Thursday morning sessions or you’ll miss out on great perspectives regarding future planning considerations. If you haven’t signed up, it’s not too late! Besides, is there a better place to be in August than (Read more...)

No Comments

VMworld 2011: Dancing on Citrix’s Doorstep?

VMware recorded a pretty humorous video that was unveiled at this week’s VMworld North America conference. A few minutes into the music video, VMware folks are literally shown dancing on Citrix’s doorstep (outside the Citrix office in Santa Clara). While this could be taken as a simple competitive prank, multiple conversations I’ve had with VMware’s end user computing team led me to believe that the dance was more of a metaphor for VMware’s confidence in their product portfolio. At the Gartner Catalyst North America 2011 conference, VMware announced that View 5.0’s PCoIP protocol enhancements would reduce bandwidth by up to (Read more...)

No Comments

Catalyst 2011 User-Centric Computing Track Speaker Line-up

The speaker line-up for Catalyst 2011’s user-centric computing track has been finalized and I wanted to take a moment to share it with you. A prominent CTO has called Catalyst “the most intellectual conference in all of IT,” and if you haven’t attended Catalyst before, there are plenty of great reasons to get there this year. We have extensive coverage of server- and client-virtualization, cloud computing,and many other hot topics. The rundown of sessions in the user-centric computing track is listed below. I hope to see you there!

Application Delivery in a People-Centric World
Chris Wolf
A common theme has (Read more...)

No Comments

Windows 7 Update Breaks VMware View Client: An Important Lesson In BYOD

Many customers I talk to are interested in supporting a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) delivery model. A thought frequently echoed by customers is that allowing users to access their applications on their terms improves mobility and leads to greater productivity. In addition, when personal devices become little more than a tool to access IT applications centrally stored in the data center or in the cloud (e.g., SaaS), we also realize the following benefits:

  • Security: Data is physically secured within the data center instead of locally stored on a client endpoint device
  • Business continuity: Users are no longer tethered to a single (Read more...)

No Comments

PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: A Simple Experiment

Last week I traveled through various parts of Europe, while stopping for two days in Copenhagen for VMworld Europe. With eight days of travel, I thought it would be a good opportunity to test the feasibility of working from a server-hosted virtual desktop while traveling abroad. I run both Citrix XenDesktop 4.0 SP1 and VMware View 4.5 in my office lab in New Jersey. Accessing virtual desktops over the local area network using my Wyse Zero clients offers nothing short of an outstanding experience. I connect to my XenDesktop systems using the Wyse Xenith and connect to View using the (Read more...)

No Comments

PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: AT&T 3G from Newark Airport

This post is the second in my series “PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: A Simple Experiment.”

The first PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX WAN performance test in my experiment began at Newark airport. I’m not one to spend more time than absolutely necessary in an airport, but I still gave myself plenty of extra time to conduct and record my tests.

The AT&T 3G connection between my laptop and home office lab offered great bandwidth (1.08 Mbps), but not-so-great latency (122 ms). Both PCoIP and ICA/HDX responded well in this environment. I had no problems with Microsoft Word, navigating the Start menu, (Read more...)

No Comments

PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: Munich, Germany to New Jersey, USA

This post is the third in my series “PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: A Simple Experiment.”

After arriving at my hotel in Munich, I was ready to again compare PCoIP and ICA/HDX performance. When I connected to my lab, I was surprised that latency from Germany was actually less than with my AT&T 3G connection in the US. While I measured latency at 122 ms when connecting using my AT&T 3G card, latency from my hotel in Munich measured only 106 ms. As expected, bandwidth wasn’t as good as with my AT&T 3G connection. I measured 480 Kbps from the (Read more...)

No Comments

PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: Gavle, Sweden to New Jersey, USA

This post is the fourth in my series “PCoIP vs. ICA/HDX: A Simple Experiment.”

Last Wednesday I flew from Copenhagen to Stockholm, and then drove with my Gartner colleagues to a hotel in Gavle, Sweden, which was close to where we would meet a client the next day. I didn’t have much time to work with my virtual desktops while at VMworld Europe; that was mainly due to the fact that Internet connectivity was not working at my hotel.

Last Tuesday I used my VMware View client while listening to the conference keynote. During the keynote, I used (Read more...)

No Comments