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XenDesktop 7 Reference Architecture Newsflash: Cisco+Microsoft+EMC
Working closely with key industry partners, Citrix solution architects have been busy preparing for the announcement of Citrix XenDesktop 7 (a.k.a., Project Excalibur). This release marks a new chapter in how Citrix software changes the delivery of Microsoft Windows apps and desktops, transforming them as secure, centrally managed services that users can access on any device, anywhere. The new release is exciting because it follows ...
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Pedal to the Metal: Bare Metal Scaling of XenApp 6.5 Hosted Shared Desktops
The Citrix XenApp (XA) Hosted Shared model combines application and session virtualization, relying on the Citrix XA server to publish familiar Windows desktops and applications. The Hosted Shared model centralizes application delivery and management, securing data and applications in the data center. The Citrix XA server can be hosted directly as a bare-metal server on the Windows Server 2008 R2 operating system, or it can ...
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Microsoft Office 2013: Impact on VDI and SBC Workloads
As a part of the Citrix Global Alliances team, I spend a good portion of my time conducting performance tests to size Citrix software configurations in conjunction with products from our partners. For example, Citrix recently released version 5.2 of VDI-in-a-Box—the first Citrix desktop virtualization product to be supported and validated on the updated version of Microsoft Server 2012 with Hyper-V. A few weeks ago ...
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Virtualizing XenApp Hosted Shared Desktops on Hyper-V
My latest adventure into density testing for Citrix solutions centers on XenApp (XA) Hosted Shared desktops. For those unfamiliar with the XA Hosted Shared model, it combines application and session virtualization, relying on a single OS instance on a Citrix XA server to publish familiar Windows desktops and applications. The Hosted Shared model centralizes application delivery and management (securing data and applications in the data ...
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HP and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box: Part 3 – User Experience Testing
In two recent blogs I described testing I performed to validate a Citrix VDI-in-a-Box and HP ProLiant reference architecture. The solution goes a long way to simplify the task of VDI deployment since it defines a low-cost, cookie-cutter approach for rapidly deploying VDI. Previously I ran a set of single server scalability tests to validate 50- and 100-user configurations based on the reference architecture, as ...
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Measuring User Experience
My role in the Citrix Alliance Group focuses on performance testing, especially for VDI and SBC reference architectures developed in conjunction with alliance partners. I spend the bulk of my time developing and validating reference architectures so that customers can deploy Citrix solutions quickly with less risk. While you might think my job sounds like mind-numbing number-crunching, I get tremendously jazzed about it and the ...
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HP and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box: Part 2 – Pushing the Limits
In my previous blog, I describe scalability testing I performed to validate a Citrix VDI-in-a-Box and HP ProLiant reference architecture. The reference architecture defines a turnkey-like appliance that simplifies the task of VDI deployment. Using this reference architecture as a basis for sizing, it’s relatively easy to determine the number and type of appliances that you’ll need to fit your user capacity and workload requirements. In ...
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HP and Citrix VDI-in-a-Box: Part 1 – Reference Architecture Scaling
When coupled with HP ProLiant servers, Citrix VDI-in-a-Box creates a low-cost cookie-cutter approach for rapidly deploying VDI environments. Together, these products form a turnkey-like appliance that makes VDI deployment remarkably easy — the challenge is simply determining the number and type of HP ProLiant servers needed to match user capacity and workload requirements. To take the guesswork out of capacity planning and sizing, I worked with ...
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Reference Architectures that Scale: Citrix XenDesktop on FlexPod with Microsoft Private Cloud
I’ve been collaborating with Cisco, Microsoft, and NetApp solution architects to create a Citrix XenDesktop reference implementation that customers can deploy as a complete VDI solution. We are focused on scalability testing of this joint solution stack: Citrix XenDesktop 5.6 and Provisioning Services (PVS) 6.1 using Microsoft Private Cloud on Cisco FlexPod, which incorporates Cisco UCS blade servers, switches, and NetApp storage. The goal of ...
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Virtualization Review – “Xen and the Art of Hosted Desktops”
Danielle and Nelson Ruest, both Microsoft MVPs and IT professionals, posted a comprehensive review of Citrix XenDesktop. Danielle and Nelson write "Citrix Systems' XenDesktop is a state-of-the-art product for hosted desktop virtualization and may be the gold standard by which other products are judged in a feature-for-feature comparison." Additional Highlights: *The article notes that Citrix is a leading-edge vendor in the VDI market segment, and that XenDesktop ...