Come on people! The Cloud is Infrastructure!

I'm going to go on a bit of a rant. Forgive me but I did warn you in advance.

The Cloud is not a new thing. It's an evolution of an old thing. A very old thing. The old thing is IT infrastructure. Yes, infrastructure like boring old server and software systems that you run applications on top of. How many times in the last few months have I heard people tell me "oh, you don't have any cloud experience..." Really? So let me get this correct. The fact that I've spent most of my career working on hardware and software solutions such as blade and rack optimized servers, LDAP and identity management, email and calendaring software, infrastructure for server, storage, networking and desktop virtualization to deliver solutions that solve problems for IT has nothing to do with the Cloud? The Cloud delivers off-prem, multi-tentant to run applications that solve problems for IT right? So please fill in the in that statement... My guess is that it's infrastructure.

The Cloud computing era is a fantastic sea change in the deployment models for IT infrastructure. That is a given. Outsourcing and on-demand elastic capability represents a completely different model for information technologies. However don't view the infrastructure as fundamentally different than what it is: an optimized aggregation of software and hardware delivered virtually from a datacenter somewhere to an end user somewhere else.

I've now worked as a senior executive at four virtualization infrastructure companies: VMware, Citrix, ScaleMP and Pano Logic. In all cases we delivered capabilities to virtualize and deliver services in an on-demand fashion. In all cases we enabled "cloud delivery" methodologies. In none of the cases did we view the Cloud as different from the fundamental disaggregation of services from hardware or locality.

So when did the Cloud become some sort of merit badge? The infrastructure to support the Cloud and SaaS offerings are no more than three to five years old and, in many cases is still dramatically evolving. As a point of fact then how can someone who has spent years developing the infrastructure not be seen as someone with "cloud experience?" And truly, if not someone who has been in the business of IT infrastructure not having cloud experience then who does?

Celebrate the New Year with New Citrix Receivers for Android, Windows, Chromebook and PlayBook!

This blog was originally posted in http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on December 29, 2011:

Lost in the shuffle of a number of strategically important announcements today were the numerous updates and enhancements to Citrix Receiver. Our little client that could just got bigger, stronger, faster and even more capable!

One of the first and most noticeable changes in Citrix Receiver is the new workspace. We call this internally the Green Screen but you should consider this your new workspace. This is where your applications, documents and desktops will appear. And, like some popular mobile devices, the workspace is entirely configurable by end users to prioritize, highlight and rearrange all of their apps in whatever order they choose.

The second thing most end users will notice is multi-tasking. Yes, we have added the capability to access multiple applications at the same time and switch easily between applications with full cut and paste. Multi-tasking may have been one of the most requested capabilities so we prioritized it and will be rolling it out in new updates through this quarter and into the first half of next year.

Thirdly, and probably a bit more invisible to end users is a series of native optimizations. Now, while these modifications may be subtle in many cases, they represent the true differentiation for Citrix Receiver. Receiver is built as a native client for the platform they’re running on. If you’re running Receiver for Mac you’ll notice that it behaves like a Macintosh application. If you’re running Receiver for PlayBook you’ll notice that it leverages the QNX operating system and behaves like other native PlayBook apps. If you’re running Receiver for iOS you’ll notice that you can leverage all the native touch commands and they behave, as you’d expect them to, on an iPad. When you touch a data entry box in an app the keyboard will automatically pop up and the screen will advance so as not to be covered up by the keyboard. When you rotate the screen the applications in Receiver will naturally and smoothly rotate. If the local device can run local multimedia codex then flash or Windows media will run locally providing a smoother and faster experience. If the device can’t support the local codex then it will run remotely. There is so much going on in Receiver that provides the optimal end user experience and that is, by the way, different on every device. (This is important, as HTML5-based end user experience, while good for ubiquitous platform support, will never be able to provide the same kind of experience as a local app can.)

Lastly and a bit obliquely we introduced the new XenApp 6.5 Mobile Apps SDK. This new SDK and its related implementations – often referred to as Golden Gate and Alcatraz, among others – provide true platform-to-platform Windows application optimizations. This SDK is what will make Citrix Receiver truly shine as a native device secure access portal application. The SDK opens up device specific APIs and allows developers to create unique capabilities in their XenApp delivered Windows apps specific to the device or platform their delivering to. This new SDK allows developers to take advantage of local resources specific to an iPad or Android device, laptops or smartphones. Ever thought it would be cool to be able to leverage a smartphone GPS to provide location based services in Excel? This SDK will allow developers to do that. How about leverage a local iPad webcam to provide video support to a PowerPoint presentation? This SDK will allow developers to do that. You should check out this blog from Martin Duursma for more information on the XA 6.5 Mobile Apps SDK!

The best part about all of these new Citrix Receiver enhancements? You’ll see all of these new features and capabilities roll out cohesively across all Citrix Receiver clients by mid-next year. We’ll start with Receiver for Windows, Receiver for iOS and Receiver for Android this year followed quickly with updates to Receiver for Mac, Receiver for Linux, Receiver for PlayBook, and others…

Oh, one last thing that we also announced today: Receiver for Web, our new HTML5-based Receiver client will also be available in Technology Preview this week followed by a formal launch in December. While HTML-based solutions will never deliver the very best end user experience (as compared to native client implementations) we also know that there are devices and use cases – such as guest access or hotel kiosks – we aren’t able to support with native implementations. So, as part of the new CloudGateway Express and Enterprise solutions, we will be shipping the infrastructure for Receiver for Web for free!

Stay tuned for more information and be sure to bookmark http://www.citrixreceiver.com for the latest downloads, information and access to the upcoming Technology Previews!

PS: For those of you using Receiver for iPhone, please note that we updated Citrix Receiver to a universal binary for all iOS products. You will need to delete Receiver for iPhone from your device and search for Citrix Receiver in the iTunes app store for the new distribution. Since it has a new name your iPhone won’t automatically update your older Receiver client!

Citrix Receiver and the New Amazon Fire

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on September 28, 2011:

We’re very excited about the prospects of the newest tablet entry, the Amazon Fire! Announced earlier today this $199 android-based tablet with all the optimizations for Amazon services and content coupled with the rich Android app store will certainly translate into a successful platform.

Citrix has long believed that the broad introduction of new device form factors, capabilities and competition are good for end user choice and freedom. The Amazon Fire is only the latest example of a unique platform offering end users a differentiated coupling of capability, access and services. We want to add our commitment to the platform by adding Citrix Receiver to the mix to allow end users easy, secure, self-service access to Enterprise desktops, apps, and data. By supporting the Android ecosystem, Amazon has made it easy to provide Citrix Receiver out-of-the-box to its customers.

We will also be working closely with Amazon in the coming months to determine if there are additional optimizations and customizations that we can pursue to improve the end user experience for customers using Citrix Receiver on the Amazon Fire. As we have with other vendors, we believe that the experience should be seamless and native. We will continue to aggressively pursue this vision on the Fire and new platforms as they’re introduced.

Stay tuned for more information from Citrix on the availability of Receiver for the Amazon Fire. We will endeavor to insure day one availability starting on the November 15 launch date for Amazon’s new tablet!

Citrix Receiver for PlayBook is Finally Here!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on September 13, 2011:

It’s been a few months in the making but I’m happy to announce that the Technology Preview of Citrix Receiver for RIM Playbook is finally here!

While this is only a tech preview — think of it as a more robust beta — it will deliver the same value you’ve come to expect from Citrix and the broad range of Citrix Receiver clients. Not only can you now get easy store-like access to your virtual apps and desktops but we’ve been careful to make sure that the coherent features including robust HDX support, multi-touch capabilities and in Receiver app multi-tasking capabilities that took a while to mature on the other platforms are there from the beginning for Playbook users. (One thing that it doesn’t currently support however is multi-factor authentication. We’re working on adding that functionality for V.1 by the end of September.)

Among the Citrix Receiver capabilities the Playbook distribution supports access to virtual computing infrastructure and seamless access, utilizing your enterprise SSO infrastructure, to SaaS and web apps as well.

While this version is considered a Tech Preview, and we’d love to get your feedback and input as we finalize the distribution, we expect to be able to declare a full v.1 by the end of the month! So, please, head on over to the Test Center on the BlackBerry App World storefront — or you can go to Citrix Receiver to get a direct link to the app — download and start testing the newest distribution in the ever growing Citrix Receiver family!

Announcing the New Citrix Receiver for Mac!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on August 26, 2011:

A few days ago Citrix released a new update to the popular Citrix Receiver client for the Macintosh. In addition to providing needed updates to support the latest features in Mac OS 10.7 Lion, the new Citrix Receiver client provides a rich set of new capabilities that will further enhance end user experience and performance. The new capabilities of Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.4 include:

• Secure remote access through both Citrix Access Gateway and Secure Gateway;
• Multi-monitor support
• Bi-directional audio support
• Support for Communicator and other audio playback
• Improved HDX video performance

We view Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.4 as an important but evolutionary step in providing the ultimate end user experience for Mac users accessing Citrix virtual computing infrastructure. We expect to even further enhance support in the near future.

While Apple and Macintosh users remain one of our most important constituents — and certainly the dramatic growth of the Macintosh user base in the last few years increases the importance of supporting the platform — we have had to make some difficult choices in how and where we provide support in distributing the Macintosh client. Citrix Receiver requires the highest levels of operating system and platform integration and access to insure security and performance. For example, one of our biggest challenges has been the further simplification of application access while insuring the strongest security and best end user experience. Unfortunately, as you may know, Apple App Store policies restrict the kind of applications to those with minimal OS-level interactions. This has created a gap between what we are allowed to deliver in Citrix Receiver via the Mac App Store versus what we want to deliver to provide the highest levels of security, performance and OS level integration. With the introduction of Citrix Receiver for Mac 11.4 we have decided to withdraw from the Apple Mac App Store and instead direct our Macintosh end users to download the Receiver client directly from our website. This decision only impacts the Apple Mac App Store and does not in any way reflect our commitment to the Macintosh platform or any other Apple distribution.

Now the best news: We have completely redesigned the Citrix Receiver website to make it easier to find, install and configure Receiver! You can find Citrix Receiver for Mac along with all the other platform distributions at CitrixReceiver.com or Citrix.com/Receiver.

Let us know what you think of the redesign and keep checking back for the latest news and client updates!

How App Stores Are Changing the Face of Software Development

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on June 21, 2011:

I was in a software strategy and roadmap review meeting the other day when something happened. Something that, in my 20+ years in the tech business, I’d never seen before. In order to determine how to prioritize new feature development and investments one of the PMs in the room put up the iOS app store on the room projector and started reviewing all the customer comments. Now I’ve been part of hundreds of hardware and software products over the years and consider myself a relative expert in the gathering, prioritizing and solving for customer pain points along with the art of developing a value proposition, but never have I seen such a simple and immediate way to gather product feedback. While it makes perfect sense to take to heart the comments from the very end users who have taken the time to download previous iterations of your software, I was simply surprised that I had never considered the App Store as such an immediate and easy way to gather this feedback.

For me, App Store customer feedback has been the place to go — as an end user — to see if the product was worthwhile my dollar; to determine if it was worth my time. I hadn’t considered the impact on product management and development. Of course it was a place for end users to publicize bugs and gaps. I’d just never considered it a go-to place for prioritizing customer feedback for next generation roadmap development. But there I was, reviewing line after line of customer feedback — bad grammar and incomprehensible comments included — trying to figure out how to best address every gap and potential new feature.

The App Store may democraticize software development as much the same or perhaps even in more ways as Open Source has. It provides a smooth and transparent mechanism for any user to quickly and easily provide feedback and suggestion to the very developers writing the code. And, you know what? It appears, at least from where I’m sitting, that developers are actually listening.

This has a significant benefits and drawbacks. By shortening the cycle between end user feedback and developer escalation, bug fixes and next generation features can quickly find their way to market. However with a limited pool of feedback it’s possible that an over reliance on App Store feedback can highlight issues or features that don’t have broad appeal. More importantly — particularly for product managers — it may exacerbate the fundamental PM challenge: aim at where the market will be not where it is. This is the hardest challenge in developing and updating software. However, in this regard, the App Store may present another benefit. It becomes a whole lot easier to quickly identify your competition and outline values and drawbacks in the competition.

Like most in the business, the big market opportunity impact has yet to occur. While Apple has set the tone with the introduction and success of its iOS store — replicated now in virtually every other developer community — we are all eagerly waiting for Microsoft to take the initiative in launching a Windows app store. It’s only a matter of time and the opportunity for the thousands of Windows developers will almost guarantee a thriving ecosystem for ISVs and their product developers.

"Follow-Me Data" Means Secure Seamless Access to Work Whereever and Whenever You Need It!

This blog was originally posted to http://blogs.citrix.com/author/benjaminb/ on May 25, 2011:

We’ve all seen the impact of seamless cloud storage solutions permeate our daily work lives. You have that DropBox or Box.net account and, for convenience sake and access anywhere, you casually drop that work file into the synchronized folder. Well there it goes into cloud storage infrastructure – out of the well-managed, secure control of your IT organization. Who knows how many corporate secrets now lie outside of the firewall? You know that employee that left your company last week? Did you really get all of his files or is he still accessing the files he stored outside of the network? While certainly convenient and device ubiquitous these solutions are keeping your IT organizations up at night.

Citrix, as the leader in Virtual Computing, is coming to provide both the end user flexibility and freedom, but with all the security and data management IT has long demanded.

Business Safe Zone in the Personal Cloud

Today Citrix announced its vision for seamless Enterprise data access as part of an end user’s Personal Cloud. The Citrix solution will be delivered securely as a Safe Zone plug-in to Citrix Receiver and will make Enterprise stored data and files accessible on any device, anywhere. The Safe Zone plug-in “Follow-Me Data” solution provides access to Enterprise- and cloud-based file and data storage with all the management, authentication, control and security features expected by IT administrators fully integrated into Citrix award-winning, cross-platform Receiver solution.

What Does This Mean?

In an era of cloud-based services and web-based access to virtually everything, end users are building a tremendous amount of documents, files and web-based applications and personal identities in a “Personal Cloud.” A critical piece of this Personal Cloud is secure integration of an end users business life. “Follow-Me Data” is about providing seamless work access to data and files through the development and extension of secure, IT controlled cloud accessible storage. “Follow-Me Data” provides an easy, yet secure and completely manageable, single view of all Enterprise storage options – including network and locally stored data, Sharepoint collaboration documentation and even cloud storage – via Citrix Receiver. The solution will provide all data and files – password protected – to end users from any device, anywhere. In addition the solution will leverage IT data security best practices for white listing, encryption and device wipe.

“Follow-Me” Data provides a solution that enables end users to get access to their work data and files – from any device, anywhere -regardless of where it is stored in the Enterprise intranet. IT maintains control over the data – how it is used, secured, managed and ultimately destroyed.

• Enterprise data securely managed and securely delivered to any platform anywhere: Coupled tightly to Citrix Receiver, “Follow-Me Data” Safe Zone technology provides unique enterprise class data management with ease and simplicity of consumer’s Personal Cloud access from any device anywhere.

• By leveraging Citrix Receiver, enterprise customers immediately gain cross-platform, secure authentication values at the heart of Receiver. In addition Enterprise customers also gain the centralized management functionality long missing from distributed and cloud storage solutions on the market today. Enterprise class management includes file-based control, secure and remote wipe, and tight integration with active directory authentication.

• The Citrix “Follow-Me Data” solution will be an open, SAML-based architecture that provides the necessary framework for Cloud storage providers to plug-in secure and seamless access to Cloud data stores. Coupled with Cloud Gateway SaaS management solutions from Citrix, the “Follow-Me Data” solution will be able to provide enterprise security to, for example, corporate DropBox, Box.Net or SugarSynch implementations. By leveraging open standards for identify federation, “Follow-Me Data” will provide the mechanism for any third party provider to immediately gain the benefits of a fully-integrated, cross-platform, device independent enterprise data solution.