This session took place at Synergy 2018 (May) in Anaheim, CA.
Citrix Workspace Environment Management (aka WEM) uses intelligent resource management and Profile Management technologies to deliver the best possible performance, desktop login, and application response times for XenApp and XenDesktop deployments. It is a software-only, driver-free solution.
Resource management - To provide the best experience for users, WEM monitors and analyzes user and application behavior in real time, then intelligently adjusts RAM, CPU, and I/O in the user workspace environment.
Profile Management - To deliver the best possible logon performance, Workspace Environment Management replaces commonly used Windows Group Policy Object objects, logon scripts, and preferences with an agent which is deployed on each virtual machine or server. The agent is multi-threaded and applies changes to user environments only when required, ensuring users always have access to their desktop as soon as possible.
This session has a couple of big announcements:
WEM will be available as a Citrix Cloud Service. This is a great option for organizations that want to reduce infrastructure requirements and management.
WEM will be able to manage physical devices outside of a XenApp and XenDesktop environment
WEM/UPM will be able to manage Office 365 Outlook OST files and the search index database (jump to minute 21 in the video)
Although not an announcement, the fact that the WEM and UPM developer teams are now one is a very positive step for admins looking to better manage user experiences
Drop us a comment if we missed anything during this packed session,
I am writing this on the eve of Citrix Synergy 2018 from a seat on a Southwest flight to Anaheim, CA. The same location as Summit 2018. There is anticipation for what I believe will be a historic Synergy. With Citrix news frozen at the moment before the big Tuesday keynote, it seems like a good time to look back.
Summit 2018 was full of great announcements:
XenApp Service - announced and subsequently released in Q1 (blog)
Workspace Services - this is a new offering that packages various solutions (blog). It will be available at three different service levels:
Workspace Unified Endpoint Management
Workspace Advanced
Workspace Premium (Q1)
Citrix Workspace Hub was announced (blog)(3 min YouTube video). This a Raspberry Pi device that is one part low-cost thin client and one part IoT device. One cool new feature is the ability to do dual displays via a second ancillary device (a Raspberry Pi Zero) to drive the second display. Both ViewSonic and nComputing will be selling these devices.
Secure Browser Service - this service is a great option for an organization that wants to keep internet browsing out of their data centers and endpoint devices (blog). Citrix will host the browser and provide a seamless user experience.
Citrix Ready HCI Workspace Appliance - Nutanix is the first partner to make the onboarding of a Citrix Services even easier (blog) (Nutanix).
XenApp Essentials - announced that Hosted Shared Desktops will now be supported (blog).
Citrix Analytics Service is announced (blog). This is an add-on Service to correlate events across users, apps, data, and networks and apply machine learning to uncover actionable insights. While analytics will initially focus on security there are plans to expand insights to user experience and performance. Definitely, one to watch.
NetScaler SD-WAN - 10.0 announced and support for LTE integrates appliances (blog). 10.0 expands the scale and functionality of the product.
NetScaler Secure Web Gateway is enhanced- a forward proxy that will integrate with other Services like Secure Browser (blog).
NetScaler Gateway Service - now bundled with the XenApp and XenDesktop Service (as in free) and provides HDX proxy. There are more advanced versions of the Service coming.
NetScaler Application Delivery Controller - new agentless approach to management using Ansible syntax and REST APIs (NITRO) (Ansible site).
NetScaler CPX can now be used as an Ingress device in Kubernetes clusters to load balance north-south traffic to your service (blog).
NetScaler MAS - Web Insight and Advanced Analytics using anomaly detection announced. Customize app scoring. A new tool for capacity planning enables visualization of peak application usage.
Ready for the keynote
Throughout the week there was a lot of discussion around the “Secure Digital Perimeter”. Many companies have realized that fortifying the perimeter does not do you any good if none of your users are inside it (aka the trusted network). Citrix takes the approach that users need to be productive both on and off of the trusted network, from any device, using any applications.
The services hosted by Citrix Cloud are growing. Products that have traditionally been a perpetual license all have a subscription equivalent. In one of the sessions, they gave an overview of the points of presence for the various services. It will be interesting to look back at this map in the future as all services are growing and new services are being added all the time.
Citrix Cloud Global Points of Presence
I had the pleasure of being on a panel with @florinlazurca and @emma_k_prz dedicated to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) that will go into effect on May 25th, 2018. It is my opinion that these regulations will start new conversations on how we collect, process, or protect personal data. The impact is likely to extend outside of the EU and set a bar for any organization to strive for.
While there were sessions that focused on XenApp and XenDesktop, there was less focus on the flagship products during the keynote. Current Updates (CU) have consistently dropped each quarter for a number of years. These smaller updates are easier to deploy and test but can still deliver big value like the watermark feature in 7.17.
XenDesktop watermarking as seen on a Chromebook. The transparency is can be subtle or not so subtle.
Last but not least, I want to give a shoutout to @crystalricevuto for winning Demo Warrior. Crystal beat out all other employees in an internal contest to come up with and deliver the best demo showcasing Citrix's products. Anyone who can work in HBO's Game of Thrones into their demo gets my vote! It was great to see Crystal get recognized on the big stage.
My twentieth anniversary of being an IT professional came and went last year and I did not even notice. A lot of technology has come and gone since then. When I started, the idea of sharing printers and files via a server was a big idea. The general philosophy of IT was to "protect" staff by controlling everything they did. Honestly, it was pretty easy. Computing was mostly a workplace activity and people were not very savvy so they welcomed help from IT. The industry was governed by a law that predicted massive increases in computing power--Moore's law.
Gordon Moore, a founder of Intel,wrote in a paper in 1965 that observed the number of transistors in a densely integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. He projected this would continue for a decade. This rapid growth in computing power enabled personal computers to run complex software. In reality, this growth held true for much longer than a decade until 2012.
Flash forward to 2018 and computing is ubiquitous thanks to tablets and smartphones. The general population is pretty savvy with each younger generation becoming more digitally native. People like to be self-sufficient and if IT does not give them the tools they need to be productive, they will go out and get their own. IT still needs to keep employees safe but they also need to enable productivity. Microsoft's Jeffery Snover thinks there is a new Moore's law that will guide IT for the next ten years.
2018: The Other Moore's law (@geoffreyamoore ) will be more important than the original Moore's law:
Build what differentiates you.
Buy what doesn't.
I recently watched a few different talks by Mr. Snover, founder of PowerShell, before the enormity of this idea really sunk in. In his talks, he is framing this idea in relation to digital transformation which is my 2017 buzzword of the year.
The Ignite session above is formal, high level, and just the kind of thing you could send to your IT manager. Now, if you are an old timer like myself, do yourself a favor and watch this next video,"How to Position Yourself for the Future with Jeffrey Snover and Jason Helmick." It takes place in Austin, Texas at a PowerShell user group. Jeffrey Snover (@jsnover) and Jason Helmick (@theJasonHelmick) walk the group through a rethinking of IT in general. Ironically, I do not think they talk about PowerShell in the first hour. The whole session is much more informal and has some frank language. Honestly, it was a kick in the pants for me. It made me rethink the way I view my value as an IT professional. I spent the next couple of days coming to the conclusion that this other Moore's Law is incredibly important. My favorite quote of the whole talk is:
You need to change your company OR change your company
The idea is that YOU need to bring change to your company and help them understand and if you can not do it, you need to change your company for one who does.
In other words, do not let your company control your career. Be in charge of your own career. Supposedly, people in IT are very comfortable with change. We may be at a massive inflection point and the question is if you believe we are, are you ready to get in front of it?
