Thanks to our excellent sponsors (AppEnsure, ExtraHop, Liquidware Labs, Nutanix, Uniprint, AppSense, Atlantis Computing, eg Innovations FS Logix and UniDesk) this was, yet again, a free-to-attend meeting.
The Steering Group would like to thank all the presenters for their time, effort and engaging presentations: especially for those presenting for the first time at the user group. Thanks as ever to the 3D-realtime attendees for providing interesting and useful questions; always great to meet and greet new faces (and again there were lots this time) we look forward to seeing you again with a larger chair quotient from the off. Thanks also to those attending on-line via Go-to-Webinar – we a couple of niggles early doors but if you’re heckling the presenter in a friendly manner from another country – it must be working right, and at least you had somewhere to sit from the start 🙂
Who attends UK Citrix User Group events? For XVIII over 120 registered and we had about 70% turn up on the day. It is mainly end users of attendees on the day but, you know here in the UK, we enjoy inclusivity. Of those attending :-
- 66% end users/partners – we did see lots of new faces (looked to be almost half which was very interesting). Also nice to see old ones who made the trek down/across/up.
- 10% from Citrix. As always, good to see you guys – especially during the Round Table. As Jane Rimmer mentioned in her review of the XVII UK Citrix User Group event a user group needs the support and focus from the vendor to be successful and we appreciate your contribution, obviously with a shout out to Ben for presenting.
- 1% came from Sponsors
- The rest put “other” for those of you who like completeness.
Again, thanks to our sponsors for this free-to-attend event, especially Liquidware for the very lovely lunch, and Appensure for refreshment and FSLogix for the post-event drinks.
We covered…
Citrix News
Technically, the news could have gone on for some time. Citrix have been busy bees since our XVII event. That said, we had Citrix Technology Professional Jarian Gibson over from Kansas City, Missouri who was all prepped for talking about new stuff in-depth, and it wouldn’t be cricket to steal his thunder.
We covered the user group’s ever continuing growth, with some eschewing of facts modern political campaigns would be proud of. That aside, we highlighted the new XenDesktop/XenApp 7.11 release, including Self Service Password Reset which is available in Storefront 3.7. We talked about the Citrix’s replacement for MS RemoteApp; Citrix’s acquisition of Norskale and yje release of a free NetScaler CPX Express a microservice aware load balancer in a docker container.
You can download the agenda from here.
 |
Peter von Oven, Sales Engineering Director for UK&I, Benelux and Nordics from Citrix Ready Partner of the Month Liquidware Labs talked about ProfileDisk and twin profile portability. |
Persistent VDI using MCS with Full Clone
 |
Ben Dowen, Senior Software Test Engineer at Citrix, took us through a new feature of 7.11. Full Clone removes some limitations of previous versions when deploying full desktops – you can now use MCS to effectively clone an operational desktop in a new instance without the need for sysprep. |
Securing EUC – Why it’s our problem
 |
Simon Townsend, Chief Technologist EMEA at LANDESK Software gave an informative community session not only on the differences between what a see-saw is called in the US (teeter-totter or teeterboard fact fans), but the rise in focus and impact on business of security of a user’s device. The impact of Ransomware is estimated to be isgnificant. Great insight into the European directives on data protecion. We can only agree that operational security is our problem to solve. |
The Last Word on Windows 10 for XenDesktop (Volume 1)
 |
James Rankin, Citrix Technology Advocate followed on from previous UK CUG sessions talking about Window 10 in providing a summary and (what he hoped) would be the “Best of” Album you’d always wanted about deploying Windows 10. |
Citrix HDX Display Codec Deep Dive
 |
Citrix Technology Professional Barry Schiffer from the Netherlands joined us again to give an overview of the history of HDX with detail on the improvements from 7.8 to 7.11, the impact on thin client devices and the importance of understanding that default can be very different things and can change density (and so costs). |
NetScaler Automation – Talking NITRO with PowerShell
 |
Our third Dutch Citrix Technology Professional presenting on the day, Esther Barthel, gave great insight into the fun she has with Nitro RESTful APIs to manage Netscaler services, essential for data center automation/SDN. Not only that, but also her use of Powershell to drive Nitro, demos and bonus scripts. |
 |
Keith Girt shook things up a little from a typical sponsor slot to focus on the results of a Citrix Performance Management survey that eg Innovations did in conjunction with www.dabcc.com. Some interesting detail on where people are today with ensuring Citrix services run optimally. |
NetScaler Automation – Talking NITRO with PowerShell
 |
It was a pleasure to welcome our furthest travelling Citrix Technology Professional, Jarian Gibson, presenting for the first time at the UK Citrix User Group and then on to our colleagues in Polish Citrix User Group. A little bit of collaboration there to share the Gibson goodness.
Jarian gave vital updates on the progress of ShedQuarters, whats new in 7.11, the SCOM management packs, self service password reset and Workspace Environment Manager |
Round Table:
From the outset we always wanted this to be an interactive feedback session. It has had to morph from a “round of chairs” but what is always pleasing is the greater questions and tangents are from the people who haven’t presented.
We discussed the possible demise of PVS with the ever richer capability of MCS; suggested some new features for MCS based on capabilities of PVS for a greater synergy between the two delivery models. Whether or not there will continue to be a future for XenMobile. Insight into the speed of bugs being addressed through patches given the new faster release cycle licensing challenges, build automation and the longevity of the thin client market.
And that was that.
If you were wondering, “can I download all the links in handy file” the answer is “yes“. Use this link.
Again, thanks to our sponsors AppEnsure, ExtraHop, Liquidware Labs, Nutanix, Uniprint, AppSense, Atlantis Computing, eg Innovations FS Logix and UniDesk
Future user group meetings in 2016 are as follows:
- 1 Dec – London
Keep an eye/ear out for more details. Our goal is approximately four events a year, we’re open to suggestions going into 2017.
It’s a goal of the user group to share ideas and information. If you see a pertinent presentation, if you plug into a wonderful webinar, if you’ve done something you simply want to share then the UK Citrix User Group exists to help you distribute that resource by having a place to discuss it with your peers. One person can make a difference, and everyone should try: we’re happy to help.
Join us on Twitter where our lists now includes links to all those who have presented. Share with us at up and coming events, or on our LinkedIn group or on our Citrix User Group Community forum.
Thanks, and see you December.
UK Citrix User Group Steering Group.
1 Comments.