UK Citrix User Group Summer 2018 meeting – London

Posted by on April 22, 2018 No comments

Thank you to all who attended our 25th meeting. Slides are now available from the links in the agenda below along with the recording.

 

Venue

Blue Fin Building (10th floor)
110 Southwark Street
London
SE1 0SU

 

Agenda

Click on the agenda item for the PDF download of the slides from that session. The Gotowebinar recording is also available here

09:30 News and Synergy updates – Gareth Carson (CTP) & UKCUG

10:00 Using VHDs to host Profile Data: An in depth Exploration – Kevin Goodman (Community session)

10.45 Sponsor session (eGInnovations – Keeping up with XenApp changes)

11.00 Coffee break

11.30 The future of apps: MSIX, App-V, Layers, and Images – Tim Mangan (CTP session)

12:15 Minimizing XenApp and XenDesktop logon times – James Rankin (CTP session)

13:00 Lunch

13:45 Sponsor session (FSLogix An introduction to Cloud Cache)

14:00 10 Quick Wins for your Citrix Environment – Jake Walsh (Community session)

14:45 Getting Intimate with Process Monitor – Guy Leech (Community session)

15:30 Coffee Break

16:00 Office 365 in Non-Persistent environment – Product Comparison Matrix – David Wilkinson

16:45 Round Table.  Bring your issues, questions and opinions for our lively discussion hour

17:15 Wrap up & feedback forms prize draw

17:30 Networking Drinks

Speakers

Gareth Carson

Citrix CTP and former CTA. Background in support services and consultancy. An advocate of keeping things simple and sticking to best practices and sharing knowledge.

David Wilkinson


David is a Principal Desktop Virtualisation architect working for Fujitsu Services in the UK & Ireland with a base in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He works mainly in the private sector and has experience in many different industries such as construction, utilities , retail and banking. He is a Citrix Certified Expert in Virtualization and recently Citrix Cloud Certified.

Tim Mangan

Kevin Goodman


Founder and CEO FSLogix
A veteran in the software industry for over twenty years, Goodman has had successful management roles in a number of private and publicly held high-tech companies including RTO Software, VMware and DCA.

Goodman is the author of two books published by M&T Publishing – Windows NT: A Developer’s Guide, and Building Windows 95 Applications, and has been a frequent contributor to several computer industry magazines. Goodman has also been awarded five patents.

James Rankin

James works as a solutions architect for HTG, a boutique consultancy based in the north-east of England. When not trying to fix technical problems that have defeated everyone else, he can be found blogging, writing articles, recording technical videos or presenting at user groups and conferences.

Jake Walsh

Jake is a Technical Consultant working across the UK, predominantly on Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop and NetScaler deployments for medium to large scale public sector clients. Jake’s focus is on improving environment reliability and ensuring that customers get the best possible experience – both for end users and for administrators. Jake regularly blogs in his spare time over at http://jakewalsh.co.uk and enjoys sharing his thoughts and findings with the wider community

Guy Leech


Guy, a former VMware vExpert, has worked with Citrix products since 1995 and has a background as a professional software developer. He invented and developed the product which went on to become Ivanti (formerly AppSense) Application Control and frequently releases scripts, tools and blog posts to help troubleshoot and automate Citrix and other environments.

Transport

Nearest Tubes: Blackfriars (Circle, District), Southwark (Jubilee), London Bridge (Jubilee, Northern)
Nearest station: London Bridge, Blackfriars (take South of the river exit)

Online attendance

We understand it’s not always possible to take a day out of the office to attend in-person meetings. We attempt to broadcast the proceedings online, with the usual caveats that the experience is heavily dependent on the venue audio/video/internet facilities. You can register here for the Gotowebinar and join us at anytime during the day. We’ll try and monitor the feed for questions but as always, the best experience will be via being in the room. Note you don’t need to register via Eventbrite if you’re join joining us online.

Submit a session for our 2018 meetings

Have a good topic, project or case study you’d think would be of interest to others? Submit your session idea for consideration for our the meeting

Sponsors

Our 2018 Sponsors

 

Want to Sponsor?

We still have a few packages left, please email sponsors@citrixug.org.uk or call +44 208 995 9495 for more details.

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UK Citrix User Group XX: Birmingham so much more to offer than a Motorcycle Museum

Posted by on April 7, 2017 1 comment

Covering topics on Netscaler, Multi-factor Authentication, Windows Profiles, Citrix layering and XenApp Essentials, this was our 20th event, and our first in Birmingham. Thanks to our excellent sponsors Liquidware Labs, Lakeside Software, FS Logix, Unicon Software, AppEsnure, Ivanti, Bitdefender, eg Innovations, ControlUp, 10Zig, Atrust, Cloudhouse and Igel this was, for the big 2 zero, a free-to-attend meeting.

 

The UK Steering Group would like to thank all the presenters for their time, effort and engaging presentations: especially for those presenters presenting for the first time at our user group. Thanks to the 3D-realtime-non-augmented-VR attendees for providing insightful feedback and great questions – possibly one of the most vocal and interactive we’ve had to date. It is always splendid to meet and greet new faces and there were a lot more for our first visit to Birmingham: and see, we do read the feedback forms with suggestions for venues.  Thanks also to those attending on-line via Go-to-Webinar. For those of you keen to know how the fancy gold microphone is getting on, it is doing just fine thanks.

post event drinks.. soft drinks for those driving – obviously

Who attends UK Citrix User Group events? For XX we had almost 100 registered and we had a good turnout on the day. While we had an international lineup in-keeping with the location’s airport, we did manage at least some people actually from Birmingham (thanks guys). That said, we appreciate the feedback that many found the venue location handier than London, we’ll bear that in mind for the future.

Again, thanks to our sponsors for this free-to-attend event. Significantly, fsLogix for the lovely lunch which had some great pie, and Unicon Software for refreshment and appreciated cookies and Lakeside Software for the post-event drinks and nibbles.

We covered…

Read more »

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Migration, Migration, Migration….

Posted by on March 16, 2017 No comments
To Migrate, or not to migrate, that is the question?

Will desktop migration ever end?  It wasn’t that long ago that we were all hurtling headlong towards April 8, 2014, the date when Microsoft ended the extended support of the Windows XP operating system.

Some of us made it in time, while others didn’t, and the rest just took the decision to carry on anyway and accepted the risks involved. There were even a few that decided to pay out the extortionate amounts of money required for Microsoft to continue supporting them until they had completed their migration.

Move the clock forward to today; here you are now having successfully completed your migration, and for those that moved to Windows 7, or were deploying new machines that came pre-built, you are happily running on Windows 7 with an end of extended support date until January 14, 2020, which is way off into the future. Migration is probably one of the last things on your project list, right? Well maybe not if you are looking to deploy the latest Intel-based client devices.

desktop OS share Nov2016In August 2016 Intel announced the latest ‘Kaby Lake’ processors, with the mobile versions first shipping in Q3 2016, followed by desktops and workstations due to ship in Q1 2017. So, all good so far, new, faster CPU’s, faster clock speeds, and improved graphics architecture/performance. What’s not to like?

I hate to be the one to spoil the party, but I’ve got some bad news for you. Microsoft are only planning on supporting Windows 10 on the Kaby Lake platform, which means for those of you still running Windows 7, which, by the way, is just over 40% of the market if you take a look at the figures on the graph. If you are wanting to deploy Kaby Lake-based hardware in your current Windows 7 environment, then you could end up finding yourself being unsupported yet again.

So, what are your options?

Read more »

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UK Citrix User Group XIX Review: Civilised Engineering

Posted by on December 4, 2016 No comments
Citrix UK User Group logo

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.

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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 to the 3D-realtime-non-augmented-VR attendees for providing insightful feedback and great questions. It is always splendid to meet and greet new faces. We had more chairs this time with your own special little desk: see, we do read the feedback forms.  Thanks also to those attending on-line via Go-to-Webinar. We a couple of niggles early doors, but also a fancy new microphone that just about survived the event unbroken, hopefully that helped.

2016-12-01-10-20-10

Who attends UK Citrix User Group events? For XVIX over 110 registered and we had about 70% turn up on the day – with a number of on-the-door registrations (which is always possible btw). It is mainly end users of attendees on the day but, you know here in the UK, we enjoy inclusivity. Of those attending  :-

  • 70% end users/partners – we did see lots of new faces (looked to be about a third). Thanks to the experienced hands who made the trek down/across/up and for the select group who caught a cheeky mid-session pint, but still came back.
  • 10% from Citrix. As always, good to see you – especially during the Interesting Licensing and Value Questions that came up in the Round Table. A user group needs the support and focus from the vendor to be successful and we appreciate your contribution. All being well we could well have a special event in 2017, focused on meeting with the engineering teams directly. I’ve likely already said to much… LOOK..! Over there! Its a squirrel!
  • 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 lovely lunch which had some great pie, and Appensure for refreshment and Extrahop for the post-event drinks and eats.

We covered…

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Death, Taxes and The Evolution of the Enterprise Desktop – are you prepared?

Posted by on September 5, 2016 No comments

In life we all know a few things are for certain — besides the obvious “death and taxes” — another certainty is that there will also ALWAYS be change.

This maxim can especially be applied to the IT industry and certainly about the desktop/workspace/user/BYOD/DAAS/VDI/SAAS landscape we are seeing morph before our eyes. All of these options certainly raise plenty of questions to an organization trying to figure out what their go-forward desktop strategy should look like.

  • “How do I get started?”
  • “What are the best options for me now and in the long-term?”
  • “How do I keep from making expensive mistakes?”
  • “Am I actually PREPARED to act on my decisions when I want to or more importantly when I NEED to?”

Read more »

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Welcome to the new UK Citrix User Group!

Posted by on October 4, 2010 No comments

Welcome!

Citrix UK User Group logo

Welcome to the new-look UK Citrix User group!

Introducing the UK Citrix User Group

A few dedicated Citrix engineers and consultants decided the UK had gone without a proper Citrix user group for long enough. So over a beer, a plan was hatched and the results of which you are now reading. It’s still early days, but it’s a start and we look forward to growing the group to become an established part of the Citrix community in the UK over the next few years.

Meetings

We don’t want the group to become a London-only user group, and plan to hold meetings around the country. We welcome suggestions on suitable venues and you can post your own suggestions in the various regional group forums.

Membership

Membership is currently free, although we are investigating the option of having a tiered membership system where a paid membership gives you a number of additional benefits such as discounts on Citrix courses and exams, and access to the Citrix Community Lab infrastructure.

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10ZiG: Citrix Ready, Synergy & H.265 (sponsored)

Posted by on July 12, 2018 No comments

Citrix Ready, Synergy & H.265

10ZiG are annual exhibitors of Citrix Synergy and this year gave us the opportunity for our CTO to take some time with the Citrix Ready Team.

Kevin Greenway is based here with us in the UK and has an extremely strong background in Citrix Endpoints throughout his six years in the VDI industry. In addition, Kevin has a background in Unified Communications which is an increasing trend with VDI adoption.  This includes integrating platforms such as Skype for Business, Cisco Jabber VDI amongst others.  This and other HDX features combined make 10ZiG an ideal endpoint selection for Citrix.

Following Kevin’s work in Orlando we have some great resources available for you.

On 12th July we issued the following Press Release announcing that our 5910q Windows 10 IoT Thin Client is verified HDX, HDX Premium and HDX 3D Pro making us the first Thin Client provider to achieve the new Citrix H.265 encoding support. You can see the release here.

We are also pleased to announce a co-webinar with the Citrix Ready Team on July 25th at 5pm BST, “Exploring the Benefits of Citrix H.265 Encoding with the 10ZiG 5910q Thin Client”.

This webinar includes:

  • The various benefits and efficiencies of H.265
  • What the end-to-end requirements are for H.265 deployment with Citrix XenDesktop
  • Metrics which offer insight into the improved image quality
  • A real life “under the hood” side-by-side comparison and metrics of H.264 vs. H.265 in various conditions.

You can register for the webinar here.

Last but by no-means least, the following video sees Kevin conduct Citrix Partner Talk with Manjunatha Gali, Sr. Technical Marketing Manager of Citrix Ready at Citrix Synergy 2018.

The Citrix Ready Partner Program is extremely important for our customers as it allows us to develop devices aimed specifically at passing the various HDX verification levels in order to deliver exceptional performance to your desktop (Skype-for-Business, Video, Rich Graphics, Printing etc.).

The video covers a live look at our brand new Quad Core 5900 Series hardware, verified HDX 3D Pro and featuring 3-monitor 4KUHD Support. Kevin also looks at the FREE 10ZiG Manager and explains some of the reasons why 10ZiG are different to other Thin Client vendors.

For more details, please follow these links to our website.

Zero Clients > https://www.10zig.com/zero_clients

10ZiG Manager > https://www.10zig.com/resources/10-zig-manager

FREE Demo Device > https://www.10zig.com/free-demo

Author: Tom Dodds, EMEA Marketing Manager, 10ZiG Technology.

A great 21st Citrix Synergy for Liquidware (sponsored)

Posted by on May 31, 2018 No comments

Citrix Synergy 2018 took place in Anaheim, California May 8-10th. I was at the first Citrix “Thinergy” in 1998 at the Swan Hotel in Orlando. The conference remains one of the most Windows desktop focused conferences in the industry.

The ultimate feedback we received from our customers and the community is that there is now, more than ever, a market need for Workspace Environment Management across all Windows desktops, not just Citrix. If you manage your users centrally you can keep all of your desktops dynamic and add more Citrix, VMware, Amazon, or Microsoft RDS/RDMI desktops at anytime with zero user downtime. Our ProfileUnity user environment management, Stratusphere UX monitoring and diagnostics, and FlexApp layering is solving this central user management dilemma daily for customers.

As John Panaguilas, director, Citrix Ready, states, “Citrix offers the most comprehensive secure digital workspace that unifies the apps, data and services people need to be productive. As a nine-year member of the Citrix Ready program, Liquidware provides great value for our customers in supporting our secure digital workspace vision.”

I attended the Citrix Product Management briefings as a Citrix Ready partner. In short, Citrix Cloud is a big focus now and they are introducing new features and products for this initiative. Liquidware has been verified as Citrix Ready since 2009 and we appreciate the NDA updates we get on product direction and focus. I also attended the CUGC (Citrix User Group Community) social event, which attracted quite a crowd! Liquidware has been a proud sponsor of CUGC since this organization launched and we’re glad to see it flourish. We’re also very proud to be the Diamond sponsor of the UK CUGC for the second year running, having previously been a Platinum sponsor for many years.

The Keynote on Tuesday seemed to be well received and also focused on Citrix Cloud. It was the first day of Solutions Expo and it opened with a roar. We publicly demonstrated our latest versions of ProfileUnity with FlexApp and Stratusphere UX. We announced that we’d be demonstrating our new cloud profiles option that are saved directly to Object-based storage on Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.  We also demonstrated Stratusphere UX’s new Process Optimization features for the first time.

Our object-based storage of profiles is already very much in demand because it solves real challenges for a highly available and portable profile that’s seamlessly cloud based. With zero need for SMB file shares, SQL clusters, or IIS servers, it’s very innovative and it is available now.

If you’d like to check out the products we demo’ed at Synergy they are available and ready for you to test. Just visit our download page!

 

Author: Jason E. Smith, VP Product Marketing, Liquidware

Jason E. Smith heads the Product Marketing team, strategically focusing on go-to-market strategies for the company’s innovative desktop solutions. Jason frequently speaks on desktop computing technologies at events such as Citrix Synergy, VMworld, and VMware Partner Exchange.