By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.

com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day

Technical Biography utilizing open ended questions

Which VDI/VOS/Cloud vendor is King of the Mountain? Regardless, it can always change. Ill tell you who I think is the present King and hopefully a few things to think about as you ponder yours. I hope it is not the perks!

Summary
My version of blogging. I needed something that better integrated with Linkedin. Most will disagree but 2000 characters to answer complicated questions Im sorry, doesnt work for me; so, I came up with this method. Trying to start a conversation in a group is more difficult; 200 characters? That works if you have a article to reference because you work for a magazine or can link to articles on a magazine. Sometimes I might reference articles but I want to share my thoughts. Engage in real conversation about real things happening in IT, not some watered down version written by someone that does not work in IT. Does not deal with the politics of IT. Has never had to deal with co-workers not carrying their load. Watching the industry I love be destroyed by engineers claiming to be architects, implementing VDI solutions that crash 6 months later because.? (Sorry, one of my articles you must wait for, if you want). Proven, solutions architect having designed a repeatable process relative to virtual hosted applications, architecture, application lifecycle, hardware refresh lifecycles, corporate trainer with 100 and more recommendations, awards, pertaining to Private Cloud with emphasis on solutions designed to exceed the needs of the end-users that appreciate a solution providing 10 or less second logon, one Web GUI for all applications, by default high-availability on what I have coined VOS as Virtual Operating System capable of withstanding several outages in the data center and zero impact to the VOS, offline for Microsoft Patches only due to separation of all applications from the desktop, customer inspired unique authentication design allowing for customized VOS using on template for the entire company yet ability for customer to choose logon banners, drastic reduction of logon scripts required for applications by moving this and other logic to the published application, drastic reduction of network aggregate bandwidth requirements per site and working with third-party vendor before and after to determine CIR adjustments where monthly costs for bandwidth has become the most beneficial OPEX savings for some companies. Emphasis on EUC satisfaction in the production solution is critical and most important in all my implementations closely followed by a paradigm impact to all internal IT teams where the focus is making life easier for IT services from operations, Windows, Desktop Support, Help Desk, Storage, Networking, Firewall Team, efficiency impacts for business units requesting access to business applications and IT Security Fulfillment or HR, in some cases, with the goal being streamline the entire procurement process by focusing on the Corporate Business Applications, proven repeatable process for migration of all COTS, internal

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day developed, external developed, direct vendor managed, basically having a strategy that addresses the consolidation of all business applications to a centralized location regardless of the number of applications; hence, the term repeatable in practical use doesnt care if I migrate 3000 applications or 300 it just works and leveraging published best practices. The unique design, combined with a proven project plan, workflows, escalation paths, application lifecycle proprietary process including custom agreements with Help Desk management and Change Control management team approvals new process is immediately implemented with a customized letter sent to all Business Unit management to emphasize the critical role of allocating 1 to 3 power user UAT resources whereby user is shadowed during UAT to assist with creating of application run books which helps shift priority of success relative to new production applications working in a shared private cloud to-be environment and prevents end users from pointing the finger immediately at the new solution when evidence is provided showing the power user provided did not UAT that report or that query.

Which VDI/VOS/Cloud vendor is King of the Mountain? Regardless, it can always change. Ill tell you who I think is the present King and hopefully a few things to think about as you ponder yours. I hope it is not the perks.
This one is easy for me and I have several reasons as to why when considering the entire platform and I appreciate the question because of the platform allows me to cover all areas with a broad brush. A lot of this analysis is due to the fact I spent 6 years as a stockbroker before joining the computer industry. I look at leadership, acquisitions, insider trading, stock ownership and many other things. First, VDI exist today [In My Opinion] because of Ed Iacobucci former IBM developer who in 1989, 3 million dollars, founded Citrix in Richardson, Texas. Like many of us, his vision was multi-user centralized support versus distributed model. He surpassed all the hurdles such as the fact his first iteration was based on OS/2 which he leased from Microsoft bypassing IBM. Microsoft offered him a job but he turned it down to focus on Citrix. It failed to find a market after

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day Microsoft released a statement they would not support OS/2 applications in 1991. The entire event almost never happened. Roger Roberts joined as CEO from TI, the company earned no profile from 1989 to 1995. For whatever reasons, Intel and Microsoft provided venture capital between 1991 to 1993. It all began to take form when Citrix bought Network Access Server from Novel which was built on DOS and used as a remote access application. They used this to provide desktops and applications from the server to multiple users similar to TS server works. First product, WinView. This is one reason. I built my career on this technology. To me, WinView is XenApp. IMO, this was the first XenApp. Citrix was first to the game; they had a great head start and aligned themselves early with key players. In particular, Microsoft who finally realized the benefit of the technology; Citrix going public in 1995 probably paid off well for Microsoft and gave Citrix new cash which they put into R&D where it should have went and it paid off big time. Thus far, Citrix has held on to what it created ICA for example. The even managed to buy back the company they leased ICA/HDX; Kaviza aka VDI-in-a-Box acquired in 2011. Then dismissed. They continue to make the right acquisitions that position themselves to own the entire TOP layer of the stack. This is to their advantage to own the top layer and stay vendor agnostic. IMO, most important; DataPac, Innovex Group, Sequoia Software Corporation, Expertcity, Netscaler, Teros, Reflectent, Ardence, Aurema, QuickTree, XenSource, VMLogix, EMS-Cortex, Kaviza, Cloud.com, ShareFile, AppDNA, Podio, Virtual Computer, Bytemobile, Zenprise. AppDNA alone is going to expedite application migrations and set the standard for Application Lifecycle discovery phase. Zenprise is a replacement, IMO, to their mini-VPN technology with Cloud Gateway and using Netscaler to compete with products like Good. Zenprise is a complete mobile solution that allows for BYOP solutions, it will become the new standard for using personal phones and provide a secure corporate image on the same phone with ability to use personal and corporate phone at the same time on a single device. It is XenDesktop for phone, XenPhone. Next, Mark B. Templeton is President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Citrix Systems Inc. He has served as President since January 1998 and as Chief Executive Officer from June 2001 to the present. He was elected to the Board of Directors in May 1998. His stock options are: Exercisable

2,071,250

17,895,800.00

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day Non-Exercisable 281,250 Exercised 417,454 His salary compensation is less than 1 million, which you see when the leadership has taken stock instead of salary meaning he believes in the company, the products, and more motivated to make things happen. 2,152,580.00 17,022,100.00 862,500

In 3 years, the stock has destroyed DOW and NASDAQ, President since January 28 th, 1998.

In 3 years, President to Board of Directors to CEO beginning June 2001. This news was well received and you notice there was major selling or executives dumping stock, two stock splits in 3 years.

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day

Finally, in all the time Mark has remained in leadership the company continues to perform well. Well to me being the stock has institutional ownership of 93%, earnings per share of $1.86 on 186.72 Million shares outstanding, PE of 39.40, giving us a market cap of 14 billion.

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day

In summary, the leadership own hundreds of thousands of shares (which they should), and this combined with the leadership decisions to acquire certain companies, listening to their customers, makes this my # one choice for success now and in the future relative to my reasons for stating Citrix as my preferred vendor for virtualization. virtual desktop and server, and all the top layer tools to ascertain application viability, followed by remediation steps, the tools to find these remediation steps and reduce migration of applications by 50% or greater, all the components required at the delivery stack including login GUI, support for any authentication model, Global Load Balancing, Routing by Proximity, Client NAP with DMZ ability, SSL VPN with split tunnel and split DNS, SSL compression, application layer 7 specific QOS between sites for better application performance prior to ICA delivery. Hardware, software, and process level monitoring tools with elite custom reporting. Elite custom proactive monitoring with automated remediation steps, alerts, and built in work flow for adhering to change management procedures. True support for any device such as; phones (iPhone, IPad, and newer IOSs coming soon, laptops, zero clients, thin-clients, desktops of any vendor, any software client such as the various Linux builds such as Debian (becoming popular), any IOS, to Open BSD, Macintosh, and all versions of Windows. With HDX, ability to create SaaS Desktops for purpose of running Internet only applications to high end virtual TVs for watching videos on Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Prime, Netflix. Support for call center telephony software, customer service chat for banks and other organizations, support for Skype Video, Google Voice and Video, Microsoft OCS with Video plug-in, Video conferencing, Cisco IP Soft Phone, Avaya Softphone. With each acquisition they continue to own more of the components required to deliver a full VDI solution for hosting VOS, VPAs, and eventually, IMO, you will see more acquisitions specific to cloud (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS) and more focus on the core XenApp product or applications, ways of porting or migrating or creating instant SaaS versions of the application using a Middleware Tier. Not a product that requires vendors to write APIs for all their applications, a more progressive technology that does the analytics as well as remediation and creates PaaS specific environments on the fly followed by a SaaS front-end with all communication to and from the backend Database now using the Middleware Component and encrypted using wildcard SSL certificates. If the leadership changes, then I re-evaluate.

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day Hopefully I have provided a different perspective

Assumptions
Never put the horse before the cart
Business Applications + Application Lifecycle Management (Leverage Windows Installer Server to create best practice MSI packages + Wyse Packager + Wyse Conflict Analysis and DLL Remediation) / Citrix AppDNA application analysis for VDI with 1 to 5 rating and application specific remediation steps to resolve application working in Citrix XenApp low hanging fruit identified by AppDNA remediation steps to production ready MSI packages using AppDNA + master packaging team dedicated to multi-user application packaging + full customer UAT by power user * packager and power user working together while packager takes screenshot of every function + user signs off * iron clad agreement with Change management & Help Desk stating user cannot open Severity 1 or 2 ticket for anything NOT UATd post implementation of new install to production * Creation of run-book for each application during UAT and screen capture for HelpDesk and Change Management and Customer Reference * Policy stating naming standards for packages, Windows Installer Service creates a GUID for each new package, that GUID is tied to the patch (MSP) or version 2 aka clean uninstall and new install which is fully automated by Windows Installer Service by capturing new package and new GUID associated to old GUID and trigger to perform clean uninstall * Document when to patch, policy that everything is patched as MSI and documented whether single dll or regkey change. That GUID is associated to the primary GUID and using triggers create workflow install and dependency installs. In other words, you can have prerequisites so if this GUID (appA) does not exist it installs App A first, then appB, then AppB1 regkey change + a few more things = BUSINESS APPLICATION LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT CONTROLLED AT XENAPP LAYER NOT XENDESKTOP VM OR VOS LAYER. Citrix XenApp x ICA/HDX + (Citrix Provisioning Server + XenDesktop + Netscaler SDX/VPX + SQL2008R2 X 2 (2 node cluster) = Delivery Zone Last, I dont believe in there is no wrong answer here, the architect, the design, the processes and workflows you leave the customer with or if doing this right now in your own IT shop. I promise you, there is a right way to do this and a wrong way. The few who get it right are a credit to the industry. How do you know if your right? When the customers have smiles on their face and VDI is not a four letter word after 6 months. VDI is nothing but a acronym until you understand why it exists. It exists to provided a conduit / access to BUSINESS APPLICATIONS anywhere and anytime from any device. I recently designed an architecture for 30,000 users with everything was less than $900,000.00 when customer was prepared to spend 4 million. I dropped the POD cabinet count from 14 to 4. VDI must be agile, it must save money, those that believe it costs more but benefit is centralization have drunk the Kool-Aid. I have an 8000 user farm at GMAC FS now ALLY FS with a per user per day usage of .06 cents per user and average of 2 tickets per day.

By Brian Murphy http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud Been there, done that, learning more each day

That is all design, VDI impacts all of IT. Every team in IT must cooperate or management must be prepared to offer choices. First, buy them the book Who moved my Cheese. Then, simply state I want you on-board, Ill give you 2 days to read the book and 2 weeks to decide. Otherwise, dont waste your time. Enjoy, Brian Murphy, Profile - http://www.linkedin.com/in/vcisscloud/ Managed Groups Vision Concepts Infrastructure Services Solutions - http://goo.gl/234nB Plan B - Resource Group and Advice for Changing Jobs - http://goo.gl/rM38E Proud member of Top Recommended People (42 recommendations) http://goo.gl/92tUN