Category Archives: Citrix Technology Advocates

What BCP Availability Strategy for Citrix DaaS? Service Continuity (SC) or Local Host Cache (LHC)

Consider this an evergreen article with *pro-active adds/moves/changes inclusive of errors/mistakes until I remove this statement.

Architectural Doodle
The diagram below provides a high level architectural difference between Local Host Cache (LHC) v Service Continuity (SC) and how you can weaponise Citrix Analytics for Performance to enable pro-active management of your workloads in a single hypersacler cloud or multi-cloud hyperscater strategy.

Visualising the Value of Change using a Force Field Analysis (FFA)
A FFA is a business methodology helping to visualise through a meaningful contextual analysis, why a business and or e.g technology decision for “change” is the right and relevant direction of travel. It helps by amplifying the understanding of ”the what the change is, the how, the what if and the why change” towards anew future desired state e.g buy a music title per song vs. a music subscription to rent the music over a period of time.

The example analysis below is a technology change decision shifting from Local Host Cache (LHC) current to Service Continuity (SC) future state – improving IT’s operational resiliency capability and capacity considering todays current climate and threat of digital warfare aligned to internal business priorities and or executive KPIs ranging from strict security compliance & governance, hybrid multi-cloud failover (between cloud hyperscalers) to becoming cloud first/native adopting aaS tooling where right and relevant e.g I/PaaS to help IT accelerate DEX at the required pace and execution agility.

This example analysis is representative of my personal field technologist landscape experience and backed by a robust and diverse pool of customers ranging in size and verticalisation. Remember you do not have to agree with my field experience the concept is to weaponise this business tool as a force for good change in organisations wanting change that is well meaningful and or to back and better understand cost v value driven business strategies during forces of change.

Score Hindering Forces Service Continuity (SC) Driving Forces Score
3 Traditional method doesn’t rely on cloud services Modern method to reduce and derisk operational outage 5
5 Strict Governance & Compliance requirements for on-premises workloads only – High security organisations e.g UK Gov entities e.g MoD/M6 Better employee affordance during outages with SC 5
5 Security requirement for on-premises remote access Gateway POP’s controlled by IT/Security to reduce attack surfaces by adversaries including derisking operational outages Cloud first Turn-Key Global v Regional POP Gateway as a Service Strategy 5
2 No support for Citrix Workspace Site Aggregation to On-Premises CVAD environment No technical implementation debit 5
2 ▓ Limitations of Service Continuity for Internet Browsers – use case 3rd parties VPN-Less access without installing CWa on supported endpoints No technical waste and debit – LHC management & monitoring 5
3 Citrix Receiver not supported – use case support for outdated thin clients Citrix Workspace app (CWa) aligned to employee affordance (EX strategy) – Business KPI 5
Alignment to Cloud first Time to Value strategy – Business KPI 5
No LHC BCP testing program to valid solution and verify sizing & scaling annualised changes 5

20

40

▓ Updated 07/03/2022 – Several SC limitations e.g Internet Browsers as a barrier to adoption have now been address learn at – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2022/03/01/service-continuity-in-citrix-cloud-a-recipe-for-resiliency/.

The outcome of this analysis reveals that while a number of key inner or outer loop stakeholders maybe opposed to the technology change strategy, the FFA outcome is well clear that the driving forces for change is in favour of Service Continuity (SC). You should make every attempt to remediate against the identified hindering forces for change which could be the simple result of:

1. The decision maker(s) perception through experience wasn’t positive.
2. Company culture is adverse to agile change.
3. IT Operations is required to retain more “control” when consuming cloud based I/PaaS services to better derisk outages.
3. Cloud security policies and frameworks have not been approved to enable new types of technologies like SC to be on-boarded and accepted by Enterprise/Cloud/Security Architects.
4. Accept the current business risks are they are and re-evaluate at a future time as the current value out weighs the micro hindering forces.

Understanding Service Continuity (SC)
This a modern way to reduce and derisk availability access to (virtual) applications and desktop during an outage provided the employees endpoint has the capability to access Citrix workloads within your hybrid and or hybrid multi-cloud resource location(s).

Cost v Value Driven Strategies
The following are generic but meaningful examples of the cost and value driven strategies why adopting Service Continuity (SC) to underpin your BCP/DR strategy is the right strategy.

  1. Modern field leading practise or method to reduce and derisk PaaS outages.
  2. Time to value is immediate – its a turn-key out of the box SaaS style experience with no configuration nor IT skills required, no technical nor technology debit incurred.
  3. Leverages Citrix Cloud global turn-key Gateway Service fabric – its service availability uptime is healthy as it operates between two hyperscaler public cloud providers, details accessible using the “Cloud Assurance” micro site on the Citrix Trust Centre at – https://www.citrix.com/about/trust-center/cloud-assurance.html then filtering to the Gateway service + Gateway POPs.
  4. No requirement for bi-annual v annual stress testing and compliance checks for BCP/DR testing. Typically this would involve up to 2-3 days (or more) for enterprise organisations to stress test each site/resource location excluding a further 5 full  business days of planning activities, virtual meetings, whiteboards, approvals e.t.c with multiple stakeholders prior to testing – its an expensive exercise.
  5. No pro-active requirement to manage and monitor a StoreFront pair/cluster configuration, SSL/TLS certificate management, LHC cache integrity at each site/resource location which significantly reduces overhead of monitoring and associated OS licensing and VM operating costs.
  6. The employee affordance (experience) is far superior vs Local Host Cache as a strategy – Icons are greyed out amplifying to the employee that his/her (virtual) application or desktop is unavailable while anything coloured is still accessible and available – this design thinking affordance feature is often overlooked by IT Professionals but evaluation through the lens of a employee e.g PA amplify what is and what is not available.
  7. Supports modern authentication however there are limitations that will occur when SC is evoked see – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace/optimize-cvad/service-continuity.html#requirements-and-limitations.

Service Continuity Support Matrix

Platform/Feature/Service Learn More Supported Notes
Citrix Workspace for Web (Chrome/Edge) https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace/optimize-cvad/service-continuity.html#service-continuity-in-browser ✓* 1.*Requires CWa for Mac 2112 or Windows 2109
2.Kiosk usage is not supported e.g Hotdesking
3.Support internet browsers Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge with plug-in’s installed.
Mac https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/whats-new.html#2112 ✓ CWa 2106+
Windows https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/about.html#21121 ✓ CWa 2106+
Andriod https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-android/whats-new.html#whats-new-in-2220 ✓ CWa 22.2.0
Linux https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-linux/whats-new.html#2109 ✓ CWa 2106 (GA 2109)
iOS https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-ios/whats-new.html#whats-new-in-2225 ✓ CWa 22.2.5 Tech Preview 03/2022
Security & Connectivity Limitations:
EPA Scans
Enlightened Data Transport (EDT) – During outages
Citrix Workspace IdP (Authentication) https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace/optimize-cvad/service-continuity.html#requirements-and-limitations SAML 2.0
AD
AD plus Token
Azure AD
OKTA
Citrix Gateway (primary user claim must be from AD)		 Authentication limitations:
SSO for FAS
SSO to VDA
Local mapped accounts
Only AD Domain joined VDAs are supported as of 03/2022

Technical Deep Dive
One of my fellow Citrix Technology Advocates (CTA) and current fellow Citrites Gavin Connolly – https://citrixie.wordpress.com/author/technologistgav/ has written a brilliant in-depth blog post on how it works, how to configure + test it and the employee experience “Affordance” – https://citrixie.wordpress.com/2020/12/22/service-continuity-for-virtual-apps-and-desktop-service/ – Service Continuity for Virtual Apps and Desktop Service.

Understanding Local Host Cache (LHC)
This is the traditional method while equally robust it requires a fair bit of feeding and watering to ensure cache accuracy and resiliency at scale when required to derisk PaaS or a hyperscaler region outage.

Cost v Value Driven Strategies
The following are generic but meaningful examples of the cost and value driven strategies why retaining your current strategy of using Local Host Cache (LHC) which underpins your BCP/DR strategy is the right strategy under the current strict compliance and or risk requirements.

  1. Strict regulatory compliance to maintain some form of “control” when using cloud services.
  2. Industry Specific by Certification and or Government regulation requirements that prohibit cloud based services from being consumed and where an on-premises IT strategy is the only viable option on the table.
  3. Greater control through a co-shared IT responsible operating model e.g brokering workloads using the vendors PaaS but owning the outage risk.
  4. Profound value based platform reliability and stability for bad app farms delivering mission cirtical line of business virtual apps that cant be moved to modern OSes and if become unavaiable may cause significant fiancial harm e.g Utilities
  5. Long term service release strategy alignment objectives

Understanding Citrix Analytics Service (CAS) for Performance
Coming…

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Dyslexia Thinking + Thoughts on the power of Citrix Workspace + Citrix Modern Networking captured in a Blended Doodle

A Workspace technology that enabled Flexible Working styles 30+ years with a continuous Vision focused on the Current vs. Future of Work Acumen
I decided to put together my second blended doodle together to better explain Citrix Workspace + Citrix Modern Networking, how it works in a visual illustration format to have more meaningful conversations and discussions. I picture can tell a thousand micro stories and the big picture here depicts a simple story which tells you the IT + Business value unlocking your organisations potential using Citrix on Citrix, including the why and why now. A Citrix Workspace supports legacy, traditional and very forward thinking ways of working that prior to the COVID-19 world wide pandemic would take a while to get going however today organisations can leap at pace within there Transformation journeys by unlocking ready to consume Citrix as a Service operating models inclusive BUT also well beyond virtualisation to a world where you can swipe left or right vs. enter in up to 3-5 fields and tap submit/approve to achieve an business and human outcomes within seconds.

The stark truth is that a Citrix Workspace for Citrites is “AWESOME” and the productivity time I get back routinely using our own technologies inspires me more with each day, it allows me to accelerate ‘economics of time I get back’ or take a well deserved break when I need it on my own terms.

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L-J’s (My) #Dyslexia thinking + thoughts on the power of #CitrixWorkspace + #Citrix Modern Networking “Best Together” captured in this blended #doodle talking about modernising IT services, multi-dimensional sustainable IT thinking, zero trust architecture, flexible working styles, diversity and inclusion, the modern vs. traditional device spectrum, agile working powered by a smart phone, SIA + SASE + SD-WAN and so much more. #citrixCTA #employeeexperience Blended Doodle is hand drawn with pencil ✏️ + paper, with final editing using Apple iPages on my #iPhone 7📱 The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

A post shared by Lyndon-Jon Martin 👨🏻‍💻📲 (@lyndon_jon_martin) on

Understanding Citrix Workspace + Citrix Modern Networking “Best Together”
The following links below will help you better understand the different Citrix service offering capabilities, terminology, strategy and business + technical acumen (>).

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Zoom A/V Offloading for Citrix Virtual Desktops Part 1

Introduction
Zoom developed a VDI optimisation solution that enables and allows for Audio and Video (A/V) processing similar to that of Microsoft Teams today and Skype for Business originally deploying and leveraging a client and backend service software components. Zoom refers to the backend as a “Zoom Client for VDI” and then the endpoint runs the “Zoom Media Plugin” processes and handles the A/V data traffic.

Zoom Pre-requisites & System Requirements
1.Prepare your UAT provisioned Citrix Virtual Desktop image to install the “Zoom Client for VDI” downloadable at – https://zoom.us/download/vdi/ZoomInstallerVDI.msi which is also referred to as the “Zoom Installer VDI” and or “Host Installer”.
2. Prepare an endpoint running a supported OS to run the “Zoom Media Plugin” Windows, iGel, eLux, HP ThinPro OS and Ubuntu. In this example we’ll focus on installing the “Citrix HDX Media Plugin” for Zoom which you can download at – https://zoom.us/download/vdi/ZoomCitrixHDXMediaPlugin.msi. The full list of available Zoom Media Plugins for Citrix is available at – https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360031096531-Getting-Started-with-VDI#h_44458af3-695a-44f0-9cbc-b753f00b3c00.
3. Initiate a test Zoom video conference call and observe HDX offloading of A/V from the Citrix Virtual Desktop to the endpoint running the “Zoom Media Plugin“, which is passing the A/V data traffic to the Zoom Cloud MMR platform reference the Zoom VDI Optimisation node at – https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360031441671#h_70badc99-f2fd-417e-bd46-59493ab7047b.
4. I didn’t have to configure anything within the Zoom Cloud MMR, neither my personal Zoom account it all worked out of the box.

Citrix Pre-requisites & System Requirements
You’ll need a CVAD UAT environment to deploy fresh VM to install the “”Zoom Client for VDI” and a test Windows endpoint to install the “Zoom Media Plugin” onto. In my initial testing I am running a freshly installed Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops (CVAD) 1912 Long Term Service Release (LTSR) which is run in my own personal “cloud” home lab in AWS EC2 geographically located in N.Virgina, USA. Zoom is also listed within the Citrix Ready website at – https://citrixready.citrix.com/category-results.html?search=Zoom.

Deployment Overview
The installation and configuration for Zoom Optimisation Meetings for VDI is incredible frictionless that it took me less than 5 minutes to complete the deployment, then test my first ever Zoom video conference call running in a Citrix Virtual Desktop. The following in order of events.

1.Download “ZoomInstallerVDI.msi” and install the “Zoom Client for VDI” within my PoV Citrix Virtual Desktop.
2.Download “ZoomCitrixHDXMediaPlugin.msi” and install the “Zoom Media Plugin” onto my Windows endpoint where I connect to my Citrix Virtual Desktop through Citrix Workspace app for Windows CR.
3. Downloaded the Zoom app from the Apple App store – https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/zoom-cloud-meetings/id546505307, please this link if for the UK Apple app store. I completed the first user experience and register myself a Zoom account.
4. I started Zoom instant meeting and then invited another participants using a meeting ID# and by default each room as a unique password to join, for more on the security of Zoom see towards the end.
5. I successfully logged into my Citrix Virtual Desktop and run “Task Manager” likewise I started “Task Manger” on my local Windows endpoint.
6. I clicked to start “Zoom VDI” app within my Citrix Virtual Desktop which there prompts you to enter in “Meeting ID” (preferred as it’s always a unique #) or “Personal Link Name”, select your preferences for audio and video upon joining. Next by default I expected to join the virtual meeting but was halted as I was required to enter in a passcode/password to actually “join” Zoom video conference call currently in progress.
6. Zoom video conference call started and immediately VDI optimised with the A/V traffic been processed locally on my local Windows endpoint.

Important Note: I only tested VDI Optimisation from within my AWS EC2 personal lab boundary as I don’t have a physical Windows endpoint at home to test it with so that will be included in part 2, my goal was to see how easy it was and if it worked a frictionless as I thought it might just by reading through Zooms online documentation.

Demonstration of Zoom A/V Offloading
In the initial demo below for part 1, I connected to a Citrix virtual desktop running in AWS EC2 (N.Virginia) in a double hop scenario, as Zoom don’t currently support Apple Mac endpoints for any Zoom VDI offloading. The video of me you see in the demo video is from my personal iPhone (London, England) connected to the Citrix virtual desktop (N.Virginia, USA). Note I didn’t test bi-directional video and or audio communication, and a few other topics, which I will follow-up in the future time permitting, but as you can see the Zoom video conference call offloads the Zoom A/V traffic to the connected Windows endpoint effortlessly! Great work Zoom I am well impressed with my initial testing today.

Employee Experience VDI Limitations
Zoom and provided a high level feature “comparison” matrix – https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/360031441671-VDI-client-features-comparison#h_fceae51c-f385-4a20-bd54-c7c50f186c15 depicting the differences between the Zoom VDI client vs. the Desktop and Web clients. Its important to be mindful of these differences in order to properly educate your employees when dealing with service desk requests or better prior to rollout by posting an internal article on your companies intra or extranet. The following for me are important limitations to be aware of, when deploying and consuming Zoom through a Citrix Workspace lens.

– Maximum resolution of 1080p and up to 380p for thin client h/w.
– No dual monitor support
– Support for up to 9 visible video participants
– No Apple Mac device support for HDX offloading of Zoom A/V data traffic

Security & Privacy
Zoom has recently been in the press surrounding security and privacy practises “Google it”, with that been said its worth noting that Zoom as an organisation committed to a 90 day security plan centred on its platform + client security, today 22/04/2020 they published the following article on there corporate blog “Zoom Hits Milestone on 90-Day Security Plan, Releases Zoom 5.0” – https://blog.zoom.us/wordpress/2020/04/22/zoom-hits-milestone-on-90-day-security-plan-releases-zoom-5-0/, so be sure to read through it.

Final Thoughts
I have alot more questions and tests to do the above is only the very beginning, next I’ll be evaluating fallback scenarios, more of a focus employee experience use-cases including unconsidered needs, tweaks of course and finally testing a 🙂 endpoints in London, England whilst my Citrix Virtual Desktop in N.Virgina, USA as this is how I have tested these types of Unified Communications (UC) or Video Conference platforms all the way back to Lync with the Citrix HDX Optimisation pack.

I honestly found the setup and deployment of Zoom’s VDI Optimisation ridiculously simple its incredibly frictionless! I guess thats why many folks are still continuing to consume and use Zoom for video conferencing.

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Get Smart with Citrix AutoScale & Power Capacity Management during COVID-19

I’ve noticed a number of folks asking what do as my existing Citrix AutoScale + Power and Capacity Management policies aren’t powering on my public cloud workloads any more, especially when they need it most!? What is happening? Firstly “this is not a Citrix issue” it’s a public cloud capacity issue in all the major players by selective “POPULAR” instance types for commonly used workloads like delivering virtual apps & desktops and its affecting by indvidiual regions e.g UK and not the whole public cloud providers capacity world wide to be clear and transparent.

If you make use of Citrix AutoScale and Power Capacity Management for mission critical CVAD workloads for better P&L management vs. capacity peaks then please DISABLE IT for those Delivery Groups (DG) within the CVAD Service temporarily to maintain business operations and internal SLA’s for service delivery of CVAD workloads to employees WFH during CVOD-19. Disabling AutoScale is strategically very important during these current times, it enforces that identified mission critical workloads by Delivery Group are always on-demand 24/7 to meet operational business demands. Its important to highlight this applies to any vendors and even in-house vs. community built power and capacity management tooling platforms should also be DISABLED for all business mission critical workloads so that daily business operations are not impacted.

Why do organisations use Citrix AutoScale and Power Capacity Management?
Its for a couple of scenarios, usecases which I will collectively sum up as follows below:

1. Save money not running VM instances in public clouds 24/7 when they aren’t required, therefore saving you a substantial amount of money when looking to better manage your P&L.
2. Your employees typically work 21 business days within a month (30 days) the rest is made up of time off e.g weekends, so why keep all that capacity powered on and consuming more money unnecessarily including carbon emissions. On that note how many of you leave your data centres fully powered on or even home labs when you they aren’t required? Our world needs us to make smarter and better decisions to lets act and save our world for our future unborn grand children.
3. Support spikes/peaks in virtual app & desktop consumption with a capacity buffer.

You can learn more about Citrix AutoScale at – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-virtual-apps-desktops-service/manage-deployment/autoscale.html#three-types-of-autoscale-user-interfaces included the supported CVAD use cases “Autoscale user interface for Multi-User OS e.g CVA Delivery Groups“, “Single-User OS e.g CVD pooled vs. static VDI Delivery Groups“. 31/03/2020 I noticed that Citrix TechZone published a technical document on the same date as this article and I think you’ll find if very useful and insightful as its very technical eDocument – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/tech-zone/learn/tech-briefs/autoscale.html.

Why your should DISABLE it!
COVID-19 is a world wide pandemic and hopefully a once in life time vs. century event. The number of employees now Working from Home (WFH) world wide is incredible, it’s placed a macro burden on many consumer services where some are in a degraded state or have intentionally degraded themselves to free up more bandwidth capacity over the internet in Europe for example Netflix – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51968302. Its equally true for IT business services e.g virtual meetings and of course public cloud providers whom have run out of capacity for popular VM instance types in Europe, and this is why you want to disable AutoScale so that your mission critical workloads are not stopped + deallocated and then returned the public cloud provider pool where they will be consumed by someone else and keep up 24/7, other organisation’s may have paid upfront to reverse a number of instance types for a period of 30/60/90 days and this is achieved by holding back any/all returned capacity and finally likely redistributed to critical government agencies and department for example in the UK the National Health Service (NHS) to keep health workers productive managing COVID-19 and supporting patients.

Act & Think of Others
Please be responsible and make sustainable choices and only keep mission critical workloads on-demand 24/7 that are essential to daily business operations. Finally a personal ask if you are an IT Professional who’s home lab partially runs in a public cloud as its extended from on-premises please be respectful, mindful and aware that if your region is experiencing capacity issues PLEASE turn off and deallocate those VM instances types so that capacity can be returned to the public cloud pool during working days of the week to support businesses whom need it vs. government agencies and or health departments supporting people in-need of help and support medical and or otherwise.

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Journey to The Nirvana Phone within the Workplace Part 1

Does it even actually exist? Truthfully it depends on how we as humans (employees) choose to consume the apps, data and network services on them for the purposes of personal and workplace usage.

In preparing to write this article I googled “The Nirvana Phone” the top search result is a Wikipedia entry – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_Phone (huge smile) along with 3 YouTube videos and very very very familiar face followed by yet another huge smile + found memory flashback because its Citrix CTO of Emerging Technologies Chris Fleck demonstrating using an iPhone 4 running a Windows 7 VDI (DaaS) delivered by Citrix Receiver on iOS connected to a monitor with a Apple VGA adaptor and portable paired Bluetooth keyboard. This is actually a key subconscious moment for me that has had a profound affect on me, and how I approach and look at the world around me today. So when I first saw that video I immediately hunted among work colleagues and friends for that Apple VGA cable adaptor to test it out for myself with my iPhone 4 and oh boy I was NOT disappointed yes it still had a way to go but as a real world working prototype concept enabling anyone in the world who uses Citrix and is the owner of an Apple iPhone 4 to use it in such a way is mind blowing even now while also demonstrating the WOW effect that this gaming changing technology will have on the workplace, even today nearly a decade on I am using one of many Nirvana Phones out there in the market running Citrix Workspace app available from all major app stores to actively take full advantage of my iPhone XR “Nirvana Phone” as it was intended in Chris Flecks original video below to be flexible and adaptable between sandbox vs. native mobile apps, browser based SaaS web apps and of course Citrix virtual apps* & desktops** formerly known as XenApp* and XenDesktop**.

I mentioned earlier it was a “key subconscious moment” for me personally as it validated and meant to me that I can use a devices as such as the Apple iPad or iPhone as a work device this is super cool and practically appealing to me, even today at Citrix they are evolving this a reality of the “Nirvana Phone” with the Intelligent Experience – https://www.citrix.com/lp/intelligent-workspace.html by distilling the friction + complexity of apps into simple to consume actions and insights from Citrix Workspace app vs. web portal.

Lets go back in time to late 2012, I’ve joined Citrix and at Christmas I’m gifted with an Apple iPad Mini which I used a lot running and working from @WorkMail, @WorkWeb (inclusive of my iPhone) and occasionally I consume my Windows 7 VDI on my iPad Mini because I can’t find a Bluetooth enabled mouse that works with it but it does work great for tasks such as lengthily emails using the soft/digital keyboard while travelling to and from events around the world like Citrix Summit and ServTech likewise locally on trains tethered to my iPhone as train Wi-Fi does not really exist in the 2012.

Fast world to 2015 and Citrix releases a prototype Bluetooth enabled mouse called the “Citrix X1 Mouse” and who is back demoing this capability? Yes Chris Fleck is back again continuing to edge closer to the “The Nirvana Phone” workplace operating model. What most folks are not aware of I could not make Citrix Summit that year due to a family member whom was medical very unwell, yet one of the best humans I have ever had the privilege of working with in my professional working career is Caz and she brought me back an original X1 Mouse prototype because she knew its importance and value to me with my digital first nature with modern touch enabled devices like iPhone’s and iPad’s beyond today’s modern day typewriters which to be honest looking back I was held back by the technology interfaces of my time VGA to HDMI and finally entering into the main stream market late 2018 and into 2019 casting capabilities matching what we use at home Google Casting for example now coming into the Workplace like Click Share but for me they are still both a v1 they need to mature over time.

Fast forward later in May of 2015 and the final piece for me falls into place with the Citrix Workspace Hub prototype demonstrated again by Chris Fleck with the at current CEO Mark B Templeton.

Fast forward again now its 2018 and the Citrix Workspace Hub officially launches and is available through select thin client vendors that choose to be in the program. I get a Citrix WorkspaceHub device for my own personal usage from Citrix ServTech and the first thing I do when I get home is plug it in and start using it, you can see me demoing it the first time I used it at home in 2018 from my annual series of “How I worked in 20XN” obviously 2018 edition which is embedded below, fast forward to 2 minutes, 30 seconds to watch it.

Today its 2019 the current year of this post and well lets say I have totally shifted to using “The Nirvana Phone within the Workplace” because I choose to but more important the technology of my current time allows me to, and I’ve ditched the modern day typewriters up to 12-17% of my total workplace through-out 2019. You still need a larger screen and laptop for creator personna’s but for the consumer personna’s personally I don’t believe you do at a high level. You can read my journey over 2019 transferring to the “The Nirvana Phone” operating model in the workplace, starting with the original post in the series of “The Future of Work is Today NOT Tomorrow” – https://www.mycugc.org/blogs/lyndon-jon-martin/2019/03/17/the-future-of-work-is-today-not-tomorrow-part-1, followed by part 2 –https://www.mycugc.org/blogs/lyndon-jon-martin/2019/03/28/future-of-work-is-today-not-tomorrow-part-2 and part 3 – <coming>.

In closing part 2 series will focus on how to get started and work they way I do every working day at Citrix where ever I am.

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Employee Personalisation Experience in Citrix Workspace

The Citrix Workspace experience always employees to personalise there workspace beyond the enterprise branding that IT may or may not enforce. So what can a use personalise?

The following options are currently available:

First Name
Last Name
Company Name (Optional)
Custom Avatar vs. Initials

The following shows the difference between with(out) an Avatar and does make a significant impact even as a Citrix employee that its my personalised workspace that I go to get work done.

How do you enable your own personal Avatar within your Citrix Workspace? I will be honest its not obvious and its driven by the Citrix Content Collaboration (ShareFile) platform.

1.Login into your Citrix Files (ShareFile) portal e.g https://axendatacentre.sharefile.eu or .com
2.Once you logged in you should be taken to “Dashboard” UI and in the middle of the web page at the top you’ll see your name e.g “Lyndon-Jon“
3.Next to your name it will say “Add profile picture“
4.It will then open up the “Edit Profile” web page and within the “Name and Company Details” area you’ll see parallel to your name “Profile picture” select “Upload” and browse to the picture that you will use and select it.?
5.Your picture will be upload and a green notification will appear above (right side) saying “Your profile picture has been updated.” which means your profile picture has been saved successfully.
6.Next login to your Citrix Workspace either the app or HTML5 portal and you’ll see your personalised Avatar appear instead of the standard initials Avatar. Note I did find that Citrix Workspace app across all my devices required either more than 1x refresh to propagate the new Avatar or sign-off/close Citrix Workspace app and re-login at the change propagated.

In closing you now have a personalised avatar within your Citrix Workspace available across all your devices as seen below, although I primarily use Apple devices you can see the experience persists from a HTML5 browser to the mobile and desktop apps for Citrix Workspace.

I have not checked what feature entitlement is required but considering that you personalise your Avatar in Content Collaboration its a little obvious at a glance, I will update this article in the future once I have fully investigate the entitlement required. This feature had positive impact on me that I believed a brief post about setting it up was a priority for me to share with the Citrix community.

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

How vs. where I worked from in 2018

I’m often asked why Citrix? The answer can be a simple vs. complex one, therefore I choose to demonstrate why Citrix through proactive evangelism by recording myself using my Citrix Workspace actively through-out the year, which initially began in 2016 and lead to the original How vs. where I worked from in 2017 video available at – https://twitter.com/lyndonjonmartin/status/949316537021812736.

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Upgrading to Citrix Workspace app not App at a glance

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Why this blog post?
I am excited its finally available in the Apple app store, and I’m an advocate of Citrix + IaaS + SDWAN technologies.

Getting the Citrix Workspace app
If you are looking to update/upgrade to Citrix Workspace it’s now available on Citrix.com at – https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/ which contains download installers for PC, Mac, Linux, HTML5 (clientless) and hyperlinks to the app for each major app store e.g Chrome, Microsoft, Apple and Android vs. search for it in your app store using the search term “Citrix Workspace” from your smart device e.g for iOS https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/citrix-receiver/id363501921?mt=8.

Upgrading clients to Citrix Workspace app
Smart devices (Mobile)
The Citrix Receiver to Workspace upgrade on smart device(s) is simple, the app store of your chosen smart device e.g iPhone will notify you of any/all pending mobile app updates and you can simply tap to begin the upgrade as seen in the below short video. I’d like to point out this is my personal bring-your-own (BYO) device so it’s not enrolled into the corporate UEM solution as I consume + access corporate LOB apps when right vs. relevant in emergency scenario’s via my corporate Windows 10 Citrix virtual desktop (XenDesktop), Slack is for the Citrix Technology Advocate (CTA) and iGel Community channels and ShareFile Workflows, Citrix SSO is for testing purposes.

PC, Mac, Linux (Machines/Laptops/Devices)
Now lets take a look at traditional/current workplace end-points that we consume as when/how within our workspace. The example below depicts me as a Citrix SysAdmin (lets test this prior to a PROD rollout organisation wide) so download the Citrix Workspace app installer from – https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/ for your choosen end-point, and be sure to visit eDocs at – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app.html to check out the deployment configuration options for your organisations supported end-point(s) strategy e.g Thin Clients, CYO, BYO, Corporate issued.

What can I do with Citrix Workspace app?
Begin exploring the Citrix Workspace app web page at – https://www.citrix.com/products/workspace-app/ to learn about the business outcomes, transformation capabilities now enabled by IT (not just a cost centre anymore) and end-user value + benefits + experience. If you are short on time then watch the below embedded video which provides a brief overview in little over a minute, however if you do have time then please read this blog post entitled “Citrix Workspace App – Answers to Your Burning Questions” on Citrix.com – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/06/01/citrix-workspace-app-answers-to-your-burning-questions/ and be sure to read the comments section at the bottom of the blog post.

For Citrix SysAdmins, Consultants
Download the “Citrix Workspace App 1808 Feature Matrix” today at – https://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/citrix-receiver-feature-matrix.pdf to learn what is vs. what isn’t available e.t.c.

Understanding the Citrix + ServiceNow Integration

The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and deploying the ServiceNow ITSM Adapter (Connector) version 1.0.8 for Citrix XenApp & XenDesktop Service prior to deploying in a PoC, Pilot or Production environment by the author of this entry. The views, opinions and concepts expressed are those by the author of this entry only and do not necessarily conform to industry descriptions or leading best practises. The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Shortened Names
IT SERVICE MANAGEMENT – itsm
XENAPP/XENDESKTOP – xad
SERVICENOW – sn
CITRIX CLOUD – cc

Technology Introduction?
The Citrix ITSM Adapter (Connector) is now available in the SN App Store – https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do#!/store/application/bb5ca9a2db9bd700677d3437b996190f/. So what does this actually mean for you and your organisation? If you are a Citrix + ServiceNow customer the integration or rather release of the ITSM Connector allows for the automated provisioning of Citrix virtual apps & Citrix virtual desktops, including monitoring and management via the Citrix Cloud Connector. The offering includes defined roles and permissions for End-users (request new virtual apps, desktops or even reset there own sessions) vs. Administrators defined for Citrix (Consumer of ITSM, adds XAD and or Site Aggregation Service e.t.c ) vs. ServiceNow (Performs the integration).

Suggested read the following announcements “Introducing Citrix Integration with ServiceNow” – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/08/20/introducing-citrix-integration-with-servicenow/, “Citrix and ServiceNow Improve Workspace Automation and Employee Experience” – https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180820005155/en/Citrix-ServiceNow-Improve-Workspace-Automation-Employee-Experience. Finally relive/recap from Citrix Synergy 2018 surrounding the initial ServiceNow Integration announcement below.

Architecture Overview

The diagram (page3*) above is from the Citrix + ServiceNow documentation which deceits the follow of communication and traffic.

Brief Deployment Overview of the ServiceNow ITSM Adapter for Citrix Virtual Apps & Desktops
1. I would strongly advise that you download, read the documentation below carefully in the following suggested order as well.

– CC ITSM Guide* – https://store.servicenow.com/appStoreAttachments.do?sys_id=3781a14ddbfb9b002b9ed040cf96197e
– Installation (Guide) of Citrix ITSM Connector** – https://store.servicenow.com/appStoreAttachments.do?sys_id=7381a14ddbfb9b002b9ed040cf96197f

2.1. If you have not already sign-up to CC following the on boarding process carefully for new vs. existing customers – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/overview/signing-up-for-citrix-cloud/signing-up-for-citrix-cloud.html.
2.2. Refer to the ServiceNow documentation for on-boarding of new vs. existing customers – https://docs.servicenow.com/category/london.
3. You’ll need to obtain a “Client ID” and “Secret” from Citrix Cloud e.g https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/xenapp-and-xendesktop/service/install-configure/cloud-connectors-install.html along with your AD user domain (You’ll know what that is).
4. Complete the setup & configuration of the Citrix ITSM connector with your organisations ServiceNow SysAdmin by installing the connector from the ServiceNow app store – https://store.servicenow.com/sn_appstore_store.do#!/store/application/bb5ca9a2db9bd700677d3437b996190f/.
5. Navigate to the newly provisioned connector in ServiceNow for Citrix select “Home” and complete the simple on-baording process which will take you to Citrix Cloud and you’ll see “IT Service Management Adapter” service available subscribe to it. Next return to ServiceNow.
6. Authenticate to Citrix Cloud from ServiceNow entering the pre-created “Client ID” and “Secret” and once authed its IMPORTANT select the CORRECT “Customer ID” and commit.
7. You can now utilise the available ServiceNow Sysadmin tools to configure your chosen XAD environment. See listed documentation links for details for configuring for XAD Service however for now I am going to focus on on-premises XAD environment integration which requires the use of the Site Aggregation feature available from Citrix Cloud – https://citrix.cloud.com/. To setup Site Aggregation following this eDocs article – “Add an on-premises Site to Citrix Workspace” – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/workspaces/add-on-premises-site.html, note you will need to install + deploy the Citrix Cloud Connector within your resource location to communicate with the XAD environment on-premsies e.g 7.x FMA Site (NOTE: Full XAD SysAdmin credentials are required!) which needs to be added under the IT Service Management Adapter Service in CC. You can now return to the ServiceNow Sysadmin tools for the Citrix ITSM and begin configuring for Citrix virtual apps & desktops as page 5 of the installation guide**

I’ll publish a more detailed blog post in a follow-up blog article or I may update this blog post so stay tuned folks.

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Citrix Workspace app is released Hello World

The views expressed here are my own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Citrix.

Introduction
What is Citrix Workspace app? It brings together all your LOB tools which in todays modern world consists of (virtual/micro/installed/mobile) apps, SaaS, desktops & content. I’ve embedded a sample of what this actually looks like below.

Overview
The new Citrix Workspace app way more than purely an upgrade of Citrix Receiver e.g grey to blue icon and a skin change, this NEW Citrix client app release is simply extraordinary, working for Citrix I can be considered bias however once you actually begin to consume the Citrix Workspace app you’ll understand exactly what I mean. Citrix Workspace app is for me all about an experience, and that experience is extraordinarily AWESOME! As I begin consuming my LOB (Line of Business) tools wherever I am + want and in a setting/context that suites me (home, Paddington vs. partner offices, trains, taxi e.t.c) the chosen LOB tool delivered context can change dependant upon criteria (I won’t be covering this today) or how IT (say YES!) has chosen to deliver the LOB tool through Citrix Access Control Service – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-cloud/access-control/get-started.html.

I now have all my content available all in the same AWESOME app thank you Citrix Content & Collaboration aka ShareFile. I can upload, download and even favourite particular content e.g “L-J’s H1/2 Citrix Partner Tech Super Deck” which is then available directly from the home view/tab. In the below example I am uploading the LeasePlan Citrix SD-WAN case study – https://www.citrix.co.uk/customers/leaseplan-en.html and the actual video is available at – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hq-yryxfS0 take a look and remember to listen to the outcomes Citrix SD-WAN provides LeasePlan.

How do I get started today?
Firstly I will do a more detail blog post on getting it all up and running with use cases time dependant of course.

1.Start by navigating to https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app.html and then goto Citrix.com and login with your access details, next navigate to https://www.citrix.com/downloads/workspace-app/ and download Citrix Workspace app for your chosen end-point. If you are running a TP of Citrix Workspace app code base please UNINSTALL it prior to installing the GA production code base as a few community individuals I know had issues upgrading from TP code base. I would like to state for the record I upgraded from PRODUCTION Citrix Receiver to the Citrix Workspace app for Mac 1808 on my Mac without ANY issues see below tweet.

2. Please carefully read the System Requirements for your chosen platform here is the link for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/system-requirements.html and Windows https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/system-requirements.html.

3. Review the installation guidance for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/install-configure.html and Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/install.html.

4. Please carefully read the configuration of Workspace app for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/configure.html
 and Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/install.html e.t.c. for other platform and if you are looking for multi-monitor support or Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/improve-user-experience.html#using-multiple-monitors for Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/improve.html#multi-monitor-support, and securing communications between Workspace app and your StoreFront for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/secure-communications.html and Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/secure-communication.html (Pay attention to deprecated cipher suites node) and finally if your are you a Smart Card user pay attention to the recitations at the bottom of both docs for Mac – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-mac/requirements-for-smartcard-authentication.html and for Windows – https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/authentication/config-smart-card.html and for WIF 5.4 (yes I know really however some of you still may need it while your upgrading to XAD 7.x platform) https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/citrix-workspace-app-for-windows/secure-communication/config-smart-card–for-web-interface.html.

5. Sign-up vs. Login to Citrix Cloud today and trial vs. acquire a Citrix Cloud service e.g ShareFile Service or the XAD Service and if you want to aggregate on-premises LOB apps into the new Citrix Workspace experience then setup “Site Aggregation” today. To learn how please read this CTXS blog post and watch the embedded YouTUBE video which provides a how-to overview at – https://www.citrix.com/blogs/2018/08/03/site-aggregation-for-citrix-workspace-is-now-ga/.

Thats all folks for now on the technical overview its brief I know so I will follow-up in future with more detailed overview + how-to e.t.c either here or on the https://www.mycugc.org website in the experts area.

Upgrading to Citrix Workspace from Citrix Receiver for smart devices

In Closing
I work for Citrix, I have been a Citrix + IaaS advocate for well over a decade (now SD-WAN swell) so I am mostly likely bias you’ll think however Citrix Workspace app is truly AWESOME and way more than what you see at a glance, I encourage you all to begin consuming it today to see for yourself just what I am talking about and why I personally say its “AWESOME“.