Tag Archives: SaaS

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.

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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.

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“.

XenMobile AppController 9.0

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The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test XenMobile AppController 9.0 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 necessary conform to industry descriptions or best practises.

Shortened Names
XENMOBILE APPCONTROLLER – xac
CERTIFICATE SIGNING REQUEST – csr
FULLY QUALIFIED DOMAIN NAME – fqdn
RECEIVER FOR WEB – rfw
CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY – ca
STOREFRONT SERVICES – sfs
PUBLIC KEY INFRASTRUCTURE – pki
NETSCALER GATEWAY – nsg
XENMOBILE DEVICE MANAGER – xdm
XENMOBILE NETSCALER CONNECTOR – xnc
SECURE TICKET AUTHORITY – sta
DOMAIN NAME SERVER – dns

New & Existing XenMobile AppController (XAC) Admin & User Consoles
1: The NEWEST console is a troubleshooting one which is accessible at https://XAC-FQDN:4443/ControlPoint/support which allows troubleshooting of NetScaler Gateway, XenMobile Device Manager
2: Control Point Admin console – https://XAC-FQDN:4443/ControlPoint/
3: Hidden Admin console – https://XAC-FQDN:4443/admin.
4: Receiver for Web (RfW) provides user access to SaaS, Web-links – https://XAC-FQDN:4443/Citrix/StoreWeb/ natively. You can integrate XAC with StoreFront to enumerate published Windows apps, Sever and Desktop VDI’s from XenApp, XenDesktop 7.x.

What’s New
0: XenMobile Security PDF document – http://www.citrix.com/content/dam/citrix/en_us/documents/products-solutions/xenmobile-security.pdf and XenMobile security microsite is also available at – http://www.citrix.com/products/xenmobile/tech-info/mobile-security.html.
1: Support for Windows Phone 8.1 MDX Policy’s for WorxMail and WorxWeb only – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-worx-about-wrapper.html. You can learn how to wrap Worx apps for Windows Phone 8.1 using this useful CTX article entitled “FAQ: Windows Phone 8.1 and XenMobile 9” – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX200105 and also watching the following video below from Citrix TV.

2: New troubleshooting and support console that can download logs, perform connectivity tests and upload logs to http://taas.citrix.com. The console is available at – https://XAC-FQDN:4443/ControlPoint/support once you have successful authenticated at https://XAC-FQDN:4443/ControlPoint/. You will need to know the admin access details for NSG, XAC and XDM in order to effectively use this console.

3: Wrapping iOS Worx Apps Video.

4: Wrapping Andriod Worx Apps including covering off how-to sign multiple *.APK files using a BASH script. Refer to the XenMobile 9.0 MDX Toolkit Documentation
– http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX140458 for more information once you have watched this video.

5: XenMobile 9.0 MDX Toolkit Documentation – http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX140458

Installing & Deploying XAC 9.0
1: Review and understand the systems & networking pre-requites of the XAC virtual appliance at – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-appc-sysreqs-wrapper-con.html and http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-prepare-xenmobile-checklist-con.html.
2: Deploy the XAC virtual appliance on your chosen hypervisor and boot it and follow the onscreen instructions to apply the IP addr, DNS e.t.c and reboot upon completion connect to the Web Admin UI to compete the initialisation wizard thereafter you can begin to setup and configure your XAC virtual appliance and upload your MDX signed Worx apps and configure the MDX policies as required per app per supported platform. Don’t forget to generate and sign a CSR for the XAC and optionally sign it with your Enterprise CA (PoC/Demo environments) or a Public CA (PROD environments) and apply your own SSL certificate(s) to the XAC refer to – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-deploy-appc-cert-install-con.html or for a video demonstration watch – http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/9501.
3: Configuring MDX policies for Windows Phone 8.1 – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-policies-wp81.html, iOS – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-policies-ios-con-nike.html and Android – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-policies-andr-con-1.html. Finally checkout how-to configure encryption policies – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-encryption-con.html.
5: Once you have setup and configured your XAC appliance you can setup high-availability – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-90/xmob-appc-ha-wrapper-con.html.
6: If you are looking for the XenMobile Reference Architecture please refer to http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX140433.

XenMobile AppController 2.10

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The following content is a brief and unofficial prerequisites guide to setup, configure and test XenMobile AppController 2.10 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 necessary conform to industry descriptions or best practises.

Shortened Names
XENMOBILE APPCONTROLLER – xac
XENMOBILE DEVICE MANAGER – xdm
CERTIFICATE SIGNING REQUEST – csr
APPLE PUSH NOTIFICATION SERVICE – apns
FULLY QUALIFIED DOMAIN NAME – fqdn
GoToMeeting – gtm
GoToAssist – gta
CERTIFICATE AUTHORITY – ca

Understanding MDX Technologies
1: Citrix MDX technologies provides and enable IT to wrap enhanced security, traffic around mobile apps for Android and iOS. The technologies can be segregated into 3 tiers called MDX ACCESS, MDX INTERAPP & MDX VAULT when determining what policy(s) to enforce. I will not look into the capabilities of each tier at a high level.
2: MDX VAULT enables encryption of the private data storage of MDX wrapped mobile apps. Check out – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-87/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-encryption-con.html.
3: MDX INTERAPP allows IT to control the application fabric of MDX wrapped mobile apps e.g restricting what apps it can open in (Document Open In); opening a service of the mobile platform e.g maps when a user clicks on an address in WorxMail.
4: MDX ACCESS enables and allows IT to set a MDX wrapped mobile apps traffic to be tunnelled via a mVPN, blocked or to the internet. The mVPN can be configured with either SecureBrowse (Only internal traffic traverses up the mVPN and anything bound for the internet does not) or FullVPN (All traffic flows up the mVPN).
5: You can find more surrounding the MDX policies at these two links one for iOS at – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-87/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-policies-ios-con-nike.html and Android at – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-87/xmob-appc-mobile-apps-policies-andr-con-1.html.

Wrapping native *.APK, *.IPA mobile apps to become MDX enabled
1: Take a look at the following documentation in eDocs at – http://support.citrix.com/proddocs/topic/xenmobile-87/xmob-appwrap-toolkit-wrapper.html then the MDX Toolkit Documentation –http://support.citrix.com/servlet/KbServlet/download/37081-102-709208/MDXToolkit%20Documentation%20v1.0.pdf and video available at showing how to wrap Android mobile apps – http://www.citrix.com/tv/#videos/9465. I have embedded the video below from Citrix.com/TV:

Pre-requisites, Understanding & Installing The XenMobile 8.7 Components End-2-End for a PoC or a Demo Environment (DRAFT & MAY CONTAIN ERROR(S))
Coming soon!