What is new in xd 5.6 and fp1 061212

Editor's Notes

• #4: And so to begin with we are positioning 5.6 as the next product iteration of Citrix’s desktop transformation momentum and strategy which is about 2 things:It’s about being able to deliver more use cases and support not just some but all user groups in an organization through enhancements to existing delivery models such as Pooled VDI with Personal vDisk. As well as, delivering some cool new mobility features such as making it easier to use Windows apps on mobile devices and tablet optimized Windows desktops. it’s also about making it easier for organizations to accelerate their move to desktop virtualization with updated integration with existing desktop management systems and new desktop transformation assessment tools from Citrix.The second area is about driving costs lower as seen by new storage savings obtainable by combining pooled VDI and Personal vDisk and reduced IT management overhead with new single image management capabilities when usingXenClient and Synchronizer.
• #5: Last fall we released Personal vDisk as a tech preview product that accompanied the XD 5.5 release. With this release, we are delivering on the promise of fully integrating this technology into XenDesktop. So, now, Personal vDisk is tightly integrated within XD Studio, Desktop Director, MCS/PVS image creation services, and 3rd party desktop management and distribution tools such as Microsoft System Center.And so the benefits of Personal vDisk cover both end users and IT groups.For end users they can now receive the same levels of desktop personalization and control they had experienced with dedicated VDI meaning if allowed, they can install additional apps and configure their user preferences in the Personal vDisk, which is separate from the base image, and the base image supporting all the other pooled users is not impacted.For IT, they no longer have to struggle between choosing non- persistent Pooled VDI or persistent Dedicated VDI delivery models. They can go pooled VDI altogetherand meet all the dedicated VDI use cases but with substantially lower management overhead and storage costs.
• #9: Managing pooled virtual desktops (including Personal vDisk personalization layer) alongside physical desktops using existing desktop lifecycle management systems has traditionally been a challenge. However, new tighter XenDesktop integration with leading systems management tools, such as Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager 2012 brings managing these two types of desktop environments from a single management console a reality.
• #10: one of the newer challenges with respect to delivering enterprise applications, is how do you make these applications accessible on all the different types of devices such as tablets and smartphones without having to rewrite the applications for each target device. So to solve this particular challenge a new capability available within the XenApp Hosted Shared delivery model is the ability to dynamically transform an application’s UI to look and feel like the native UI of that smartphone device.So now, your existing Windows apps adapt to the way users interact with apps on smaller devices like smartphones where for example,The keyboard pops up automatically when the user touches into a text entry field and there’s auto scrolling to ensure the text entry field is visible to the user and not covered up by the on-screen keyboard. Anothermobile UI feature introduced is auto zoom to make the picker controls and list boxes easier to use in Windows applications hosted on XenApp. And the key point here islegacy enterprise Apps just become more usable and no source code changes are required.But if you want to extend your existing or new applications to have access to other mobile device controls such as the GPS or camera, we have an SDK so you can go in and easily update your applications.
• #11: Another new mobile UI capability, designed to support some niche use cases, is what were calling Tablet Optimized Desktops where XenApp dynamically reskins a Windows UI based on the device type, so the controls and menus are now larger and easier to interact with on smaller screens. And, again, there’s nothing the admin needs to do special on the Windows side to make this happen, this reskinning is automatic.
• #12: The first version of CloudGateway Express (Windows Apps and desktops only with Express) is included with all editions of XD 5.6.In a nutshell, CloudGateway is about aggregating and centrally delivering virtual apps and desktops. And, it provides users with an intuitive single point of access and self-service to all their business apps and desktops on any device, anywhere, while providing IT with a comprehensive single point of aggregation and control for all apps and users.In addition, CloudGateway enables applications subscribed to on one device (through Receiver) to automatically follow to any other device. So now users subscribe to their applications just one time.CloudGateway Express is an easy upgrade from Web Interface and it prepares enterprises for Web and SaaS, and Follow-Me-Data add-ons delivered through the CloudGateway Enterprise edition.Key Points: Gateway services represents the security layer – this is the enforcement point for the contextual security controls you can set based on device characteristics, location (inside corporate network or external), network trustworthiness (public wi-fi or private network) and more. Gateway remote access and security services reside upon the NetScaler platform, which can be deployed as either hardware or a virtual appliance. StoreFront is the layer that aggregates and presents the unified app store to the users via Receiver. From a deployment perspective StoreFront is a software download that gets installed on a Windows 2008 R2 server. Finally, the content controllers that feed into StoreFront and deliver provisioning and single sign-on features include XenDesktop, XenApp and AppController. XenDesktop and XenApp provide all virtualized desktops and apps to StoreFront, and then the AppController component provides web apps, SaaS apps, mobile apps and data hosted by ShareFile Enterprise. AppController is a virtual appliance available for deployment on either XenServer or Vmware.
• #13: The latest update to XenClient which is included with this release, contains a number of enhancements such as simplified Windows image management for an easier, more reliable and more cost effective way of managing updates. This Windows Image Management feature in XenClient ensures that IT defined images are enforced on a continual basis. And, so now an IT admin can simply apply the changes they want to a single base image in the datacenter using Synchronizer and have those changes sent out to their XenClient devices.Additionally, XenClient is now localized in German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese languages so end users around the globe can experience a more engaging and familiar experience when using this product.
• #14: To help evaluators with the assessment phase of desktop transformation, The Desktop Transformation Accelerator portal contains several new value add tools to help and is freely available to Citrix users and prospects.In particular, the new Virtual Desktop Assessment tool, a tool Citrix OEMed from a company called Lakeside last year, is now fully integrated into the Desktop Transformation Accelerator portal and provides automated inventory of devices, applications and usage patterns and then returns recommendations on areas such as FlexCast delivery models, and what should be contained in the master image configuration and application portfolio.So, now we are providing XenDesktop evaluators with the critical assessment data and advice they need to quickly get started with desktop virtualization and ensure their success.
• #16: Remote PCTo help organizations with Desktop Transformation, we are introducing Remote PC which is a new feature of XenDesktopFlexcast technology that makes it easier than ever for IT departments to extend the benefits of desktop virtualization to their users with secure mobile access to office-based PCs, instead of first requiring a build-out of virtual infrastructure and the need to migrate user desktops and apps to the data center. Now end users get the benefits desktop virtualization instantly without the need to migrate desktops to the datacenter.Optimized Unified CommunicationsFor years there has been an inherent disconnect between the rise of virtual desktop computing and the use of unified communications tools such as voice and video collaboration. With the introduction of HDX Real Time technologies for voice and video collaboration, Industry-leading UC solutions including Cisco VXI Unified Communications and Microsoft Lync 2010 can process voice and video locally and create a peer to peer connection for the ultimate user experience while taking the load off datacenter processing and bandwidth resources. Universal PrintingThe user requirements for printing in a virtual desktop environment are pretty simple. From any device, from any network and any location, users simply want to discover network printers or attach a local USB printer and print to them. Any IT pro knows, however, that making printing work seamlessly and reliably is a challenge. Many customers have had to resort to complicated management and expensive third party technologies to meet the demands of printing. Now, the Citrix desktop virtualization solution tames the complexity of printing by completing a universal printing architecture with the Citrix HDX Universal Print Server. HDX 3D Pro new deep compressionEven the most demanding desktop computing use cases are prime targets for desktop virtualization. Whether collaborating with design engineers across oceans using advanced CAD/CAM or GIS apps or consulting medical imaging at a patient’s bedside with an iPad, the secure, high performance delivery of GPU accelerated 3D applications and desktops with XenDesktop has never been more powerful or efficient.Mobile App Access for VDIone of the newer challenges with respect to delivering enterprise applications, is how do you make these applications accessible on all the different types of devices such as tablets and smartphones without having to rewrite the applications for each target device. So to solve this particular challenge in the last release, XD 5.6 we introduced the Mobility Pack for XenApp hosted shared deployments which enable dynamic transformation of an application’s UI to look and feel like the native UI of that smartphone device without any source code changes. With FP1, we are extending the Mobility Pack to VDI deployments. SoC initiativeThe HDX SoC initiative, while not a specific FP1 deliverable, is an important piece of the larger emphasis of this release around reducing acquisition costs by working closely with thin client manufacturers to enable them to produce devices with HDX-ready performance for less than half the cost.
• #17: XenDesktop now extends the FlexCast physical delivery model to include secure remote connections to office-based PCs.
• #18: And so, this new Remote PC feature delivers the mobility of VDI to employees with office-based PCs., and makes it easier than ever for IT departments to extend the benefits of desktop virtualization to their users instead of first requiring a build-out of virtual infrastructure and the need to migrate user desktops and apps to the datacenter. Yes, some customers may be aware that they can connect to Windows XP physical machines today with the XenDesktop controller, but not Windows 7. The new Virtual Desktop Agent (VDA) shipping with XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1 willsupport BOTH Windows XP and Windows 7. In addition, thisRemote PC feature also includes a new simple auto-assignment setup service which is managed from Desktop Studio so IT can easily provision secure mobile remote access to thousands of users.
• #19: And so, the Remote PC use case is interesting for two reasons:First, there is established demand from existingcustomersto use the XenDesktop secure access and brokerage infrastructure they already have to improve their remote access and business continuity plans. They may not have virtual desktop infrastructure in place, but want to leverage the “Mobile workstyle”value of XenDesktopto provide access to powerful workstations that may not be primary targets for desktop virtualizationSecond, and more strategically, Remote PC is an easy way for new customersto promote and deliver mobility and flexible workstyles to a broad set of userswithout needing to first build out the application and desktop virtualization infrastructure. This is a win for our customers as they can deploy more rapidly than ever before while building out their virtual infrastructure in stages.
• #20: XenDesktop HDX Real-Time technology empowers point to point unified communications solutions from Cisco and Microsoft for virtual desktops.Support for HDX Real-Time with select Cisco VXI clients was recently announced in April 2012 representing the first optimized UC solution for desktop virtualization on the market. This solution represents one of the first deliverables from the recent collaboration agreement between Cisco and Citrix to optimize HDX for Cisco networks.The Optimization Pack for Microsoft Lync 2010 supports new point to point voice and video communications to Windows and Linux devices and will extend across all Citrix Receiver-enabled devices over the coming months. Server scalability is the “Achilles heel” of our current solution for webcam video with a current limitation of approximately 10 concurrent webcam users on a dual quad core server. But some customers will have 100s or 1,000s of concurrent webcam users. So to solve this scalability problem, we are enabling point to point connections which is about creating a direct channel between devices and bypassing the datacenter to deliver voice and video traffic directly between these datacenters to improve webcam scalability. In addition, point to point video/audio processing lowers overall latency and bandwidth consumption.
• #21: Combined with the previously available Universal Print Driver, administrators may now install a single driver in the virtual desktop image or application server to permit local or network printing from any device, including thin clients and tablets, and leveraging HDX optimization technology to reduce bandwidth load over wide area networks bytransfering printing communications outside of the virtual desktop channel for enhanced Quality of Service.
• #22: This feature eliminates the need to install numerous network printer drivers on XenApp and XenDesktop hosts, and enables more efficient network utilization. The Universal Print Server feature comprises a client component that you install on XenApp and XenDesktop hosts, and a print server component that you install on a print server.
• #23: The benefits of XenDesktop with HDX 3D technologies is about securing sensitive intellectual property and privacy-sensitive data while improving collaboration and performance eliminating the need to synchronize and transfer massive data files by enabling users to leverage state-of-the-art graphics processing hardware in the datacenter to accessing designs and images from any device, anywhere. Updates to HDX 3D technology included in XenDesktop 5.6 Feature Pack 1 provide breakthrough visual performance with more fluid app interactions and full screen display of graphics intensive apps, while reducing the bandwidth requirements for the most demanding graphics experience in half from 2 MB to 1 MB bandwidth leveraging a new ultra-efficient deep compression codec.
• #24: With Feature Pack 1 the Mobility Pack is now available for XenDesktop – VDI.So now, the capabilities previously available only with XenApp Hosted Shared app delivery pertain XenDesktop too, such as the automatic keyboard pops up when the user touches into a text entry field, and auto scrolling to ensure the text entry field is visible to the user and not covered up by the on-screen keyboard. And if organizations want to enable additional mobile device controls such as the GPS or Camera, well then they have access to the Mobility Pack SDK to easily do that. But if you want to extend your existing or new applications to have access to other mobile device controls such as the GPS or camera, we have an SDK so you can go in and easily update your applications.
• #25: Last fall at the Citrix Synergy event in Barcelona, Citrix announced a new “Citrix HDX™ Ready System-on-Chip (SoC)” initiative, designed to enable an entirely new generation of devices to deliver high-definition virtual apps and desktops at an unprecedented low cost using the company’s market-leading HDX technology. The HDX Ready SoC initiative embraces off-the-shelf consumer device innovations of the consumer electronics industry to accelerate HDX performance in low-power silicon. This model of leveraging consumer-based embedded device technology also permits a long service life for HDX-Ready devices based on the SoC as updates to the embedded software can be made easily to provide new functionality.After only a few short months since the SoC platform development began with NComputing and TI, it has attracted two additional Silicon vendors, Marvell, and HiSilicon and nearly a dozen leading device vendors who are now unveiling the first HDX-Ready devices based on the HDX ready SoC initiative. These devices reduce the cost of high-performance HDX ready thin clients by more than half, reducing the cost of thin or zero clients that may have been in the range 0f $300-$350 to less than $150.
• #26: Citrix acquired Virtual Computer & announced XenClient Enterprise on 5/9/2012XenClient Enterprise will be sold as part of XenDesktop Enterprise & PlatinumXenClient Enterprise 4.1 is based on Virtual Computer NxTopThe strategy is to bring the best of XenClient and NxTop together over time