This year finance departments are calling the shots, with a single business aim, reducing cash flow for 2009.
This is a challenge for IT departments but also an opportunity. For companies with existing Citrix or VDI infrastructures some interesting options present themselves.
I’ve seen two areas being exploited. Building upon a well designed existing infrastructure to increase working from home capacity incurs just a modest cost. Yet, its cost savings can be exponential. Enabling more staff to work from home can reduce office space requirements, a major ongoing expense.
The second push, resulting from the present economic climate, is expanding the off shore workforce, again quickly and cost effectively addressed with a Citrx XenApp or VDI systems.
This year doesn't have to be taxing, and for those prepared to adapt and hunt for new opportunities, the next 12 months could prove engaging and profitable.
Thursday 12 February 2009
Tuesday 10 February 2009
Speed camera for Citirx
It’s part of the human condition that we take risks. Evident in how difficult we find it to stay at the speed limit. The introduction of speed cameras however, changed behavior, just knowing that we are been monitored reduce speed.
Monitoring in the workplace has existed for years in various forms. Typically used to record employees entering or exiting a building or room, exchanging emails, instant messages or conducting telephone conversions.
Recording a user's Citrix session is akin to introducing a speed camera into your applications. Just the knowledge that a users’ actions are been recorded, makes users behave within acceptable limits, and think twice about any actions they might take.
I've looked at two products that while both record Citrix sessions, are very different, SmartAuditor and ObserveIT.
Citrix with the release of XenApp 4.5 introduced SmartAuditor (SA), which requires platinum licensing. SA records the users’ session in full colour, and also lets you watch the recording a second or so behind real time. ObserveIT, on the other hand, captures a small grayscale picture of the screen after user input has occurred, so each product produces a very different visual record.While Citrix captures the whole session including display changes that might happen without user input and so provides a full recording, ObserverIT stores only changes on the screen generated by the user.
That's the main difference in the recording, but ObserveIT supplement the recording with Metadata about the users actions, for example if a user opened a command prompt this would be tagged, then if the user issues a ping command this again would be tagged, the result: you can quickly scroll down a list of user actions then click to see the related recording.
Both products can be configured to record a server desktop or published application on a per user basis, I’ve used this to only record third party access to applications while not recording internal trusted users.
Session recording is an emerging technology; it will be interesting to see how it matures and is used over the next few years.
Monitoring in the workplace has existed for years in various forms. Typically used to record employees entering or exiting a building or room, exchanging emails, instant messages or conducting telephone conversions.
Recording a user's Citrix session is akin to introducing a speed camera into your applications. Just the knowledge that a users’ actions are been recorded, makes users behave within acceptable limits, and think twice about any actions they might take.
I've looked at two products that while both record Citrix sessions, are very different, SmartAuditor and ObserveIT.
Citrix with the release of XenApp 4.5 introduced SmartAuditor (SA), which requires platinum licensing. SA records the users’ session in full colour, and also lets you watch the recording a second or so behind real time. ObserveIT, on the other hand, captures a small grayscale picture of the screen after user input has occurred, so each product produces a very different visual record.While Citrix captures the whole session including display changes that might happen without user input and so provides a full recording, ObserverIT stores only changes on the screen generated by the user.
That's the main difference in the recording, but ObserveIT supplement the recording with Metadata about the users actions, for example if a user opened a command prompt this would be tagged, then if the user issues a ping command this again would be tagged, the result: you can quickly scroll down a list of user actions then click to see the related recording.
Both products can be configured to record a server desktop or published application on a per user basis, I’ve used this to only record third party access to applications while not recording internal trusted users.
Session recording is an emerging technology; it will be interesting to see how it matures and is used over the next few years.
Monday 2 February 2009
Days like today
With the heaviest snow storm for eighteen years, London comes to a stand still. The bus network closes and with tubes and rail severely affected, firms in London start calling their staff to tell them not to bother travelling into work. So, with the estimated cost to the economy predicted to be in the region of £1.2bn, who are the winners and losers?
Well, there might not be any winners, other than the kids in the park! But, you can be sure that the companies who implemented an effective disaster recovery solution were patting themselves on their backs. I’ve worked on a few solutions to support home working via Citrix and SSL VPNs, which have quickly been adopted to become a core component of DR planning.
The dangers of success, however, need to be mitigated. When DR solutions are used, they tend to be pushed to the extreme. So, take care when planning. Typically, the main danger are; Internet bandwidth, ensure the capacity exists to allow each Citrix user 30 Kbytes of bandwidth and there is adequate VPN capacity and licenses. Finally, ensure back-end Citrix server performance. All three can be the downfall to a very successful DR system.
On a more end-user focused note, ensure all core business applications are available and users understand which applications can be accessed remotely. For financial institutions, some limitations exist on what type of data can be accessed from none company premise – check with your compliance department.
It is days like today that Citrix proves its real value.
Well, there might not be any winners, other than the kids in the park! But, you can be sure that the companies who implemented an effective disaster recovery solution were patting themselves on their backs. I’ve worked on a few solutions to support home working via Citrix and SSL VPNs, which have quickly been adopted to become a core component of DR planning.
The dangers of success, however, need to be mitigated. When DR solutions are used, they tend to be pushed to the extreme. So, take care when planning. Typically, the main danger are; Internet bandwidth, ensure the capacity exists to allow each Citrix user 30 Kbytes of bandwidth and there is adequate VPN capacity and licenses. Finally, ensure back-end Citrix server performance. All three can be the downfall to a very successful DR system.
On a more end-user focused note, ensure all core business applications are available and users understand which applications can be accessed remotely. For financial institutions, some limitations exist on what type of data can be accessed from none company premise – check with your compliance department.
It is days like today that Citrix proves its real value.
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