Citrix Access Essentials to become XenApp Fundamentals April 20, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Access Essentials, Fundamentals, XenApp
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Citrix is rebranding Citrix Access Essentials into:
- Citrix XenApp Fundamentals 3.0 for Windows 2008
- Citrix XenApp Fundamentals 2.0 for Windows 2003
The Fundamentals product will become full part of the XenApp family.
Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [08.04.09] April 8, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: iCloud, VDI, Xcerion
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AppSense Selected to Present on Desktop Virtualization at Sys-Con’s Fifth International Virtualization Conference and Expo April 3, 2009
Posted by Jürgen De Wolf in Uncategorized.add a comment
Virtualization Leader to Discuss Technologies, Benefits of Today’s and Tomorrow’s Virtual Desktop Implementations
AppSense, the leading provider of user environment management solutions for the enterprise, announced that it will be a featured speaker at the 2009 Sys-Con Fifth International Virtualization Conference and Expo, being held at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, March 30-April 1, 2009.
AppSense’s VP of Strategy, Martin Ingram, will address attendees during two sessions at the conference. In “Making Sense of Desktop Virtualization,” on Monday, March 30th at 5:20pm, he will discuss the key virtualization technologies (hardware, operating system, application and user), and how to evaluate them for various enterprise uses. On Tuesday, March 31st at 1:45pm, Ingram will lead a general session called “Why VDI,” which explores where desktop virtualization is headed and the role that existing and evolving technologies will play in driving VDI forward.
“The technologies required for successful VDI are evolving rapidly, and keeping current on what they are, how to best use them, and how to ensure user acceptance of VDI is tremendously challenging,” Ingram said. “I’m pleased to be able to explore these topics at such an important event, and share insights into how isolating and dynamically applying key desktop components can deliver the cost savings, business agility and superior user experience that enterprises require.”
AppSense helps enterprises cut costs today using their existing client infrastructure, while enabling further savings through dynamically composed virtual desktops. By personalizing standardized desktops and simplifying management of large-scale, complex environments, AppSense customers—which include more than 3,500 organizations globally—respond faster to changing needs, improve user productivity and deliver a stable, secure working environment. The company’s solution decouples the user environment from the desktop, stores and manages it independently, and automatically applies it to the desktop on–demand.
Source: http://www.appsense.com/thecompany/article.aspx?Id=125
Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [03.04.09] April 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: Branch Repeater, Citrix, Netscaler, SAP, VMware, vSphere, WANscaler
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- SAP certifies Citrix Netscaler 9.0 and Branch Repeater/WANscaler as a complete solution to improve the delivery of the SAP applications. The SAP Portal response times were significantly better with the Netscaler technology (more)
- Rumours in the market indicate that VMware vSphere will be announced on April 21st
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [02.04.09 - Update] April 2, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: brokers, Cloud Computing, Cloud Security Alliance, ESX, ESXi, IBM, LotusLIve Engage, SaaS, VMware
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- IBM announced yesterday their first move to cloud computing with a SaaS offering for contact management, instant messaging and file sharing program in their own data centers. The fee per user per month will be between 10 USD and 45 USD, general availability of the suite is foreseen for April 7th and it will be marketed under the brand LotusLive Engage (more)
- VMware changes the number of supported virtual CPUs to 20 virtual CPUs per core across a board. The maximum number of vCPU remains unchanges: 192 (ESX) and 170 (ESXi Update 3) (more)
- Cloud Security Alliance formed to promote security best practices a cloud computing environment. Founding members include eBay and ING, furthermore PGP, Qualys and vScaler are also member (more)
- VDI Connection Brokers have been analyzed (more)
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [02.04.09] April 2, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Data Center Management, Server Virtualization, datacenter.Tags: ESX, Hyper-V, Intel, VKernel, VMware
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DMTF Releases OVF 1.0 Standard (more).
Intel releases new CPUs and NICs with nested page tables and I/O virtualization (more).
5nine Software today announced 5nine P2V Planner for Microsoft Hyper-V (more).
VKernel Ships Virtual Data Center Modeling Tool for VMware ESX Environments (more).
Virtutech Defines Full Systems Virtualized Development With Simics 4.2 (more).
Quiet changes to citrix certifications … [importance to individual & partner certifications] March 30, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: CCA, CCAA, CCEA, CCEE, CCIA, education
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Quitely Citrix education has rebranded the ‘certificzation namings’, they name it … “Introducingthe next generation of Citrix certifications … with the IT professional in mind …” …
There are three certification tracks: administrator series, engineer series and architect series. The major changes are to be found in the ‘administrator series’. Next to the Citrix Certified Administrator a new certification has been added: Citrix Certified Advanced Administrator (CCAA). These changes primarely influence the personal certification level of IT specialists.
The CCAA focuses more on advanced topics an additional tasks like monitoring, optimizing and troubleshooting XenApp, while the CCA holds the basic skills to install, cofigure and manage a single product.
In short …
-
Install, configure & troubleshoot XenApp … go for the CCA. (CCA 4.0 has been discontinued)
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Install, configure & troubleshoot XenApp and another product like password manager, SSL/VPN … go for the CCA Platinum
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Install, configure & troubleshoot XenApp and monitor, optimize & troubleshoot XenApp … go for the CCAA
One little catch … the new certifications for XenApp 5.0 are only available for XenApp 5.0 on Windows 2008
Within the ‘engineering series’, there is an update-path to Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE) for XenApp 5 from Citrix Certified Enterprise Administrator (CCEA) for Citrix XenApp 4.0. The CCEE is currently still under development and the release is foreseen hof 2H/09. Personally I strongly believe that the CCEA will be discontinued as soon as the CCEE is fully up and running.
For those companies that are Citrix Solution Advisor and enjoy the benefits of a partnership, nothing much changes at present. A recent check on www.citrix-channel.com (which holds the certification requirements) showed no changes for Silver or Gold partners.
Minor change for Silver & Gold partners : CCSP 4.0 is no longer accepted for the ’sales-part’
Probably the new certification levels will be integrated in the partner requirements, only questions is .. When?
Aberdeen reports on advantages of virtualization but keep business-critical applications physical February 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Aberdeen
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In a new benchmark research report by Aberdeen Group, “Virtual Vigilance: Managing Application Performance in Virtual Environments,” it was revealed that organizations conducting server, desktop, and storage virtualization projects are experiencing 18% reductions in infrastructure cost and 15% savings in utility cost. The report also found that organizations that are trying to improve the performance of business-critical applications in physical environments are more likely to experience performance improvements as compared to their peers that are looking to achieve the same goals — only in virtualized environments (the report can be found here)
“Even though organizations could experience significant cost savings from conducting virtualization projects, these benefits could diminish if they don’t have capabilities in place for effective management of application performance. One of the key challenges for these organizations is that the effective management of application performance in virtualized environments requires a set of capabilities and functionalities that were not required when these organizations were looking to achieve same performance goals in physical environments. Understanding what these capabilities are is making the difference between success and failure of virtualization projects as measured from business prospective,” said Bojan Simic, research analyst, Aberdeen.
Green-IT enabling software: virtualization vs. power management solutions February 3, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: green, power management
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Computer Associates commissioned a research on the future of Green-IT and the implications for software management solutions, the full report can be found here.
One of the key findings is actually somewhat suprising. In the US companies look more at using virtualization and consolidation software in order to go green, while in the UK more companies look at server and PC power management software.
When looking at “green-it enabling software” virtualization offers the capabilities for reduced power consumption, increased usage of devices (resulting in less ‘harm to the environment’ in the production-chain) and increased flexibility. When looking at green-it from a power management solution (as the report reports for the UK) it might offer some advantages but the issues remain that only 1/3 of the hardware resources are used, user devices are well-oversized (who needs 12 USB connectors, 7 card-readers and a HD of 500GB in its laptop?) and older devices do not have state of the art PSUs.
Power Management Solutions are more a break-fix solution while virtualization is a more strategic-fix solution as it will offer in the long term much more advantages not only on ‘greenyness’ but also on maangement, compliancy and availability. A recent thin client project has shown, that the investment in thin clients offer a pay-back timeframe of 6 months (under the condition that the backend is alrady available).
Cloud Hosting Awareness Survey January 29, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.add a comment
Rackspace has conducted a research amongst 1500 SMBs in the last quarter of 2008 on everything that has to do with cloud computing.
Of all the respondents 70% was not familiar with cloud-hosting, in the medium segment this was a good 40%. Altough a high number of companies do not know the concept, approximately 30% to 50% plan to use it. It remains to be seen in what timeframe as this was not asked in the survey. Most of those that would use or are using it, are using it for external storage or for extra server and boost processing.
This actually confirms our post on ‘What SaaS has to do, to become succesfull’. I am aware of the fact that a lot of people have the opinion that SaaS and ‘Cloud Computing’, ‘Cloud Hosting’ are not the same. But for the reading-ease I assume so.
The report also confirms the fact that companies are looking at ‘cloud computing’, ‘cloud hosting, … as external resource in “case of urgency”. In order to move ‘cloud computing’, ‘cloud hosting’ to the central IT system, the software will have to be stable. But this can be arranged.
How do you see ‘Cloud Hosting’, ‘Cloud Computing’ or ‘SaaS’ pick up? Where are the hidden aspects? …
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [27.01.09] [Update] January 28, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Blade Network, Cloud Computing, IBM, RingCube
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Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [20.01.09] [Additions] January 20, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: AMD, Citrix, Cloud Computing, Egenera, Intel, Obama, PANmanager, processors, Replicate Datacener Analyzer, Replicate Technology, SaaS, SaaSPlex, XenCenterWeb, XenServer
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Intel cuts prices of its processors due to increased competition and econocom downturn (more)
Citrix releases XenCenterWeb-edition (more)
Obama envisions Federal Cloud (more)
Egenera releases PANmanager 4.2 (more)
Replicate Technologies announces Replicate Datacenter Analyzer 1.2
SaaSPlex have launched WorkClouds, the world’s first true SaaS Marketplace. WorkClouds is designed to enable small and medium sized companies to create a ‘cloud’ of SaaS applications to run their business (more)
HP extends virtual systems management January 20, 2009
Posted by Jürgen De Wolf in Uncategorized.add a comment
HP Thursday introduced an expanded software suite designed to help data-center managers rapidly and accurately deploy new technologies and more quickly recover remote servers in the event of a failure.
HP’s Insight Orchestration and Insight Recovery are add-on software applications for HP Insight Dynamics – VSE, the vendor’s physical and virtual systems management product. Insight Orchestration uses visual design tools that let systems administrators create multi-node, multi-tier templates for data-center infrastructure. With the templates on hand, systems administrators can then use Insight Orchestration to more quickly deploy new infrastructure with the needed storage and network resources automatically associated with the physical or virtual servers.
“Systems administrators can create a catalog of best practice templates from which to choose and they won’t need to spend the time redefining requirements when the business demands more data center resources,” says Mark Linesch, vice president of HP Insight Software.
Insight Recovery is designed to reduce the “risk associated with downtime,” he says. The software provides disaster-recovery capabilities for systems administrators running blade systems with a mix of physical and virtual servers. The product is designed for customers with multiple locations or branch offices that might need to restart applications remotely. The software works with VMware hypervisors and allows for site-to-site replication and connects to HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array-based products running Continuous Access data-replication software with HP ProLiant servers.
Both applications run on the same server systems that administrators have deployed Insight Dynamics on, Linesch explains, and can be purchased separately as optional software when customers need them.
“These are practical tools that increase productivity and ultimately save people money,” Linesch says. “IT organizations today need to be looking to save every watt of energy, every hour of labor and every dollar they spend so they can become more flexible and respond to business needs.”
Cisco enters server market in March [Project California] January 20, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: California, Cisco
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Reuters.com – 19/01/09 – 8.40PM (full article)
“… Cisco Systems Inc plans to start selling servers equipped with virtualization software as early as March, The New York Times reported on Monday. Analysts have said a new server product is likely to be aimed at data centers … But analysts have also said it could be a difficult move, noting that it would turn IBM and HP, with whom Cisco partners in selling its other network equipment, into rivals. …”
Virtualization Industry News [23.12.08] December 23, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: RES, Wisdom, Xenocode
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Xenocode has released an enterprise management solution for its virtualized applications. The product is dubbed Virtual Desktop but has nothing to do with VDI. The XenoCode Virtual Desktop is a three-tier application that centrally manages multiple virtual applications through a service, a file server and a client.
Microsoft aims at VMware with Citrix Management Tools [Project: Encore] December 22, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, Encore, Hyper-V, Microsoft, Vmotion, XenServer
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At present Microsoft is not offering ‘live migration’, as of the first quarter of 2009, it will … thanks to Citrix. This will catapult Hyper-V to the same leagues as XenServer and VMware vSphere.
What will happen: the Citrix XenServers management tools will also work with Hyper-V according to Lou Shipley (GM and Group VP of Citrix Management Group). The product is dubbed ‘Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V’, it will likely include a number of xEnServer management features for Hyper-V such as live migration, multiserver management and creation of resource pools, which are standard features of XenServer Enterprise.
Especially the live migration features is much welcomed in Redmond as it has been put on the Hyper-V roadmap for 2010 with 2008 R2.
At the time of writting of this article, no one was available for comment at Citrix or Microsoft. One thing for sure, if the customer has Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V it will clearly a product with which you will be able to manage Hyper-V and XenServer systems. Story to be continued ….
Virtualization Industry News [22.12.08] December 22, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, DPM, IIHT, Insystek, Microsoft
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Insystek announced that it is making publicly available a beta program for its new Virtualize IT™ for VMWare management and reporting tools. With Insystek Virtualize IT™ technology, customers will be able to discover and map virtual environments, create virtual machines, track and manage physical and virtual relationships and automate the lifecycle of a large number of virtual servers and desktops.
Citrix Systems has announced its tie-up with Indian Institute of Hardware Technology (IIHT) to launch and deliver the Citrix training programme
Microsoft DPM will protect Hyper-V with SP1
Citrix Access Gateway in Leader Quadrant December 22, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Access Gateway
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Citrix Access Gateway has been positioned by Gartner in the leaders quadrant in the ‘Magic Quadrant for SSL VPN 2008i’ report. Citrix Access Gateway is a strategic component of the Citrix Delivery Center, which simplifies IT operations by managing desktops and servers, accelerating application roll outs and reducing IT operation costs.
“We see the continued leadership of Citrix Access Gateway in the SSL VPN market as validation of our strategy of providing secure and intelligent access to applications, desktops and datacenter resources,” said Troy Trenchard, general manager, access and acceleration group, Citrix Systems.
Full article.
Virtualization Industry News [04.12.08] December 4, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Cisco
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- Rumours remain in the market regarding Cisco’s project California, probably a project aimed at Cisco entering the x86 server market early 2009. There might be a formal announcement during VMworld Europe 2009.
- Third Brigade announced the availability of Third Brigade VM Protection, a free-of-charge software package that complements the security-hardened VMware platform and helps organizations achieve protection and compliance for VMware virtual machines (VMs) that are deployed in private or public cloud computing environments.
VMware rebrands products … December 4, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: VMware
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Apparently each company has to rebrand its products as corporate strategies tend to change in time, Citrix is al well known examples, they moved from MetaFrame to Presentation Server to XenApp. Now VMware got the virus as well, one thing is for sure it will take some time before those old names (that everybody knows) will be replaced by (for example) VMware vCenter Update Manager.
The overview ….
VMware VirtualCenter → VMware vCenter Server
The central management product for VMware Infrastructure
VMware Lifecycle Manager → VMware vCenter Lifecycle Manager
Workflow automation product for creation, deployment and decommissioning of virtual machines
VMware Converter → VMware vCenter Converter (for the version integrated into vCenter)
VMware vCenter Converter Standalone (for the separately downloadable version); comes in two flavors: Enterprise and Starter
Physical to virtual (P2V) conversion product
Citrix announces Citrix Access Essentials 3 November 17, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix Access Essentials
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Citrix Access Essentials™ 3 introduces several new features and enhancements that simplify and streamline management, while improving the overall user experience.
Windows Server 2008 support
Access Essentials 3 leverages the architectural enhancements in Windows Server 2008 to improve security and manageability, such as the new Terminal Services re-architecture, security enhancements, Special Folder Redirection, XPS printing and more.
Improved user experience
Users will experience a completely redesigned and more intuitive interface that is consistent on the desktop and over the Web and allows users to access their applications more quickly and easily.
Enhanced multimedia experience
New SpeedScreen technology, including Progressive Display, Multimedia Acceleration and Flash Acceleration, provides users with a rich multimedia experience that’s nearly indistinguishable from local applications.
Integration with Windows Essential Business Server
Citrix has partnered with Microsoft to centralize and simplify the day-to-day management of Access Essentials with integration into the Windows Essential Business Server administration console. An all-in-one server solution, Essential Business Server is designed to transform businesses by helping save time and money and significantly increase productivity. Administrators can now manage servers, modify published applications, view and log off user sessions and assign and revoke user licenses, all directly from the Essential Business Server management console.
Please note that customers operating on Windows Server 2003 need to continue to use Access Essentials 2.0. The general availability date is November 24th, 2008
Citrix buys Vapps Inc November 17, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix Online, Vapps
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Citrix has bought the US company Vapps Inc, which provides audio conferencing to SME using VoIP. Citrix has paid 26.6 million USD, there is a possible surplus of 4.4 million USD if cetain financial goals are met.
This acquisition clearly is part of the extension of the Citrix Online services, in which Citrix is more and more getting into competition with Cisco, who believes that everybody requires Telepresence, while Citrix Online clearly sees more in online conferencing and collaboration services fro SMBs.
Addition 17/11 – 15:16 – A contact from Citrix Online was unable to provide additional info, as everything seems to be under non-disclosure.
Addition 18/11 – 22:41 - In addition to high-quality audio, Vapps brings support for Skype, which Citrix could also add to its GoToMeeting mix. This capability lets Skype users call in to conferences attended by users of traditional phones. Vapps had a previous relationship with Skype in which it helped expand the maximum number of participants that could join a Skype conference call.
Virtualization Industry News November 13, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Blue Lane, Elfiq, Link Balancer, VMware, ZEnoss
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Citrix U-Turns on price increase with promotion November 12, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.add a comment
Citrix has announced this weekend, a discount on the normal listprice on all new product purchases for EMEA. The promotion is valid till the end of the year and levels-out the earlier price increase from September.
Virtualization Industry News November 12, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyperic
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HR announcements:
- Matthew Stodolnic moves from Salesforce.com to Hyperic as VP Marketing
Product news:
- Hyperic HQ4 offers application performance monitoring for Amazon Cloud User (more)
Virtualization Industry News November 10, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: HP, SVSP, PCI, Replicate Technologies, Replicate Datacenter Analyzer, VirtualIron
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Product news:
- HP has released SAN Virtualization Service Platform (SVSP)
- PCI Data Security Standard has been updated to version 1.2, still does not address virtualization (more)
- Forrester released a new report “How to explain Cloud Computing to your CFO”, extract on cio.com
- Replicate Technologies releases Replicate Datacenter Analyzer 1.0, pricing starts at 500 USD per year for a 2 socket server (more). There is a free trial available.
HR news:
- Tony Asaro (Chief Strategy Officer) leaves VirtualIron
Igel Technology releases Linux firmware 3.09 November 10, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Igel, thin client
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Igel Technology has released its new Linux firmware (version 3.09). This new firmware contains a rich new feature-set providing the necessary digital services to connect to virtualized environments.
New features include:
- support for VMware VDM 2.1
- new ICA Client 10.40 fixing access to readonly mounted devices with Office2003
- Firefox 2.0.0.17 with some security fixes and support to hide context menu
- Winconnect 6.0.72h with support for W2k8 server per device licensing and fixed smartcard logon with session directory
- PCSC smartcard service: support for extended APDUs (used with long encyption keys)
- Powerterm session can now use enviroment variables to evaluate the host name.
- Startup ethernet based cards dhcp configuration only if a link (connected cable) is detected
- SecMaker NetID version 4.9.4.1
- Added support for displays with resolution of 1280×800
- Support for Olympus Dictation Devices through ICA
- Support for VLANs (Virtual LAN) with ethernet interfaces
Full overview of all digital services connectors (depending on model-type)
- ICA Client 10.40.133432
- RDP Winconnect 6.0.72h
- RDP rdesktop 1.6.0
- PowerTerm InterConnect 9.1.0.238
- PowerTerm WebConnect 5.6.0.4000-rel.20413
- SAP GUI 710rev3
- Firefox 2.0.0.17
- JRE 1.5.0_13
- Acrobat Reader 509
- MPlayer 1.0rc1
- Flash Player 7
- Real Player 8.0.3.421
- KPhone 4.2
- ThinPrint Client 6.3.91.1
- NX Client 3.0.0-65
- Cisco VPN Client 4.8.00.0490-k9
- X Server 6.8.1
The new firmware and release notes can be downloaded here.
Kate Brew interviews Citrite Ola Nordstrom on ‘Securing XenApp’ November 10, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: XenApp
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Douglas Brown has interviewed Ola Nordstrom, a Citrite who has been securing XenApp for the last 5 years.
Some topics thare are covered in this interview:
- What is an ‘attack surface”
- What are examples of entry points
- Best practices
- …
Full podcast.
