Citrix CCA

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by zebulebu

Still don't see your point at all fella, tbh. I'm not having a pop here, but it seems like you're not really grasping what ESX is designed for. Yes there's a bit of a buzz around VDI and there has been for some time now, but that isn't remotely a show-stopper for VMWare. The real power of ESX lies in virtualising your servers, not your desktop infrastructure. There are an enormous number of enterprises that now run almost their entire infrastructure - including Mail, Authentication, File & Print and Enterprise Apps on ESX (mine included). I couldn't possibly see where you would already 'have the infrastructure in place' to support an additional 500 VMs on top of what you already have - that would be defeating one of the objects of ESX.

Gotta disagree with ya there fella
VDI is just a bit of 'buzz' at the moment, but face it most orgs have way more desktops than servers, and the iussues that VDI solves have already been causing issues for ages, security of local data, heat and power on trading floors etc, plenty to be gained by VDI and its the logical next move as virtualisation becomes accepted in the mainstream

Agree totally about your Hyper-V points though ;)

[zebulebu]

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Gotta disagree with ya there fella
VDI is just a bit of 'buzz' at the moment, but face it most orgs have way more desktops than servers, and the iussues that VDI solves have already been causing issues for ages, security of local data, heat and power on trading floors etc, plenty to be gained by VDI and its the logical next move as virtualisation becomes accepted in the mainstream

Agree totally about your Hyper-V points though ;)

Ya see, you've hit on one of the 'niche' environments where I think VDI could be a real, viable concern - trading desks/floors. I think that the need to be able to have 100% available, 24/7/365 desktops & apps is where VDI would be extremely useful - especially when you factor hot DR & Business Continuity into the equation. the amount of money brokerages, banks & the like plough into their DR solutions makes VDI extremely attractive to them. I interviewed for a BC Manager role at Morgan Stanley a while back and, whilst disclosure prevents me from mentioning anything specific about their solution i was utteryl flabbergasted at the amount of money they spend on virtualising. Admittedly this was a while back now - before ESX was really being implemented anywhere other than for test/dev environments, but the sums involved were staggering - and I can see that anywhere that is willing to spend that amount of money could easily afford to move to a totally virtual environment. Glad I didn't get the job tbh - it was too daunting for me (and I don't daunt easily )

I can also see it being extremely useful in tech research envrionments, but for the average, everyday corporation I just don't see the real benefits. Of course, I've been wrong plenty of times in the past - I once said I couldn't see any benefit to thin clients - then spent the next eighteen months working in a Citrix environment

[Luddym]

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I didn't realise that USB was handled by the Thin Client's front end........ the consultant we had mis-sold us with some rather important issues, so it doesn't surprise me I had the wrong end of the stick.

[zebulebu]

Who did the purchasing? They need to be kneecapped for not understanding the potential benefits of technology (or even, in this case, how it works!) before committing to buy it. I'm glad I don't work where you do Luddym - I imagine implementing ESX there will be, or was, an absolute nightmare! If you don't mind me asking, what sector do you work in? Sounds like you need an experienced Technical Architect there who can not only make decisions, but also understand the technology he/she is just about to spend an enormous chunk of your IT budget on!

[Luddym]

To be honest, it is a builders merchants, and IT isn't always on the forefront of their mind.

About a year ago, pretty much the whole IT team of 4/5 walked out, and the company was forced to get a Consultant in. Unfortunately, it was the consultant and his friend who shaped the IT of the company into what it is, signing long term contracts willy nilly without thought of consequence, and ultimately blew a whole load of cash on ESX servers and only LOCALLY attachable storage.

They didn't even bother considering VMotion (Even though it would have been the best solution all round...and cost at that point wasn't the issue) instead advised the company to get VReplicator, which they sold as 'it takes one backup, the only backs up the bit level changes. I don't know a huge ammount about VReplicator, but I know the way ours works, it isn't with bit level changes, instead a complete image of the virtual machine is taken.

The whole thing pretty much went in with ease..... but only because the setup we have is so spectacularly being underused at the moment. I would love some GOOD networked storage to be able to implement VMotion, but alas, the budget is now unavailable and will be for some time to come. The 'We spent xxx ammount a little while ago on it, we couldn't possibly spend any more.'

[ajs1976]

From the title of this thread, I thought someone wanted to talk about Citrix.

I'm assuming you are referring to the CCA on Presentation Server. Normally, I would say do not go for the CCA without Citrix experience, but since you have the VCP it might be a good idea to go for it.

A lot of companies are lumping SBC and virtualization together. Even MS is doing it be putting Terminal Services, Softtricity, and Hyper-V all under the same category. You may want to spend some time looking around the site brianmadden.com.

Take a look at the different CCAs: http://www.citrix.com/English/SS/edu...ontentID=23727

Presentation Server is the Terminal server add-on.
XenServer is comparable to VMware and is a newer product for Citrix.