One the events Citrix Benelux is organizing is Citrix Solution Day. The 2017 edition took place on the 5th of October 2017 in Barneveld. In this blog I wrote down my experiences of this day.
The official program started on 9:00 with four breakout sessions. Unfortunate for those speakers traffic was really worse this day, so many people arrived much later than planned. I also did not make it on time for the first session, but that gave some time to talk with some suppliers and several community members.
After the first breakout sessions it was time for the first keynote. The session opening was done by Peter van Leest. Peter started with thanking sponsors and the platinum partners. After that Jeroen Pat from TBI came on stage explaining how they are using Citrix technology in their company (BIM AutoDesk). A nice story about the challenges they had in their infrastructure (Dropbox usage, compliancy, work anywhere) and which solutions they used (Azure N-series, Citrix Cloud, ShareFile, RES Service Store). Also, a good thing that he showed the environment live on stage in a real live environment. Next on stage was Isabel Moll of Microsoft about the collaboration with Citrix with the Digital Transformation. According to Isabel Microsoft is transforming as well with transform their applications ready for the digital transformation (Office 365, Private/Public Cloud, Mobile, XenDesktop Essentials, XenApp Essentials, Azure). Next and last speaker of this keynote is Christian Reilly. Christian started off with the world is changing (and the way we work) and continued with the cloud adoption, followed by mobility (IoT), artificial intelligence and cyber security. Christian did a quick step back about application usage and how line of business is running SaaS apps without CIO/IT knowing this. Citrix is aiming to productivity with the Secure Digital Workspace, the single pane of glass Citrix Workspace Server (all applications from once place, probably end of this year available in Citrix Cloud). Also Citrix is working on Secure Digital Perimeter (Gateway as a Service, WebApp Firewall as a Service, SD-Wan as a Service). The session ended with topics Unified Endpoint Management and Citrix Analytics Service.
After lunch it was time for a Panel Discussion with Christian Reilly, David Cottingham, James Bulpin and Harsh Gupta. Actually it was not really a discussion as they all work for Citrix, so they did not have much to argue. It was more to talk about vision and stories of Citrix. It started off with talking about Red Bull and the usage of Citrix technologies by Christian. Harsch continued about Citrix Cloud and the challenges going to the cloud, followed by David talking about why hypervisors still are important. James took over talking about IoT. Christian talks about another customer and the Citrix technology being used (including Raspberry Pi and space mouse). The audience could ask question and there were a few questions from the audience. The first question from the audience was asked about environment aspects (CO2, power consumption) of the Future Workplace. James describes the possibilities and the possibility to save power. Christian added the Smartcale features within Citrix Cloud Smart Tools. Also David also added some good comments. Second question was about supporting the Microsoft new release schedule (every 6 months a new version). Citrix will align with the releases of Microsoft and will support have day 0 support. Christian also touched possible steps Microsoft can take in the feature especially on the server versions and RDS specific. Next question was about release schedules of Microsoft and the LTSR version. David points out that the LTSR will be keep updated for new Windows version. Christian discussed the release schedule of the CR/LTSR. Harsh also discussed the partnership with Microsoft. Christian also talked about security and if Citrix is a security company.
Next session I attended was about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by Niels Aafjes and Hugo Atzema. The session started with some examples of GDPR and questions about GDPR. Niels started then with some facts about GDPR, followed by the changes GDPR brings. Niels tried to interact with the audience how they think about GDPR. It is just compliancy or more. According to Deloitte the following three point are required: proper data management, GDRP compliance will also help you build trust with clients and make GDPR compliance your top priority for the upcoming months. Hugo continued with the practical part of preparation for GDPR (assessment, transformation program.
Last session I attended was Future of Work by James Bulpin and Ingmar Verheij. James started off with explaining IoT in general ,older terms that are now under the IoT umbrella and the context of IoT (embedded, context-aware, personalized, adaptive and anticipatory). Ingmar took over about Digital Transformation and how IoT can help in the Digital Transformation. Ingmar continued with Citrix Workspace IoT with a story about the usage of IoT into a hospital in Fort Lauderdale in the US and how this is accomplished by the Workspace hub (Raspberry Pi technically). Ingmar continued with Smart Spaces (enhancing meeting rooms and usage of meeting rooms). James wrap up the session with a summarization (it’s what IoT enables, one overall experience, IoT can innovate/differentiate, next generation, can enable digital transformation).
There was one set of breakout sessions after the latest keynote, which I could not attend as I had other appointments. In overall it was a good day, however if you attended Citrix Synergy or Summit earlier this year (or watched the keynotes remote) there was not much new information shared and you were already aware of the message Citrix told. However networking on such a day is really valuable aspect, it was nice to speak to many of the attendees and sponsors.