On 15 March 2019 the first DuCUG event took place again at the Oude Duikenburg in Echteld. A location where we were already several times. It’s almost the home of the DuCUG. In this blog you read my experiences of the day.
The opening was also traditionally opened by Niek ofcourse thanking the sponsors for making the event possible and free.
The first session was led by Barry Schiffer about Podcasts based on panel with Eric van Klaveren, Sander Noordijk and Kees Baggerman of the Login Techcast and Frontline Chatter. Barry asked the guys all kind of questions like the start about podcasts, experiences, vision, preparation, ambition, future and so on. It was interesting to hear about all the aspects around a Podcast.
The second session was titled 20/20 Vision On The Evolution Of A Workspace presented by Ingmar Verheij, the first BYOS session of the day. The session existed of two parts: evolution of the Citrix Workspace and Content Collaboration. Ingmar started with some stats about the current productivity (too many apps, too much complexity, too many interruptions). Ingmar continued with making enterprise software easy like consumer applications are working right now. Ingmar showed the vision of Citrix to this topic Intelligent Experience (he asked gently not to mention details about this part as this is a vision at this moment). He also discussed briefly how other vendors are thinking about the topics and how they are currently performing. Ingmar continued with his second topic content platforms, where he is telling his own vision. Ingmar talked about Content Services Platforms (CSPs), followed by metadata (what it is and how it can be used). Box and Microsoft are already introducing this kind of intelligence within their content products, Ingmar discussed the current status of those suppliers as a last topic.
After the first break it was time for Christiaan Brinkhoff and Jim Moyle with the presentation Windows Virtual Desktops – All you need to know. They started of with the year of VDI discussion and some stats of the VDI Survey. They also announced that the survey 2019 is launched. Jim continued with the introduction of Windows Virtual Desktop, the ecopartners and the acquisition of FSLogix. Jim is teasing us that big news will be announced on Ignite on Tour in Amsterdam next week. Christiaan continued explaining what Windows Virtual Desktop actual is (multi-session W10, scalable service to deploy and manage, Windows 7 Virtual Desktop, Intune integration, security and management out of Microsoft 365). They showed the possibilities (RD Session Host, Multisession WVD, Windows 10 Enterprise). Christiaan continued with describing the high-level architecture, followed by the deployment steps (GUI and PowerShell) and showing how the end user experience is. Jim is repeating that multi windows 10 will not come to on-premises infrastructures. Other limitations/characteristics are not supporting Azure Stack at this moment (no decision), currently WVD Control Plane is only available in the East US (probably Netherlands will be second according to Christiaan) and Azure Files not “optimized” yet for profile storage (no ACL at this moment). Jim continued with RBAC roles available currently, according to Jim it will be optimized later on. Christiaan discussed the possibility to use the FSLogix Profile Containers for an easy migration to WVD and Azure Site Recovery, lift and shift images to WVD. They also mentioned the features of FSLogix which WVD will benefit from, with details about Profile Containers. Another topic they touched it the Office support (2019 only Server 2019, no O365 on Server 2019, Office KMS license will stop). Jim thinks 2025 will be the year of VDI. A multisession OS supporting Office will be ending on 2015 as Office 2019 is supported till that year. The only solution will be the multi-session Windows client OS in Azure. Jim explained the licensing options for WVD (M365 E/E5/F1/Business, Windows E3/E5, Win 7, Win 10, Windows Server 2012R2 or higher, billing for Azure Compute and storage consumption). Christiaan continued about using Citrix in combination with WVD and the timeline of WVD (no actual dates at this moment. Public Preview very soon, GA in 2019).
Next was the sponsor slot by ControlUp with the session Find and FIX issues within your virtual desktops and servers with Yevgeni Klushin. He started with what ControlUp is doing (Monitoring, Analytics and Remediation) and which products are supported within the product. After this short introduction Yevgeni showed the product (Virtual Expert and some key features). He also shows the upcoming version with the new feature automated actions. He also touched on the Insights part (reporting/historical analytics) based on issues/problems and Environment Assessment.
After lunch we continued with Andrew Morgan about Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops on VMware on AWS. Andrew started explaining VMware Cloud on AWS (VMware service based on vSphere, vSAN and NSX, VMware owns everything and is supporting everything). The only thing that the customer is managing the VMs. He explains which things you can manage and which not. Andrew discussed a set of interesting features, followed by the migration possibilities. Next topic was about using EUC on VMC. Andrew discussed the challenges when migrating to the cloud and which parts are simplified by VMware Cloud. Andrew is stating that CVAD 1903, CVAD LTSR.Next, Citrix Cloud, Citrix ADC, MCS and PSV (except the wizards) will be supported on VMware Cloud. Andrew described how the integration works. Next Andrew demoed the VMware Cloud with running Citrix CVAD. Andrew talked through the Architectural models possible with VMware Cloud. Last topic was about consumption models. There is 30 day trail period with one host. Andrew also shows the prices (check the deck for the details).
Up next were Koen Warson and Frank Vandenbergh about X-Config, a free NetScaler enhanced config tool as you Bring Your Own Demo session. Koen started with explaining the challenges implementing a Citrix ADC (NetScaler) at customers (wrong understanding of technology, several ways to get to the goal and so on). He continued with solving some guidelines to solve those issues (network discussion clear, be part of the application discussion, close to the dev team). Koen came to the utility developed to help with the configuration of Citrix ADC X-config. He started explaining how to start with the utility. Frank continued with demoing the utility (which is web based). Koen continued with describing the X-config characteristics: security (local browser unless saved or shared/mask all passwords, only config snippets shares) and architecture (cloud native, running on AWS, serverless). Next topic was the roadmap: extend config recommendations, application centric config templates, export as stylebook, push config template to code repository, end-to-end automation, team functionalities, automated config capturing and config deployment approval.
Last session of the day was provided by Thorsten Rood with the session Pretty much good friends? WhatsApp, business contacts, data privacy and Citrix Endpoint Management. Thorsten is focusing on IOS for this session. He started with mobile challenges especially contact information (both used business as personal wise). Thorsten shortly mentions the GPRD rules. WhatsApp is totally not GPRD compliant. Next topic was Sandboxing explained by way Citrix Endpoint Management is working with the several options available in the product. Next topic was car system integrations on this topic. Thorsten discusses a scenario where contacts can be become part with using active sync (however MDM ownership required, IOS 11.3, ActiveSync policies). Thorsten summarized the several scenarios perfectly in one slide, definitely worth checking that slide. Last topic was protecting against ActiveSync backdoors where Thorsten is using Citrix ADC (NetScaler).