Technical Sessions

At BriForum 2013, you’ll receive the most independent, advanced, technical information and expert strategies from industry analysts, bloggers and best-selling authors who work with desktop and application virtualisation (or related technologies). Our experienced expert speakers are in the trenches and know how the latest products work in the real world - arming you with the latest virtualisation tips, tricks, and verified techniques that you can apply immediately within your organisation.

And since there's no marketing content in BriForum 2013 sessions, there are even more deep technical dives into the products you use or are considering using. Our speakers and sessions are selected based on the relevance to what is happening today in desktop and application virtualisation, enterprise mobility, and consumersiation.

 

BriForum 2013 Editorial Sessions

 

 

 

5 x 15 with Brian and Gabe

Presented by Brian Madden, Independent Industry Analyst, Blogger and Author and Gabe Knuth, Independent Analyst and Blogger

In order to maximise the number of sessions we were able to accept from the community, Brian and Gabe decided to combine their sessions for BriForum this year. (A first for them!) "What should we present?" was the next question we wrestled with.  After all, we had each presented our "standard" topics (future of the desktop, consumerization, etc.) at past BriForums. The challenge for us for 2013 was that we couldn't narrow down our ideas into a single session topic, and many of our ideas seemed fun but we couldn't imagine them being a whole session. So, in this (experimental?) "5x15" session, Brian and Gabe will give five 15-minute mini presentations. Topics will be things on the front of their minds, like what applications will look like beyond 2013, defining data and files, and a light-hearted retrospective on ten years of blogging and BriForum.

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Case Study: A Private DaaS for 5,000 users with Citrix Excalibur

Presented by Vincent Branger, Senior Consultant, infralys and Pierre Jean, Senior IT Architect, BNP Paribas

BNP Paribas is a leader in banking and financial services in Europe. The Group is present in 80 countries, and employs close to 200,000 people. Two years ago, the bank began an HVD (Hosted Virtual Desktop) in order to meet some requirements for specific users. The project has evolved into a real private Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution with self-service portal and administration delegation. The last version has studied Excalibur as customer technical preview to avoid any specific development. 

In this presentation, Vincent Branger will walk you through the various elements of such an intense project, paying special focus to the technical aspects (dual-site architecture, VM provisioning, security, application provisioning, storage, image management, WAN and protocol) as well as the functional aspects (service catalog, methodology, project management, pedagogy and vulgarisation, users and subsidiaries).  Technical components used are Citrix XenDesktop/XenApp, Citrix XenServer, and NetApp. Users are BCP users, developers, subsidiaries, partners, etc.

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An Expert Guide to Delivering Seamless Remote Applications Through Citrix and Microsoft Technologies

Presented by Benny Tritsch, Director of Technical Communtiy, AppSense and Nico Luedemann, CEO, bluecue consulting GmbH & Co. KG

While many IT experts are talking about virtual or remote desktops, most users just want to run remote programs side-by-side with their local programs. Citrix Published Applications and Microsoft RemoteApp are the most popular delivery methods for seamless remote applications. It's an IT administrator's challenge to make the right choices if he wants to provide great user experience across different application hosting scenarios and multiple types of endpoint devices. Join Benny Tritsch and Nico Luedemann as they take an in-depth look at how the different methods of delivering seamless remote applications really work and how to configure and manage them in the best way.

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An Insider's Guide to Virtualisation: A Virtual Reality Check, 2013 Edition

Presented by Ruben Sprujit, CTO, PQR and Jeroen van de Kamp, CTO, Login Consultants

In this energetic session, Jeroen and Ruben will present all the important results and best practices for virtual desktop (VDI) workloads found in “Project: Virtual Reality Check (VRC).”  This unbiased and independent R&D project started early in 2009. Since then, more than 1,500 tests were carried out. The goal of Project VRC is to analyse the developments in the application and desktop virtualisation market and present the results in an unbiased and independent way. In the haze of the extreme amount of innovations and many marketing promises, this information is highly appreciated. The topics in this fast-paced session will include: 

  • Best practices and performance impacts of Windows Server 2012, Hyper-V, and Windows 8 as Remote Desktop Services Virtualisation Host (VDI) and Remote Desktop Services Session Host (TS) workloads executed on Cisco UCS and HDS storage
  • Results and performance differences between Windows 7 and Windows 8 for VDI workloads
  • Survey results, state of the VDI and SBC union
  • Sneak peak at the latest and greatest details of the project

Whether you are looking for independent advice and a "reality check" in relation to virtualising your desktop workload, or are searching for best practices for your remote desktop services (VDI and TS), you must attend this presentation!

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Automated Migration of a User from Physical to Virtual, with Data, Using System Center Configuration Manager

Presented by Carl Walker, Senior Consultant, deploythis, Ltd.

In this hands-on session, Carl Walker will demonstrate how to move a user from a physical to a virtual machine while keeping their data intact and re-provisioning their old machine with Windows Thin PC.  The demo will show a live automated migration of a user with a physical Windows XP machine to a Windows 7 virtual machine. The migration also involves the installment of Windows Thin PC on the old physical device so at the end of the automated process, the user will be able to login to the newly built Thin PC as well as to their Windows 7 virtual machine to see all their files, folders, and apps as they did before.  While the demo is running, Carl will also walk through the various steps required to achieve the deployment including generating the Task Sequence, using TS variables, the PowerShell scripts, provisioning applications and how to monitor the deployment.

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Best Practices in SBC/VDI Environments, Part 2: OS streaming and optimisations

Presented by Pierre Marmignon, CTO, Norskale and Shawn Bass, Independent Consultant and Blogger, ShawnBass.com

After a successful Best Practices v1 session presented at BriForum 2012 London,  this year’s conference brings you the second chapter focusing on OS streaming (PVS) optimisation & tuning and OS / Citrix optimisations, detailing all you need to know in order to maximise user experience and environment stability.  Led by two consulting veterans, this session will allow you to get some of the best tips and tricks to make your virtual environments as fast and stable as possible.

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Clash of the Client-Side Hypervisors: Windows 8 Hyper-V and VMware Workstation

Presented by Mike Nelson, Architect, nGenx Corporation

With the release of Windows 8, Microsoft has included a slimmed down version of its flagship Hyper-V hypervisor making it ever so easy for people to load up those virtual machines on their desktops. This type of Type-2 hypervisor use has always been limited in the past to the more well-known competitors such as VMware, with their Workstation product. Now that a mini Hyper-V has entered the mix, things are getting interesting in feature sets and functionality. Microsoft does do a one-up on the others by offering it's hypervisor for "free,” as in it is a part of the Windows 8 operating system. But is that enough to sway you to jump ship? In this session, Mike Nelson will take a deep look into each hypervisor, explore some of their main differences, and reveal their most notable pros and cons.

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Customise All the Things! How to brand Web and Windows UI

Presented by Jason Conger, Solutions Architect, Splunk

You just finished installing a complex desktop virtualisation environment and are now ready to deliver.  You give your pilot group a URL for web access or a client for remote access and some of the first requests you get are: "Can we put our logo and company colors on this?" "Can we add some information from our other system here?" "What is the deal with all these green bubbles?" Jason Conger, expert and speaker of this session, has seen this countless times on implementing Citrix Web Interface/Netscaler/CloudGateway, Microsoft RDS Web Access, VMware View Horizon Application Manager, and even Windows Applications like the VMware View Client and Citrix Receiver.  He has also found that the techniques in customising the UI on these components are largely the same.  But a little web browser knowledge and some basic CSS understanding will get you a long way.  For advanced admins, throw in some JavaScript/jQuery and Web Services and the sky is the limit.  For Windows apps, understanding compiled resources can help you out where appropriate.  In this session, come learn from Jason easy techniques to get you started as well as advanced integration with remote systems to really connect your systems.

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Demystifying the Citrix Mobility Stack: The Next Layers of Cake

Presented by Thorsten Rood, Principal Architect and Team Leader of Application Networking, net.workers AG

Corporate email, documents, sandboxed email, and apps of any kind… is that desktop virtualisation like XenDesktop offers (or anything else), or can it be a complimentary mix? Do you care about mobile application management (MAM) and how that works in reality? For years, we got evangelised not to care about devices, but about the user instead. And now, classic MDM has become a Citrix family member! Can you explain what’s behind the curtain? Let’s have a critical approach to the world of XenMobile and the technologies around it and find out the potential new “layers of cake” in mobility solutions. Join Thorsten for a deep-dive technical drilldown on the Citrix mobility stack, based on early adopter field experience and existing customer feedback.

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Enterprise Mobility Management: Jack Madden's New Book in 75 Minutes

Presented by Jack Madden, Blogger, Brian Madden.com

Jack just wrote the book Enterprise Mobility Management: Everything you really need to know about MDM, MAM, and BYOD. And now you can attend the session! Jack will go over the basics to get acquainted with the landscape, figure out what we might want to do with mobile devices, and will explain how the current tools work. (Sneak peek: It's not about BYOD… we have to figure out these issues no matter who owns the device!)

From there, Jack will take a look at how the current crop of enterprise mobility management (EMM) tools address consumerisation. The session will finish by looking at:

  • The ways EMM could evolve
  • How changes in the mobile landscape could help us or make things harder
  • And how the evolution from MDM to MAM will continue on to include true mobile information management.

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From Zero to RDS 2012 Hero: Learn All the New Features and How They Compare to XenApp

Presented by Claudio Rodrigues, CEO, WTSLabs

RDS 2012 is here and by far the best release ever by Microsoft.  This session will show you, hands-on, how to do it and the snags you will find along the way. At the end, Claudio will walk through a quick comparison on how it stacks up against XenApp 6.5. This will definitely be an eye-opening session showing you that, in many cases, RDS 2012 can be your savior and the only solution you may need!

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Going Deep: RDP8/RemoteFX Session Connectivity

Presented by Rick Dehlinger, CTO, nGenx Corporation

Let’s face it: Microsoft has made HUGE strides in remote session performance with the release of Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, and RDP8/RemoteFX. As more people begin to adopt these technologies, more people are stumbling on the idiosyncrasies of deploying and optimising the new protocol stack and its features.  This session will peel back the covers and examine, in ghoulishly geeky detail, how the stack works and what it takes to make it sing. Rick will also strive to answer some of the following questions:

  • How does the connection process function? What does it take to make it work?
  • What options are available for presenting desktops and applications to users?
  • What does it take to provide a clean and predictable user experience?
  • How do I secure access over public networks while still delivering the promise of improved user experience?
  • How can I leverage investments in Citrix NetScaler ADC to make this happen? Should I even consider this option?

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How the New Storage Improvements in vSphere 5.1 Help Your Desktop Virtualisation Project

Presented by Jim Moyle, Lead Solutions Architect, Atlantis Computing

There are many enhancements to how vSphere 5.1 works with storage and we can use those changes to our advantage when architecting our desktop virtualisation projects.  In this session, Jim Moyle will explore the following:  VMware vSphere VMFS-5 File Sharing Enhancements; Space-Efficient Sparse Virtual Disks; All Paths Down Storage Protocol Improvements; VAAI; Advanced I/O Device Management; SSD Monitoring; Storage I/O Control; VMware vSphere Storage DRS 2.0; and Parallel Storage vMotions.  Some of the above features can have a deep impact on our architectures, and in this informative session you'll learn exactly what those are and how to use them.

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Hyper-V for VMware Administrators: A Crash Course

Presented by Mike Nelson, Architect, nGenx Corporation

VMware's vSphere hypervisor isn't the only game in town anymore. This session will outline what VMware professionals will need to know and understand to effectively administer Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. Speaker Mike Nelson will go over the basics, such as technology differences and interfaces, as well get deep with some real-world examples of how to administer Hyper-V with what you already know about administering vSphere. He will also cover administration of both hypervisors via the GUI interfaces as well as scripting PowerShell.

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Implementing App-V 5: Lessons Learned from a Production Rollout

Presented by Ment van der Plas, IT Architect, Login Consultants

In this session, Ment van der Plas will share his real-life experiences and lessons learned implementing App-V 5 based on both his personal observations as well as by supporting a TAP (Technical Adaption Program) customer who already rolled out in a production environment. This demo-rich session will focus on the key selling points for this customer and why they chose App-V 5.0 over a previous version for their 4,000 seat VDI environment. Ment will also discuss the impact of migrating to this new platform as well as some of the pitfalls that were experienced in the process from both an infrastructure and packaging perspective.

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Licensing your "Pandora's Box" of Mobile Devices

Presented by Nicki Wruck, IT Architect, HuD International Group

When employees bring a device such as iPads to work and use them to access Microsoft software, they trigger potentially expensive licensing requirements for Windows Server applications, Office suite applications, and the Windows client OS, as well as impact the qualified device count that must be reported under Enterprise Agreements.  This session will explain how organisations can minimise the mobile devices (MD) licensing costs and avoid compliance issues by using Citrix Receiver.  Speaker Nicki Wruck will also discuss the rules surrounding mobile use, including how the several different technical approaches MD can use to access Microsoft software can have widely variable licensing implications.

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Mobile Enterprise Applications - FUIT or ITFTW (IT For The Win!)

Presented by Jason Conger, Solutions Architect, Splunk and Warren Simondson, Senior Systems Architect and Founder, Ctrl-Alt-Del IT Consultancy

BYOD is here to stay and users are saying “FUIT” by finding their own applications that suit their own needs on their own devices.  Instead of fighting this trend, IT should embrace it by making the enterprise's applications and data accessible to mobile devices with a native device experience (because a remote desktop or Windows published application on a mobile device just stinks).  During this session, Jason and Warren will talk about Citrix XenApp/XenDesktop and Citrix Receiver enhancements that provide a native user experience on mobile devices today - with no code development!  Attendees will also learn:

  • How to use built in enhancements like the XenApp Mobility Pack, new Citrix XenApp Policies, Zenterprise, and @Work applications   
  • For the code enthusiasts/junkies, a technical deep-dive on Phonegap, the Citrix Mobile Application SDK, and HTML5
  • How to transform enterprise applications to support touch interfaces
  • Mobile device capabilities such as GPS, camera, buttons, orientation, SMS, phone call functions and more

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More Things in AD That Can Hurt Your Applications and Desktop Virtualisation Efforts and How to Fix Them

Presented by Carl Webster, Owner, Carl Webster Consulting

A continuance of the "10 Things in AD" session presented at BriForum Chicago in 2012, this session will cover a variety of topics concerning AD. Join Carl Webster as he explores details on DNS Aging and Scavenging and discusses how DHCP fits into DNS Aging and Scavenging.  Topics will also include:

  • Group Policy basics, issues and Loopback
  • Processing Asynchronous and Synchronous / Group Policy Processing
  • NetLogon share do’s and don'ts (mostly don'ts)

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PowerShell: How to Manage your Environment with CIM Instead of WMI

Presented by Jeff Wouters, Technical Consultant, Methos IT

Ever since it was introduced in Windows NT, people have come to know WMI and use it. Although WMI is very powerful, it is also a very slow technology. With Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8, CIM has been introduced, the successor of WMI—a much faster technology compared to WMI. In this session, Jeff Wouters will explore the CIM architecture, explain why CIM is faster than WMI and examine multiple WMI vs. CIM examples. This presentation will combine theory with live demos, providing a great learning experience for attendees.

Attendees will also learn:

  • The architecture of CIM
  • Why CIM is faster than WMI
  • How to use CIM with PowerShell

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Show and Tell: Webster's Adventures into Documenting with PowerShell

Presented by Carl Webster, Owner, Carl Webster Consulting

Carl Webster’s community driven PowerShell scripts used to document various Citrix products have proven to be more popular than he could ever have imagined.  This is NOT an educational session to learn PowerShell, but rather a presentation that will showcase how Carl used PowerShell to solve real customer problems citing the challenges involved and how those challenges were met (or not met).  Carl’s adventure will also explore the history of the scripts, what the scripts do, the future of the current scripts, future scripts, and more.

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Smoothing the Kinks! A Seamless User Experience with Microsoft UE-V

Presented by Adnan Hendricks, IT Infrastructure Architect, Microspecialist Consulting

This session showcases Microsoft’s User Experience Virtualisation. UE-V is an enterprise-scale user state virtualisation solution that delivers a user’s personal Windows experience across multiple devices, showcasing simplicity in deployment and easy integration with other management tools. During this presentation, Adnan will discuss how to:

  • Install and configure UE-V
  • Integrate with Microsoft desktop virtualisation products to roam the user experience in heterogeneous environments
  • Retain user application experience without having to reconfigure applications when they log in from a different Windows instance (regardless of whether it is a rich desktop or virtual desktop session)
  • See how it automatically delivers a personal experience to Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2, and Windows Server 8-based devices, giving users the flexibility to work from anywhere
  • Know what to do when it goes wrong (i.e. if a user accidently applies unwanted changes, IT can simply roll back to the initial state)

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The Bento Box Bliss of Enterprise Mobility

Presented by Ruben Sprujit, CTO, PRQ and Peter Sterk,

In today's world of user-driven IT, enterprise mobility (EM) is on everyone's agenda. With a wide range of concepts, functionality and technology available, it's critical to understand what EM will bring for you as a user. This session, featuring Ruben Spruijt and Peter Sterk, will give you unbiased solutions and an overview of EM. The presentation will also cover unbiased insights around: BYO, data access, mobile device management (MDM), mobile application management (MAM), workspace aggregation, application delivery, and secure access “app-ification” in the context of EM.  You will leave with a checklist to verify your own organisation and environment the moment you return home.

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The Future of Desktop Deployment: What's Happening with MCS & PVS, Plus an Alternative

Presented by Jim Moyle, Lead Solutions Architect, Atlantis Computing and Aaron Parker, Solutions Architect, Kelway

Now that Machine Creation Services (MCS) will be available for XenApp as part of the new Excalibur release, it’s time to again look at whether to use Provisioning Services (PVS) or MCS in your environment. In this session, Jim Moyle and Aaron Parker will live demo the provisioning of desktops from start to finish using Microsoft Deployment Toolkit (MDT) and show you how to avoid paying for Platinum licenses.  They will also describe the exact architectural differences between PVS and MCS, the resource and IOPS requirements of both, as well as look at each one’s operational challenges. 

This session will give you the information needed to determine where PVS and MCS fit within your organisation in order to deploy your estate going forward and make your environment run as smooth as possible.

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VDI Smackdown 2013!

Presented by Ruben Sprujit, CTO, PQR

More and more customers see the benefits of server-hosted virtual desktops (VDI). There are several important players in this market space, and from a marketing perspective, these solutions have a lot in common. This presentation is based on industry analysis and customer cases and covers the basics of desktop virtualisation: the good/bad/ugly, its impact on storage, the technical differences between the vendors, and tips on how to choose the right solution. Join Ruben Spruijt as he provides opinions and great argumentation on such topics.  Specific areas covered will also include:

  • VDI: the good, the bad and the ugly
  • The performance impact on storage and how different storage technologies solve the ‘VDI + storage = deep impact’ challenge
  • Updated analysis and evaluation of Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft RDVH with Windows8 - Server 2012 and VMware View

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What Got Us Here Won't Get Us There: Today's IT Needs to Get with the Times

Presented by David Stafford, Director of New Markets & Technology, VMware

You like your IT desktop job.  You've worked your way up from the helpdesk to desk-side support to application packager, and are now the chief-desktop-architect-bad-boy of your company.  Wake-up call! If you're not actively retooling your end user computing skillset, you'll be telling stories of hacking Windows 95 INF files in the unemployment lines.  Being an IT professional focused on desktops, laptops and Windows applications has given many of us years of rewarding careers and personal satisfaction helping to make users more productive and companies more secure and profitable.  But as we look back just 3-5 years, it's undeniably a different landscape than it has been since the rise of personal computers in the mid-90's.  This session, featuring David Stafford, will explore where we've come from and leading indicators of where we are heading so that we can anticipate the professional skills and expertise that will be in demand for the next decade and beyond.

Topics covered will also include:

  • Real-life examples of IT professionals caught in the chasm
  • The evolving role of Windows desktop system administration
  • Getting beyond buzzwords like virtual-software-defined-consumer-cloud-ification    
  • Cutting through the BYOD hype and what it really means to our careers   
  • How to shift discussions from technology to something your CEO cares about

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What Still Holds Up as a Citrix Best Practice 12 Years After MetaFrame Tuning Tips?

Presented by Claudio Rodrigues, CEO, WTSLabs

Since the days of the MetaFrame Tuning Tips PDF by Rick Dehlinger, a lot has happened in the Citrix world regarding optimisations, best practices and so on. The main issue is no one ever looked back to check what still applies today, in the era of fast kick-butt servers with plenty of RAM, super-fast IO and hypervisors! This session attempts to cover what has been "set-in-stone" regarding Citrix best practices and checks if these still apply to this day, and if not, what to do then. Come join Claudio and discover a great way to update what you know about Citrix best practices.

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What's New in Microsoft App-V

Presented by Tim Mangan, Kahnua, TMurgent Technologies

In this session, the top App-V MVPs from around the world will work together to educate you in what is new in App-V 5.  This release is a complete rewrite of the App Virtualisation platform used by so many companies around the world.  Come and listen to a whole series of exciting, sub-presentations from a single PowerPoint deck, each delivered by an MVP and led by Kahuna Tim Mangan.  This is a session you surely won’t want to miss!

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What's included in registration?

At BriForum, all registered attendees experience the following benefits during the 2-day show:

  • Access to 30+ technical sessions
  • Morning refreshments and lunch each day
  • The Geek Out party
  • Countless networking opportunities
  • The chance to view live demos in the Demo Lab
  • Online access to the recorded sessions after the show
  • And much more


 

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