Technical Sessions

2013 Sessions are Now Available!

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 virtualization every day. Our experienced expert speakers are in the trenches and know how the latest products work in the real world - arming you with the latest desktop and application virtualization tips, tricks, and verified techniques that you can apply immediately within your organization.

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 virtualization.

 

BriForum 2013 Editorial Sesssions

 

BriForum Lightning Rounds

 

 

5x15 from Brian & Gabe
Presented by Brian Madden, Independent Industry Analyst, Blogger and Author and Gabe Knuth, Independent Analyst and Blogger

In order to maximize 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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5 Ways to Cut the Cost of VDI (What Vendors Aren’t Telling You)
Presented by Dan Brinkmann, Solutions Architect, Lewan & Associates

Many organizations decline to deploy VDI due to the costs required to roll out a virtual desktop solution. We'll examine five ways to cut the cost of deploying a VDI solution. Some of these methods cut the cost of VDI that your vendors and VARs won't tell you because it's not in their best interest. Dan will talk about what you really need, what options really exist, and how that impacts what you will spend to deploy VDI.  

Topics covered will also include:

  • How to take business requirements and use critical thinking to match what solution they really need to deploy in order to solve their business requirements
  • Determine which desktop management solution they need
  • How to cut costs on storage infrastructure, software licensing, endpoints and cutting complexity


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A Crash Course in Hyper-V for VMware Administrators
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.

Topics covered will also include:

  • The key differences between the two hypervisors, both from a technology standpoint as well as a practical administration one
  • Real world examples of some administrative tasks carried out in both hypervisors

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An Insider’s Guide to Virtualization: Best Practices and Performance with Windows 8 and Server 2012, Including VDI & SBC Virtual Reality Check, 2013
Presented by Jeroen van de Kamp, CTO, Login Consultants

In this energetic session, Jeroen 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 analyze the developments in the application and desktop virtualization 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 Virtualization 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 virtualizing 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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An Objective Look at In-Memory Storage for VDI and Virtualization: The Beginning of the Very End for Storage, Compute, and Life as We Know It
Presented by Chetan Venkatesh, CTO & Founder, Atlantis Computing

In this session, Chetan describes the coming disruptions to storage that will affect the industry and BriForum attendees in fundamental ways because of the advent of "in-memory" storage.  Chetan will provide a highly technical dissection of how in-memory storage works and how applications in VDI and XenApp/Terminal services can take advantage of them.  Chetan will also make bold predictions about what this means for the desktop of 2020 and what that will look like.

Topics covered will also include:

  • Flash and SSD storage are so 2012
  • Software will eat hardware in how fundamental computer building blocks are built
  • In-memory storage - what is it? why you should care about it?
  • What can In-memory do for your VDI or XenApp/Terminal Services project
  • What does the future look like based on how the storage technology vectors are trending

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Application Packaging Smackdown
Presented by Kevin Kaminski, Consultant, Big Hat Group, Inc. and Nicke Källén, Technical Consultant, Enfo Zipper

The landscape of packaging tools has changed over the years with acquisitions and the introduction of new feature sets such as application compatibility, virtualization suitability and application virtualization. This presentation will attempt to compare what is often an apples to oranges comparison between products and help you decide on the criteria you should develop before searching for an application packaging solution. Some of these tools are provided with tools you may be already licensed for but if you are looking to spend some money to make an enhancement to your packaging environment where is that money best spent? Kevin and Nicke will bring some clarity to what is often a very complex decision to make when re-tooling or enhancing your packaging environment.

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Are RDP8 and RemoteFX Finally Suitable for Daily Use?
Presented by Benny Tritsch, Director of Technical Communtiy, AppSense and Shawn Bass, Independent Analyst and Blogger, ShawnBass.com

How good is Microsoft RDP8/RemoteFX shipped with Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8 when compared to their predecessors and other competing remoting protocols, such as Citrix HDX? Benny Tritsch and Shawn Bass developed their unique, vendor-independent test methodology and tools, allowing them to visually compare remoting protocols head-to-head. Join them in their session where they walk you through the latest results of their Microsoft-centered remoting protocol tests - including tips and tweaks for performance improvements. After this session you will know if RDP8/RemoteFX suits your needs in terms of different media formats, endpoint devices and network conditions. CAUTION: This session contains elements of interpretive dance.

Topics covered will also include:

  • Learn about the differences of Microsoft RDP8/RemoteFX and other remoting protocols
  • See the RDP8 and RemoteFX performance while using different media formats (text, 2D, 3D, video)
  • Make educated decisions on when to prefer RDP8/RemoteFX over other remoting protocols

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Automation 101: Learning How to Automate Tasks for Horizontal Use
Presented by Michael Thomason, Chief Technical Architect, Emory Healthcare

Are you being forced to do more with less? Is your business growing by leaps and bounds and you find yourself running out of time doing "manual" processes? Finding yourself spending a lot of time repeating rudimentary tasks? Attend AutoMation 101 and find out how to automate your environment. Tired of copy and pasting scripts from the Internet but not really understanding how they work?   In this session, we will receive the tools and basic automation principles. You will learn how to: script and seamlessly deploy operating systems, package applications, manage settings, and stablize your configurations. Come learn how to impress your co-workers and automate your life!   This is a high level presentation with "homework" once you leave the session.

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Becoming an IT Hero: Leaping from Desktop Virtualization to Enterprise Mobility Management
Presented by Noah Wasmer, VP of Products, MobileIron

If you are like Noah and have followed Brian Madden for more than a decade, you have a shared passion.  Simply put, our goals were enabling end users to get applications and data anywhere on any device.  The big vision is coming to reality - through next generation mobility.  This session will focus on the next decade of computing transformation and why it will impact your day job, and soon become the focus of your business' transformation.   The session will not just dive into the marketing fluff but the demonstration and technical depth of why we’ doing this mobile stuff, beyond connecting email, how is mobility REALLY changing business with hard ROI. We’ll also compare traditional PC management to mobile management and take a look at what rocks, and what sucks.     

Key takeaways include:

  • The skills and technologies I already possess make me a thought leader in making my business a mobile juggernaut
  • Deeper technical understanding of how mobile systems work, and what's coming next.  Importantly - why my business is going to care
  • Develop a pragmatic plan to help the business enable and/or accelerate mobility - what works, and what really doesn't

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Best Practices in VDI & SBC Environments, Part 2: OS Streaming and Optimizations
Presented by Pierre Marmignon, CTO, Norskale and Shawn Bass, Independent Analyst 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) optimization & tuning and OS / Citrix optimizations, detailing all you need to know in order to maximize 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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Building a Private DaaS Solution for 5,000 Users Based on Citrix Excalibur
Presented by Vincent Branger, Senior Consultant, infralys

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 vulgarization, 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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Citrix Internals: Tracing, Debugging & Troubleshooting
Presented by Denis Gundarev, Senior Consultant, Entisys Solutions, Inc.

New technologies and protocols that are used in the latest versions of Citrix products require new ways of gathering information required for troubleshooting. Event logs and CDF tracing is not enough and with integration of the products from the acquired companies, the situation has become even worse.

In this session you will learn:

  • What information can be found in event logs and when you need to use tracing
  • What are the debug logging options for XenApp/XenDesktop/XenServer/NetScaler and components
  • How to filter and analyze data from debug logs

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Customize All the Things! How to Brand Web and Windows UI
Presented by Jason Conger, Solutions Architect, Splunk

You just finished installing a complex desktop virtualization 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 customizing 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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Debugging App-V 5
Presented by Tim Mangan, Kahuna, TMurgent Technologies

App-V 5 not only supports a wider range of applications out of the box, it also allows us a better opportunity to mitigate bad apps and even improves the behavior of reasonably good ones.  But with the platform re-write, the way you go about debugging the virtual app is completely changed.  In this session, the presenter will use both platform tools and his own free tool to debug packages and solve app issues.

Topics also covered include:

  • Differences in how the new virtual file/registry systems work
  • Using PowerShell to manipulate the environment
  • Using tools like Procmon to debug Accessing both the 32 and 64 bit versions of regedit

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Defense in Depth: How Traditional Network Security Applies in Today’s Mobile World, How to Secure Mobile Networks, and What Strategies Can We Use to Keep the Network and Data Secure
Presented by Rainer Enders, CTO, NCP engineering, Inc.

It is all about communication, the rest is technology. Communication from anywhere, over any type of network, using any type of device characterizes today’s network communication eco system. Long gone are the days where IT managers have a clear and concise picture of the network perimeter and the overall network security status. Really! The good news is: company communication is agile at any rate. The bad news is: company communication is agile at any rate. The good news is: we have access to any data at any point in time from … basically anywhere. The bad news is: so do the bad guys. But who is in control? Device mobility poses the overarching question: Whom do you trust? Do you secure the network or do you secure the device? Where do you place the center of trust? Do you position trust control on the device or in the network? There are many critical questions that deserve to be answered in a decisive and thoughtful way.

Static approaches, where security components operate in silos and isolation from each other, just no longer work. What is called for is a comprehensive security framework consisting of the following six pillars: Access Control, Trust Control, Continuous Monitoring, Automation, Realtime Response and Endpoint Control. A key problem is how Trust is established and how Trust can be maintained. Trust validation means that each device or user must pass a trust validation process. Because one compromised device or user will compromise the overall system. Effective incidence response is mandatory. A security convergence strategy allows building a web of trust. A new open standard protocol (IF-MAP) allows for dynamic data interchange among a wide variety of networking and security components, enabling customers to implement multi-vendor systems that provide coordinated defense-in-depth.

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Desktop Virtualization Monitoring Bake-Off
Presented by Jarian Gibson, Virtualization Practice Manager, Choice Solutions and Shane Kleinert, Chief Technical Architect, JDL Technologies

With all the different desktop virtualization monitoring solutions in the market today, how do you know which one to choose? When looking at a solution to monitor your desktop virtualization infrastructure, you have to make sure it fits your needs. Do you use the vendor provided monitoring solution? Do you go with a third party vendor monitoring solution? Will multiple solutions be needed? What is the performance impact from each of these solutions? In this session we will dive into several different vendors monitoring solutions for desktop virtualization. Attendees will walk away with a complete understanding of the different monitoring solutions on the market today, how to choose, and the performance impact of each of the solutions.

We will be covering critical topics including but not limited to:

  • Architecture
  • Features
  • Cost/Licensing
  • Pros/Cons
  • Performance & User experience Impact
  • Matching Monitoring solution(s) to business needs

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Enterprise Mobility Management: Jack Madden's New Book in 75 Minutes
 Presented by Jack Madden, Blogger, BrianMadden.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! We'll go over the basics to get acquainted with the landscape, figure out what we might want to do with mobile devices, and learn 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, we'll look at how the current crop of enterprise mobility management (EMM) tools address consumerization. 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 whether or not 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, Inc.

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!

Topics covered will also include:

  • Understanding RDS 2012
  • Deploying a full RDS 2012 environment
  • Comparing RDS 2012 with XenApp 6.5

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Going Deep: RDP8 & RemoteFX Session Connectiviy
 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 optimizing 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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Hijacking Dropbox for Fun and Profit (Or Maybe Just for Software Distribution)
Presenterd by Randy Cook, CTO, FXLogix, Inc.

The rise of consumer file sharing services coupled with new advances in application and data virtualization provide cutting edge companies with all the building blocks required to build a secure enterprise software and data delivery platform with almost zero infrastructure costs.  We will show how services such as DropBox can be used to deploy applications to multiple users securely over the internet while ensuring that data generated by these apps remains intact and replicated regardless of where it is stored on the end users system.

Topics also covered include:

  • Application virtualization paired with any number of cloud services creates a powerful and cheap alternative to legacy systems management tools
  • The same principles applied to client virtualization can be applied to data management resulting in transparent security and manageability
  • Less is more when it comes to the future of device management

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How Do the New Storage Improvements in vSphere 5.1 Help Your Desktop Virtualization 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 virtualization 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 and System Center: How Good Can It Be?
Presented by Michael Burke, Co-Founder, Virtual Dynamix (VDX)

Many organizations are searching for a lower-cost alternative to VMware these days, even more now with recent licensing changes from VMware.  As a follow up to my session in 2009, we take a look at how far Hyper-V and System Center have come, determine what Hyper-V can do in an unbiased, real-world view of where the limitations lie and where the products excel.  The goal is to present a real-world view of whether Microsoft platform has a place in the production data centers of today’s consumers and how it stacks up against VMware, considering cost, support models and other factors. Attendees will leave with a good understanding as to the limitations of Hyper-V/SCVMM vs. VMware and where each is a good fit in an organization.

Topics covered will also include:

  • Understand where Microsoft has improved the platform since 2009/2010 
  • Understand how Microsoft's solution compares to VMware 
  • Understand what limitations or shortcomings the Microsoft stack still has compared to VMware

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Ingredients to a Successful Desktop Virtualization Bake-off: Results from Past Bake-offs and How to Create Your Own
Presented by Shane Kleinert, Solutions Architect, JDL Technologies and Jarian Gibson, Virtualization Practice Manager

Last year, Shane and Jarian spoke about the ingredients for conducting a successful desktop virtualization bake-off.  Attendees were provided with a framework for conducting their own bake-offs. This year, we're back with a Desktop Virtualization Bake-off Cookbook and real world results from various bake-offs that were conducted using our bake-off framework. We've noticed through many customer engagements that a lot of people are moving forward with specific solutions for the wrong reasons. It's our goal as part of this session to make sure you understand how to determine the business requirements and pick solutions that relate directly to your needs.  The following topics will be discussed:  

  • High level overview of Desktop Virtualization Cook Book Framework
  • Deeper discussion on determining business needs and choosing your bake off candidates
  • Real world feedback from various customer bake-offs
  • Open Format discussion around audience bake off experiences

Attendees will walk away with an actual white paper containing the detailed framework for conducting vendor agnostic Desktop Virtualization Bake-Offs.

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Mobile Enterprise Applications: FUIT or ITFTW (IT For The Win!)
Presented by Jason Conger, Solutions Architect, Splunk

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 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 Active Directory That Can Hurt Your Applications and Desktop Virtualization 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 covered 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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NetScaler Monitoring and Reporting: Who, What, Where, When?
Presented by Mike Nelson, Architect, nGenx Corporation and Henrik Johansson, Director of Professional Services, nGenx Corporation

Who made that connection? Where did that packet come from? What happened to that users SSL session? When did the outage first occur?

These are all questions that could be asked of you when you have Netscalers controlling your parameter, services, applications, and more in your environment. We will take a hands-on demonstration look at some of the tools that can be used to monitor and report on your Netscaler infrastructure, no matter how big or small it may be. We'll open up Command Center along with the new Insight product, dig up the internal monitoring and limited reporting embedded in the Netscaler OS, and take a peek at some other options, including some decent SaaS offerings, that you might consider when you need all that data.

Topics covered also include:

  • Learn how to utilize some of the internal Netscaler OS tools from monitoring and reporting.
  • Gain knowledge on how to best use Command Center and Insight, not only for Netscalers but other technologies as well, to provide the information you need when you need it.
  • See what other offerings are available for monitoring and reporting, both for your private cloud and in the public cloud as a Software as a Service.

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One Ring to Rule Them All: Why Every Endpoint Will Be Virtualized
Presented by Simon Crosby, Co-Founder & CTO, Bromium, Inc.

The ring architecture of modern CPUs arose from a need for hardware protection for software at different privilege levels the OS, drivers and applications. Today’s endpoints depend on it, but software bloat and key use cases leave endpoints exposed to attack. Hardware virtualization added what is in effect a ring to the CPU, facilitating hypervisor-delivered: utility, manageability, availability that changed the economics of data center and desktops. But it is also necessarily secure. The interface between a hypervisor and guest is much narrower than the system call interface between applications and the OS - and there is solid evidence of their security. This talk plots the path forward for hypervisors and virtualization, drawing on Xen to show how future virtual infrastructure will deliver both the utilities and hardware-based security.  Our focus is on next-gen endpoints from PCs to tablets and phones.  The talk will be a detailed look at modern hypervisor design, and will cover the next generation of hardware virtualization support, nesting, side-by-side hypervisors and hardware security features.  This talk will be vendor-agnostic, from a Xen.org perspective.

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Passwords Are Dead. Two Factor Authentication is Ready for the Masses
Presented by Shawn Bass, Independent Analyst and Blogger, ShawnBass.com

A deep dive discussion about two factor authentication.  Topics covered will be areas that two factor is good at securing (SBC/VDI) and areas where two factor authentication is less useful (web site protection).  The different types of two factor authentication will be covered providing the benefits and weaknesses of each approach.  Also several two factor solutions on the market will be covered and info will be provided on how they integrate with the various SBC/VDI, etc solutions.

Topics covered will also include:

  • What specific technologies two factor authentication is good at protecting (hint: websites and online banking aren't one of them)
  • Review of various two factor authentication solutions on the market and what the strength /weaknesses of each platform are
  • Integrating two factor authentication with the various SBC/VDI platforms 

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Performance Analysis and Monitoring of Multiple Servers on the Cheap
Presented by Ian Parker, Senior Web Services Administrator, Thomson-Reuters

There are a lot of ways to monitor the performance of one or two servers.  But what happens when you need to monitor more than one or two servers?  Or when there just isn't any budget for monitoring in today's lean IT budgets?  Or even worse, when all the monitoring tools are silted away in some other part of the organization you never hear from until your customers are beating down the doors?  There is at least one free tool that can help - Microsoft's Server Performance Advisor.  Newly revised for Server 2012, SPA is more powerful and robust than ever. Ian will take a look at what SPA is; its requirements, and what it can do for you.

Topics covered will also include:

  • A decent free option for monitoring up to a least 100 servers
  • What kind of usefulness can you get out of free product
  • How can I implement SPA in my environment

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Real Time Intelligence for Securing VM Environments

Presented by Jim Libersky, VP of Sales & Marketing, Barrier1

Today's attack styles are more sophisticated and mutate faster than ever before. VM environments are just as vulnerable. In this session, Jim will discuss why VM environments are vulnerable to today's attacks and how these attacks such as advanced Malware, APT, Ultra Surf, and etc. work. In addition, he’ll dive into how they are getting through it and how Real Time Intelligence can identify, learn, and block not only the known events but the mutated and never before seen events of all types of attacks. That means Malware, APT's, DDOS, and etc.

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Sandboxing Smackdown: Separating Fact from Fiction in Sandboxing Solutions
Presented by John Whaley, Founder & CEO, MokaFive

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in using sandboxing technology to improve security.  There are a number of sandboxing security solutions in the market including Bromium, Sandboxie, GeSWall, Comodo, ShadowUser, BufferZone, DefenseWall, Shadow Defender, and Google Chrome as well as a slew of application-virtualization solutions that provide application sandboxing.  This unbiased, vendor-neutral session will evaluate different sandboxing techniques at a technical level, demonstrating the pros and cons of each approach. 

Topics of this session include: 

  • What is sandboxing?
  • Types of threats that sandboxing can protect against
  • In-depth technical overview of current sandboxing techniques
  • Evaluation of the major sandboxing vendors and solutions with respect to security, performance, compatibility, and usability

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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

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 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.  He 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 organization in order to deploy your estate going forward and make your environment run as smooth as possible.

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The Mobile App Platform Debate: Native vs. HTML5 vs. Hybrid
Presented by Brian Katz, Director, Head of Mobility Engineering, Sanofi-Aventis and Dan Shappir, CTO, Ericom Software

This session will be an open debate about the best methods for implementing applications for mobile platforms, such as tablets and smartphones. Brian and Dan will conduct a candid discussion, with the audience, on the best ways to achieve mobile application nirvana, and avoid crapplications. Topics covered include: App Stores, good or evil? Cross-platform development, fact or fiction? Can HTML5 Web apps be fast enough? What is a hybrid app, and is it best or worst of both worlds? Which management and security models are better? Lively and provocative, this debate is sure to be both informative and geeky fun.

Topics covered will also include:

  • Understand the various methods of implementing mobile apps, and the differences between them
  • Learn how to differentiate between a good mobile app and a bad one
  • Discover how to choose the right tools for the job
  • Be reminded that geeks are very passionate about the technology they use

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The New Xperf: Analyzing Difficult Problems with Xperf
Presented by Ian Parker, Senior Web Services Administrator, Thomson-Reuters

Xperf was substantially revised for Windows 8 / Server 2012, and is more useful, and user friendly than ever.  We will take a look at the new Xperf and what it can do for general performance analysis, and then take a look at some challenging scenarios like slow logons, boot time performance, and application scaling.

Topics covered will also include:

  • Updated features of Xperf, the premiere performance analysis tool from Microsoft
  • How you can use Xperf to examine issues that are difficult to examine with any other tool
  • What Xperf can show to assist in logon debugging
  • Boot time analysis with Xperf
  • Application analysis with Xperf

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Tips and Tricks on Building Agentless Antivirus Scanners for Virtual Desktops
Presented by Yury Magalif, Principal Architect - Cloud Technologies, CDI

This tips and techniques session is best for administrators and consultants looking to implement an Antivirus solution for their VMware Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). The goal is to minimize I/O impact to VDI. We will discuss the two most developed scanners taking advantage of VMware vShield Endpoint application programing interfaces (APIs) – Trend Micro Deep Security Antivirus and McAfee Agentless MOVE AntiVirus. Specifically, we will focus on real-world examples of VMware, Trend Micro and McAfee best practices. For example, the participants will learn whether to use their current Antivirus for VDI versus VDI agentless antivirus, why the VM Communication Interface (VMCI) driver is important, how to deploy the Security Virtual Appliances (SVAs), why you should disable VMotion for SVAs, how to test your solution using EICAR test files and how to shut down your VDI agentless antivirus VMs properly if doing maintenance. A basic understanding of VMware vSphere, VMware View and Enterprise Antivirus solutions is recommended.

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Truth, Lies & HTML5: What the Present and Future of HTML5 Holds in Store for Us
Presented by Dan Shappir, CTO, Ericom Software

HTML5 is a hot topic, and is constantly in the (tech) news. In this session, Dan will explore recent HTML5 headlines and developments, and expose the reality behind the hype. Dan will address important questions about HTML5, such as: 

  • W3C, the webs standard body, has recently declared HTML5 to be "feature complete". Does this mean no more new features? If not, what does it mean?
  • Facebook dropped HTML5 on mobile in favor of native apps, or did it? What actually happened? 
  • Microsoft has finally released IE10, its HTML5 browser, as a part of Windows 8. Can IE regain its former glory? What will happen to IE8 and IE9?
  • The new WebRTC (Web Real-Time Communication) could turn the web on its head. What is it, and what can it do? 
  • Apache Cordova (PhoneGap), Google NaCl, and Windows 8 HTML5 apps bring native capabilities to HTML5, and vice versa. What are these technologies, and what are their upsides and downsides? 
  • ChromeOS and Firefox OS are a new breed of operating systems that only run web apps. Can they succeed, or will they go the way of WebOS? 
  • What is Node.js, and why are developers excited about it? Can it also be useful for IT? 
  • New HTML5 features, such as local storage, are changing the architecture of web apps so that they are much more like client/server apps. What are the security, management, and performance implications of this transformation?

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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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Why Folder Redirection Sucks, but is a Necessary Evil That Shawn Bass Will Have to Live With
Presented by Nick Rintalan, Senior Architect, Citrix Consulting and Dan Allen, Lead Architect, Citrix Consulting

Folder redirection has been around for more than a decade, but has recently come under fire.  Why do some people love this feature (like Nick and Dan) and others despise it (like Shawn)?  Can it really make things worse or cause an outage?  That's precisely what we'll dive into in this technical session.  Nick & Dan will make their case for why Folder Redirection is a necessary evil and Shawn (and likely others from the audience) will likely dispute everything they say.  We'll wrap up this session by looking at some real-world data associated with some of the things related to profile design and folder redirection - namely login times and application latency.  This session will be wildly entertaining and informative - a must attend for anyone who deals with profiles!

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Why IOPS Suck and Everything You Know About Them is Probably Wrong!
Presented by Nick Rintalan, Senior Architect, Citrix Consulting and Dan Allen, Lead Architect, Citrix Consulting

Quoting IOPS numbers without providing a block size, R/W ratio or latency values is like buying a car without knowing what's under the hood or looking inside the car.  IOPS are still one of the hottest buzz words in the industry, but probably one of the most misunderstood topics out there.  Why is that?  In this session we'll talk about why seasoned IT consultants, storage admins and even storage vendors are getting it wrong with respect to IOPS.  We'll also talk about why IOPS are a terrible unit of measurement or metric - and why we should be talking about throughput instead.    We'll wrap up this technical session by looking at some real-world numbers from recent field engagements and dive into why they are drastically different from the best-case scenario numbers that a storage vendor might have quoted you.  Nick & Dan will also make a case for banning the word "IOPS" from the English dictionary (if it's even in there).  This session will be wildly entertaining and informative - a must attend for anyone who deals with storage!

Topics covered will also include:

  • Why throughput is a better unit of measurement or metric than IOPS
  • How block size affects IOPS and throughput
  • What real-world R/W ratios and disk latency looks like
  • How to properly size a storage solution

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Windows Tablets in the Real World: Myths Debunked and Lessons Learned
Presented by Zach Hughes, Infrastructure & Operations Manager, Rural Community Insurance Services

Our mobile users want tablets. We give them iPads and Android tablets. They say they can't do their entire jobs on these tablets. We spend lots of time and money and if we're lucky, we get to 80%.Meanwhile, we haven't replaced any laptops. We've just added cost and complexity. Our users aren't as productive as they can be because they have three devices to carry around.

Windows tablets are more viable than people think. There is a massive stigma attached to Windows tablets that is keeping IT from providing what may be the best and most cost-effective mobile productivity platform for their users. We debunked the myths, learned some lesson along the way, and rolled them out in production in the real world with great success, with technology that is available now.

This session is all about how to meet the tablet demands of your mobile users with your existing skills, toolset, budget, and currently available technology. Don’t turn a blind eye to your users’ request for iPads, instead give them something even more useful. Or, before you invest lots of time and money in an EMM solution for Android/iOS, strongly consider Windows tablets as a viable alternative

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XenApp 6: Back to Basics
Presented by Theresa Miller, Technical Systems Administrator, Children's Hospital of Wisconsin

As a Citrix Administrator none of us want issues with our deployments, yet I believe there are key considerations to ensuring that any deployment be a success.  Problem prevention is key to successfully designing and maintaining a XenApp6 environment.  This session will discuss some of the key areas that an administrator should investigate within their XenApp6 environments such as overall design, printing, load evaluators.  I will also discuss some of my own personal lessons learned.

Attendees will learn about:

  • XenApp 6 required patches check-list
  • Printing - print driver choices and Citrix print manager service
  • Real lessons learned about environment sizing considerations
  • Redundancy within XML brokers, Zone Data Collectors and application servers
  • Load Evaluators and the server "check-out" phenomenon
  • Citrix Edgesight - runaway CPU issues.  Are there any good alternatives for Citrix monitoring?

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XenApp Printing: Still Painful After All These Years
Presented by Jo Harder, Senior Network Architect, Compushare

If your organization is 100% green and paperless, this session is not for you. While XenApp printing has improved, it's still a painful process for many. Whether an organization has printers that do everything but make your morning coffee and/or have users that bring in $39 Office Depot specials, getting output to paper can be complex. Printing issues can grow exponentially, including causing screen freezes for users, spooler crashes, and more. The result is an unhappy user, and unhappy IT folks too.

Auto-created printers, network-mapped printers, session printers, logon scripts, Universal Printer Driver, native drivers … the list of printing options goes on and on. What is the best way to configure printing?

As a service provider that supports banks that have extreme printing requirements, just about every printing option has been tried, and the good, the bad, and the ugly will be discussed. In this session, I’ll delve into the nuts and bolts of printing, including:

  • Print data flow
  • Print driver details and considerations
  • Printer mapping options and recommendations
  • Overview of third-party options
  • “Gotchas”

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Lightning Round: Development Smackdown – How IT People Can Speak “Developer”
Presented by Michael Thomason, Chief Technical Architect, Emory Healthcare

No matter where you look applications are popping up everywhere from IOS, Android, Windows, Apple, Linux, etc. Developers have to deal with ever changing development platforms, while admins struggle to keep up and support software delivered by development. GUI tools are being replaced by PowerShell commands and due to infrastructure growth, administrators are having to learn "development" to automate internal processes. Many of you may be faced with learning to "script" and automate.  In this session, we will smackdown all of the major development platforms: C#, Java, Objective C, C++, VB.Net, VB-Script, PowerShell, HTML 5, etc. and list pro/cons of each platform. Attendees will also learn about various IDE's (Integrated Development Environment) and strengths of each.  AJax, JQuery, ASP.NET, and other buzz words got you confused? This session is for you.  This is not a development session but rather a development platform session. Previous development experience not necessary to attend this session.

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Lightning Round: Using Windows 8 Hyper-V and Azure to Build Great Demo and Test Environments
Presented by Benny Tritsch, Director of Technical Communtiy, AppSense

Since Windows 8, Hyper-V is a core component of the Windows workstation operating system. In addition, Microsoft Azure allows you to host Windows VMs in the cloud. Join Remote Desktop Services MVP Benny Tritsch in his expert session about using Windows 8 Hyper-V and Azure to build advanced mobile demo and test environments. This includes live demonstrations and best practices focusing on great audience experience, advanced virtual network setups and use case-oriented system management. Learn about practical methodologies and tools for planning, performing and recording VDI and cloud tests. Get expert guidance on how to build "demo to go" environments with Windows 8 laptops and tablets.

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Lightning Round: What’s New in Microsoft App-V
Presented by Tim Mangan, Kahuna, 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 Virtualization platform used by so many companies around the world.

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Lightning Round: Why Application Proxy Network Services is Critical to Secure and Manage All Mobile Apps and BYOD
Presented by Srini Gurrapu, Founder & CEO, Wheel InnovationZ, Inc.

The traditional MDM solutions are all about systems management. Create profiles (XML files) and manage them on the device -- not ROCKET SCIENCE!  It also does not solve BYOD or application security.  Then came wrappers and containers to hook into existing binaries! Good concept, but still only works for less than 20% of the apps -- in-house.  An organization cannot have a successful BYOD or App Management and Security strategy UNTIL we cover all apps.  Unfortunately, system management or hooking solutions cannot help.  There is fundamentally a new way to look at this problem -- and that is to rely on network services and intelligence with application specific proxying. We want to shed light on new and innovative ways to disrupt the whole mobile management and security.

 

What's included in registration?

At BriForum 2013, all registered attendees experience the following benefits during the 3-day show:

  • Access to 40+ 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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