TSSJS_header Home Home

Technical Sessions


At BriForum 2010, you receive the most independent, advanced, technical information and expert strategies from industry analysts, bloggers and best-selling authors who work with VDI (or a supporting technology) every day. Our experienced expert speakers are in the trenches and know how the latest products work in the real world - arming you with virtualization tips, tricks, and verified techniques that you can apply immediately within your organization. (you can access the full agenda in pdf format here).

Confirmed breakout sessions for BriForum 2010 include:

Sponsor Session Descriptions

     

A Complete Application and Desktop Delivery Solutions Overview (2010-2011)
Presenter: Ruben Spruijt
Co-Presenter: Shawn Bass

With a wide range of application and desktop delivery solutions available, determining which solution can best accommodate your requirements and desires is no simple matter.

Spruijt will present a complete vendor independent overview of all the current and upcoming application and desktop delivery solutions.

Topics of this presentation will be:

  • Server hosted VDI
  • Server hosted VDI GPU Accelerated
  • Terminal Services
  • OS Provisioning
  • Application Streaming and Virtualization
  • Local Desktop/Laptop
  • Web Application and Acceleration
  • BladePC
  • Display Protocols
  • Connection Brokers

The goal of this presentation is to give a complete overview of all application and desktop delivery concepts. Attend this session for a complete update of this booming market area.

Advanced Hyper-V Architecture in a VMware World
Presenter: Michael Burke

So you want to deploy Hyper-V? This session will go deep into architectural best practices with regards to cluster design, network architecture, storage consumption, including Cluster Shared Volumes and implications of use, management architecture, distributed Library Services, and more.

You'll also receive unbiased information on what works, what doesn't, and what's possible. If you have an existing VMware deployment and plan to implement Hyper-V, this session will give you a deep understanding of architecture best practices, and provide correlation from what you do today in VMware to what Hyper-V can provide.

Advanced Web Interface Customizations
Presenter: Sam Jacobs

In this session, Jacobs will perform a hands-on technical presentation into complex Web Interface integrations and customizations that the IPM TechDev team has deployed over the years. Attendees will learn about design principles and implementation best practices in real-world scenarios from someone who's been working with all versions of this technology.

This session will cover advanced customization topics such as:

  • Advanced look and feel customizations of Web Interface
  • Making Web Interface consistent with your corporate image and brand
  • How the latest versions of Web Interface differ technically from earlier versions
  • Web Interface vs. Netscaler customizations
  • Adding custom tabs to Web Interface
  • Adding support information (user IP address, OS and browser info) to Web Interface
  • Active Directory integration with Web Interface
  • Enhanced SecurID integration & how to suppress SecurID credentials when internal
  • Using Web Interface to control single sign-on to web applications

An Intro to Powershell and Why You Need It
Presenter: Brandon Shell

Shell will start by explaining why Powershell is important in the SBC world and then dive directly into practical use and provide an intro into Powershell. He will cover the basics and provide all the information you would need to start using Powershell to make your life easier. As part of this session he will use SBC related scenarios that will provide practical and actionable examples you can start using right away.

App-V vs. ThinApp: Head to Head
Presenter: Michael Burke
Co-Presenter: Tim Mangan

In this head-to-head session on ThinApp vs. App-V, you'll be exposed to the pluses and minuses of each of these two leading application virtualization technologies. In a unique and interactive dual-presenter session, ThinApp and App-V will be exposed in-depth side by side, with each presenter taking a side in the debate.

Interactive demos will be shown side by side, showing the sequencing/packaging process, client execution and troubleshooting techniques. With an expert dedicated to each side of the discussion, you'll leave the session with knowledge of the pros and cons of the two technologies, having seen both in action.

Apps Gone Wild: Useful Tips and Tricks for Troubleshooting Application Issues in Your Environment
Presenter: Michael Thomason
Co-Presenter: Kevin Goodman

Are your applications driving you crazy? Are they performing or acting out of control? What happens when your application or operating system "goes wild?" All seems well until Crazy App launches and then your system becomes like spring break in Cancun. Is it a driver, configuration, application issue - local system or network? Where do you start? Suppose you have no support? Or if you do have support what information will be crucial for you to provide to the vendor for a rapid response.

Learn firsthand how to troubleshoot and identify common problems in your environment, debug and verify device drivers. Thomason will provide some details of troubleshooting Windows kernel related issues. Attend and quickly determine the who, what, when, why, and how of that app that went wild!

Backup and Restore of VDI: The Topic No One Talks About
Presenter: Brad Maltz

While virtual desktops have been around for a few years, organizations are starting to truly transition into newer virtual desktop designs through VMware View, Citrix XenDesktop, Microsoft VDI and others. Unfortunately backup and restore environments have not been redesigned along with the new VDI rollouts.

During this session, Maltz will discuss many facets of backup and restore for VDI including: Do you need to backup anything? The Desktop OS? Application Data? What are backup technologies / vendors that can simplify VDI backups? How do other large VDI environments backup their environments? What administrative best practices can be implemented to simplify VDI backups?

Best Practices in Virtualizing Terminal Services and Virtual Desktops, THE Virtual Reality Check
Presenter: Ruben Spruijt
Co-Presenter: Jeroen van de Kamp

In this energetic session, Spruijt will present all the important results and best practices for Virtual Desktop (VDI) and Terminal Server workloads found in Project: Virtual Reality Check.

This unbiased and independent R&D project started early in 2009. All together more than 400 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 a 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 are:

  • Introduction on Project VRC
  • Highlights performance differences and best practice conclusions for Terminal Services and VDI workloads on bare metal Terminal Services; 2003/2008/x86/x64
  • Hypervisors: Microsoft Hyper-V v2, VMware vSphere 4.0, Citrix XenServer 5.5
  • VDI: Windows XP, Vista, Windows7
  • Performance impact using different HP Proliant state-of-the-art hardware solutions
  • Performance impact of application virtualization in virtual desktop environments
  • Future plans and roadmap
  • Q&A

Whether you are looking for an independent advisor and a "reality check" in relation to virtualizing Terminal Server and virtual desktop workloads, curious what the impact of different hypervisors and the performance differences with various hardware is, or you are searching for best practices for your virtual desktops, you must attend this presentation!

Building a Low Cost Home Lab, the Virtual Way
Presenter: Simon Gallagher

Ever wonder how you can run all that enterprise-scale goodness in your house in a way that your wife won't complain about it? In this session, you'll learn about how to use VMware vSphere and open source technology to build a lab with shared storage, layer 3 networking, replicating SANs and as many virtual hypervisors as you need for less than $1k USD.

Want to build a 20 node ESXi cluster on 2 physical boxes? Test out VDI scenarios, scripts and provisioning processes? Sure, done - come see how we did it.

BYOPC: IT Panacea or Management Nightmare?
Presenter: John Whaley

IT departments are starting to look seriously at BYOPC (Bring Your Own PC) or employee-owned PC initiatives, driven by a range of factors including cost, employee demand for choice and freedom, more contractors and part-time workers, and challenges with provisioning and reclaiming physical laptops.

In a BYOPC scenario, the company provides a stipend for the employee to purchase their laptop of choice (typically with some minimum requirements), which will then be owned by the employee. Is this a panacea for IT, who can get out of the business of provisioning laptops and save a bunch of money and headaches in the process, or will this turn into a management and legal nightmare where IT will have to play Geek Squad to personal machines, and end up opening the company up to huge liabilities?

In this session, Whaley will cover some of the pros, cons, and lessons learned from actual and attempted BYOPC deployments, from the technical (How do I keep the network secure? How do I support Macs?) to the psychological (What do the users think?) to the political (What are the internal roadblocks that have to be overcome?). Bring your opinions and experiences - audience participation is strongly encouraged.

Citrix Provisioning Server Survival Track Reloaded
Presenter: Thorsten Rood

Within a dynamic data center world, almost no reason exists why any kind of XenApp workload shouldn't be powered by Provisioning Services (and referring to VDI with XenDesktop, it's obvious anyway). But PVS will become a monster if you are working with demanding customers and expect to scale out a solution easily while meeting SLA and expectations.

Due to the overwhelming success of this session during the last BriForum in 2009, this by nature is the reloaded version with most up to date notes from the field. Let's reveal the dark side of PVS again, it's still there. Enjoy!

Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop with App-V
Presenter: Tim Mangan

Mangan demonstrates using App-V with the Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop products. Included in the presentation will be some newly developed (and free) add-on tools that provide the glue to be able to deploy and bulk publish App-V based virtual applications without a back-end App-V infrastructure.

No extra database, no extra management server, no SCCM, and no MSI. With App-V being basically free for XenApp users with Microsoft 2008 TS/RDS CALs – why would you not take advantage of “better together?”

Citrix XenClient Deep Dive - Release Candidate Review
Presenter: Thorsten Rood

Type1 hypervisors feel like the ultimate weapon and the long awaited remaining piece in the puzzle on flexible application delivery concepts. Citrix is there, providing the first enterprise-targeted mature release of such technology. Let's drill down what's in the product and which things to take care of. This is a rock-solid walk through on the virtualization puzzle you get with XenClient and its readiness feedback based on real-world experience for 6 months.

Citrix XenDesktop and VMware View: Head to Head
Presenter: Mike Nelson
Co-Presenter: Joe Shonk

This session will focus on the two most prominent players in the desktop virtualization market: XenDesktop and View. We will examine both from a technical and non-marketing point of view, without the FUDD, with direct comparisons between them.

A live demonstration of both technologies will be previewed with real world examples. Audience participation is greatly encouraged, as there is a lot of information and examples to share with everyone.

Cloudbursting XenApp - Hype or Reality?
Presenter: Rick Dehlinger
Co-Presenter: Jim Moyle

It seems like every vendor in the world is hyping 'cloud' somewhere in their marketing pitch. The noise is so prolific that it's hard for any astute technologist to ignore. As desktop and application delivery specialists, many of us have been building and running 'clouds' for quite some time, albeit 'private clouds,' private delivery systems, centralized hosting environments, or whatever the term du jour may be.

As we've come to expect, the delivery technologies we use and the plethora of available services delivered out of the cloud have evolved at a dramatic pace. As we dive down into the microcosm of our specific niche of the industry, we're seeing a couple vendors pitching a hybrid approach to cloud service consumption - Citrix and Amazon. The noise they're making together means that we'll all likely have to field questions on the topic sometime soon, which begs the question: Is it real, or is it hype?

This session explores this hybrid approach to cloud usage (which has been called 'cloud bursting') and seeks to answer some of the key questions on all of our minds including the following::

  • What is 'cloud bursting'?
  • Why would anyone want to do it?
  • Is it reality or hype?
  • What are some of the things we have to consider before adopting such an approach?
  • Which vendors provide the right cloud infrastructure?
  • What are the infrastructure components we need to achieve the right result?
  • How do Citrix and Amazon do it?
  • What support does Citrix provide to help?
  • What support does Amazon provide to help?
  • How do I build it?
  • Can I do it with 'off the shelf components'?
  • Can I extend my existing infrastructure?

Large Farm Design Considerations for XenDesktop: Real World Enterprise Scaling
Presenter: Nick Rintalan

Learn how to scale XenDesktop on a massive scale based on Rintalan's field experiences from designing and implementing XD for his largest customers. He will discuss some of the things we've learned about DDC roles, Virtual Center bottlenecks, and PVS, as well as take a walk through a XenDesktop architecture that has been built to scale to 10,000+ users. Stay tuned at the end of the session for "XenDesktop Worst Practices" and the most common mistakes that real world customers make when deploying XD.

Lessons Building User Experience Technology and Future Trends
Presenter: Harry Labana
Co-Presenter: Brad Pedersen

Delivering user experience is not easy and there are many things to consider. Dive into some of these areas that have been learned over the years, and a taste of where things will likely go.

Live Debate Smackdown: VIrtualization vs Bare Metal for XenApp and RDS workloads
 Presenter: Steve Greenberg
Co-Presenter: Joe Shonk

Are we seeing the promised results of virtualization for complex workloads? One school of thought believes so, another thinks we may have been led down a marketing rabbit hole.

This session will provide an entertaining and thoroughly geeky look at this important debate topic including:

  • To virtualize or not virtualize XenApp and RDS workloads
  • Bare metal vs Hypervisor performance, when is bare metal actually a better choice?
  • How do we compare user densities when using a 64bit OS?
  • Is the cost of virtualization worth it?
  • What is the performance cost of virtualization?
  • Do we really gain better management?
  • Are provisioning services worth deploying?
  • Does application virtualization deliver on its promises?
  • Does shared storage bring benefits for the added cost?
  • When are there simply too many layers in the stack?

The format will be an informed and passionate debate on both sides of the question providing valuable information and observations from the field - true Edutainment.

Live Demo: Installing & Implementing Citrix VM Hosted Apps and Microsoft Remote App for Hyper-V
Presenter: Wilco van Bragt

Both Microsoft and Citrix released a feature in their latest product release which allows you to publish applications from a workstation version operating system (such as Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows XP).

In this presentation Wilco van Bragt will first review a few slides explaining the feature, with the rest of the time spent showing the installation and configuration of these features using a live demo.

Login VSI 2.1 PRO Hands-On Jumpstart and Best Practices
Presenter: Jeroen van de Kamp

Login Consultants Virtual Session Indexer (VSI) is the only existing benchmarking tool which is standardized for SBC and VDI environments. It provides you valuable information on how software and hardware changes impact performance. The Login VSI Pro benchmark tool is a turn-key performance solution that can be installed within a day instead of weeks or even months, which is typical for most benchmarking solutions. Because of its out-of-the-box character, Login VSI saves you the time of scripting realistic workloads and setting up the test infrastructure.

Login VSI has evolved since the last Briforum, and is becoming the defacto industry platform independent benchmark for SBC and VDI solutions. It is used in Project VRC and by everyone in the VDI industry for internal testing or white paper publications.

In this session you will learn how to set-up and use Login VSI, how to customize the workloads, and the so important best practices. If you are designing a new VDI/SBC environment and are evaluating different platforms and architectures you can evaluate your choices with VSI.

If you attend you will receive a free 30-day VSI PRO site license, so you can use VSI PRO in your own project.

Mandatory and Default User Profile Tuning
Presenter: Jon Wallace

As the industry moves on, profiles are becoming more and more visible and pretty much every 3rd party personalization vendor recommends the use of a mandatory profile to begin with. There are various elements of tuning that can be applied to a mandatory profile to improve logon speed, usability and more, and this session will focus on practical applications of these elements.

Wallace builds and tunes a mandatory profile with tuning live. There will be little to no PowerPoint as he explains all of the various registry changes and walks through the creation. He will base the session on a Windows XP mandatory profile due to the wide knowledge in the community but the principals and application also apply to Windows 2008, Windows 7, etc...

MFCOM to PowerShell: How to Make the Transition
Presenter: Jason Conger
Co-Presenter: Brandon Shell

MFCOM has been the de facto standard for programmatically interfacing with Citrix XenApp. Whether you wanted to write a simple script or develop an application that interfaced with XenApp, MFCOM was the answer. Now, Citrix is committed to building their management architecture on PowerShell--not just for XenApp, but for all Citrix products. That's great news for standardization across platforms and aligning with Microsoft on using PowerShell for management architectures. Now, the question is how do you take what you know about MFCOM and translate that to PowerShell?

Microsoft Licensing in a Client Virtualization Environment
Presenter: Nathan Coutinho

This session will provide an in-depth view of how to license Microsoft products while utilizing client virtualization technologies. This will cover server operating systems, desktop operating systems, and management and monitoring products as well as the use cases in which they can be used.

With the continued focus on virtualizing the entire data center, migrating client technologies into the data center, disaster recovery and cloud computing, compliance will be key to your organization's success to ensure the proper and compliant use of Microsoft software for any project involving client virtualization.

Attendees will learn what the compliant way to virtualize is, and will get a glimpse of what the complexities are when it comes to software licensing in virtual machines as well as the costs involved to implement client virtualization. Nathan will also discuss tools available to monitor software inventory/compliance if such tools haven't been implemented in your current infrastructure.

At the end of the session, attendees can go back and rethink how to implement their solution based on the benefits of the licensing models as well as fix any compliance issues in order to avoid unnecessary legislation.

Microsoft RemoteFX: Rich Windows Desktop Experience for VDI and Session Virtualization
Presenter: Eric Han

Microsoft RemoteFX is a comprehensive set of technologies designed to enable a next-generation, full-fidelity user experience for remote desktops and VDI. From a content standpoint, RemoteFX enables a compelling Windows 7 user experience over the network that includes support for rich media such as MicrosoftSilverlight, Windows Media, Flash, 3D, and Aero. It integrates with Microsoft's Remote Desktop Services and VDI architectures and supports a broad range of both 'soft' and hardware-accelerated RemoteFX clients.

Migrating to Windows 7: A Prescriptive Approach
Presenter: Kevin Goodman
Co-Presenter: Jeroen van de Kamp

In this session, Goodman teaches a step-by-step approach to migrate users from Windows XP to Windows 7. Learn:

  • How to determine application and peripheral compatibility
  • The changes and enhancements to the user profile directory structure
  • The use cases involved when migrating.

Performance Monitoring Windows Servers: The Next Generation of Built in Windows Tools
Presenter: Ian Parker

Most SBC administrators are familiar with Perfmon, the venerable performance analysis tool built into Windows. But recent versions of Windows contain powerful new performance analysis tools that significantly expand on the capabilities of Perfmon. Some of these tools are comprehensive enough to rival expensive third party tools.

This session will discuss the capabilities and features of some of these new tools, including XPerf and the Event Tracing for your Windows infrastructure. The focus will be on practical, real world use of these tools to examine process and system wide CPU, IO, and disk usage.

Profile Streaming versus Profile Segmentation
Presenter: Benny Tritsch
Co-Presenter: Shawn Bass & Kevin Goodman

Tritsch will represent profile segmentation and will passionately debate the pros and cons of the two profile management concepts.

Remoting Protocols Turned Inside Out
Presenter: Benny Tritsch
Co-Presenter: TBA

RDP, ICA, HDX, PCoIP and EOP represent a selection of popular remoting protocols. But how are they different from each other and what does this mean for the users? What are the best methods when remoting standard graphics and multimedia output formats?

Join computer graphics expert Tritsch in an in-depth look at how graphics and media remoting really works.

Resolving Brian's Paradox: How to Increase VDI Desktop Density to Rival Terminal Services User Density in 3 Easy Steps
Presenter: Chetan Venkatesh
Co-Presenter: Brian Madden

In this session, Venkatesh will present and demonstrate new innovations in hypervisors and operating systems that allow deduplication and optimization of not just data storage but memory to allow VDI to scale user density to rival those of Terminal Services.

In addition Venkatesh will explore how Network Attached Memory will transform our ideas about the limitations of servers being memory bound for desktops. This session will be a show and tell with live demonstrations of at scale VDI.

Scaling XenDesktop to the Enterprise
Presenter: Nick Rintalan

Learn how to scale XenDesktop on a massive scale. Sit back while Rintalan shares his experiences and lessons learned from designing and implementing XD for his largest customers. Rintalan will discuss some of the things he has learned around DDC roles, virtual center bottlenecks and PVS as well as walk through a XD architecture that is able to scale to 10,000+ users and beyond. Learn some of the "XenDesktop worst practices" and the most common mistakes that real world customers make when deploying XD at the end of the session.

Server virtualization – Success! VDI – Not so Much. Why VDI Adoption Has Been Slow and How Desktop Virt Will Change the Future
Presenter: Ron Oglesby

Find out why VDI adoption has been slow and how desktop virtualization will change the future. Oglesby will share his thoughts on why server virtualization has been so successful but desktop virtualization has had relatively limited acceptance thus far. This session will look at the acceptance pattern and reasons for adopting server virtualization, and why those same reasons are not sufficient to drive adoption of virtual desktops.

In this session, you will learn about:

  • The future of desktop computing
  • Why is your VDI program stalled?
  • What will the future of desktop virtualization look like next year, and the year after?
  • Why is VDI not the panacea? Because we aren’t finish with it yet! Virtual Desktops are more than VMs in the data center, and this discussion will focus on what will change and how virtual desktops will be used all the way to the endpoint device.
  • What will drive the next paradigm shift in virtualization

Streaming Smackdown 2010
Presenter: Ruben Spruijt

More and more customers see the benefits of application virtualization. There are several players in this market space, and from a marketing perspective these solutions have a lot in common.

Spruijt's presentation is based on customer cases and covers the basics of application virtualization, the demands of customers, the technical differences between the products, and how to choose the right solution. All of these aspects will be presented and combined with live demos from the PQR solution showcase.

This session will include:

  • Overview of application virtualization players
  • In-depth review of Microsoft App-V, VMware ThinApp, InstallFree, Citrix XenApp Client-side virtualization, Xencode, Symantec Workspace Streaming
  • Advantages / disadvantages of the solutions, updated May 2010
  • The role and impact of application virtualization in a server hosted VDI scenario
  • Live demo of different solutions (from end-user perspective).
  • Checklist and flowchart to help answer the question:"Which solution is the best!?" and "Which fits the best in a desktop, VDI and TS scenario!?"
  • Q&A

Take Control of Your Software Vendor Relationship! Follow These Steps to Get Your Vendor Working for You
Presenter: Kevin Goodman
Co-Presenter: Michael Thomason

In this session Goodman teaches how to ensure the quality of your vendors' code before you buy. Through step-by-step examples, Goodman shows how your enterprise can enact policies to raise the quality level of your vendors.

You will learn specific steps to spot poorly tested code and poorly qualified vendors. Never get burned by a vendor again.

The Best Freeware Tools for Application Virtualization Administrators
Presenter: Wilco van Bragt

In this session you will see the available freeware tools for SBC and App-V infrastructures. The focus will be to show via a live demonstration what's missing in the products and how freeware tools can accomplish this.

The Client Hypervisor: A Deep Dive into Type I Virtualization on Client Devices
Presenter: Roy Tokeshi
Co-Presenter: Steve Greenberg

"Client-based VMs will leverage the power of local computing, enable offline, allow great local performance, require smaller data center footprints, provide for centralized management, provide for easy backup and rollback, etc." and "90% of the future 'VDI' will be client-based"- Brian Madden

This session will set out to explore and examine these statements by looking at the underlying architecture and design of a client hypervisor to identify the potential benefits and limitations of this approach.

Tokeshi will cover the technical architecture of a type I hypervisor and how and where it can be successfully used. A comprehensive demonstration of XenClient will be done live as well an interactive stress test to see how and where it can be broken.

The Client Hypervisor: How Many Degrees of Separation Do You Need Between You and Your Hardware?
Presenter: Doug Coombs

Since the personal computer was introduced, layers of abstraction have been added, for one reason or another, between the hardware, programs, and users. In some cases abstraction was to make it easier and faster for programmers to create applications that provided rich content and better user experiences, while in other cases abstraction serves to eliminate, or at least limit, conflict and undesired interaction.

Moving forward we are being told that yet another layer of abstraction is needed in the form of a client-side hypervisor. This abstraction may serve to create new levels of simplicity by establishing standards by which applications and operating systems may address underlying hardware. It may provide newer and more powerful ways for IT organizations to manage and secure systems as well as establish new opportunities for multi-purpose work scenarios. It may also be that yet another level of abstraction simply consumes resources with little additional value than locking users into another abstraction stack similar to the Windows API. Is the client side hypervisor a marvel of simplicity and efficiency, or is it a degree of separation that we can do without?

The Top 10 Reasons Why Remote Desktop or XenApp Projects Fail, AND the Top 10 Reasons VDI Projects Fail
Presenter: Claudio Rodrigues

The idea is simple. Gather the top 15 mistakes when implementing/planning a TS/Citrix/VDI/App-V environment and bring these to the world. Rodrigues then explains how to avoid these traps for a successful deployment!

Thin Clients: Fundamental Flaws and Opportunities... A Discussion
Presenter: Jeroen van de Kamp

In this highly interactive session different points of view on thin clients are discussed by evaluating several use cases. This is one of the most underestimated and complicated discussions in every VDI and SBC scenario: there is no simple answer. This session will provide opinions and great argumentation: food for thought. Topics include:

  • How do you organize your clients in a centralized desktop environment?
  • What is the best (thin) client strategy?
  • How does licensing affect client choices?
  • What options are out there?
  • Which thin client gives the best user experience?
  • What is your practical experience after using thin client for a long time?
  • What choices would you advise for your peers?

Towards a New Desktop: The Future of Client Computing
Presenter: Martin Ingram
Co-Presenter: Brian Madden

This will be the third time we have looked into the future of client computing and man, does it keep unfolding. Keeping in mind the quote "The past is like a foreign country, they do things differently there" we will start by looking back at how the future looked to us a year ago and then see what have become major themes and what has gone away.

Looking forward, Ingram will then examine new technologies that may become the standard ways to serve users in the future and what has to happen for them to be useful to us. At the end, a summary will be presented with the key directions for the year to come and for the longer term.

Troubleshooting and Monitoring Your XenApp Environment with Edgesight
Presenter: Mike Nelson

Server performance issues, user applications issues, timeouts, and crashes. These are all part of the XenApp "experience" (whether we like it or not!), and the issues that administrators have to deal with. Edgesight is a very powerful tool that can assist with all of these issues and much more. But being powerful also means being complex, and Edgesight can be very daunting for even the most experienced of administrators.

We'll walk through Edgesight and highlight the areas that you should be concentrating on to troubleshoot XenApp server backend issues and application problems. Some real-world examples of issues and how they were identified and resolved will also be featured.

Understanding and Optimizing Disk Access Patterns for Desktop VM Workloads
Presenter: John Whaley

Most of the time your desktop feels slow, it is waiting on IO. Desktop workloads have a very different IO profile than server workloads, and require different optimization techniques and performance metrics. An optimized and tuned storage layer can be the difference between a desktop VM that runs silky smooth and one that runs like a dog.

This highly technical session will dlve deep into what typical desktop VM disk access workloads look like and how to measure IO performance in a way that mirrors the users' perception. You will learn the unique IO profiles of "typical" desktop activities like Windows boot, Outlook usage, Office and web browsing.

We will cover the performance impact of defrag in the guest and defrag on the host, on-the-fly compression and encryption, different IO caching policies, and special considerations for SSDs and flash memory. With a little bit of magic, it is even possible to achieve BTN ("Better Than Native") performance.

USB Device Redirection for VDI with RemoteFX
Presenter: Nelly Porter

Remote Desktop Services has provided many device redirection mechanisms supporting access of locally attached devices from rich clients. With VDI becoming prominent and the increased use of thin clients in VDI scenarios, we are introducing a new USB device redirection functionality as part of our new RemoteFX user experience enhancements in RDP. This session discusses how the new USB device redirection feature fits in with the higher-level device redirection mechanisms RDP already supports and also drills down into the details of the new feature – what categories of USB devices are supported, deployment guidelines with thin and rich clients, and system architecture. A VDI deployment cannot be complete without enabling a great user experience, which includes the ability to access local devices in the remote virtual machine. If you want to learn about RemoteFX and how it bolsters Microsoft’s user experience story for, and if you want to see the new USB redirection feature in action with a few interesting demos, this is your session!

Why is Desktop Virtualization So Complex? Pulling Out the Complexity
Presenter: Martin Ingram

Every new technology brings with it a new set of requirements that make implementations increasingly complex. This cannot go on or we will end up with unmanageable, fragile systems.

In this session, Ingram looks at the sources of complexity and how we can partition our architectures to avoid spiraling complexity. He will start by showing how the addition of new technologies into our existing systems leads to increasing levels of cross dependencies and complications and hence makes adoption of new technologies difficult and expensive. He will then move on to look at how we can partition our architectures to control complexity.

Windows 7 and the Virtual Desktop Revolution
Presenter: Daniel Feller

By all accounts, 2010-2011 will see organizations migrating off of Windows XP and onto Windows 7. The big question you have to ask yourself is if your migration will follow the processes of the past that are plagued with expensive desktop refreshes, numerous compatibility issues and long rollout delays.

Since the last major desktop refresh, Windows 98-Windows XP, technology has advanced to improve and overcome these age old challenges of the desktop life cycle. What if you could have your users running Windows XP one day, then magically be using Windows 7 the next day while leveraging the current desktop hardware devices?

This Ask the Architect TechTalk is focused on the Windows 7 migration challenge. More specifically, this TechTalk will focus on the following:

  • Learning from the past
  • Understanding how desktop virtualization fits into the puzzle
  • Technical factors to consider for the migration
  • Planning for the migration

XenApp 6 in a VDI world
Presenter: Joe Shonk

With all of the hoopla and marketing today, one would think that hosted desktops (VDI) is taking the enterprise by storm. But, with Citrix's recent release of XenApp 6, XenApp is king again. It's time to cut through the marketing and find out what's real and what's not.

In this session, you will learn:

  • New features of XenApp 6 and why they matter
  • Why and when to use XenApp over XenDesktop
  • When to use XenDesktop instead of XenApp
  • How XenApp complements XenDesktop
  • Real world experiences of successful projects
  • The desktop and application delivery architecture of today & tomorrow

Sponsor Session Descriptions

 

 AppSense

The “AppSense VUI” – the Infrastructure Solution to User Virtualization
Simon Rust, VICE PRESIDENT OF TECHNOLOGY- AppSense

Description: Managing all aspects of the user in an enterprise desktop estate requires an infrastructure solution.  The AppSense Virtualized User Infrastructure is the first and only true platform for managing the user environment independent of the desktop.  In this session you will receive an introduction to this technology, followed by a deep dive into some of its unique capabilities.  Some of the capabilities will be shown through live demo, including ‘a follow-me personality with iPad’, ‘profile roll-back’, ‘network access control’ and ‘user rights management’.

Atlantis Computing

Honey, I Shrunk the Storage
 Chetan Venkatesh, CTO & Founder, Atlantis Computing

Windows was never designed with VDI in mind. With VDI and SBC - storage becomes an enormous challenge because of how much you need to store and how fast it needs to be to make your users happy. In this session, Chetan Venkatesh CTO & Founder will discuss and demonstrate how Atlantis ILIO eliminates storage challenges completely for VDI at any scale.  He will show the unique Windows centric storage architecture of ILIO that allows you to eliminate 400 High Speed SAS drives with a single 1u  appliance and build VDI infrastructures for a few hundred users all the way to environments that support 100s of thousands of users on miniscule amounts of storage all with fat persistent desktops.  Even though this is a sponsor session - expect to hear an independent objective view on VDI and storage and real life case studies from customers who are deploying and scaling large VDIs globally today.

Citrix/Intel

Get Under the Hood of Citrix XenClient Technology
Harry Labana, CTO, Citrix
Tom James, Director of Desktop Virtualization Office, Intel

Join Citrix and Intel as they dissect the XenClient architecture and discuss what makes it tick. Find out how a bare-metal client hypervisor, based on the open-source Xen platform, helps deliver blazing local desktop computing performance. Also learn specifics on how Intel vPro technology works with XenClient to provide IT the ability to centrally manage and deliver secure local VMs while giving end users the rich and mobile client performance experience they demand.

In this session you will learn:

  • How joint development efforts with Intel ensure an unbeatable IT and end user experience
  • About dynamic VM assembly technology
  • How to efficiently deliver, assemble, update, and backup local virtual desktops

HP

Revelations of a Thin Client Technologist
Tom Flynn, HP Distinguished Technologist

Thin clients have come a long way since the days of mainframes and green screens. From zero clients and image-based protocols to repurposed PCs and hypervisors to cloud computing, there are now more ways and reasons to go thin than ever before -- but also more confusion, myths and hype about thin clients and client virtualization. HP, the global market leader in thin clients and client virtualization technology, will take you through in-depth demonstrations of current and future trends in thin computing.  HP’s session will address:

  • What’s in a protocol? 
  • The truth behind “zero” clients
  • Hyper for hypervisors
  • When you need a friend

Quest Software

Ask the Experts Panel Discussion
Brian Madden, TechTarget, Blogger/Industry Analyst,
Rick Mack, Quest Software, Enterprise Solutions Architect
Shawn Bass, SynNet, Inc., Enterprise Solutions Architect
Patrick Rouse, Quest Software, Enterprise Solutions Architect

Ask the experts your toughest desktop and application virtualization questions. Common questions are; Why do companies want to implement desktop virtualization?  What's the difference between technology X and Y?  Does technology X or Y solve all of my problems or do I have to mix and match?  If I have to mix and match, how do I choose what technology to use when, for whom, why and what are the cost, scalability and usability implications of each.

Red Hat

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops: Introduction
Chuck Dubuque, Product Marketing Manager

The Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops will be Red Hat's premier solution for the virtualization of Windows and Linux desktops. Built on the powerful Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization foundation and the open-source SPICE remote desktop rendering protocol, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops has many advantages for companies looking to virtualize and consolidate their Windows and Linux desktops.  This presentation will introduce Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops, the core technologies that enable the product, the architectural advantages for Linux and Windows desktops, and the cost advantages of Red Hat's subscription model. We will also look to the future of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops, including upcoming releases and virtualization technology in the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux roadmap.

RES Software

Desktop Transformation: From a Static Desktop to a Dynamic Workspace!
 Mr. Max Ranzau,  Sr. Consulting Engineer

Session description: Join us for an interactive presentation experience and find out how Desktop Transformation provides the answer for how to get from the current desktop state to managed User Workspaces. Changes in the desktop infrastructure often impacts the way an end user works today with their desktop. User Workspaces are a prerequisite for a smooth transition to a new or improved desktop infrastructure. In this session Max will demonstrate live how settings within an existing environment are sampled and converted into rules in a managed environment at a pace that suits the target organization. You will also be shown how user settings for applications can be detached from the regular profile and be carried across multiple windows environments in real time. Finally, we will give you a tour around the new features of PowerFuse 2010 and if time allows a peek at cool things to come.

Symantec

Application Delivery in VDI: Install, Deploy, Click - The Easy Button
Michael Thomason, IT Director, Emory

As we migrate to virtual desktops, many times we forget the most important player: applications. How can we:

  • Reduce the number of VDI images required
  • Dramatically reduce application packaging/update times
  • Deploy/undeploy applications in mere seconds
  • Produce stable application builds that can easily promote test to production

Many of you have looked at application virtualization to accomplish this task... mainly for the ease of deployment. Once you implement you learn quickly how painful this can actually me. From launch delays and incompatibilities, it takes a lot of work.

Come to this session and learn how industry leader Michael Thomason has solved this with Symantec Workspace Streaming. Thomason evaluated every product currently on the market and only selected one which met his strict requirements for application delivery.

Attendees will learn first hand:

  • How to decrease the number of images required by our organization
  • Design a VDI environment based on modular application technology (a single image with layered applications)
  • Learn the difference between application virtualization, isolation, and delivery
  • Deploy applications in minutes but took hours and days before

Thomason will share with us how to solve the "application problem" just as Provisioning Server solved the "OS problem."

Teradici

20 Common Myths and Useful Facts About the PCoIP Protocol
Ziad Lammam, Sr. Product Manager,Teradici Corporation

In this session, get answers to some of the most frequently asked questions and learn about some of the common misconceptions associated with the PCoIP protocol.  How much bandwidth does it use?  Does it work on the WAN?  What is the difference between ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ anyways?

Wyse

What's Really in a Thin or Zero Client - Believing the Wrong Vendors Can Really Screw Up Your VDI Installation
Jeff McNaught, Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer

Thanks to cloud computing, Green IT and virtualization, end users and IT administrators are seeking the benefits of a complete desktop experience on any device.  However, the spectrum of end points is more confusing than helpful to most.  Today, companies are re-evaluating their end point or client architecture.  When evaluating a device strategy, you must look at two key considerations: 1) the impact of the client architecture on the scalability of your data center server(s)  and 2) who the end users are – be they mobile, knowledge, task or specialty workers or some other combination. In this presentation, assembly language programmer, engineer, co-inventor of the thin client, and Wyse Chief Strategy Officer Jeff McNaught will compare and contrast several end-point architecture options, how each architecture can accelerate – or in some cases retard – an overall scalability, security and energy strategy.

Three Takeaways:

1. Selecting the best client is core to the overall success of desktop virtualization.   Rich, thin, zero, or just plain software.

2. Only way to deliver a bulletproof security story is with an end-point that requires no protection. 

3. The architecture for handling remote display of rich media is different across solutions, and significantly affects TCO.

Xiotech

Simplifying Storage Management in a Virtualized Environment
Peter Selin, Architect
Chad Bittner, Technical Marketing Engineer

Virtualization and VDI are some of the top buzzwords in the storage industry today – but how do you implement these initiatives into your data center and maximize the value they can bring to your business? Plus, what are the best practices, and the opportunities to jump at and pitfalls to avoid when doing so? Be sure to join Peter Selin and Chad Bittner of Xiotech as they go into depth in these two areas and offer perspective and innovative ideas for how to achieve success. As an added bonus stick around to see a live demonstration of ISE Manager and Virtual View where you can easily explore your virtual infrastructure and map the relationships among storage, servers, and VMs.

 

Registration is now closed.

If you would like to purchase online access to the BriForum 2010 sessions please contact Melissa Cote at 617-431-9702.

Conference Photos