Dateline Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.  Citrix Summit and Synergy, October 2011
Hi again,
Last post I said I’d get back to you to give you, at least, my opinion of why Citrix and Cisco are partnering up.  As you might have seen from the dateline above, it’s easy to find out when you get to Citrix Summit and Synergy.  It has to do with the global and ubiquitous Cisco networks deployed by organizations everywhere.  Citrix is doing great with XenApp (last I heard, well over 50,000,000 licenses) and is poised to do even better with XenDesktop.

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Tags: citrix, desktop virtualization, ICA, ISR, NME-WAE, PCOIP, QoS, RDP, SRE, View, Virtual Experience Client, VMware, vxc, vxi, waas, WAN Optimization, XenApp, xendesktop

VMworld Europe is just around the corner and the final preparations are being completed.  The Bella Center, in beautiful Copenhagen Denmark, is undergoing a cloudy transformation that will tickle the technical fancy of geeks and provide answers and directions for the business minded.  The cloud has come to the Bella Center and it has a Cisco lining.

Cloud is changing the way we do IT and Cisco is leading the charge.  We have the products, innovation and partnerships to help you on your journey to the cloud.  Cisco can help you own the cloud.  Stop by our booth in the Bella Center to hear about some of these great Cisco solutions:

• Cisco Intelligent Automation for Cloud: Cisco powered orchestration and automation tools, which are key component to a successful cloud initiative.  We will demo the software in action as it powers the internal Cisco private cloud CITEIS (Cisco IT Elastic Infrastructure Services).
• Cisco Nexus 1000v:  Cisco’s award winning virtualized switch providing networking and security solutions for the data center.  Learn how the Nexus 1000v compliments VMware vCloud Director and delivers highly secure, multitenant data center networks

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Tags: CIAC, intelligent automation, Nexus 1000v, OTV, UCS, unified computing, vdi, VM-FEX, VMworld Europe, vxi, Workload Mobility

Another week has passed and this one went by fast, don’t you think? Check out what Cisco has been up to during this busy week!

1.) A Silicon Valley in the Heart of London?

Check out this new feature on how the UK government and a Who’s Who of high-tech giants, including Cisco, are working to expand a new kind of innovation cluster in London’s East End. How do you see tech hubs around the world evolving in the future?

2.) “Mompreneurs”: Using the Internet for Fun and Profit

Never has it been easier to become an entrepreneur…especially for moms! Learn how women are using social media and the Web to build businesses that offer innovative products and services that make life easier. What social media services or products would make your workplace more productive and efficient?

3.) Cisco Desktop Virtualization Solution Brings Unified Voice and Video to Virtual Environment

This week Cisco unveiled the next phase of its Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) with a series of offerings and innovations that can deliver uncompromised desktop virtualization experiences. Cisco also announced endpoints that enable high-quality voice and video in virtual desktop environments – a development that could help redefine collaboration in the virtual workspace.

4.) Cisco and Citrix Form a Strategic Alliance

This week Cisco and Citrix Systems announced that they have entered into a strategic alliance to develop and deliver solutions that help customers simplify and accelerate large-scale desktop virtualization deployments. Through this alliance, Cisco and Citrix will drive innovations that simplify the deployment of high-definition virtual desktops and applications and improve end-user experiences over a highly secure Citrix HD-enabled Cisco network.

Here’s what to look forward to next week!

• The Broadband Debate: Many believe broadband service should be a basic right. Country by country issues vary, but how can access be achieved? Learn more about this issue on Monday!

And that’s it! Have a great weekend and talk to you next Friday!

Tags: london, news, the network, vxi

I started to link  to my fellow Cisco Bloggers for their posts on Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) but already there are too many for which to build the links.  I’m a WAAS guy so I thought I would draw you attention to  the other press release that mentions Cisco WAAS.

The next layer as we peel the old onion is that Cisco WAAS is now optimized for Citrix XenDesktop.  More explicitly, the Cisco WAAS engineering team has been collaborating with engineers from Citrix so that Cisco WAAS can understand the Citrix HDX and ICA protocols well enough to be able to optimize the traffic without Citrix administrators having to change any compression or encryption settings. And because it’s a a collaboration born of the strategic agreement between Cisco and Citrix, it will be jointly validated, marked as Citrix Ready prior to general availability, and will be supported by both vendors, with clean hand off mechanisms defined between both companies’ support teams.

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Tags: Cisco, data center, vxi, waas, WAN Optimization

Today, there is lots of buzz around the big news from Cisco and our ecosystem partners with the launch of next generation VXI validated solutions.   If you missed our launch event, you can still get all the details online via our community.

Cisco Virtualization Experience Infrastructure (VXI) delivers desktop virtualization with secure access to data, voice, and video for fixed and mobile devices.    

Pretty cool but, why is virtualization important for government agencies? 

1. cost control, more than ever government agencies are focused on strategies to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs
2. flexibilty, allow government workers ability to work in different workplaces, from city hall to public works, with choices of different combinations of virtual desktops, voice, and video devices including latest smartphones, tablets, and Cisco Virtualization Experience Clients (VXC)
3. security, better security and control of information in the data center rather than distributed endpoints and with the ”bring your own device” (BYOD) to work phenomenon, security is more critical than ever
4. uncompromised, helping government agencies achieve mission objectives without compromising cost or resilience mandates

See more details below. Read More »

Tags: Borderless Networks, Cisco Validated Designs, collaboration, cost control, CVD, data center, desktop virtualization, desktop virtualization infrastructure, endpoints, government challenges, software appliance, thin client, thin clients, vdi, video, virtualization, virtualization experience infrastructure, Voice, vxi, waas, WAN, wide area network