This is a great article that Citrix put out on how to make the Windows 7 adoption easier for larger orginizations.  For those of you that have XenApp under Subscription Advantage please also see the XenApp Trade up offer.

Windows 7 made easier with Citrix XenDesktop

Windows 7 presents both an opportunity and a challenge for enterprises and their IT organizations. After years of delayed investments and aging user desktop environments, the implementation of the latest Microsoft operating system will bring dramatic improvements in security, data protection, management, and end user experience. At the same time, the actual rollout of Windows 7, as the largest and most broad-based end-user initiative in many years, will illustrate the outdated models for provisioning and management—especially given the need to accomplish the migration with limited investment in a short time frame.

Unless IT can simplify the adoption process, the enterprise faces potential long term disruptions to IT and end users alike. Desktop virtualization with Citrix XenDesktop™ offers a better way forward. By using XenDesktop to virtualize both applications and desktops, and deliver them to users on demand, IT can enable a rapid, smooth Windows 7 rollout while leveraging existing investments in desktop infrastructure and ensuring that all user data, settings, and critical information is managed and backed up in real-time. In the end, migration costs will be reduced by up to 40 percent.

Windows 7: A Time To Rethink Desktop Delivery

Pent-up demand for Windows 7 is strong. Across the industry, delayed investments in desktop and laptop refresh have been the norm for a year or more due to reduced IT budgets. At the same time, requirements for security and data protection have only increased, and the challenge of delivering and managing a high-quality user experience has grown ever more complex. The introduction of Windows 7 presents the perfect opportunity to update PCs and leverage a new generation of capabilities across the enterprise. As a result, companies now are expected to move quickly to both replace aging hardware and deploy Windows 7.

These enterprises have good reason to look forward to Windows 7.  To ensure that the operating system addresses IT’s most pressing concerns, Microsoft brought nearly 4,000 customers from developing and emerging markets into its planning process. This extensive research helped identify several key areas of focus:

•  Over half of the organizations (56 percent) said they needed help protecting corporate data on laptops.
• Even more (61 percent) wanted assurance that employees could only install and use authorized applications for fear of security breaches from unauthorized applications.

Nearly half (49 percent) were eager to make it easier for remote workers to access corporate resources. Designed with these priorities in mind, Windows 7 will deliver considerable benefits, including:

•  Improvements in application and hardware compatibility which make it easier to prepare for Windows 7.
• Improvements in data protection, security, desktop and application management, and maintainability which help IT Professionals get more done with less.
• Improved data protection and data management to resolve traditional challenges involving remote and mobile workers.
• Improved support of desktop virtualization to help organizations move quickly toward a dynamic IT environment.

For these benefits to be realized, of course, IT must first complete the migration—a project more broad-based and complex than many such organizations have undertaken in years.

Today’s Challenges Upgrading To Windows 7

As enthusiastic as IT managers are about adopting Windows 7, they have real concerns about the path forward—and for good reason. A recent survey estimated that Window 7 upgrades could take 18 months to 2 years—a longtime to wait for the anticipated benefits. High migration costs will contend with limited budget resources that allow little room for the unexpected (and in typical migrations, you can always count on the unexpected). The project is likely to be disruptive to both IT and end users, making it all the more important to move as quickly as possible.

“For nearly two decades, Microsoft and Citrix have delivered significant value to customers, and we’re excited to expand our work around desktop and server virtualization. Together we are working on technologies product integration so that customers have access to comprehensive and flexible virtualization solutions, all controlled by an integrated management platform.”

Bob Muglia
President
Server and Cloud Business

These challenges are hardly unique to Windows 7 adoption; they reflect common themes that every IT organization struggles with as they seek to modernize their practices for a new generation of business challenges and technologies. To combat these challenges, IT organizations are focusing on three key areas:

•  Increasing business flexibility: Helping the enterprise respond in a fast and agile manner to new situations, from deploying resources to address new market conditions to integrating employees from a merger.
•  Improving desktop security and manageability: Ensuring that an increasingly distributed and mobile workforce doesn’t compromise security, and that the drive for more agile systems doesn’t complicate life for IT personnel.
•  Reducing IT costs: The mantra of “do more with less” is likely to remainconstant regardless of changes in the economic outlook—and the desktop is a key cost vector for every organization.             

In this light, even the smooth and successful deployment of Windows 7 in atraditional desktop architecture leaves key problems unresolved:

•  Refreshing endpoints with the OEM version of Windows incurs a large expense without creating significant improvements in either user productivity or TCO. 
• Installing and supporting operating systems and applications on a desktop ydesktop basis is time-consuming and labor-intensive. 
• Resources that are only available on a specific PC tie users to their computers and make it difficult, if not impossible, for them to work productively on another device. Meanwhile, IT is unable to effectively support contractors, home workers, and other remote personnel.

Rather than adopting a next-generation operating system using provisioning ractices left over from the last century, IT should take the opportunity to embrace a truly transformational model—one that simplifies and accelerates deployment while reducing cost, and results in a more useful and easily manageable endpoint architecture moving forward.

Desktop Virtualization: A Better Way Forward

The essence behind desktop virtualization is simple: it enables the decoupling of the endpoint operating system, applications, and data from the underlying hardware. Desktops are assembled dynamically on-demand and delivered in one of several ways, including streamed desktops, shared server-hosted desktops (i.e. remote desktop services), and client-side virtualization, according to each user’s needs.

To users, the virtual desktop looks, feels, and acts like their own, locally managed PC, complete with the same familiar data and personalizations—but with several key advantages:

•  The same consistent desktop environment can be accessed through any device, from any location, eliminating lost productivity from a PC which has failed, been lost, or simply been left in the wrong location.
• Similarly, users no longer need to carry a laptop from place to place or fumble with thumb drives; instead, they become truly hardware-independent and able to start work in moments using any computer. 

“37% of IT decision makers have identified client virtualization as a critical or top priority over the next 12 months”

Forrester Research:
“Client Virtualization Adoption Trends, October 2009”

The elimination of locally installed software also removes local software conflicts, so entire categories of productivity-killing applications problems vanish. New applications can be deployed much more quickly, even through a selfservice interface, making it easier for users to get their hands on the tools they need, when they need them. But the real value of desktop virtualization lies in its impact on the IT organization.  As the foundation of a new desktop architecture, desktop virtualization frees IT from many of the costs and constraints of traditional approaches while making it possible to implement new technologies far more quickly and cost-effectively. Benefits of desktop virtualization include:

•  Security and Centralized Data Management: Rather than having users store data wherever they like—a frightening thought from a security perspective-—real-time data management instantly captures user data and corporate assets, stores them centrally, and delivers them wherever needed.  In the event of endpoint loss, theft, or failure, these resources remain safe  in the datacenter.
•  Easy, Low Cost Migration: Even a broad-based initiative like Windows 7 adoption becomes a much simpler proposition, as all the work takes place in the datacenter and a single operating system image can serve as a golden master for every user—rather than having a separate instance installed oneach endpoint.
• Centralized Identity and Profile Management: Anytime,  anywhere, any device access is provided through centralized profile and identity management. When a user logs into a machine, their information, applications, and settings are delivered to the device. Employee transfers and departures can be managed in minutes, rather than days, as the appropriate resources are simply redirected to the employees who now need them.
• Centralized Application and Patch Management: Desktop virtualization greatly reduces the high costs of maintaining and managing  applications. An operating system or application can be patched once to serve users throughout the enterprise. If an application fails, instant serverside failover and live migration work to deliver a new application—with no disruption or even awareness on the part of the end user.
• Centralized Backup and Recovery: Backup and recovery of all user data, settings, and applications becomes far faster, simpler, and more efficient, as all company assets remain in the datacenter.
• Streamlined Support: A failed device can be replaced easily with no need to transfer user data, applications, or personalizations. Endpoint software conflicts are eliminated, as well as most routine end user problems.

Citrix XenDesktop: The Right Choice for Desktop Virtualization

Citrix XenDesktop is a desktop virtualization solution which delivers a complete Windows desktop experience as an on-demand service to any user, anywhere. To help organizations realize the full benefits of this transformational architecture, Citrix XenDesktop uses a model called single-image management: instead of creating, managing, and either hosting or streaming a complete desktop image for each user within the datacenter, IT maintains a single image of each operating system and application. Only user-specific data—which include favorites, templates, and documents—is maintained on a per-user basis. When a user logs on, the full virtual desktop—operating system, applications, and user-specific data—is assembled on-demand and delivered to them in one of three ways:

•  Desktop streaming in which a centralized virtual desktop is installed in the datacenter, then delivered remotely for execution on the endpoint; Virtual machine-based desktops, or virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), in which the virtualized desktop image is hosted as virtual machines running on a hypervisor located and assembled in the datacenter; Server-hosted desktops, in which the desktop is hosted on a Windows
• Server (Remote Desktop Services) and shared among multiple remote users.

As a leader in virtualization for more than 20 years, Citrix has developed several key technologies which maximize the value of desktop virtualization for organizations and employees of all types.

On-demand apps by XenApp™ and tight integration with  Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V): To reduce desktop management cost and complexity, XenDesktop offers application delivery – with Citrix XenApp™ and integrates with the leading industry solution for application streaming, Microsoft’s App-V. This enables IT to control data  access, manage fewer desktop images, eliminate system conflicts, and reduce                application regression testing, where application delivery is a requirement for successful desktop virtualization. For users, XenApp, in combination with App-V, makes it much simpler to add, update, and remove applications by leveraging a self-service app store where they can access applications  instantly from any location.

• Citrix HDX™: XenDesktop delivers a high-definition user experience for every worker with Citrix HDX, a set of network and display optimizations and performance-boosting technologies which deliver high performance over any network, including low bandwidth and high latency WAN connections.              Users enjoy better reliability and higher availability than a traditional PC,  even when using multimedia, real-time collaboration, and 3D graphics, while using 90 percent less bandwidth compared to alternative solutions. Webcam and VoIP support, improved audio, 3D graphics support, and the ability to use USB peripherals freely make desktop virtualization a complete endpoint solution for every user.
• FlexCast™ delivery technology: Different types of workers across the enterprise have varying requirements for performance and personalization; some require simplicity and standardization while others need high performance or a fully personalized desktop. XenDesktop can meet all these requirements in a single solution with Citrix FlexCast™ delivery technology,  which enables IT to deliver every type of virtual desktop, hosted or local,  physical or virtual—each specifically tailored to meet the performance,  security, and flexibility requirements of each individual user.
• Citrix Receiver: Today’s digital workforce demands the flexibility to work from anywhere at any time using any device. Leveraging Citrix Receiver as a lightweight universal client, XenDesktop users can access their desktop and corporate applications from any PC, Mac, thin client, or smartphone. This enables complete workplace flexibility, business continuity, and user mobility.
• Open architecture: While XenDesktop supports all the industry leading hypervisors, XenDesktop ships with Microsoft’s Hyper-V and integrates with App-V. In addition, XenDesktop seamlessly integrates with Microsoft ® System Center Virtual Machine Manager making it simple for IT to manage both virtual and physical virtual desktops through a single solution. 

Windows 7 and XenDesktop: Made for Each Other While the capabilities and benefits described above would be compelling in any scenario, their value becomes all the more compelling in the context of Windows 7. In even the largest-scale Windows 7 deployment, XenDesktop can:

•  Enable a smooth, rapid migration
• Reduce migration costs by up to 40 percent
• Simplify ongoing desktop management and updates, reducing TCO by up to 50 percent XenDesktop enables IT to simplify the deployment of Windows 7 by delivering updated desktops as a service to any endpoint on any network.

 In addition to the benefits discussed above, this approach offers several key advantages:

•  Getting IT out of the three to four year hardware refresh cycle. By reducing client-side complexity and moving the maintenance of standard applications and operating systems to the datacenter, desktop virtualization makes it possible to use the same endpoint twice as long while maintaining the same high level of performance. The portion of the Windows 7 budget originally designated for new endpoint hardware can now be redirected—or  saved.
• Minimizing the impact of Windows 7 on applications. With multiple ways of virtualizing applications (App-V or XenApp), Citrix  essentially isolates them from the endpoint and, more importantly, the  desktop operating system, eliminating the possibility of incompatibility with other applications or Windows 7. The adoption of Windows 7 will be the largest and most important end  user initiative undertaken by many enterprises for the next few years. The proven record of Microsoft and Citrix as individual companies and as partners should give IT ample confidence as they plan and execute their      migration strategy.

 Citrix and Microsoft are known as the industry leaders in all aspects of virtualization.

• Citrix solutions fully integrate with Microsoft’s virtualization strategy across datacenter, cloud, desktop, and management.
• Citrix has built its name and reputation in desktop virtualization since the 1990s, when it first extended Microsoft Remote Desktop Services to provide the same operating environment in a new way. Over the past 20 years, Citrix has architected, aligned, and developed that vision into the solution now called Citrix XenDesktop, the clear choice for virtual desktop management.
• The Citrix family of products and services centralizes, virtualizes, and minimizes the complexity of traditional computing, significantly reducing costs, improving information security, mobilizing people, and delivering enterprise agility.
• Today, Citrix offers solutions to more than 230,000 worldwide customers  including 99 percent of the Fortune Global 500 enterprise, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses worldwide. These customers are realizing the benefits of Citrix solutions on over 100 million desktops and over 1 million  applications.

Conclusion
While Windows 7 adoption may be a daunting proposition for IT organizations, most or all of the potential challenges involved have more to do with outdated IT practices for provisioning and management than with theoperating system itself. By using XenDesktop to deliver Windows 7 as a service to each user as part of a complete, dynamically assembled desktop, IT can ensure a successful migration at a fraction of the cost of a traditional rollout. The resulting next-generation desktop architecture will continue to pay dividends for IT and users alike long into the future.

As founder and CEO of Capital Network Solutions, I’m always on the lookout for improvements to Microsoft products for our clientele.  So when Office 2010 beta applications became available, I downloaded and installed them eagerly.  Although I have not gone through all the applications in depth, what I’ve tested is a major improvement over Office 2007.  The main applications I have spent time reviewing are Outlook, Word and OneNote. 

 Outlook Features I Liked:

• Personal and business email accounts synced in one place vastly improves managing multiple email accounts.
• Conversation View of email also makes managing easier; all emails on the same subject are grouped together makes searching through emails is easier and very fast.
• If you have your contacts and IM information in Outlook you can see if they are online and get client information without having to bring up the contact – it is right on the screen as you write your email.
• Customizing your common tasks can now be setup with a single click.

The Outlook interface is much more intuitive.  I liked the new way it sorts emails by subject and gives you a tab for all the file options that were not easy to find in 2007.  The overall layout between applications is now exactly the same making the learning curve much less.  This can save businesses time and money in training new hires how to use the application as well as getting current users adapted to the changes.

 New Word Features I Liked:

• You can now co-author a document, meaning more than one person can work on a document; each can see the changes made and collaborate.
• Same easy-to-edit changes to your work environment.
• Many new visual effects for text that are easy to use.

 Above the additional features and easier to use interface, the biggest advantages are going to be the web versions that are available.  You will be able to login from any browser and get a web version of your office applications and data.  You don’t have to have Office loaded to make a change when you’re on the road.  The other big advantage is being able, seamlessly, to copy data to the cloud for others to see and edit.  You can have a shared folder that anyone with a browser can use.  You have total control of what they can do with documents and they also can run a browser version of the application to make changes.  This has already been very helpful when working on a project where you are updating documentation.  Clients can get the latest versions of all project documents without having to ask for them or email them over and over.

 I believe Microsoft has listened to the wishes and complaints of consumers and has finally come out with Office products worth upgrading to. I look forward to diving into other Office applications soon, such as Visio and InfoPath. Let me know how your review of the applications have gone.

Despite the many computer disasters that can occur, most small business owners have no proactive monitoring in place and do not regularly maintain their network. Worse than neglecting their networks and backups, few business owners have a plan for disaster recovery.  While others mistakenly believe their existing IT provider is looking after all their needs when all the provider can really do is answer emergency service calls. 

Protecting your data is vital to the survival of your business. Here are six methods that all business owners need to carry out in order to secure data.

1.      Implement “Business-Class” Firewall Protection

Linksys, Buffalo, or other residential routers work great for home computer systems but do not offer enough security to protect a business network. You need a business-class firewall, such as Cisco or Sonicwall to keep hackers out and data secure.

If your business needs a more secure firewall, CNS can set-up, install, and configure an integrated perimeter defense.  We’ll ensure your network’s availability and the security of your company’s resources by protecting the network infrastructure against attacks.

2.      Get Enterprise Size Virus Protection

How important is anti-virus protection? Your company’s reputation is at stake! If an employee unknowingly spreads a virus to a customer, or if a virus hijacks a PC, a lot of people are going to be angry. You need an enterprise size solution to protect your business, employees, and customers.

Don’t be fooled by free and low-cost anti-virus software. They are made for personal computer systems, not for businesses.

At CNS we monitor, respond, and protect against a broad range of threats from the Internet, so you don’t have to. Our surveillance, protection, and support continues 24/7.

The appropriate software should guard your network at every entry point, from the Internet to servers and desktops. Outbreaks are rapidly contained before threats can spread, and automated cleanup removes malware and remnants.

3.      Update Your Operating System Patches

Keep your servers, workstations and remote computers up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates.

With today’s constant stream of patches coming from so many sources, the needs for security and stability are increasing every day. Businesses can no longer afford to not keep systems updated. With CNS, you have a powerful and reliable source on your side:

CNS provides fast, easy and reliable Patch Management to keep your servers, workstations and remote computers up-to-date with the latest security patches and updates.  Patch Management can be implemented in minutes. Start getting you computers up-to-date and secure today!

4.      Secure and Automate Your Backups.

Over the twenty years we have been servicing businesses, the most costly mistake we’ve seen companies make is the failure to test, automate and secure data. If you lose your data, you lose your company, period.

Our DataSafe solution is your comprehensive, end to end disaster recovery plan. By leveraging our technology, we secure a local copy of your data that provides an efficient way to recover your information.

 5.     Keep a Copy of Your Backups Offsite!!!!

Many businesses store their backups onsite, either on a hard drive or a set of tapes.

It’s handy to have them around in case you need a quick restore of a file, but what happens if some event, big or small, destroys the file or your whole physical office?   If you only keep a set of backups onsite, you’re one faulty sprinkler system away from disaster.

Our Managed Solution includes an electronic transfer of your data to an offsite datacenter if the worst should happen.

 6.      Develop a Disaster Recovery Plan:

Despite all the safeguards you can put in place, sometimes there’s no stopping power outages or natural disasters. That’s why it’s important to be prepared with an inventory of all your data, hardware assets, software licenses, and vendor information so that you can quickly recover from a  disaster.

With a plan in place, you’ll know exactly what to do and in what order. Without a plan, you may waste precious time and money getting back to business.

 Take that Important First Step!!

Move to a Secure, Reliable, and Hassel-FREE Computer Network

All the above issues are covered in our Managed IT support plan. We can also offer 24×7 help desk support along with the onsite support when needed. 

Contact us to schedule your FREE Network Audit.  Simply give us a call at (800) 781-2755 or email us at contact@cns-service.com. 

P.S. When you sign up for your Free Network Audit, you will be under no obligation to hire us for anything – so call us right now while you’re thinking about it.

See more information on our Managed IT Program

A unique opportunity for customers to add desktop virtualization to their proven XenApp implementation and save up to 80%.

This article came from Brian Madden, one of the most respected people when it comes to virtualization.  The article outlines the many ways users can assess their PC’s and Macs from your PC, Mac or iPhone.  Users are asking for mobile access more and more so it is good to know what options IT has. 

 The original article can be found at http://go.techtarget.com/r/10359311/1667444

Desktop virtualization is something that companies — rather than consumers — use, and therefore, we usually assume any discussion about this topic pertains to the Windows systems. But now that Apple is cool again, and iPhone’s and Macs are making their way into business environments, we should take a look at desktop virtualization with Macs.

And even if you don’t think this is true today, eventually some executive is going to knock on your door and ask if you can integrate their Mac.

The good news is there’s a lot you can do with a Mac and an iPhone in the corporate desktop world. Let’s start with the iPhone, since it’s easiest.

The iPhone is a client device, so it’s a safe bet that people are going to want to use their iPhone’s to access the corporate desktop infrastructure. Fortunately, there are a lot of different clients for the iPhone.

With Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop, there’s a Citrix Receiver (the new name for the ICA client) for the iPhone. It has been around for about eight months, and Version 2.0 is around the corner. Like all Citrix clients, the Receiver for iPhone is free.

If you’re using VMware View, Wyse has released an application called PocketCloud that can be used to connect to your View environments. (Great app, stupid name!) Since PocketCloud can be used to connect to any remote host via pure Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), you can also use it for remote administration or to connect straight to Windows XP desktops. PocketCloud is cool, but it’s going to cost you about $30 per user from the Apple App Store.

There are also some free RDP clients for the cost-conscious, such as iRDesktop and Remote Desktop Lite.

If you have Mac users who want to connect to your virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) or Terminal Server-based desktops, there are a lot of great choices here, too.

The Citrix ICA Client for the Mac is really good now, as is Microsoft’s new Version 2 of its Remote Desktop Connection client for Mac. And Quest Software recently released a Mac client that also supports its VDI and Terminal Server products.

Of course, you can also run Windows desktop virtual machines (VMs) directly on your Mac clients. VMware Fusion, Parallels Workstation and VirtualBox all have Mac versions of their Windows products. And if you’d like to be able to manage, secure and centrally deploy your client-based VMs, you’ll be happy to know that MokaFive’s client-based desktop virtualization product runs great on a Mac!

This is great — but it’s all about accessing Windows desktops from a Mac client. What if you have Mac desktops and applications you want to deliver to your users, either Mac or non-Mac?

There’s a solution there, too.

A company called Aqua Connect has a product called Aqua Connect Terminal Services that converts an ordinary Mac host (or server) into a Terminal Server, allowing anyone to connect to the Mac desktop via RDP. And you get it all — the dock, Mac apps, everything — from your remote client!

All in-all, this is some great news. While you might not like Macs, at least you’ll be able to support them!

Gain the benefits of Vendor Authorized Technical Training from any location 

Introducing  AttendAnywhere, Capital Network Solutions, Inc. (CNS) new training delivery model.  Students can now attend Instructor-led Citrix classes in the CNS classroom, or from the convenience of their office or home.  Our new model enables those individuals interested in attending vendor authorized training to avoid travel costs associated with attending classes at training centers.

All classes are real-time, instructor led, and consist of the full vendor authorized course curriculum.  Remote students participate in the class via GoToMeeting and voice conference calling.  Students access the lab environment for all hands-on labs utilizing the Citrix ICA client from their PC.  Vendor authorized courseware is shipped directly to the student prior to the start of class.  Students only need to have internet access and a PC.

CNS AttendAnywhere delivery model combines the desire of many students to sit in the classroom with the instructor with those individuals who do not have the ability to travel to the location of the class.  Companies with employees in multiple locations can now have them participate in the same class (some in the classroom and some remote), adding greater value to the training.

Remote students view the instructor’s presentation via GoToMeeting.  The instructor also has the ability to view the remote students PC while completing labs to provide assistance when necessary.  Students listen to the instructor’s presentation via conference call and have the ability to ask questions and interact with classroom-based and other remote students.

Key Benefits of AttendAnywhere

You now have the choice of venues – in the classroom or from your home or office

• Classes provide the full course curriculum and hands-on labs
• The course duration, content and hands-on labs are identical to classroom only training
• Classes are taught in real-time by a vendor authorized instructor
• Eliminate travel costs by participating in the class remotely enabling students to attend training they require.
• AttendAnywhere delivery model is endorsed by Citrix and satisfies the class attendance requirement for Vendor certification.

CNS is aware of the fact that many companies are unable to get their employees the training they require due to budget cutbacks.  Our new AttendAnywhere delivery model enables you to gain the technical knowledge you need to implement and support the products you utilize to run your business without the added cost of travel.

Please contact  Steve Schulte at Steve@cns-service.com(916) 366-6566 for additional information.

Upcoming Courses from CNS 

You may be asking yourself – why all the hype on Windows 7 (after the, ahem, lukewarm reception of Windows Vista)? That is until you experience Windows 7 and the doubts easily melt away.  

CNS was part of the Beta test for Windows 7 and most of  our tech’s have been using it since Q1 2009. According to Dave Murphy, head of CNS Managed Services, Windows 7 provides all the core elements that enterprise users seek, plus a little something extra.  “Windows 7 is all about performance and stability,” stated Murphy. “This operating system, to simply put it, just works”. 

 “We recommend replacing systems instead of upgrading your older computer to Windows 7,” says Murphy. Upfront planning and testing is key to a smooth transition. CNS can assist you with  the most important stage of planning – assessing your environment.  During our assessments we review your current infrastructure, data, business applications and how end-users work.  It is vital that the solution be based on how your business users work not just how the technology works.  Read More.

Why Windows 7 for the Enterprise:

Make users productive anywhere
Employees can work with fewer interruptions because Windows 7 delivers solid performance and reliability from day one. With DirectAccess, mobile users can simply and more securely access corporate resources when out of the office. BranchCache makes users in branch offices with slow connections more productive by speeding access to frequently accessed files and Web pages.

Enhance security and control
Windows 7 helps deliver increased flexibility with securing computers and data. Organizations can worry less about sensitive data on lost laptops or USB drives because, in addition to protecting internal hard disks, Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption encrypts external thumb drives and hard disks with BitLocker to Go, and provides recovery keys so that the data is accessible when needed. For enterprises that demand the highest levels of compliance, IT professionals can use new application-blocking tools in AppLocker to dictate which applications can run on user computers, providing yet another way to limit the risk of malicious software.

Streamline PC management
Whether IT professionals manage and deploy desktops, laptops, or virtual environments, Windows 7 makes the job easier. Advanced image management and deployment tools enable IT professionals to add, remove, and report on drivers, language packs, and updates, and push those system images to desktops using less network bandwidth. New scripting and automation capabilities based on Windows PowerShell 2.0 reduce the costs of managing and troubleshooting computers. For enterprises making the leap to client virtualization, Windows 7 helps you more easily maintain virtual machine images with the same tools used for physical images and provide a richer user experience over remote connections.

Now that the market has an operating system worthy of an upgrade, many analysts are predicting demand to soar for desktop and OS refreshes. This is mainly due to the pent up demand that has been building over the last three years as enterprises tabled projects over concerns over the economy. Those concerns have not been brushed aside completely; many organizations are looking for strategies to ‘economically’ refresh their desktop infrastructure.

Refer a company to CNS and we’ll give you up to $1,000 AND give the new client up to $1,000 too!

As an CNS client, you know what we do for your business better than anyone. And many of our clients are already telling colleagues, friends, and business associates about our services and we want to thank you for it.  Thanks for spreading the word and helping us over the last 20 years. We look forward to serving your circle of friends the same way we’ve served you.

Click here for full details.

I have a best practice of backing up several key things for any Citrix implementation.

 Most of our Citrix servers do get backed up on a regular basis, but outside of the daily backups I like to keep a small thumb drive with some critical configuration information that would go a long way toward building the farm back from scratch if necessary. Having these components has come in handy many times.

 The Citrix servers themselves are like soldiers in an army, and as far as configuration they are expendable. They build their Local Host Cache dynamically, based on the central Data Store of the farm, a static SQL or Access database. This database is the first thing I back up to a thumb drive, once in a while, whenever we make a lot of changes to the farm – publish new apps, change farm or server configuration settings. The datastore for a small to medium farm is usually under 10MB.

 To back up the datastore on SQL, just use SQL tools. If the datastore is on Access, it is on one of the Citrix servers. You need to go to the Citrix console that has the datastore and use the Citrix “dsmaint” command:

  dsmaint backup f:\

 where “f:\” is the path you want to save the datastore to. There is no command in Citrix to tell you where the datastore is; you had to be there when it got set up, or you had to have documentation. If you don’t know where your datastore is, there is a registry key on every Citrix server: HKLM\Software\Citrix\IMA; There you will see “PSSERVER” and the value of the datastore.

 If the datastore is on SQL, there is a DSN file on atleast one of the Citrix servers (best practice is to put one on each Citrix server); the DSN file will point to the SQL (or Oracle or DB2) database hosting the Citrix farm datastore.

 The second thing I always store on the thumb drive for Citrix critical backup is the license file. It’s only 4K, and even though Citrix promises the “mycitrix” site will always be up, there are days it’s hard to get to it, or you can’t find your “mycitrix” credentials. Having the license file – digitally signed and tied to the hostname of the current license server – can come in handy. Technically the license server can be down for up to 30 days, and Event Viewer will alert you all 727 hours of the thirty days. This is just in case you didn’t catch that and you got to the 31^st day, and your Citrix server stopped accepting connections.

 To copy the license file, (*.lic), you need to go the license server, which you can find by looking at your farm properties, and then go to Program files, Citrix, Licensing, myfiles. There you will find the license file(s), which you can just copy to the thumb drive.

 The third thing I like to keep on the critical Citrix thumb Drive is the “webinterface.conf” file. Everything else you configure in Citrix goes to the datastore, but the configuration for the Web Interface, including any NAT settings and security settings, are stored in the “webinterface.conf” file. This file can be exported by highlighting your Web Interface site in the Access Management console and choosing “export” from the tasks pane.

 If you’re using Citrix Secure Gateway with the Web Interface, then you have one more thing to back up: the certificate on the web server. You can export this using IIS tools, usually as a “*.pfx” file.

 With these four components, and a Citrix server CD and a Windows 2003 server CD, (and your applications and your data), the whole farm can be built back from scratch if necessary.  (If you stream your apps to servers, this too can be put on the thumb drive!)

 Our backups still run every night on our Citrix servers, and we get the local profiles and user settings, but if we need the critical components for troubleshooting, we have them all handy on a thumb drive, to use in case of emergency.

 Charlie Messemer

CNS