The Apple iPad phenomenon is truly remarkable. While some suspect this is just a fad, we here at Citrix believe that tablet computing is becoming part of the workplace DNA. And we’re not the only one. That’s because people aren’t just talking about iPads; they’re using them. They’re voting with their dollars and buying these devices in droves. According to this Infographic by Fast Company’s Co.Design, “a whopping 14% of online shoppers say they plan to purchase an iPad in the next five months.” That’s 28 million people, according to their calculations. And they say total iPad sales are expected to rise 1,000% by 2014. That’s some hockey stick! And Gartner just predicted that by 2013, 80% of businesses (yep, 80% of businesses!) will support a workforce using tablets*. So those 28 million people aren’t just using their iPads for fun.

Inevitably, these devices will make their way into the enterprise. In fact, this is already happening today.  The top two work activities that people want to do on their iPads are (1) read and respond to business email and (2) view, edit and create documents and presentations. Perhaps most telling is that an incredible 91% of respondents said they want to access business productivity applications like Microsoft Office on their iPads.

The good news is that Citrix Receiver enables all of these new tablets and smartphones to run Microsoft Windows, transforming them from entertaining consumer gadgets into serious workplace tools. This is another example of why the partnership between Microsoft and Citrix is so significant. Together, we make it possible for users to have everything they love about Windows and all of their go-to business applications on any device of their choosing.

The only problem is that many IT departments are unaware that they can securely support Microsoft Windows on these devices using Citrix Receiver. Which is why we encourage everyone to visit www.ipadsatwork.com and join the movement to help IT professionals learn how Citrix Receiver empowers them to deliver Windows and Office applications to iPads, Droids or the latest Chrome OS-based Notebooks, making these devices secure, viable and productive options in the enterprise.

This is a profound change for our industry and promises to open many new doors for Citrix and Microsoft – as well as the thousands (even millions!) of users who want to access Windows and Office applications from any device they may choose, anytime, anywhere. Behold the future of virtual computing.

* Gartner’s Top Predictions for IT Organizations and Users, 2011 and Beyond: IT’s Growing Transparency, November 2010

Article above posted from Citrix Community; author Kim Woodward

Now through January 31st 2011, CNS will be providing a free new iPad to companies that move forward with any new Citrix XenApp or XenDesktop project installation. Contact us for complete details.

CNS uses and recommends ScriptLogic  for all our network installations.  ScriptLogic was just named winer of the Redmond Magazine Readers Choice Awards.

Redmond Magazine  of  the  two  major  magazines  in  the  Microsoft‐centric  IT  industry,  today  published  its  annual  Readers  Choice  Award  winners.   Over  40,000  readers  were  asked  to  participate  and  vendors  were  strictly  prohibited  from  even  seeing  the  survey,  making  the  results  truly  a  reflection  of  how  customers  see  our  products.   

ScriptLogic  participated  in  over  a  dozen  categories some  for  the  first  time  and  others  as  the  incumbent  winner  –  and  this  year  was  quite  a  take!  

(NOTE: “ISV  Winner”  is  the  highest‐placing  non‐Microsoft  product  in  a  category  won  by  a  Microsoft  offering.  “Five‐Star  Winner”  means  we’ve  won  in  this  category  five  consecutive  years  –  we  have  TWO!)  

Desktop

Authority:  Best  License  Management  Product  (ISV  Winner)  

Desktop Authority:  Best  Network  Automation  and  Batch  processing  Tool  (ISV  and  Five‐Star  Winner)  

Desktop  Authority:  Best  Scripting  Tool  

File  System  Auditor:  Best  Compliance  Tool  (ISV  Winner)  

Security Explorer  for  SQL  Server:  Best  SQL  Tool  

Active  Administrator:  Best  Group  Policy  Manager  (Five‐Star  Winner!)  

MSI Studio:  Best  Application:  Conflict  Testing  Tool   

Preferred  Product:

Perspective/Packet Trap  IT:  Best  bandwidth/traffic  monitoring  product

Desktop Authority:  Best  Asset  Management/Resource  Inventory  Product 

Desktop Authority:  Best  Patch  Management  Product  

Desktop Authority:  Best  Software  Distribution  Product  

Remote Support  Center:  Best  Remote  Troubleshooting  Solution  

MSI Studio:  Best  Software  Packaging  Product   

 Read More: http://redmondmag.com/Articles/2010/11/01/2010‐Redmond‐Readers‐Choice‐Awards.aspx?Page=1

Do you need a platform to communicate with a network of people? Okay, you may already be using Facebook to communicate to friends but what about communicating beyond the people who already know you? What if you need to rally support for an important cause? What if you want to market your band around the world? Is there a platform for you?

There is now and its name is Ning!

Ning is the largest platform in the world for creating your own social network. Choose any range of networking, from a family that wants a private network all their own to hundreds of thousands of people networking around a favorite cause. Size doesn’t matter. What matters is that you now have the tools to make your own social network whether you are a family, an organization, a politician, sports team, or a musician. Ning offers you a place to organize around a cause, build a hub for your online activity, or have a closed conversation in a space all your own.

Click here to learn more about Ning!  

In September Barracuda Labs intercepted thousands of copies of a spammed phishing attack aimed at customers of the popular online video rental service Netflix.  While phishing attacks are nothing new, especially against financial institutions, this attack was particularly well done. You’ll be amazed at how “real” a spam email or site can look.  Click here to see details of the attack, which shows how an unsuspecting Netflix member might fall victim to the attack, as well as what to look for to avoid similar attacks.

As cloud computing becomes adopted the demand for management software grows for hosting or cloud services companies like CNS. CNS provides cloud services for running virtual servers and desktops from a data center. Over the past few years over 200 virtual servers have been deployed in our cloud services environment.

The demand for cloud computing is becoming more prevalent as aging hardware needs to be upgraded. Business owners are having to make a financial decision about having an operating expense by using cloud services verses spending a large capital expense for new servers and storage that will just be outdated faster than before. As companies advance in adopting software for their vertical market the dependency to run their business without interruption becomes very significant. New software for almost every industry is being adopted. Microsoft and other technology companies have developed sophisticated all in one point of sale, inventory management and accounting software to even run a basic flower shop. The medical industry is now being incentivized by the government to use new medical records software. Now these companies are more reliant on their IT environment to do business and need IT systems that are not only fast but redundant and highly available.

More and more businesses have multiple offices which also reply on those servers to be available in order to do business. The financial advantages of cloud computing is one advantage but the data center is a secure environment with redundant components all the way from the hard drives to the generators on the building. Server virtualization has changed the market space to who can afford cloud computing. The small business that need to have redundant system has gone up but the monthly price of cloud computing is going down. As this shift in the market takes place the need for cloud computing management software for companies like CNS is on the rise. CNS has been getting more requests for deploying dedicated virtual desktops which is putting us in a position to use more advanced management software as there will be thousands of virtual machines for end user desktops rather than just the servers. Check out this local Roseville company that has received venture capitalist funds in a time of tight investments.

Roseville software startup lands first round of funding – Sacramento Business Journal – by Mark Anderson Staff writer

Now it’s easier than ever to optimize Citrix XenApp, XenDesktop and Microsoft remote desktop services environments with Lanamark’s new analysis pack – Terminal Services Analysis Pack. Lanamark announced the news today saying this pack is “designed to help enterprises optimize application and desktop delivery while ensureing licensing compliance of Citrix and Microsoft termal server environments.” Click to read the press release.

This IT-as-a-Service software is only available through Lanamark partners like CNS. We’ll help you optimize across your physical and virtual infrastructure, providing you with all that the Terminal Services Analysis Pack offers:

• agent-less data collection to gather detailed user access, bandwidth consumption
• application usage and terminal server performance metrics across hosted applications and hosted shared desktops
• complete visibility into which users are accessing terminal servers what applications they are using, when those applications are used and what resources are consumed by individual users and applications across terminal servers
• tracking of unique and concurrent users across published applications as well as Microsoft (Terminal Services Client Access License) and Citrix license requirements

Ask CNS to deliver Lanamark’s Terminal Services Analysis Pack to you today!

As cloud computing becomes adopted the demand for management software grows for hosting or cloud services companies like CNS. CNS provides cloud services for running virtual servers and desktops from a data center. Over the past few years, more than 200 virtual servers have been deployed in our cloud services environment.

The demand for cloud computing is becoming more prevalent as aging hardware needs to be upgraded. Business owners are having to make a financial decision about having an operating expense by using cloud services verses spending a large capital expense for new servers and storage that will just be outdated faster than before. As companies advance in adopting software for their vertical market, the dependency to run their business without interruption becomes very significant. New software for almost every industry is being adopted. Microsoft and other technology companies have developed sophisticated all-in-one point of sale, inventory management and accounting software to even run a basic flower shop. The medical industry is now being incentivized by the government to use new medical records software. Now these companies are more reliant on their IT environment to do business and need IT systems that are not only fast but redundant and highly available.

More and more businesses have multiple offices which also rely on those servers to be available in order to do business. The financial advantages of cloud computing is one advantage but the data center is a secure environment with redundant components all the way from the hard drives to the generators on the building. Server virtualization has changed the market space to who can afford cloud computing. The small business that needs to have redundant system has gone up but the monthly price of cloud computing is going down. As this shift in the market takes place the need for cloud computing management software for companies like CNS is on the rise. CNS has been getting more requests for deploying dedicated virtual desktops which is putting us in a position to use more advanced management software as there will be thousands of virtual machines for end user desktops rather than just the servers.

Check out this local Roseville company that has received venture capitalist funds in a time of tight investments:
Roseville software startup lands first round of funding

What harm can an HTML file do? Plenty, according to Barracuda Labs!

Dave Michmerhuizen published a must read email security update to the Barracuda Labs Internet Security Blog, HTML is Not Harmless – Email Security Update.

In this update see examples that show why HTML attachments are as threatening as other attachment types. You will see examples of spams tied to current Google trending topics, hackers emailing malicious JavaScript sites straight to email inboxes, and fake anti-virus site redirects.

Don’t get fooled (again?) by a seemingly innocent HTML email attachment. It can do plenty of damage!

HTML is Not Harmless – Email Security Update

Adobe Acrobat (all versions) and Adobe Flash Player – Security Risks
Last week Adobe issued two security advisories intended to let their customers know that Acrobat and Flash Player were found to be vulnerable to certain malware attacks.  The advisory for Acrobat covers all versions available for Windows, Macs, Unix.

Malicious code that takes advantage of these vulnerabilities has been found on public websites on the Internet. By downloading infected Adobe Acrobat documents or viewing websites with infected Flash video content, it is possible for computer workstations and Android smartphones to accept and run applications that will access user data and run unwanted applications. At this point the found malicious code only affects PCs running Windows (XP, Vista, 7 and various server applications).

Adobe Flash Player Update Addresses Issue – Immediate Update Recommended
As of September 21st, Adobe has released a security update for its Flash Player that resolves the vulnerability.
It is highly recommended that all workstation and Android users update their version of Flash Player to 10.1.85.3 (for Windows and Mac computers) and 10.1.92.10 for Android smartphones.

Get the Adobe Flash Player update here – http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/?promoid=BUIGP

Adobe Acrobat Issue Remains
Adobe has stated that an update to Acrobat will be available able the week of October 4th. Until the updates for the free Adobe Reader and the full versions of Acrobat (Standard and Pro) are available, it is strongly recommended that people not download or open Adobe Acrobat, known as PDF, documents from emails sent by untrusted individuals or unknown websites.