18702 North Creek Pkwy. #208Loading
Volume 6, Issue 3 - March, 2011 - © 2011 by Moose Logic, All Rights Reserved
Cover Story: Pssst....Want Some Free WAN Acceleration?
Cross-Platform Support for User Profiles
Do You Suffer from Arachibutyrophobia?
Your BEST Retirement Investment
Wish You Were Here (Humor)
Famous Birthdays
Moose Logic Coming Events
March Recommended Reading
(Moose Views is a monthly newsletter prepared by Moose Logic to bring you information and tips on maintaining a trouble-free network)
Pssst...Want Some Free WAN Acceleration?
Software companies have some flexibility that hardware manufacturers just don’t have, specifically when it comes to
giving stuff away.
If you manufacture widgets, it follows that each widget you make costs you something (in accounting-speak, this is typically called “cost of goods sold”). If it costs you $X to make a widget, then you generally have to sell it for $Y, where $Y-$X is a positive number, and is big enough to cover all of your other costs and fund the development of your next-generation, new-and-improved widget.
If you start giving widgets away, there is a built-in limit to how many you can give away—namely, the point at which you run out of money to pay your bills and make more widgets.
Software is a different game altogether. It can be staggeringly expensive to develop a software product. However, once you have it developed, your manufacturing costs are next to nothing… particularly in a world where you can simply allow people to download your bits, and just purchase a license key from you, which you can deliver by email.
Therefore, if you decide, for whatever reason, that it’s in your best interest to give away licenses for software you’ve already developed, your direct cost of doing that is very, very low.
Hence the newest special offer from Citrix: unlimited free Branch Repeater virtual appliances when you purchase XenDesktop Platinum licenses. (Note: The only restriction is that you must be running XenDesktop client traffic over the link that you’re accelerating with the free virtual appliance.)
Why do you care? Because WAN acceleration makes a huge difference in VDI performance. According to Dan Feller of Citrix, here are some samples of the bandwidth consumed by XenDesktop for some typical tasks, with and without Branch Repeater acceleration:
So...how many users do you have out there in that branch office? How much bandwidth do you have to it? Pretty easy to do the math and see whether you can expect to provide an acceptable user experience without WAN acceleration. And remember: if the user experience you’re providing with your new VDI deployment isn’t at least as good as what the users had before, your VDI initiative will probably fail.
Here are a couple of other items to consider: First, because Citrix makes both XenDesktop and Branch Repeater, they can build in specific support for the ICA/HDX protocol, such that Branch Repeater will do a better job of accelerating Citrix traffic than any other WAN acceleration appliance on the market. Second: PCoIP, the protocol used by the other leading vendor of VDI technology, is based on UDP, not TCP, and therefore cannot be accelerated.
This giveaway makes all the sense in the world for Citrix. They want to sell XenDesktop. XenDesktop performance, which is already clearly superior to the other guys over most WAN links, looks even better if you throw in a pair of Branch Repeaters. So the incremental cost to Citrix is negligible, while the added value is huge.
It’s only fair to mention, of course, that using a virtual appliance implies that you need a virtualization platform to run it on. Since WAN acceleration is a symmetric technology, meaning that you need an accelerator at each end of the WAN link, that means you need either a XenServer or a VMware server at the branch office to support the virtual appliance. (They’re working on a Hyper-V version, but it’s not out yet.)
Depending on whether you need to support other VM workloads at the branch location, this may or may not pencil out. If you don’t need to support additional VM workloads, you may find that it’s just as cost effective, if not more, to buy a physical Branch Repeater appliance to place out there as it is to buy a server to host the free virtual appliance. In fact, if you buy the Branch Repeater with Windows Server appliance, it can provide additional services like DNS, DHCP, file & print services, etc., that you would otherwise have to provide by standing up additional physical or virtual Windows servers.
Still, in many cases, customers will have sufficient infrastructure in key branch office locations to allow them to easily deploy Branch Repeater virtual appliances, and in those cases, it’s really hard to beat “free” as a price point.
It’s a smart move by Citrix, and a good deal for you.
If you manufacture widgets, it follows that each widget you make costs you something (in accounting-speak, this is typically called “cost of goods sold”). If it costs you $X to make a widget, then you generally have to sell it for $Y, where $Y-$X is a positive number, and is big enough to cover all of your other costs and fund the development of your next-generation, new-and-improved widget.
If you start giving widgets away, there is a built-in limit to how many you can give away—namely, the point at which you run out of money to pay your bills and make more widgets.
Software is a different game altogether. It can be staggeringly expensive to develop a software product. However, once you have it developed, your manufacturing costs are next to nothing… particularly in a world where you can simply allow people to download your bits, and just purchase a license key from you, which you can deliver by email.
Therefore, if you decide, for whatever reason, that it’s in your best interest to give away licenses for software you’ve already developed, your direct cost of doing that is very, very low.
Hence the newest special offer from Citrix: unlimited free Branch Repeater virtual appliances when you purchase XenDesktop Platinum licenses. (Note: The only restriction is that you must be running XenDesktop client traffic over the link that you’re accelerating with the free virtual appliance.)
Why do you care? Because WAN acceleration makes a huge difference in VDI performance. According to Dan Feller of Citrix, here are some samples of the bandwidth consumed by XenDesktop for some typical tasks, with and without Branch Repeater acceleration:
| Parameter | XenDesktop Bandwidth without Branch Repeater | XenDesktop Bandwidth with Branch Repeater |
|---|---|---|
| Office Productivity Apps | 43 Kbps | 31 Kbps |
| Internet | 85 Kbps | 38 Kbps |
| Printing | 553 - 593 Kbps | 155 - 180 Kbps |
| Flash Video (with HDX redirection) | 174 Kbps | 128 Kbps |
| Standard WMV Video (with HDX redirection) | 464 Kbps | 148 Kbps |
| HD WMV Video (with HDX redirection) | 1812 Kbps | 206 Kbps |
So...how many users do you have out there in that branch office? How much bandwidth do you have to it? Pretty easy to do the math and see whether you can expect to provide an acceptable user experience without WAN acceleration. And remember: if the user experience you’re providing with your new VDI deployment isn’t at least as good as what the users had before, your VDI initiative will probably fail.
Here are a couple of other items to consider: First, because Citrix makes both XenDesktop and Branch Repeater, they can build in specific support for the ICA/HDX protocol, such that Branch Repeater will do a better job of accelerating Citrix traffic than any other WAN acceleration appliance on the market. Second: PCoIP, the protocol used by the other leading vendor of VDI technology, is based on UDP, not TCP, and therefore cannot be accelerated.
This giveaway makes all the sense in the world for Citrix. They want to sell XenDesktop. XenDesktop performance, which is already clearly superior to the other guys over most WAN links, looks even better if you throw in a pair of Branch Repeaters. So the incremental cost to Citrix is negligible, while the added value is huge.
It’s only fair to mention, of course, that using a virtual appliance implies that you need a virtualization platform to run it on. Since WAN acceleration is a symmetric technology, meaning that you need an accelerator at each end of the WAN link, that means you need either a XenServer or a VMware server at the branch office to support the virtual appliance. (They’re working on a Hyper-V version, but it’s not out yet.)
Depending on whether you need to support other VM workloads at the branch location, this may or may not pencil out. If you don’t need to support additional VM workloads, you may find that it’s just as cost effective, if not more, to buy a physical Branch Repeater appliance to place out there as it is to buy a server to host the free virtual appliance. In fact, if you buy the Branch Repeater with Windows Server appliance, it can provide additional services like DNS, DHCP, file & print services, etc., that you would otherwise have to provide by standing up additional physical or virtual Windows servers.
Still, in many cases, customers will have sufficient infrastructure in key branch office locations to allow them to easily deploy Branch Repeater virtual appliances, and in those cases, it’s really hard to beat “free” as a price point.
It’s a smart move by Citrix, and a good deal for you.
User Profiles vs. Windows 7 Migrations
It’s no secret that we are big fans of Windows 7. It is clearly a better, and more secure, operating system than Windows XP. But if you’re just starting to plan your XP-to-Windows 7 migration, at some point you’re going to have to figure out what to do about user profiles.User profiles simply aren’t structured the same way in Win7 as they were in XP. So what are you going to do? Are you going to try to laboriously migrate all of your users’ settings to Windows 7? Or are you going to tell them that they’re simply going to have to reconstruct all their profile settings and favorites, and there’s nothing you can do about it?
And there are worse scenarios than just a straight migration to Win7. If you're planning a VDI deployment to help you get to Win7, you’ll still have to deal with the profile conversion issue. But what if your VDI deployment doesn’t go as smoothly as you hoped, and you have to roll back to XP temporarily? Do you convert the profiles back to XP again, only to convert them back to Win7 again later?
It isn’t just desktop migrations that are affected, either. If you’re using Remote Desktop Services (with or without Citrix XenApp), you’ve got the same profile compatibility issue between Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. Some of you who have moved to Server 2008 may still have some 2003 servers mixed in, because you have apps that won’t run on 2008. So your users end up with separate profiles for the two kinds of servers, and changes they make when logged onto one platform are not there when they log onto the other one.
And it’s great that Citrix has, for all intents and purposes, rolled XenApp and XenDesktop into a single license model — but have you stopped to think about the profile complexity of having Windows XP client systems connecting to a virtual Windows 7 desktop that’s getting applications delivered from both 2003 and 2008 servers? Hoo boy, there’s got to be a better way!
And there is: the AppSense Environment Manager. Environment Manager provides users with a “follow me” personality that’s completely portable across Windows XP, Vista, Win7, Server 2003 and Server 2008 systems.
In a nutshell, user profile information is broken into discrete components rather than being stored in one big monolithic file. All the information is stored in a SQL database. As the profile data is actually needed, it is streamed down to the execution platform that needs it. A “virtual personalization cache” is maintained within the user’s session. Changes to the existing profile are stored in the cache, and those changes are synchronized to the central store at application shut down or session logoff.
Benefits of this approach include:
- Logon times are significantly reduced, because it is not necessary to load a potentially huge user profile as part of the logon process.
- In many XenApp deployments, not all apps are installed on all servers—meaning that a given user will frequently have sessions running on more than one XenApp server at a time. This can cause profile changes made in one session to be overwritten by changes made in the other session—and if both servers try to write to the profile repository at the same time, BAM — profile corruption. Environment Manager makes this a thing of the past.
- Users can move freely back and forth between platforms while keeping a consistent user environment.
- Scheduled snapshots of the profile can be taken, so that in the event profile corruption does occur, a user’s profile can be rolled back to a known good point on a per-application basis.
March Is National Peanut Month!
Around the
world, they’re known as goobers, goober peas, pindars, ground nuts, earth nuts, and grass nuts. But they’re not
nuts at all — they’re legumes; cousins to beans, lentils, and peas. (So the first half of their name is more
accurate than the last half.)Here are some other things that you may not know about the peanut:
- One acre of peanuts will make about 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches. That’s good, because…
- Before the age of 18, the average American child consumes 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- The U.S. produces only about 6% of the world’s crop of peanuts.
- Over half of the U.S. peanut crop is grown in Georgia, where it is the official state crop.
- Candy manufacturers use over 20% of the world’s peanuts.
- Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of getting peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth.
- Approximately one-half of one percent of the American population has an allergy to peanuts. One-tenth of one percent is believed to be subject to a life-threatening peanut allergy.
- The best peanuts your humble author has ever tasted come from the Virginia Diner. Costco’s Kirkland brand of “Super Extra Large Peanuts” are a close second. And, no, neither of them paid me to say that!
Your BEST Retirement Investment
It is easy to find a wealth of information regarding financial investments for retirement, but don’t overlook the investments you should be making in your health as well. Exercise can prove to be the best investment you can make towards your retirement.One perk of investing in your well-being is that it can be done almost cash-free. It is easy to spend a lot of money on gym equipment or memberships, but you can start a healthier way of living without spending much more than the cost of some good fitness shoes.
It is obvious to most people that increasing the amount of exercise in your daily life can bring you long-term health benefits, but it can also save you money. By staying fit longer, you will spend less on doctor bills and medication costs. And by staying active longer, you will have more options in the event you choose to work into your retirement years.
Investing in an exercise program can also save you time. The amount of time you spend in regular exercise will increase your general well-being, giving you more focus and increasing your energy level. It can also add years to your life.
Of course, all investments have risks. You can minimize your risk of injury from exercise by consulting your doctor before beginning any exercise program. Start slowly and build gradually to a consistent daily routine. Break up your exercise goal into small pieces that can be completed during the course of a day. You may also be at risk of quitting your exercise program. Try exercising with a friend. Choose an activity that you like to do, say walking or water aerobics. Chart your progress and reward yourself when you hit your milestones.
Wish You Were Here
A couple
planned on spending their 20th anniversary at the same Florida hotel where they had spent their honeymoon. Because
both of them were busy with their jobs, they had to fly down separately. The husband flew down on a Thursday and
checked into the hotel. His wife would fly down the following day.After getting to his room, he opened his laptop and sent a quick email off to his wife. However, he accidentally typed her email address in wrong, and, without realizing it, sent it off.
Meanwhile, Mrs. O’Shaughnessy had just returned from her husband’s wake. The widow decided to check her email, expecting to see notes from friends and family, but after reading the first message, she fainted dead away.
Her son rushed into the room, found his mother on the floor, and saw the computer screen, which read:
TO: My Loving Wife
SUBJECT: I’ve Arrived
I’ve just arrived and checked in. They have wireless Internet access here now. I see that everything has been prepared for your arrival tomorrow. Looking forward to seeing you then! Hope your journey is easier than mine was.
P.S.: It sure is hot down here!
Famous March Birthdays
- March 1 — Glenn Miller, 1904
- March 2 — Dr. Seuss, 1904
- March 3 — Alexander Graham Bell, 1847
- March 6 — Michelangelo Buonarroti, 1475
- March 7 — Willard Scott, 1934
- March 10 — Chuck Norris, 1940
- March 11 — Lawrence Welk, 1903
- March 14 — Albert Einstein, 1879
- March 15 — Andrew Jackson, 1767
- March 16 — James Madison, 1751
- March 17 — Rudolf Nureyev, 1938
- March 18 — Grover Cleveland, 1837
- March 19 — Wyatt Earp, 1848
- March 21 — Johann Sebastian Bach, 1685
- March 22 — Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1948
- March 23 — Roger Bannister, 1929
- March 24 — Harry Houdini, 1874
