Citrix Summit Barcelona 2012
And the second day of the Summit is passed as well, so time to write up a new summary of the day.
Free exam
I started the morning by taken the free complimentary exam, which in my case was the A16 – Architecting a Citrix Virtualization Solution. The last exam to tackle to gain that Citrix Certified Integration Architect (CCIA) title I set out as my goal for this year.
I did not have the preparation time I hoped for and this exam is known as a tough one to pass. So I didn’t feel that sure about having a good chance when I started the exam. I took the time to read the assessment carefully and had to recheck it with a lot of questions to determine the right answer. The decision tree questions were hard as the second part of the question sometimes showed very clearly I did not pick the best answer for the first part. So by the time I finished the exam, I had no idea what score to expect anymore. But to my surprise I did have a better understanding of all the products, techniques and solutions decisions to make as an Citrix Architect. I passed with a very impressive score of 71%, which made me walking around with this big grin on my face all day. Real proud of myself for sure.
One of my missions for this Synergy down! So I joined the DUCUG crew and Andrew Morgan and colleague for a very entertaining lunch with good tapas, beer and great conversations.
CloudGateway
After a great lunch it was time to join some more sessions, starting with SUM211:Deep dive on CloudGateway for Cloud Service Providers. This session tried to explain the different components that make up the CloudGateway solution, especially the Enterprise variant, including the Access Gateway (for VPX use the new AG Enterprise VPX), StoreFront (replacement for the Web Interface) and the AppController. Multiple tenants can be combined on the Access Gateway and StoreFront. But you will need one virtual (linux) appliance AppController per tenant.
One thing that became clear during an after-session discussion was the fact that CloudGateway and the different components it consists of is not that clear for all attendees.So there is still work to be done to clear up some misconceptions and provide a clear and understandable introduction of the new components to the customers. Or maybe even for ourselves as well, ’cause if we don’t have it all figured out ourselves, we’ll have a hard time explaining the benefits to our customers too.
Provisioning
The next session was all about Citrix Provisioning Server and the many steps to cover during the troubleshooting phase. Even though a lot of steps were pretty obvious, it sure was a nice list of steps to cover and settings to check. Looking forward to save the presentation and build an easy checklist out of the bullets
And after those sessions it was time to track down the secret demo room and get a glimpse of the cool stuff they are currently working on from the engineers themselves. As all is NDA, I cannot enclose any details, but it definitely triggered some new ideas for future projects
Geek Speak
Last session of the day was the first Geek Speak sessions for this event, which started on IT consumerization and onwards to Cloud security. The first part started of nicely with some good statements, but did linger too long (to my taste) on the ‘Google is profiling you’ statements. Profiling has been around for a long time and is not really a Cloud related or IT consumerization related topic. And it usually doesn’t add to a constructive discussion. The second part of the Geek Speak session, on Cloud security wasn’t what I hoped for, as it quickly went to the ‘Google owns you’re data’ rant and discussed the same data security statements I have heard when we started with building corporate web applications and hooked our corporate networks to the internet. No new lessons learned so far.
So hopefully we’ll here some good discussions on sessions to come!
Expo
Last program of today was the Partner Solution Centre, where I met some new partners, tested some new products and discovered some fun goodies as well, like the beer opener/usb stick, which must be standard issue tooling for each Geek #wink
So time for me to wrap up this daily summary, as I’m looking forward to tomorrows keynote, which should (as always) have some great announcements.
Keep you posted!
Esther has been working in different roles and functions as an IT consultant ever since she finished her Masters degree in Computer Science in 1997. She has worked as a web developer, database administrator, and server administrator until she discovered how Server-Based Computing ( SBC ) combined servers, desktops, and user experience in one solution. Esther has been specializing in virtualization solutions such as SBC, VDI, application, and server virtualization for over eight years now and is currently working as a Senior Consultant at PepperByte, where she designs and implements Citrix® solutions for both small-business and large-enterprise infrastructures scaling from 100 to 15,000 users.
In january 2014 her first book Citrix XenApp 6.5 Expert Cookbook was published by Packt Publishing.
Esther is awarded as a Citrix Technology Professional (CTP) from 2015 - 2017.
Esther is awarded as a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) in 2017.
Esther is a Citrix Certified Expert – Virtualization (CCE-V), Citrix Certified Professional – Mobility (CCP-M), Citrix Certified Professional – Networking (CCP-N) and RES Software Certified Professional (RCP).
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