Chris Fleck

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) announcement of the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) offering has just made Cloud Computing more attractive to the enterprise. Most companies I talk with are interested in the “Cloud”, but beyond a few SaaS apps and perhaps some dev/test they are not ready for any big change to their corporate IT infrastructure. On the other hand many of those same companies are currently or projected to be capacity limited in their own data center based on space or power limitations. Many companies will opt to move or expand into a Co-lo (Co-location) facility which provides dedicated space, power and bandwidth. This solves the space and power problem but most of the same costs of computing are just moved to a remote facility. The expensive data center facility cost is shared among other companies but the Server, Storage and Networking are all dedicated. The ... (more)

The iPad Will Be the Best Thing to Happen to Desktop Virtualization & VDI

iPad on Ulitzer Regardless of what it was designed for and despite all it's limitations, I expect the iPad to be the best thing to happen for Desktop Virtualization in 2010. No it's not always the best Thin Client but as a sales, marketing and awareness enabler it won't be beat, here's why: Purple Cow effect - Seth Godin, the new media marketing guru defined the Purple Cow as something remarkable. Something that stands out from the crowd and worth noting. A great example is the screen shot of Windows 7 on the iPad. This picture was replicated and written about in hundreds of ar... (more)

Is Nick Carr Right About Cloud Computing?

Chris Fleck's Blog There is a lot of hype and reality in the world of Cloud computing today. On the hype side there are numerous data points; VC investments, M&A, data centers under construction, new conferences and events. On the other hand there are now many examples of reality as well. SaaS offerings like Salesforce.com and many HR applications plus web site hosting have established themselves as a legitimate part of the IT portfolio of many corporations large and small. Adding fuel to the fire is extensive press, analyst and blog coverage (like this!) plus books like Nicholas... (more)

Virtual Missile Hits VMWorld!

Despite the early warnings Citrix has made a direct hit at VMWorld 2009, announcing enterprise-proven XenServer will now be free. The news seems to have been well received by IT shops looking for ways to save in the tough economic climate as well as by virtualization consultants expanding the options they can offer customers. Michael Goldstein, VP at LAN Associates, a VMware, Microsoft and Citrix Reseller that specializes in IT solutions for the legal industry said “ This move by Citrix is going to really shake things up. Unless the client is totally committed to VMware, we can n... (more)

Citrix Brings Microsoft Office to the iPad

Even though Microsoft has taken a wait and see attitude towards building a native version of Office for the iPad, there is no need to wait to do real work from the iPad. Citrix Systems has released Citrix Receiver for the iPad 1.0 which can provide anyone the ability to use Microsoft Office apps from their new iPad. This is not a clone app or "lite" version with possible compatibility issues. Real Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, or even 2010 Beta all work flawlessly from the iPad. Citrix the leader in Desktop and Application Virtualization has applied the HDX technology to solving ... (more)