Yesterday, the three of us attended one of the quarterly CDG(1) Technical update sessions which was held at ‘de Glazen Ruimte‘ in Maarssen.

The three subject were:

  1. RES Software and VMware View by Bart van Winden (RES) en Ton Hermes (VMware);
  2. Citrix reduces traffic jams on the roads to and from our Dynamic Delivery Center by Marc Wagevoort (CDG);
  3. VMworld San Francisco 2009 update by Rob van der Wel.

RES Software and VMware View
At 16:30 Ton Hermes (VMware) kicked off by explaining the VMware View solution suite and describing the different components like View Connection Server, ThinApp, VMware View Composer and Linked clones, etc. Although we already knew most of the information presented, Ton made it a very entertaining and interesting session.
When Ton was finished Bart van Winden (RES) took the stage and pointed out that although VMware View is a great solution it stilll has some issues which VMware doesn’t address (yet). Like problems with packaged applications containing user settings, roaming profile issues and the tension between standardization and personalization. Bart explained how RES Software addresses these issues with RES Wisdom and RES PowerFuse.

Citrix reduces traffic jams on the roads to and from our Dynamic Delivery Center
After a short break Marc Wagevoort (CDG) tried to inform us on the new Citrix HDX features but the presentation was as long and wordy as its title. It was a long boring overview of all HDX features. The only thing I remember a day later is that it contained a lot of ‘In previous Citrix versions we used to know this feature as …..’. A missed opportunity in my opinion, because he had a great podium and all the time in the world to highlight the features that were actually new.

VMworld San Francisco 2009 update
Directly after that Rob van der Wel came on stage to wake us up again and, as some of you may know, that was a job which fits Rob as a glove :-). In a very enthusiastic manner Rob presented his experiences and views on last weeks VMworld 2009 in San Francisco.  He talked about VMware road-map and how they stick to it through the years, the announced products/services like vCenter Express and VMware GO, the Client Virtualization Platform (VCP), of course PCoIP, virtualization of desktops, servers, phones.

The overall message was: VMware is planning to virtualize everything and is in the process of eliminating all motives not to.

All-in-all a great, entertaining and informative session which was appreciated by myself but also the rest of the crowd as there where many interested and interesting questions.

To end this CDG Technical update session they had arranged a great dinner from the chefs at ‘de Glazen Ruimte‘ and after some delicious food and drinks we went home late, tired but satisfied. Thanks CDG, see you at the next Technical update session.

1: CDG is one of the distributors of VMware, Citrix, RES Software, etc, in the Netherlands.