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mreferre
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Connection Brokers summary

I am trying to fill up a table with all the brokers available associated to general characteristics.

These are the brokers I am currently considering: CitrixCDB, Leostream, Propero, Dunes, Provision Networks, 2X (ThinClientOS), (Syncron) ?

These are the characteristics I am putting into the table:

\- License costs per user: low/med/high (40/50 would be low, 400/500 would be high...)

\- Protocol being used: ICA/RDP

\- Client Device supported: browser/PClinux/PCXp/TCXPe/TCLinux/TCce/WyseS10......

\- Integrated single sign-on

\- Requires a scalable broker layer: yes / no (i.e. does the user connection goes from the client device to the XP vm directly (like with Leostream/Dunes) or does it have to go through the connection broker (like with the CitrixCDB)?)

\- Provides integrated Secure Access / VPN: yes/no

Before we start filling this virtual table up .... is there anything else you think would want to add ? Other brokers ? Other characteristics ?

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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sbroquere
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Massimo,

First of all many thanks to you for taking the initiative of putting together a table of all connection brokers. Would it make sense to add the VI back-end functionalities as well, such as the ability to dynamically create and modify pools of VMs, or would it be better to run a separate topic (another table) on the subject. I have to admit that I am still puzzled as to why people as so concern about the connection broker part, although I admit it is crucial, when to my opinion the many advantages of VDI comes from the agility gained from using a VI efficiently.

Just my thoughts on the subject and I would be more than happy to participate, on the Dunes side, on the making of your features/comparison tables/summary.

Cheers,

Stephane

(and yes again I do work for Dunes)

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mreferre
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Stephane,

I agree. Being able to have a hook into the whole VI3 api's (such as creating new vm's on the fly etc etc) would be an advantage for Connection Brokers users. So I would add this characteristic:

\- VC integration for automatic provisioning/resizing of virtual pools

I would also like to add another couple of basic "characteristics" that I forgot such as :

\- Provides support for pools of vm's (1 user to many XP mappings)

\- Provides support for dedicated vm's (1 user to his/her own vm)

Thanks.

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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Sticky
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You might want to add remote connectivity. Citrix and Propero is built-in while the others require a VPN.

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mreferre
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Mh ..... wouldn't that fall into :

- Provides integrated Secure Access / VPN: yes/no

?

Thanks. Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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sgrinker
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Hot Shot

Wow, Massimo, I'm surprised to see you include the CitrixCDB after your previous comments Smiley Wink As a plus, it shows no bias is being applied, but realistically I can't argue with your comments about the current implementation of their broker anyway.

Unfortunately the feedback I'm getting from them, is that the next itteration of the broker is scheduled to be releases sometime in October with "project trinity"

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Sticky
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Not sure why you would lump them together. With VPN access you can get to anything.

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mreferre
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Ok ... ok ... I see what you mean...... (I think)

So if you have a VPN technology in place you don't need any other "integrated" security feature because you are "logically local" already ...

On the other hand if you are using a wide open internet connection without any sort of VPN in place at the networking level than you would want your broker to be able to provide that security channel for you (https etc etc).

Agree ?

P.S. I have wrote that line in a rush so it didn't make sense in fact .... Thanks.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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mreferre
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Well you wouldn't say it is good if you look at my table ...... Smiley Wink

Yeah that is what they are saying for Trinity ...... we'll see .....

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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Sticky
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Agreed Smiley Wink

For the record I also think this is a great idea!

Golden

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mreferre
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Yeah ..... there is lots of confusion about the number of brokers available and their functionalities. Having a single source that lists them all with the major features in a sort of comparison chart would help to position them.

It will not be very accurate nor up to date but it might be a good reference starting point ......

I am trying to put up something in a web page that I want to publish in a couple of days. Please all continue to post here feedbacks on brokers I have not mentioned and "characteristics" that you want to put into that table.

Thanks. Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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kbk00
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Splitting up those items would help me out as well.

This plan of laying out a chart is also a fantastic idea. Me and my company thank you (and we will thank you in our next purchase of 3755s!)

Smiley Happy

If you found this posting to be useful, great. I didn't waste your time.
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mreferre
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Smiley Happy

For the records I am not doing this to sell more 3755 Smiley Wink

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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paramd
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Are you pricing this? Or making it freely available to all of us Smiley Happy?

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Elie-prof
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Massimo,

That's an awesome idea. I would love to see end-user experience features. I mean by that things like application vs/and/or desktop publishing, different presentation/access experiences (e.g. web access, client access, desktop push etc.), printing etc.

In my opinion (very humble) what will make VDI very very successful is end-user acceptance. So if the VDI experience is less than the experience of a local desktop, then users will resist - no matter how much we like this broker or that broker from a "geeky" technical perspective. After all one of the reasons Citrix is only 10-15% deployed (I think you said that on this forum somewhere) is that in a shared OS model like Citrix / TS, the user experience is limited compared to a local desktop.

Also I found this paper on the Vmware website that may help get started:

http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vdi_strategy.pdf

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mreferre
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Are you pricing this? Or making it freely available to all of us :)?

Well I could charge 0.000005$ per hit ..... Smiley Wink

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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mreferre
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Elie,

I do agree with you.

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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kix1979
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My question, how do you measure user acceptance? I'd love to see the tests that comprise that since everyone wants different things.

Thomas H. Bryant III
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Elie-prof
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I worked for a consulting firm a few years back and we did a Citrix project for a govt department. The CIO's secretary hated it because she could not put the picture of her daughter on the background of her publsihed desktop. She bacame a saboteur to extent where she once changed the frequency of her monitor to break the Citrix display. Everybody was troubleshooting the Citrix server for hours until someone figured out it's the monitor. There were other such instances of resistance. The CIO decided the project failed and took Citirx out.

So when users don't differentiate between local and hosted and the app behaviour is the same, and they can connect whatever devices on their local desktop and the hosted desktop detects it, and all users go about doing their business as usual with the normal complaints, I would say we have user acceptance.

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mreferre
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I agree.

I have had the same experience with one of the customers I have been working with. The citrix project was a success from an administrative and business point of view. Yet they have regressed to standard PC's after some 12/18 months just because of end-user's "sabotages".

I have always said that the happiness of the end-users means headhaches for the system administrators......... and the happiness of systems administrator means frustrated end-users.

What I like about Virtual Clients is that it seems a good compromise: happier systems administrators and less frustrated end-users.

In medio stat virtus (or est modus in rebus ........).

Massimo.

Massimo Re Ferre' VMware vCloud Architect twitter.com/mreferre www.it20.info
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