I could list all the reasons I think the iPad + Citrix are a great fit for healthcare, but it may be more meaningful coming directly from Physicians and IT Pros in the heathcare industry. This is a sample of what has been shared on the blogs when we asked what would Citrix Receiver for iPad be used for.
Dr. Paul Altmann says:
” Chris, the combination of Citrix and the iPad will, I am sure, be a huge success in the healthcare setting where the form factor of the iPad makes it the best all round device to access medical records in real time as clinicians care for their patients.Specifically, I am looking forward to showcase this for Cerner Millennium users who routinely access the application over Citrix.
There will be many other settings where the iPad, which is the first really decently sized, light, with good battery life “thin client”, will become very popular.
Dr Paul Altmann
Clinical Director – Health Informatics – NHS South Central & Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust
Consultant Nephrologist – Oxford Kidney Unit The Churchill – Oxford OX3 7 “
.. says:
“I would love to be able to use citrix on an iPad. I currently use Citrix to log into our hospitals EMR, Epic, from home. Being able to do so both at home and even in the hospital would be awesome. “
..says:
“So Are you saying that I would be able to use my GE Healthcare Centricity EMR Application from the Ipad? We connect to it using XenApp. This is really the only thing holding me back from getting an iPad is that whether I would be able to run my EMR for work.
..says:
“Please tell us you are working on a citrix client for the IPad. It will be so “revolutionary” if you have one ready by the time the IPad is available. Physicians will love to use an IPad to handle their Electronic Medical Records at bedside, exam rooms.”
“Chris Smith says:
Yes, I think this would be fantastic. Many EHR (electronic health record) applications have developed stylus-driven interfaces for slate PCs (tablets with no keyboard option), so touch interface is a natural easy win for those already developed applications. Many of the EHR applications are also already deployed via Citrix, so this is a serious WIN WIN for Citrix to pursue… and as you mentioned, Citrix has already done quite a bit of work on the Citrix Receiver for the iPhone. This really does have so much more capability, now that you have the larger screen.
Also, multi-touch is supported in Windows 7, so it will be interesting to see how the XenReciever can interact with the Win7 host operating system environment, or even hosted application environment, but having the Receiver bridge that gap in the user experience via the iPad would be amazing!”
..says:
“I work for a health care provider and this could be huge. It turns the iPad from an interesting toy, to potentially powerful tool for business”
Todd Bruni says:
“Being in a large Healthcare environment I also see this device as having huge potential. First for ARRA/Hitech initiatives such as CPOE, BMV, Physician Documentation, etc physicians, clinicians, and/or nursing are going to want, need, demand mobile devices. As multiple people have pointed out one of those devices are tablets. The cost of those devices intended for Healthcare are extremely expensive (Motion Computing, etc). Second, as people have pointed out protecting patient data is a requirement. That is one of the beauties of desktop virtualization whether its hosted shared desktops or hosted dedicated desktops that data stays in the data center. Finally organizations need to hit meaningful use in the not so distant future. Most of the large EMR vendors are not web-based today and organizations have to start taking steps now to meet the meaningful use timelines. That means these applications are client based today which is another reason to do desktop virtualization now until the ISVs solutions are ported to the web.
So how does this wrap back around to this device? Any device that is going to help healthcare organizations start taking steps now to adopt desktop virtualization, mobility, extend battery life, and move data into the datacenter without having to spend $2k on a tablet, $3k on cart solution is a great candidate. Being able to purchase 4 or 5 of these devices at the cost of one tablet makes it very intriguing. Add a docking station with keyboard and mouse for $40-50 in key locations and now you don’t have to worry about real estate on the floors (another huge healthcare issue) and the device becomes easy to stop and make updates to your EMR.
Finally, I don’t remember who said it but I completely agree with whoever said that we won’t know any of this until we get these devices into the clinicians hands we won’t know.”
..says:
“Already have XenDesktop environment pushing around 20 desktops using Nextgen out to several medical clinics in my area. Was able to get budget money for purchasing 5 iPads as a demo in less than 2 minutes. Will be an interesting demo as I have connections to several hospitals that are all looking into the EPIC Haiku Application also being developed with Keiser Medical Group in mind. A current rolling wireless cart with a WYSE Thin Client typically costs a Hospital in Oregon $20,000 after we did our full ROI 2 years ago. Interesting what happened in 2 years! “
Checkout the Heathcare IT Community site http://community.citrix.com/p/healthcare
Learn how to make the iPad work for your healthcare organization at Citrix Synergy.
On June 16th we will be releasing to web our XenApp 6 Connector for System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2. The XenApp Connector will allow Configuration Manager administrators to use one management console for all their enterprise apps including on-demand apps by XenApp. Customers can now:
- Install and publish applications, including App-V applications, to XenApp servers
- Use the same application package to deliver to both desktops and XenApp servers
- Automatically orchestrate installation of applications on XenApp servers without user interruption
To learn more about this integration with Configuration Manager, watch this short video. And for more details, download this white paper.
The version 3.x release of Profile management enables streaming of your users’ profiles. Version 3.1 (available May 18, 2010) provides the same feature set as the v3.0 release (available back in March 2010) but has a number of fixes in it. Basically the same concept you see in our Application Streaming capability now exists for profiles. Also in this 3.x release is the new ability to write profile changes back as they occur instead of just on logoff. You can download it today from either the XenApp components section or the XenDesktop components and try it out (MyCitrix logon required, but there is also evaluation downloads available under the “Evaluations and Trial Software” category). Let’s take a closer look at both these new capabilities.
What this provides is the ability to only bring down the user’s profile as it’s needed. Thus instead of making the logon wait while the user’s profile downloads, it basically tells the OS that the profile is really there (when it’s not) and then cache fills the actual data on use. You may configure this behavior to only cache on use (default), pre-cache any files defined by size (e.g. 5 MB or larger files always get cached) or even configure it to cache the whole profile but only after letting the logon process proceed (and thus not bottleneck the logon process). These options are all about balancing bandwidth (only copy down files when used) with user performance (make sure the file is there before the user clicks it so as not to have to wait for larger files to cache).
Will this save you massive time in your logons? That depends on how big your profiles are and how much time in the logon is profile related versus logon scripts and GPO processing related? Is there really any other answer in the technology world? e.g. if you have a 200-300 MB profile, you may see upwards of 70-80% savings in time for loading that profile (if using just in time caching, the physical files no longer have to be copied down into the session).
The other new capability in this preview of Profile management provides the ability to actively write back a profile’s changes to the user store during a session. This way the synchronization of the user’s profile is no longer tied to the logoff event. Now as changes are detected the modified files will be written back during the course of the session. This means when a new session is started, any changes from the current session will be picked up in the new session. It also means logoffs are improved as well since the files needing to be updated are written back during the session and not saved to all happen at logoff. Please note that this does not mean changes are replicated to existing sessions. Only new session would pick up the changes.
So please give this release a look and we always look forward to any feedback. How much does it improve your logon times (e.g. how big are your profiles and how long did they take to load during logon)?
The new XenApp 6 release is now available to download for customers, partners and evaluators alike – and will be offered as a free upgrade to all XenApp and XenDesktop 4 customers with current Subscription Advantage agreements.
XenApp 6 introduces exciting new enhancements for advanced management and scalability, a rich multi-media experience over any network and self-service applications with universal device support from PC to Mac to smartphone. With full support for Windows® Server 2008 R2 and seamless integration with Microsoft App-V, XenApp 6 provides session and application virtualization technologies that make it easy for customers to centrally manage applications using any combination of local and hosted delivery to best fit their unique requirements.
With the release of XenApp 6, the Technology Preview showcasing XenApp on Windows Server 2008 R2 has officially ended. If you are one of the many interesting in evaluating XenApp 6, we encourage you continue your evaluation by downloading our 90-day XenApp 6 trial software.
Alongside XenApp 6, Citrix is releasing to web XenApp 5 Feature Pack 3 for Windows Server 2008 R1 and Windows Server 2003. XenApp 5 Feature Pack 3 brings HDX technology enhancements and application virtualization features to both platforms to offer customers more value in their current environment as they build migration plans for newer platforms and technologies.
Learn more
It might seem odd to some of you that Citrix would make such a statement given that we have made application isolation and streaming capabilities available in the XenApp platform ever since the introduction of Presentation Server 4.5 over 3 years ago. The fact is that Citrix has always intended to embrace App-V within our XenApp systems, a point that I have often stated, even as early as when Pete Schulz and I were presenting the pre-release hands-on training for Project Tarpon (the project name for what would become XenApp application streaming) as far back as 2006. Regardless, there are always questions posed by customers and prospects who are left wondering which solution to use, and when. The answer is “both”, let me explain…
Application Virtualization in XenApp:
Application Virtualization within the greater context of Citrix On-demand application delivery is the system that enables a) Single Image Application Management, and b) Offline access to centrally managed applications. Within the Application Virtualization capabilities, both XenApp Isolation and Streaming as well as Microsoft App-V are considered equally capable technologies, either of which can be managed within XenApp based upon a customer’s application delivery requirements.So what in earlier versions of XenApp was a Citrix only technology known as “application streaming” is now in XenApp 6 a broader “Application Virtualization” delivery system, consisting of 5 components/technologies.
- Publishing and Management infrastructure (AppCenter)
- Application Isolation
- Application Streaming
- Receiver plug-ins (Citrix Receiver)
- Self-service enterprise app store (Dazzle)
In XenApp Application Virtualization an app can be packaged as either a XenApp .profile or a Microsoft App-V sequence, either of which enables items 2 and 3 in the list above, that being isolation and streaming. These packages are then made available to users through the central XenApp publishing and management infrastructure (item 1 in the list) where various properties and policies are configured to determine if, or how, a given application is delivered to a user based on who they are, what device they are using, over what network, etc…
There are 2 Citrix Receiver plug-ins required for a complete solution with regards to XenApp and App-V, one is the Citrix Offline Plug-in, and the other is the App-V Plug-in for Citrix Receiver.
And rounding out the complete Application Virtualization delivery system is the 5th item in the list Citrix Dazzle, our Self-service enterprise application storefront.
In this system, both App-V and the native isolation and streaming capabilities within XenApp provide virtually the same technical solution, but with a couple of idiosyncrasies that may make one or the other the more appropriate choice for a given application. A perfect example of this would be illustrated in the considerations for rolling out Microsoft Office 2010 as a virtualized application. With the introduction of the Office 2010 deployment kit for App-V, Microsoft is bridging the boundaries between virtualized Office and the role Office has taken on as a common element in many traditional desktop deployments; deployments where a large number of applications rely on Microsoft Office almost as much as they do the underlying OS. A few examples of the unique capabilities enabled by App-V and the Office 2010 Deployment Kit for App-V are:
- Fast search in virtualized Outlook 2010 using Windows Desktop Search
- Ability for virtualized Office 2010 applications to open, edit, and save Office files hosted with Windows SharePoint
- Search indexing support for Office file types
- URL protocol redirection to virtualized Outlook 2010
- Print to virtualized OneNote 2010
But the biggest advantage to using App-V to deliver Office 2010 is “Single vendor support for the application as well as the application virtualization technology”.
With many of the challenges around delivering virtualized applications that will rely on Office 2010 as a central enabling component, coupled with the “single throat to choke” advantage of having the application virtualization technology vendor be the same vendor that is supplying the application itself, in my opinion, it just makes good sense to use Microsoft App-V as the preferred app virtualization solution for that application suite.
Often after I walk a prospect through this particular scenario we immediately jump into the “Is Citrix ending its development of their native application virtualization capabilities and going with App-V instead?” item on the agenda. J The answer here is “No”.
The Citrix vision of enabling simple and secure anywhere access is built on many technologies, application virtualization is only one of these building blocks, but it is a critical element of delivering the best user experience to any user on any device while also simplifying the management of the applications. And that is not only why we will continue to innovate across our broader application virtualization solution, for our native isolation and streaming, as well as better and more deeply integrated support for App-V over time, but it is also why Microsoft and our mutual customers see value in Citrix delivering App-V sequences through XenApp. Which leads me to the last and final question I have heard over the last few years and that is “Why would Citrix want to support App-V, and what does XenApp enable me to do with App-V that I can’t do otherwise”?
Great question!
Simply put, Citrix is always looking for new ways to leverage Microsoft platform elements to enable new scenarios for our mutual customers, App-V is just one of example of a new element we will be leveraging in future release of XenApp and XenDesktop. As I said at the beginning of this post, we have intended to partner around App-V from the start of project Tarpon, today we are delivering the first incarnation of that intent. As far as what unique value does XenApp enable for App-V, let’s look at a couple of examples available today.
Publish App-V packages directly from XenApp as “Dual-mode” applications
Through our new App-V integration, Microsoft App-V sequences can be published using the same workflows and wizards as all other applications managed through XenApp. Admins can leverage native XenApp Application Virtualization and Session Virtualization configuration parameters and policies to make Microsoft App-V sequences available for online and offline use. Dual-mode fallback is also provided, enabling end-points to access App-V applications from a consistent interface, even if the device is incapable of running the application locally, for example when a user needs to access the application from a Mac PowerBook or iPhone.
Manage App-V client plug-in using Citrix Receiver
The Microsoft Application Virtualization Desktop Client can now be managed and delivered as a plug-in for Citrix Receiver. With XenApp, App-V sequences can now be delivered to lightly-managed endpoint scenarios, even if the end-point is not a member of the Microsoft Active Directory domain. As a result, new App-V use cases and access scenarios are enabled, including the delivery of applications to a consultant or for companies with “Bring your own computer” (BYOC) initiatives.
Subscribe to App-V packages using Citrix Dazzle
With Citrix Receiver, users gain self-service access to applications through an enterprise app storefront. Admins can advertise App-V packages with all other XenApp published applications and services for easy, on-demand access by users. There are many more exciting things in the Citrix/Microsoft partnering and integration pipelines that we will be sharing over the coming months, all of which complement the trajectory we have begun with the XenDesktop 4 and now this XenApp 6 release on Windows Server 2008 R2. I definitely encourage you to check out XenApp 6 and begin considering the new possibilities this platform can enable in your on-demand application delivery and hosted shared desktop initiatives.
Learn more
Hello Mac Enthusiasts,
Have you or your users ever said:
- I really like the Bring Your Own Computer idea and I want to use my Mac, but my company doesn’t support Macs
- I wish I could use my Mac to run the same applications my windows PC can run
- I would like to be able to run Outlook on my Mac but Vbox and Parallels are too much work and add too much complexity to an otherwise user friendly OS
Then I have a solution for you…Citrix Receiver for Mac!
With Receiver for Mac, along with Citrix XenApp and Dazzle, you will be able to search for and run all of your favorite Windows apps as if they were locally installed on your Mac. After selecting your apps with Dazzle, our one-stop enterprise app store, you can launch your apps from the Applications folder. You can even drag those windows apps to the doc and run them from there! It’s that simple. Coherence Mode…what’s that? Virtual Machines…who needs ‘em? With Citrix Receiver for Mac you don’t have to worry about these things any longer.
Receiver for Mac is downloaded from and configured by the Citrix Merchandising Server. Receiver, as well as the Online and Dazzle plug-ins for Mac install in minutes and are properly configured. Try it today! All you have to do is download the Merchandising Server 1.2 from MyCitrix. Please take a moment to watch our announcement video here on CitrixTV!
As always please let us know your thoughts!
Aaron Videtto
Product Manager
aaron.videtto@citrix.com
Learn more about the XA 6 R2 Release
Today we announced XenApp 6 to continue building upon our vision of delivering on-demand applications and desktops to both virtual and physical hosts. XenApp 6 raises the bar for TCO and performance, and is also an integrated feature of our desktop virtualization solution, XenDesktop 4.
We don’t usually talk about what it takes internally to develop a product. However, in this case it’s worth knowing that this has in effect been a complete rewrite of the XenApp code base for the x64 platform. This clean slate effort really provided a fantastic opportunity to optimize the code base for performance and scalability and provides a solid new base on which we can continue to innovate. While this massive change is transparent to customers, I am very proud of our teams for accomplishing this with the additional pressure to innovate new features for our customers. Here are some of the highlights.
Yes we heard, make the management simpler! AppCenter is a new single management console and is something that our customers have been asking us to do for years, and we’ve added Powershell 2.0 support. A brand new code base provided us with an optimal opportunity to start fresh, I hope you like it and would love to hear feedback so we can continue to make it better.
Installation just got simpler by adding roles to the installation process. This means your Farm member servers can be installed in a way so they just focus on delivering desktops and applications and your Farm infrastructure servers can be installed to focus on all the Farm management and operational tasks. This improves reliability, scalability and performance with a rethink of our core architecture and a ton of smart code changes! Our goal at Citrix is to continue to simplify our products.
Policy management also just got simpler with Active Directory group policy support. Here’s a good external blog from Nicholas Dille that gives some detail. I’d also encourage you to check out Juliano Maldaner’s blog who is our lead XenApp architect.
XenApp 6 is a move to x64 and runs on top of Windows 2008 Server R2. We spent a ton of time optimizing for scalability to take advantage of x64. In our internal testing, we’ve really been pleased with the improvements. We’ve managed to run server farms with over 1000 member servers and 100,000 concurrent sessions. Whether you are an Enterprise customer or Service Provider your TCO for delivering desktops or applications just got better.
In the context of desktops use cases, I really believe that for structured task workers this makes a lot of sense. Not everybody needs or requires VDI and now with XenApp 6 you can build a much more compelling TCO business case as part of your desktop virtualization strategy. It’s really important to understand that XenApp remains strategic to us as a core component of delivering desktops and applications with a fantastic TCO.
We’ve added isolation of services to our product line, that will increase the number of applications that you can support with XenApp. At the same time our partnership with Microsoft continues to get stronger and[ App-V integration|http://community.citrix.com/display/ocb/2009/07/13/Citrix+and+Microsoft+Expand+Desktop+Virtualization+Partnership+to+Simplify+Desktop+Management] is available. This let’s XenApp focus on on-demand applications and user self service. App-V managed apps can now be delivered via Citrix Dazzle which empowers the end user to pick the apps they want. I really believe that these are the kinds of services that users want vs. IT trying to serve just basic needs and predicting what users will want. The world is moving to a consumer mindset and this is just the beginning.
We also spent a lot of time adding additional capabilities to HDX to enable better multimedia and peripheral support. I really like the improvements in audio quality to enable me to use VoIP softphones and the fact that I can now use OCS video due to broader USB device support. HDX for our entire product line is an area that we will continue to invest in and raise the bar. I look forward to sharing more in the future.
One question I often get asked is how can Citrix help us with application migrations? I want to point out App-DNA and that we are working very closely with them to help customers. I would encourage everybody to talk to them as your consider application migrations. They have a really good product that makes life simpler.
So there you have it folks. A brand spanking new XenApp that takes it to the next level for on-demand delivery of applications and desktops. It will be available for download on March 24th. I hope you like it, and as always Citrix is happy to listen to your feedback to help us make things even better.
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Announcing XenApp 6, the best on-demand application delivery solution! You probably have seen Harry’s blog on this announcement giving a great overview of the effort involved in bringing this release to market. In addition to all the great features available today, XenApp 6 has the following new features and enhancements:
Citrix Receiver
The new Citrix Receiver for Windows supports eight languages with expanded support for plug-ins including Single sign-on, WAN acceleration, App-V and EasyCall. There is a new Dazzle-enabled Receiver for Mac. And for mobile devices, users can use Receiver on iPhone, Android or Windows Mobile to access applications hosted on XenApp 6
Dazzle
End users now have the freedom to subscribe to XenApp applications (including App-V packages) using Dazzle on their PC or Mac
HDX
Collaboration via Microsoft OCS Video conferencing. This HDX RealTime feature enables customers to host Microsoft Office Communicator on XenApp servers to enable end users to use their web cams for video conferencing. The solution even works for WAN connections and we have seen good results for connections with 200ms latency!
Enhanced audio through new audio codec technology. With the new “Optimized for speech” codec, HDX RealTime delivers clear audio quality to softphone and voice chat users with very modest bandwidth consumption (less than 20 Kbps). Any server rendered video will also benefit from the new “High definition” codec which provides CD quality audio using 90% less bandwidth
Enhancements for delivery of VoIP soft phones. Customers can deploy softphones (Avaya, etc.) on XenApp servers where the voice traffic can leverage the new HDX audio codecs and new client-side features like echo cancellation
True Multi-monitor support. The new solution expands our current Multi-monitor support by improving application compatibility when using Multiple monitors with better performance and quality
Support for Windows Portable USB Devices. This feature enables end users to plug in their USB devices (cameras, scanners, point of sale devices etc.) and seamlessly access them from their hosted XenApp 6 desktops and apps
AppCenter (Management)
Single management console. Administrators can now use a single management console to administer their entire XenApp farm. The management console has been completely redesigned for simplicity and performance
Active Directory Group Policy integration. XenApp policies and server/farm settings have now been added to Active Directory group policies enabling administrators to manage XenApp policies using their AD infrastructure. This simplifies customer environments and enables administrators to leverage all the Group Policy features when administering Citrix policies. For more details check out Juliano’s blog series
Publish applications and load balance across worker groups. Administrators can now create “Worker groups” with one or more servers and publish applications and create load balancing policies across these worker groups. This simplifies application workload/silo management and ensures that all the servers in a worker group have the same applications and policies, thus eliminating ‘configuration drift’
Simplified install. We have completely redesigned the install from ground up to make it simple, fast and intuitive. You can now install XenApp Platinum with all its features in a few clicks. Also, by separating the install from configuration we simplified XenApp deployments using Provisioning services or other image management solutions
Enhanced scalability and performance. Compared to XenApp 5, you will see about 15-20% more users increasing single server scalability and hence reducing the TCO of XenApp delivered applications and desktops
PowerShell SDK. Administrators can now use the power of PowerShell to automate XenApp management tasks. We have completely rebuilt the XenApp SDK using PowerShell
Windows service isolation for streamed applications. Applications like Adobe Creative Suite, Microsoft Office 2010 (which is in Beta) install a windows service and can now be profiled and streamed using the new service isolation technology
Microsoft App-V support. Customers can now distribute App-V plug-in to end point devices using Citrix Receiver, publish App-V packages using XenApp and let their end users subscribe to App-V packaged applications using Dazzle
New Citrix license usage and trending reports. Customers can now obtain rich reports on Citrix license usage and trends. We integrated our license reports into EdgeSight and are making these reports available to all XenApp edition customers
Multi-lingual User Interface. XenApp now supports MUI enabling customers to deploy one XenApp server to serve a diverse group of user population who need access to their applications in their local language
In addition to these major features and enhancements, XenApp 6 is packed with other features like 32-bit color support, Graphics acceleration for WPF applications, Windows 7 smart card support, Web Interface, Single sign-on and SmartAuditor enhancements, etc. And we will release XenApp 6 to web on March 24th.
Learn more
- Read Press Release
- Watch announcement video
- Register for XenApp Tech Talks
- Learn more about XenApp6
- Follow XenApp on
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No doubt you have heard about the iPad by now and you may be already pondering whether or not you will be buying one. Chances are you have a Laptop or PC and a Smartphone already so you need to rationalize how you will use it beyond e-books and browsing. Well if your company has XenDesktop or XenApp you will be happy to know you will be able to use your iPad for real work as well. It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024×768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once. The advancements that were made for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone will carry over to the iPad, however the iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. It’s a beautiful thing ! The iPad looks to be an ideal end point device that can empower users to be productive were ever they are and IT will be able to safely deliver company hosted virtual desktops and apps without worry.
So tell us if you want Citrix Receiver for the iPad and let us know how your going to put it to work. ( even it’s just to rationalize buying another gadget 
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Learn how to make the iPad work for your organization at Citrix Synergy.
XenApp Expert Series – Informational, News, Interviews (2010) The show where we interview the experts to get you the latest news in on-demand application delivery with XenApp. Host Vinny Sosa (@vinnysosa) interviews Product Manager Modesto Tabares on new HDX technologies planned for availability in XenApp for R2. Episode 6, Season 2.
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Learn more about XenApp for R2 |
