Personal adoption of the Apple iPhone has been rapid. Corporate adoption, however, has been slow. Phones running the Microsoft Mobile Operating System were welcome in business because they better meshed with the Microsoft servers those businesses used.

Citrix Receiver Brings Microsoft Applications to the Apple iPhone

Want to display that PowerPoint presentation on your Apple iPhone? Good luck without the Citrix Receiver. Need to edit a Microsoft Word document from your smart phone while on vacation? You’re not able to with your brand new Apple iPhone 3Gs.

Fortunately, Citrix has teamed with Apple to bring the Citrix Receiver to the iPhone. With the Citrix Receiver and Apple iPhone, you can run all your Microsoft Office Applications — including Outlook, Word, Excel — from your phone. Suddenly, thanks to Citrix, the iPhone has become a viable business tool.

Video Overview of Citrix Receiver for the Apple iPhone

How Does Citrix Deliver Microsoft Applications to the iPhone?

Citrix Receiver a lightweight client which allows application delivery to any device, iPhone, laptop or desktop. The app is a free add-on to the Citrix XenApp application delivery platform. Once Citrix Receiver is installed on the Apple iPhone, it waits for signals from the corporate “delivery center”. Any application which runs under Citrix XenApp or Citrix XenDesktop is available for publication to the Apple iPhone or other device running a copy of the Citrix Receiver.

DedicatedIT: Apple iPhone XenApp Citrix Receiver Support

Your employees already have the Apple iPhone and carry it with them everywhere. They love their iPhone. Turn their smart phone toy into a business tool by publishing your business applications using Citrix XenApp. Please contact DedicatedIT today, 561-491-5725, to learn how to leverage the Apple iPhone with Citrix XenApp.

As Citrix XenServer becomes more mature and gains wider market exposure, performance comparisons to VMware are being made in a rigorous fashion.

VMware vs. Citrix XenServer

Recently, VMware published a XenApp virtual machine performance comparison between ESX (3.5U3) and XenServer 5.0. Citrite Simon Crosby submitted a response in which he sites third-party test results from the Virutal Reality Check project.

Additional hypervisor configuration tests were performed by the Tolly Group. VMware respected the Tolly Group’s work so much they allowed the results to be published. Neither independent test — VRC’s nor Tolly’s — turned out quite the way VMware’s internal testing did.

These two hypervisor publishers obviously are working under two completely different philosophies. Here is one outsider’s perspective:

VMware vs. XenServer: Different Priorities

VMware focuses on feature set first while performance is secondary. Citrix’s XenServer centers on efficiency and performance first at the potential expense of features.

VMware vs. XenServer: Storage Multipathing

Being closed source had slowed VMware’s ability to bring certain storage capabilities to market.

Storage multipathing is available in VMware ESX but has not been active/active (at least, not for iSCSI) until the recent release of version 4.

The open-source dm-multipath module for XenServer allows for active/active storage multipathing and has been officially supported since Citrix XenServer 5.0.

VMware vs. XenServer: Relative Strengths

Each server virtualization product has own strengths. There are quirks from XenServer that still bother me, such as a lack of support, and interface, for making guest performance improvement changes to Domain 0. VMware has allowed and supported customizations for the service console and guest VMs and provided the interface to do so with relative safety.

I am pleasantly surprised by XenServer’s recent improvements. Not long ago a colleague expressed his immense disappointment in XenServer’s I/O performance. Recently that same individual put his first XenServer installation into production and hasn’t looked back. Progress is being made very rapidly.

VMware vs. XenServer: Product Summary

When in doubt, test — never make assumptions. Maintain an open mind and find out for yourself  which products combine to make the best solution for your technical and business needs. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, either. The biggest sins (I can’t say they are the ‘only’ ones) in this industry are to assume without confirmation and to deny the opportunity to obtain more knowledge.

Need Help with Server Virtualization?

Please let us know if you need server virtualization support or advice.

Feel free to speak up here with comments.  Why let the other sites have all the fun, eh?

Even with the growth in the Linux OS (Operating System) market for DataCenter use, Microsoft Windows Server is still holding fast… and growing.

InfoWorld reports that both Red Hat and Microsoft are both integral parts of the industry and are now working together more like partners than bitter enemies.

Regardless of whether you choose a single operating system (OS) or you use both Microsoft Server and Linux, your ability to support the chosen server operating system is critical.

Microsoft Windows Server Version 2008 Support

Microsoft’s current flagship product is Windows Server 2008 with Server 2008r2 on its way later this year.

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is primarily used as a 64-bit operating system (only 64-bit when using the SBS edition) with native virtualization. Even though Windows 2008 with Hyper-V is not our primary choice of virtualization, it enabled many companies to take advantage of virtual machine technology without specialized training. That said, virtual machines without specialized training is a recipe for trouble.

Windows Server 2003, 2003r2

Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003r2 have been the mainstay of Windows Server implementations for five years.

Microsoft Windows Server 2003 was a robust and reliable server product though there were the inevitable service packs and security patches. While these are fairly easy to apply if you follow the instructions carefully, regular support for the OS is best left to professionals.

DedicatedIT did its first Windows Server 2003 installation while the product was still in beta. Our staff is trained and certified to support clients still using the Windows 2003 Server platform. There are a few tools that are regularly asked about by Network Administrators and we usually point them to the ‘Support Tools for Server 2003′ site.

DedicatedIT can evaluate your network and show you a few of the gotchas you have looming in the shadows given the chance.

Microsoft Support Ends for Windows Server 2003

On July 13, 2010, Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2003 R2 will transition from the Mainstream Support phase to the Extended Support phase. Call DedicatedIT today (561.491.5725) to learn what you should budget in terms of time and materials for an upgrade to Windows Server 2008. While you may not want to upgrade immediately, you should be aware of the costs involved and put the upgrade in your long-term strategic plan. (Don’t have a plan? Don’t just call today, call right now.)

Windows Server 2008

Windows Server 2008, in my opinion, is the best Microsoft server operating system since Windows for Workgroups 3.11.

Not only does Microsoft Server 2008 take full advantage of the 64-bit server architecture, they overhauled the kernel for large performance gains. Microsoft Server 2008 also added the optional Hyper-V virtualization modules and produced a ‘Core Only’ edition for locked down servers such as Web Servers. The Microsoft Server 2008 Core Edition is a command prompt and not much more: no GUI.

Microsoft Windows Home Server

Microsoft, in an attempt to compete with Apple’s Time Capsule, has given Windows users a home based server for media and file storage/serving. The Microsoft Windows Home Server may be an option for families that have a lot of photos, videos and documents they want consolidated in one place. The thought of a business — even a small business — attempting to use Microsoft Windows Home Server, however, is cause for concern. Don’t trust your business-critical data to consumer-grade tools.

Miami to Palm Beach: Windows Server Support

Windows Server Support for small and medium businesses is not optional. When you have critical data, you need skilled, trained and certified people to support your needs. The sooner you get a support staff such as DedicatedIT involved, the better off you will be. While we can provide immediate support in an emergency situation, it is far better if we help you to prevent critical problems.

Stay tuned for information on Microsoft Windows 7. I’m using the release candidate right now.

When attempting to open the Out of Office Assistant on an Exchange 2007 user mailbox, the following error is displayed:

“Your Out of Office settings cannot be displayed, because the server is currently unavailable. Try again later.”

If you attempt to access the Out of Office Assistant from Outlook 2003, it works fine.  Chances are, more than one user is having the same problem with Outlook 2007.

If you do a search for these symptoms, you will find plenty of forum threads and blogs on how to check/reset IIS permissions, assign an SSL cert, check/reset EWS URLs and all that other fun stuff. Chances are, you’ve already been through it yourself, or have continued searching, because you don’t want to waste your day with all those troubleshooting steps.

[I will give you a shortcut through all that in case you haven't done so yet]

Run ‘Test E-mail AutoConfiguration…‘ from the local Outlook client.  If it completes without errors, you can skip all the other stuff mentioned in those blogs and knowledge base articles.

You are likely experiencing something that I found today.

You’ve probably been affected by a recent update to the .NET framework.  Other side effects on your Exchange 2007 Client Access Server (CAS) could include Outlook 2007 clients not showing free/busy information properly in the scheduling assistant.

Your salvation lies with hotfix 952883.

Cisco Wants me to Give Away iPods

Cisco wants me to call up CEOs and other members of executive teams and beg them to have a meeting with me. When they won’t, I’m supposed to offer them a box with an 8GB iPod Nano and a cool little USB Cisco video camera.

I’ve never really been good at following rules or begging for meetings, so I have decided to do this promotion a little differently. Let’s see if this works better.

Get me a Meeting and I’ll give YOU an iPod

Instead of begging CEOs to sit down for a meeting with me, I’d rather my current clients and contacts (YOU) do some introductions for me. And, because you are sticking your neck out for me, I’ll give you the iPod and the Cisco video camera, instead.

A perfect person/company to meet with would look like the following:

• CEO or executive-level person
• A company with 75 or more computer-based employees
• Highly dependent on computer systems, yet they constantly have problems
• Have remote offices and are considering video conferencing and other unified communications solutions
• PCs in the company are getting old and they need a cost-effective solution for replacement
• They need to talk about business continuity solutions now that it’s hurricane season
• Have an internal IT staff, but are looking to outsource to reduce costs and improve service levels or their internal staff needs an extra set of eyes and/or expertise in a specific area like virtualization.

If you set up the in-person meeting with an executive in South Florida, with three of the seven bullet points above, and the executive actually attends the meeting, I’ll send you the 8GB iPod Nano. That is assuming that I still have one left – I’ve got five of them.

What’s in it for them?

Besides meeting with one of the premier technology thought leaders in South Florida, I’ll offer any serious executive a network assessment worth $1000.

Here are my Meeting Promises

• The meeting will last no longer than an hour, unless your contact wants me to stay longer.
• If your contact isn’t sufficiently amused or informed by the 15 minute mark, they can give me the boot.
• We will discuss anything that is on their mind in regards to IT, and I will offer to help where possible.

If you have a good contact that you think could be a good candidate for a meeting, please contact Adam Steinhoff (asteinhoff@dedicatedit.com / 561-491-5725).