by Gareth Carson, CTP
This May, I will attend my very first Synergy meeting. I will arrive in Anaheim on Saturday the 5th of May as a Citrix Technology Professional and will get to meet the other CTPs and Citrix Technology Advocates. What will I expect? I really don’t know, but I am looking forward to it. Perhaps I can ride a roller coaster in Disneyland with Jarian Gibson and discuss the MCS/PVS debate, or listen to insightful knowledge from Tobias Kreidl while riding the Finding Nemo submarine voyage? Maybe it will be enjoying some Dutch time and a Een biertje with the Dutch CTPs? Who knows what will happen? One thing I do know is that I will get some great news, advice and skills from attending this conference, which will help me grow professionally. And, with this increased wisdom comes knowledge transfer and a lot more community sharing and benefits for my company!
So here I am preparing my trip to California, and currently looking at the agenda for Synergy. So, let’s have a peek and I will highlight my go-to events.
To start the ball rolling, I have CTP welcome drinks at 7 on Sunday evening. This is a good time to look up the word “ambivalence,” as I am sure I will have a mixture of feelings ranging between nervous and excited. I guess the welcome drinks may take the edge off of the nervous part.
Come Monday, all the fresh-faced CTPs will be attending the following:
- Monday & Tuesday – CTP Meeting at Synergy in Anaheim, CA
- Monday & Tuesday – CTP Meeting Unconference
- Monday, 16:30 to 18:30 – The CUGC Pregame
When it comes to sessions, I have 3 focus areas: Security, Cloud and Performance. The agenda is jam-packed full of goodies, so I will highlight my own, focusing on these areas. The following are the sessions I wish to attend, however, you should allow time to wander around the Expo Hall and meet and greet and look and investigate cool technology!
My Top Session Tips
SYNERGY DAY 1
- Tuesday May 8th 09:00AM to 11:00 AM – Opening Keynote
(This is a must, and David Henshall will outlay the future vision of Citrix, highlighting demos, and Tim Minahan will unlock innovation, and finally Chief Product Officer PJ Hough will step into a Cloud-driven world with an emphasis on security).
- Tuesday May 8th 12:15 to 1:15 – Lunch Table Tech Chats
(Application delivery and cloud networking, Application virtualization and VDI, Citrix Cloud Services, Enterprise Mobility, File sharing and collaboration, Security)
- Tuesday May 8th 14:00 – 14:45 – SYN139:
(I am quite keen on this topic – Solve Office 365 migration, security and productivity challenges with Citrix Workspace and would like to investigate Office 365 in the workspace and get insights on common challenges and pitfalls with a lean towards the Citrix Cloud).
- Tuesday May 8th 15:00 – 15:45 – SYN212:
(Security for Citrix products in the cloud. Again, focusing on security in the Cloud. This session will cover the essentials, so you have a secure workspace).
- Tuesday May 8th 16:45 to 17:15 – SYN704:
(Deep insights across the Citrix portfolio with Citrix Analytics focusing on security and analytics. For me, this will be big and a good draw to move to the Citrix Cloud Workspace).
SYNERGY DAY 2
- Wednesday May 9th 09:00 to 10:00 – Super Session
(Super Session – Dr. Condoleezza Rice will kick of proceedings nicely on this Wednesday morning).
- Wednesday May 9th 10:30 to 11:15 – SYN225:
(I will be attending Quickly and securely connect branches to Azure keeping true to my current security-focused agenda and Cloud-first strategy).
- Wednesday May 9th 11:30 to 12:15 – SYN211:
(The naked truth: CTPs investigate Citrix Cloud performance. My fellow CTPs Bernhard Tritsch and Thomas Krampe will provide the low-down on performance and end user experience with the Citrix Cloud and lessons learned from the field).
- Wednesday May 9th 14:45 to 15:15 – SYN708:
(Scalability, Planning and Design. What is the rule of 5 and 10? What is over-subscription? What about NUMA? What ratios are acceptable? How much is too much? What sort of tools are available to assist?)
- Wednesday May 9th 16:30 to 17:15 – SYN110:
(Identify security threats with Citrix Analytics. This session will demonstrate how analytics can reveal external threats such as Ransomware and Malware, and how analyzing usage is critical to securing data).
SYNERGY DAY 3
- Thursday May 10th 9:00 to 10:00 – Super Session – Michael Lewis
(Michael Lewis, the financial journalist and bestselling author of Moneyball and Flash Boys, joins us at Synergy to explore how the decisions about what we do with all that data influences financial markets, sports teams, business—in fact, everything about our lives).
- Thursday May 10th 10:30 to 12:00 – SYN234:
(Kickstart your DaaS deployment in Azure using Citrix Cloud services)
- Thursday May 10th 13:30 to 14:15 – SYN126:
(Actionable app and desktop monitoring in Citrix Cloud. Consistently monitor availability of virtualized applications and desktops, reliably predict resource usage to make best use of flexible cloud pricing and intelligently identify risky user behaviour and security threats in order to quarantine user sessions and credentials that are perceived to be at risk).
- Thursday May 10th 14:30 to 15:15 – SYN224:
(How to deploy NetScaler in public clouds and use it to provide SSO to on-prem and SaaS apps. This deeply technical session for engineers and architects will show how to size VMs needed to run VPX in AWS and Azure and how to deploy them).
- Thursday May 10th 15:30 to 16:30 – Labs
(Finally I will step into the lab booth for some hands-on action).
After all this information overload, I will concentrate on some “me time” and get ready for the final night party!
That is quite a full agenda, as it is my first time at Synergy. I may not be able to attend all my favourite sessions, but I will try. There may be EXPO HALL goodness that will get me distracted or other joys at Synergy I am not aware of, plus I am sure to bump into old friends and make new ones.
So, there you have it. My top sessions. For a great survival guide, please check out fellow CTP post First Synergy as a CTP by Patrick Coble, and fellow CTA DJ Eshelman’s post A Newbie’s Guide to Prepping for Citrix Synergy 2018 which highlights everything–including how to dress and pack lightly. 😉
| TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY |
| Opening KeyNote | Super Session | Super Session |
| Lunch Table Tech Chats | SYN225 | SYN234 |
| SYN139 | SYN211 | SYN126 |
| SYN212 | SYN708 | SYN224 |
| SYN704 | SYN110 | Labs |
