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2018, What a First Year as a CTP!

by Patrick Coble, CTP, Nashville CUGC Leader

What a year this year turned out to be as my first full calendar year as a Citrix CTP (Rookie Year). I want to first thank Citrix and the Citrix User Group for all their support. I have got to speak with so many people this year about Security and its relationship to VDI deployments. I couldn’t have done it without everyone in this great community!

Well, what did you do this year?

I got to work with a great group of CTPs, CTAs and Citrites on a lot of items to provide feedback to make Citrix “More Better”. Then I got the opportunity speak at all these events and meet hundreds of people and tell them about Security. I have learned so much from the CTPs and CTAs this year it has been a whirlwind of knowledge. In many cases some of the concepts were heard for the first time by many attendees along with changing their mindset on how critical the information in their Citrix deployment is to their company and how a couple bad clicks in a session can be a real day wrecker.  This was also peoples first time understanding what a Red Team was and what they do to get into buildings and in IT systems. I have talked with a lot of attendees and I know there are a lot of VDI deployments are more secure today and that has been my goal for the past couple years. I got to present at 1 hacker conference this year on how to break into VDI deployments then 2 CUGC XLs and 3 CUGC Cities, 2 VMUGs and the one and the only E2EVC. 

Speeches

  1. bSides Nashville
  2. CUGC XL Great Lakes
  3. CUGC XL Great Plains
  4. CUGC Cincinnati
  5. CUGC New York
  6. CUGC Phoenix
  7. E2EVC New York
  8. VMUG Nashville
  9. VMUG Portland

Next Year

Next year is already shaping up to a be a busy one with 3 things definite so far. I will have some cool news hopefully early next year.

CUGC XL: Florida in Orlando, which will be awesome at such a cool venue.   

Steve Greenburg’s EUC Masters Retreat, where I will be able to do a Master Class on you guessed it VDI Security.  The difference from other presentations is when you leave this class you will have a GPO on a Test OU and a Test Server\Desktop where you will be able to test many of the methods for securing a system on your system.  I will also have a couple other presentations ready if the group votes they want to hear them (So Cool).

Citrix Summit

For any Partners out there, that have missed some of my Security speeches you don’t want to miss this one with Martin Zugec, Martin Lattier and myself going over how to quickly increase your security posture on your Citrix deployment.

TCH047: Fine tune security for virtual apps and desktops (Repeats)

https://citrix.g2planet.com/citrixsummit2019/public_session_view.php?agenda_session_id=350

CUGC XL Thoughts

After going to a couple of them this year I cannot recommend them enough.  If there is an event within a couple hour drive or a quick flight it is worth it making that journey.  So many people can never get the budget to go to Synergy events and or make the justification. This is an easy one to justify with your company and will be well worth your trip to learn about all the Citrix Things and hear from some of the Sponsors that can help make your deployment “more better” 

Citrix User Group XL Events are the best value for any Citrix Administrator to Architect out there. Making the trip to one will not disappoint, you will learn something!

Pros

  1. They are closer to you in most cases than any other Citrix focused conference.
  2. They are the cheapest conference you can go to, because admission is free and only some small travel costs if you are a couple hours away.
  3. They have the best Citrix speakers in the World speaking at them.
  4. Get some more time with the Speakers because they are just hanging out with everyone and always ready to help and give you their thoughts on any questions you have.
    1. There have even been many cases where people learned something at these events and were able to deploy it (after testing) to fix their issues.
  5. There is more technical content in that single day than most other conferences.
    1. There will also be some quick meetings from the Global Citrix User Group sponsors that all do something you may be interested in for your Citrix deployment.
      1. Bitdefender
      2. Citrix
      3. ControlUp
      4. Dell
      5. EG Innovations
      6. Fslogix
      7. Goliath Technologies
      8. IGEL
      9. Ivanti
      10. Liquidware
      11. Numecent
      12. Nutanix
      13. NVIDIA
      14. PolicyPak
      15. Tricerat
      16. Veridium
      17. Some Citrix Ready Vendors now too!

Cons

  1. I cannot think of any. Coming to a City Near You, Free Admission, Awesome Content and a free meal too!

Overall

2018 was an awesome year for Citrix and the Citrix User group with all the events that were held.  So many people were able to connect and learn more about Citrix and many other Supporting vendors all over the US.  I feel honored that I got to go around the US this year and do my part to help make this Citrix community bigger and better for 2019!

Make sure and follow @MyCUGC for all the News on all the events that are happening all over the world. https://twitter.com/mycugc

I hope everyone has a happy holiday break and a great New Year!

An easy New Year’s resolution is to go to a CUGC XL event next year!

Thanks,
Patrick Coble
@VDIHacker

Couple Photos from this year:

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