by Richard Faulkner, CTP

So, the first day is in the books, and despite the venue and catering (don’t get me started) it has been excellent. The keynote kicked off with some great announcements. Satya Nadeja made a guest appearance. Citrix showed off their Workspace app, and once again showed they cooperate or integrate with the largest number of providers. Analytics, Security, everything you could want. My personal favorite though was the explanation how all the features are developed for 1% of the employees. 99% need the basic functions. This picture articulates that very well.

After the Keynote and lunch, I attended a session (SYN139) regarding Citrix and Microsoft: A value-add across your workspace. We learned about the cooperation that persists between these two companies. We heard about Windows Virtual Desktop and Citrix’s commitment to Day 0 support. In fact, Citrix announced a Desktop as a Service (DaaS) offering that looks truly interesting. We also got to hear from Chris Hoffner from Medical Transportation Management about how they utilized Citrix to provide Non-Emergent Medical Transportation (NEMT) to states’ Medicare, and Insurance company customers who needed to be transported for medical care. I like this, as I was involved in the beginning of their deployment and I am glad to see they got such great benefits from it. We also heard about Citrix SD-WAN and Office 365 as well as Citrix SD-WAN and Azure. It was a truly all around useful session.

After this I wound up speaking at an AskTheCTP session in the event lounge regarding Citrix SD-WAN. I got to hear the last 10 minutes of the previous session regarding Graphics capabilities, then I got to discuss the current state of Citrix SD-WAN with fellow CTP Anton van Pelt (@AntonvanPelt) and Jacob Rutski. It was a useful discussion and we went over the new models, the capacities, Virtual editions, and the new Web Based Orchestrator. These sessions gather CTPs and give you the opportunity to hear straight from the experts themselves and ask questions you may have on the products. I highly recommend you attend any you can tomorrow or Friday.

Well, off to the opening night party. Looking forward to hearing from Madeleine Albright at the Super Session tomorrow morning!