MGR IT

Citrix have released XenClient, a bare-metal hypervisor for PCs that allows users to run multiple virtual operating systems on a PC in isolated environments.  For example, a XenClient user may run two installations of Windows on the one laptop – one for business applications and another for installing personal applications, games, music, photos, etc.  The two operating systems are kept isolated from each other and the user can avoid having to travel with two laptops.  It can also be used to run two different operating systems simultaneously, such as running Windows 7 and Linux together.

A bare-metal hypervisor can be installed directly on the physical machine that will host virtual machines, rather than needing to be installed on top of an existing operating system.  It offers benefits in terms of performance, convenience and licensing costs.  This type of virtualisation has been available for some time on servers through products such as VMware’s vSphere, Microsoft’s Hyper-V and Citrix’s own XenServer.  Citrix are not the first to offer a bare-metal hypervisor for PCs, with Virtual Computer’s NxTop product having been around for more than a year, but they are the first of the major players in virtualisation to have released such a product. 

The other aspect to XenClient is the distribution and centralised management of virtual desktops.  Virtual desktop machines can be created on a server, called the Synchronizer, and then distributed securely to the client laptops over the corporate network or the Internet.  Virtual desktop machines can also be created directly on the laptop, giving the best of both worlds, e.g. a corporate desktop image deployed from the Synchronizer running alongside a personal virtual desktop created on the client laptop.

At this stage the hardware requirements are fairly restrictive.  The main requirement is that the processor has VT technology enabled and not just VTx, but VTd as well, which is not available on some processors that are VT-enabled.  I installed the XenClient hypervisor on a two-year-old Dell Vostro 1500 laptop that has a VT-enabled Intel Core 2 Duo processor.  The installation displayed a number of warnings, due to the lack of VTd on the processor (and one about the graphics adapter), but the installation completed.  However, XenClient would then hang when starting up, so clearly hardware compatibility was a problem.

XenClient is a product that I would personally find very useful (as soon as I can get my hands on a laptop that will run it!) and I can see big advantages for organisations that have significant number of mobile users.  The ability to deploy and update virtual desktops to machines that are not always connected to the corporate network and to run multiple isolated environments on the one laptop makes XenClient a very appealing proposition.  Given the maturing state of server virtualisation technologies, it is really about time a product such as XenClient was available at the PC end.

I have had a 64GB 3G Apple iPad in my possession for a few days now, as part of a trial run to see how we might make use of them here at MGR.  I have been using an iPhone 3GS for some time now, so the iPad interface is quite familiar.

From a business perspective, so far I have found more uses for the device when I am away from the office than when I am sitting at my desk, which is probably to be expected. 

It is a great device for catching up with e-mail while sitting on the couch at home.  I receive a lot of e-mail with news from the IT industry and other messages that don’t require me to act or respond immediately, so I tend to deal with those of an evening.  Previously that meant pulling out and firing up my laptop, but the iPad is a much more convenient device for that type of activity, being much lighter and effectively always on.

I have also installed a Remote Desktop app, so I can log in to client servers from anywhere with the iPad and perform system maintenance tasks, again without having to boot up my laptop. 

One of my colleagues has trialled the device for reviewing PDF documents during a training session, instead of printing out the documents for the same purpose.  The feedback so far has been positive, but we are searching for the best app to allow annotation of documents, which is not possible with the native PDF reader on the iPad.  iAnnotate looks like it may be a contender.

I have only begun to scratch the surface in terms of apps that may be useful, having installed a few apps with which I was already familiar on the iPhone, such as Evernote, which allows me to take notes on the iPad and access notes I have created on other devices.

So far, I haven’t found anything I can do on the iPad that I can’t do with my laptop, but I don’t think that is really the aim of the device.  I have found things that are much more convenient to do on the iPad, which is really its big selling point.  I don’t know that I have yet justified the cost of the iPad, with the model that I am using coming in at around $1000. 

I will also be interested to see how the HP Slate compares when it is released (rumoured to be in October).  A device of similar dimensions, but with additional features such a camera and USB ports, it will run Windows 7, which will be a bonus in terms of compatibility, but may have its drawbacks in terms of overhead and complexity.

In keeping with Microsoft’s Support Lifecycle Policy, some versions of Windows will soon go “out of support”.  This means that Microsoft will no longer provide free security updates and problem resolution for those products, leaving anyone still using them potentially exposed.

The products that will go out of support on 13th July are Windows 2000 Server, Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP with Service Pack 2.

In the case of Windows 2000, this product is now ten years old and the only option for those wanting to have access to continued support from Microsoft is to upgrade any Windows 2000 systems, to at least Windows Server 2003 in the case of servers or at least Windows XP with Service Pack 3 for PCs.

With respect to Windows XP, it is important to note that Windows XP itself will be supported for a few more years; it is specifically Windows XP with Service Pack 2 that will go out of support this month.  To maintain support from Microsoft Windows XP users need only install the free Service Pack 3 for Windows XP.

In addition, Windows Vista with no service packs (known as the Release to Manufacture, or RTM, version) went out of support in April.  If you are running Windows Vista, you need to make sure you have installed at least Service Pack 1 (and preferably Service Pack 2) to maintain support.

The Apple iPhone 4 has now been released in the US and will be available in Australia soon.  The new version of this popular smartphone has a raft of new features. including multitasking, a 960 x 640 resolution display, high definition video recording and a gyroscope.  FaceTime is Apple’s implementation of video calling, though it is only available via WiFi connections.

iPhone 3G or 3GS users can get some of the benefits of the new iPhone by installing iOS 4, which is now available for download through iTunes.  You will need to install iTunes 9.2 in order to be able to download and install iOS 4.  New features in this release include multitasking, iBooks (Apple’s book reader and book store first introduced with the iPad), improved e-mail features and the ability to oragnise apps into folders.

Earlier this month, Telstra reached a deal with NBN Co regarding its involvement in the national broadband network being rolled out by the federal government.  In a nutshell the Financial Heads of Agreement deal will see Telstra decommission their network and move their voice and broadband services to the NBN Co network as it is rolled out.  Telstra will go from being a competitor of NBN Co to being their biggest customer.

So, what does this mean to you as a Telstra customer or a customer of another telco? 

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There has been a fair bit of verbal jousting going on between Apple and Adobe recently, regarding Adobe’s Flash technology that is used to provide rich content on many web sites around the world.  If you have a web site, especially one that uses Flash, then you need to know how this affects you and plan your web presence accordingly.

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Microsoft Office 2010 has been released to manufacture and is available for download for those with licences to do so.  As with any upgrade, there are new features that may make the upgrade worthwhile, at the cost of the time required to get up to speed with the changes in the software.  If you are currently running Office 2007 or 2003, here is a list of resources that may help you in deciding whether or not to take the plunge and upgrade.

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Last week, Google announced Google TV at a developers’ conference in the US.  You can also read about it on the Google Blog.  The aim of Google TV is to integrate television and the web in one box.

Google TV will bring together free-to-air TV, pay TV and web videos and other web content.  Finding a program, whether it be on free-to-air television, pay TV, YouTube or your PVR, will be as simple as doing a Google search or browsing through the Google TV home screen.

Google TV will come in two formats – built in to televisions from makers such as Sony or as a separate box similar to a digital set top box.

This is certainly not the first attempt at bringing together television and web content, but given Google’s reach and its roots in search, this could be the one that makes the breakthrough into the mainstream.

Adobe have released security updates for Adobe Reader 9.3 and Adobe Acrobat 8.2 for Windows, Macintosh and UNIX.  These security updates fix several bugs that could potentially result in your computer being attacked and allowing criminals to access your personal or business information.  I certainly recommend installing the update.

If you have automatic updates turned on in Adobe Reader or Acrobat you should be prompted next time you run those products to update with the security patch.  If you are not prompted, then I would suggest first attempting the update by selecting Help – Check for Updates from the menu and if that does not work, downloading the update manually from the Adobe web site.

The rise of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and the new kid on the block, Google Buzz, has huge implications for privacy for those who use them. 

Some suggest that no-one cares about privacy any more and while that may be an exaggeration, there is certainly a trend in that direction.  It is certainly not a trend that I personally subscribe to and I wonder whether those keen to put their lives online have really thought through what they are doing.

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