The Future Is Now

I recently discovered a video on “Citrix TV” that does as good a job as I’ve ever seen in presenting the big picture of desktop and application virtualization using XenApp and XenDesktop (which, as we’ve said before, includes XenApp now). The entire video is just over 17 minutes long, which is longer than most videos we’ve posted here (I prefer to keep them under 5 minutes or so), but in that 17 minutes, you’re going to see:

• How easy it is for a user to install the Citrix Receiver
• Self-service application delivery
• Smooth roaming (from a PC to a MacBook)
• Application streaming for off-line use
• A XenDesktop virtual desktop following the user from an HP Thin Client…
• …to an iPad…
• …as the iPad switches to 3G operation aboard a commuter train…
• …to a Mac in the home office…
• …to a Windows multi-touch PC in the kitchen…
• …to an iPhone on the golf course.
• And a demo of XenClient to wrap things up.

I remember, a few years ago, sitting through the keynote address at a Citrix conference and watching a similar video on where the technology was headed. But this isn’t smoke and mirrors, and it isn’t a presentation of some future, yet-to-be-released technology. All of this functionality is available now, and it’s all included in a single license model. The future is here. Now.

I think you’ll find that it’s 17 minutes that are well-spent: