Brian Madden

Is standard RDP 7 ready for everyday desktop replacement? I’m on a mission to find out!

Brian Madden — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 04:01:00 GMT

I’ve been writing about remote display protocols for over six years now. In that time I’ve written about performance, user experience, bandwidth, and latency. I’ve written about the importance of the display protocol in a desktop replacement...(read more)

The first “real” layering product? MokaFive’s new v2.0 looks pretty good!

Brian Madden — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:43:57 GMT

Last week MokaFive released version 2 of their desktop virtualization product (which I don’t think really has a name apart from just “MokaFive.”). If you’re not familiar with MokaFive, they’re a desktop virtualization software company that’s focused on...(read more)

You think $500m for XenSource is a lot? That's about what Microsoft has spent on desktop virt companies over the past few years too.

Brian Madden — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:21:00 GMT

There are a lot of people out there who think Citrix was a fool to spend $500m on XenSource . A few people think it was brilliant though. (Doug Brown had a good piece on the brilliance although I can't find it now.) I agree with Doug. Citrix paid...(read more)

Microsoft’s RDP host-side rendering (Calista) plans include optional GPU offload hardware & custom chips. (Oh, and Hyper-V is required!)

Brian Madden — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT

Earlier this week I wrote about about Microsoft’s last minute change to RDP in Windows 7, where all DirectX components will now be rendered on the host . I based my post on an MSDN blog post by Microsoft employees Christa Anderson, Gaurav Daga,...(read more)

My 2008 prediction about VDI being ready in 2010: a mid-point status update

Brian Madden — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT

It's been exactly one year since I wrote “ Prediction: VDI will be ready for wholesale desktop replacement in 2010. Here's how we'll solve the problems to get there. ” Since that whole article was me making predictions about how...(read more)

Microsoft makes a post-RC change for RDP7: no more client-rendered DirectX

Brian Madden — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:58:00 GMT

On Friday Microsoft announced (via an MSDN blog post ) some major changes to the way RDP will work in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. This is interesting because both of those products are currently available as release candidates now. These changes...(read more)

Is IBM’s new Smart Business Desktop Cloud secretly powered by Desktone?

Brian Madden — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 04:01:00 GMT

Earlier this week, IBM announced its first wave of commercial cloud services . The news was a big step for them and was well covered by bloggers and via twitter, although I didn’t personally pay too much attention since I don’t really follow...(read more)

Will Windows 7’s “offline domain join” finally rid us of all the third party “fast sysprep” functions? No :(

Brian Madden — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 02:13:00 GMT

One of the things that’s most annoying about the desktop virtualization industry is that we’re doing things with Windows that Windows was never really designed for. For example, we’re taking a single Windows disk image and sharing it...(read more)

Does startup Liquidware Labs hold the secret to VDI success?

Brian Madden — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:53:00 GMT

What happens when one of the founders of Foedus (the professional services firm VMware bought in 2008 ), the founder of Vizioncore (the software vendor Quest bought in 2007 ), and a software company called vmSight get together? You get a new company called...(read more)

You know why I like blade workstations? Because they’re predictable.

Brian Madden — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:29:54 GMT

Can you believe that it’s been over five years since we wrote our first article comparing TS-based SBC solutions to workstation-based SBC solutions ? Of course in those days we were talking about PC blades in the datacenter rather than VMs, but the idea...(read more)

‘This week with Brian Madden’ – a weekly column for newbies on SearchVirtualDesktop.com

Brian Madden — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 20:49:00 GMT

I’ve been blogging on BrianMadden.com for over six years now. What started as a blog covering Citrix thin client computing has evolved into an industry and technical site that covers the entire desktop and application virtualization landscape. This...(read more)

VMware’s Windows desktop conundrum: do they reinforce ThinApp and go deeper into the VM, or pull out completely?

Brian Madden — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 06:55:28 GMT

VMware’s purchase of Thinstall last year was a big milestone for them because it was the first time they went “inside” the desktop VM. In other words, VMware has historically been all about managing the VMs themselves without really caring what was actually...(read more)

Citrix claims app compatibility issues in today’s world are a myth. Is this true?

Brian Madden — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 06:24:31 GMT

Application compatibility (or “app compat”) is one of the most important issues when architecting, designing, or implementing a desktop or application virtualization solution. After all, if you have an application that’s not compatible with your delivery...(read more)

Yay! Citrix FINALLY creates a service provider licensing program

Brian Madden — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 07:36:39 GMT

About five years after Microsoft announced their Service Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA), and just over two years since most people agreed that Citrix needed one , Citrix finally created a server provider program for companies who provide applications...(read more)

Here are the details for the first 32 (of 56) BriForum 2009 breakout sessions

Brian Madden — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:50:31 GMT

BriForum 2009 will take place July 21-23 in Chicago. This year will be our seventh (!) conference. We both spent a lot of time this year going through the session submissions. We had more submissions than ever, which meant that while our job of picking...(read more)