Monthly Archives: January 2013

Ask the Architect

New Citrix Visio Stencils

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You can find the latest version of the Citrix Visio Stencil from here: Tools

Hopefully by now, you’ve heard of Citrix Project Accelerator. If not, I suggest you take a look at the following blogs:

  • Citrix Launches Free Tool to Take Guesswork Out of Desktop Virtualization
  • Playing 20 Questions with Project Accelerator

By spending a little time in the Assess phase, Project Accelerator creates this awesome looking diagram

Arch

The truth is, this diagram took many, many, many revisions. We wanted to create something that was easy to follow while providing the most important information people wanted to see, which included IOPS, servers, VMs, storage space, desktop images, infrastructure components, and so much more. It took a few revisions before I had something in Visio that did all of that. Then we gave my diagram to Marta Guerra, a senior designer on the Project Accelerator team. She turned the diagram into something easy to follow and very clean with new images/icons for all of the components. I’m still impressed. I know many of you are too because you’ve asked for the Visio stencils.

Unfortunately, Project Accelerator diagrams aren’t done in Visio, but that didn’t stop us from giving you what you wanted. With the help of Marta, I’ve been able to turn these images into a new set of Citrix Visio Stencils.

Get them here!

Enjoy!

Daniel Feller – Lead Architect

Citrix Project Accelerator

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The Architect – Project Accelerator

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I am the Architect. I created the Matrix (I mean Project Accelerator logic). I’ve been waiting for you. You have many questions, and although your traditional desktop has altered your consciousness, you remain irrevocably constrained. Ergo, some of my answers you will understand, and some of them you will not. Concordantly, while your first question may be the most pertinent, you may or may not realize it is also the most irrelevant.

Why are you here?

You are here because you want your desktop to be transformed. Its limited endpoint options expanded, its entire existence morphed, your freedom from the confines of your cube eradicated. But, you might ask, “HOW?”

There are two options. The first option is to use Project Accelerator and the salvation from your traditional desktop where we provide you with the knowledge and expertise to succeed. The other option is to struggle and fight for answers. The problem is choice.

You have a choice to decide how many IOPS your users need. You have a choice of identifying the amount of storage you need. You have a choice of picking the right FlexCast model. (Do you know what a FlexCast model is?)

We built the first matrix (I mean Accelerator) that provided you with documentation.  More was needed. We built the second Accelerator that provided you with questions you must answer.  More was needed.  Can we build an Accelerator that answers the questions for you? This is where the Architect comes in.

The role of the architect is to breakdown the complex. To simplify. Instead of asking hundreds of technical questions, we ask 20. With 20 unique questions, do we have the knowledge to not only pick the right FlexCast model, but to also provide answers to all the design decisions? 

I chose the red pill and went down that rabbit hole and changed my life. If you want to know more, pick the red pill, launch Citrix Project Accelerator, and stay tuned as we explain how we did it.

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Let’s Play 20 Questions with Project Accelerator

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Over a year ago (August 2011) we released an update to the Citrix Desktop Accelerator. That was a major update, as it provided a list of design decisions you would answer in order to properly design your XenDesktop solution.

It’s great that we provided all of those decisions, but we started to wonder if people even knew how to answer them correctly? Could most people say how many IOPS a user group needs when many don’t even know what it is? How about storage space? CPU cores?  And I’m pretty sure many would get stuck on one of the first questions, “Choose your FlexCast model”.  Most people didn’t even know what FlexCast is, so how could we have expected them to answer that particular question correctly?

I bet if we asked the right 20 questions, we could come up with a recommended virtual desktop design that would not only pick the right FlexCast model, but also provide answers to all the design decisions.

That was in late 2011 and boy did my life change. You might have noticed my blogging activity fell off a cliff around that time.  That’s because in 2012, I spent all of my time working with Citrix Consulting to develop logic to make that goal, wish, crazy idea a reality.

Jump forward to December 10, 2012, and something amazing happened. We released the Assess phase of the Citrix Project Accelerator!!!!

sizingArch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is truly exciting to see one of these architecture diagrams or sizing plans generate, but I always get questions that start with “How are you calculating…”.

There are a lot of calculations and best practices supporting the Citrix Project Accelerator and we will go through some of the major ones in upcoming blogs, so stay tuned and take Project Accelerator for a spin.

Once you’ve had a chance to take a look, let me know what you think.

Daniel – Lead ArchitectProject Accelerator