Techno babble from an IT guy named Harry

I received an InfoWorld article called “Microsoft exec: Desktop application software is not dead.”  The short story is that Microsoft claims that Google and others cannot provide the same level of service and quality through web based apps as Microsoft can through installed apps.  While Microsoft is technically correct in the short term, this will change.  Let me predict what Microsoft is going to do right now.  Microsoft will develop a fully functioning version of Office.  Then they will market it as a brilliant idea that they thought of and perfected.  Microsoft will claim that they did it first and they did it best, when in reality neither will likely be true.  Until then, expect Microsoft to deride Google, IBM, Sun, and others.  What’s new?

We’ve been getting sporadic, but steady reports of the TROJ_DLOADER.SPI virus being detected on machines.  Trend Micro claims it’s not “in the wild.”  That’s not true.  I haven’t seen this many virus reports for XP in a long time.  Trend Micro’s fix is to update DAT’s and scan the machine.  I’ve tried to figure out what other anti-virus program providors are calling this virus to see if they recommend a different fix.  The virus appears to come from webpages.  Here’s a sample error:

Threat Alert from Anti-Virus ServerOfficeScan detected TROJ_DLOADER.SPI on PCname in my domains.

What????  My boss dropped this bomb on us last week.  I was shocked.  There was no context for that remark.  No one had brought this up seriously before.  There was talk about migrating from Netware to AD.  There was talk of VDI.  There was even a rumor about Macs.  But this was new.  My first thoughts were:

• how well did my boss think this out?
• Am I willing to go to war with our users?
• Am I willing to take such a high profile risk for really no return?
• There’s a good chance that this is going to suck.

After the meeting adjourned, I took a moment to find out when Windows XP goes “End of Life.”  It turns out that XP goes End of Life April 8, 2014.  Also, I don’t foresee a justifiable reason to upgrade to Vista in the next three years.  That means that a Desktop Linux project doesn’t make financial sense until at least 2011.  That gives us three years to migrate off of XP.

I took the rest of the day to think about it and brought it up the next day.  I found out that my boss hadn’t really thought about it at all.  He was just throwing the idea out there as something to think about long term.  He understood my point of view and I think that’s going to be the end of that for a while.

Coincidentally, that afternoon I received the InfoWorld Editors Newsletter titled Is Desktop Linux for Real? from Steve Fox at InfoWorld.  Freaky huh?

I’ve begun researching VDI because I believe that the PC is no longer necessary in medium to large environments that can operate with less than workstation class performance.  The potential advantages of replacing PC’s with Thin Clients that connect to full fledged XP installations are compelling.  I’ve been researching all of this for a couple weeks now, and I have to say that VDI, CCON, CCI, is in a pre-1.0 state.  I’ll explain it all below.

There are three terms going around to describe Client Consolidation technology.  They are:

• VDI: Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
• CCON: Client Consolidation
• CCI: Consolidated Client Infrastructure

They all essentially mean the same thing.  My definition of CCON is centralizing desktop/PC systems by hosting them in the data center.  All computing functions other than KVM are hosted and managed in a computer room away from the user.  The user uses a client device or application to access the centralized computer.  There are multiple terms battling to be the methodological name for this technology.  VDI was the first term that I saw used.  VDI is the trendy name in my view, and has been co-opted by VMware and turned into a product.  CCON is the name used by an IBM employee named Massimo Re Ferre’ who is a heavy contributor to VDI technology research.  Client Consolidation happens to be the name of IBM’s implementation of VDI (what a coincidence).  CCI is a product name used by HP after they abandoned the use of VDI.  Another name that’s out there is “Centralized Computing.”  Centralized Computing is the term used to define the days of mainframes and dumb terminals. 

My preference for the academic name of this technology is Client Consolidation (CCON).  I believe that CCON is the most descriptive, most open name of all.  CCON is general enough to encompass all of diverse technologies in this area.

There’s a lot of overlapping information and noise out there.  I want to explain the bottom line as I see it.

The technology “models” (Re Ferre’, 2007) for CCON are:

• Shared Services (Citrix)
• Virtual Machines (VMware, Xen, others)
• Blade PC’s/Blade Workstations (HP, ClearCube)

You will ultimately have to select one (or more) of those methedologies for a production rollout.

Client consolidation is all about the use of RDP to connect to Windows systems.  RDP is what it’s all about (some solutions prefer/support ICA).   If you know how to use Remote Desktop, you’re most of the way to understanding what CCON is all about.   Everything after this is about services and features built around the use of RDP accessed Windows systems (VM’s, Blade PC’s).

The components of CCON are:

• Client Access Devices (thin clients, repurpossed PC’s)
• Connection Broker (software)
• Host Systems (VM’s, Blade PC’s)

Client Access Devices are straight forward.  You need a device that can understand how to connect to remote systems using RDP.  The client device can be a full blown XP/Vista PC, or a thin client running the proper client software.  You’re going to hear a lot about Windows XPe in this space.  XPe is a stripped down version of Windows XP often used for development and loaded onto many thin clients. 

Host systems are also straight forward.  You can run your XP/Vista/Other hosts as VM’s or on Blade PC’s.

Connection Brokers is where all the fun is.  Connection Brokers handle the setup, and advanced features of CCON.  Brokers decide (based on policy) which VM/Blade should be assigned, the features that are available to the user, and in some cases the robustness of the service.  I think of Brokers as travel agents.  A client shows up to the broker with a request.  The Broker knows how to handle the request based on requirements and makes all of the arrangements including the connection.  The broker is usually finished at that point, though the broker is an intermediary in some solutions.

That’s basically what CCON is all about.

CCON is barely at a 1.0 level.  There’s very little information out there (other than Citrix) and all of the solutions are patch up jobs.  There’s no long standing, widely accepted solution.  Most of the solutions that I have found have been assembled piecemeal.  The absolute best information that I have found comes from Massimo at http://it20.info/misc/brokers.htm.  He’s created a table with extensive descriptions of all the features he’s been able to confirm for brokers and clients.  It’s not a complete list of brokers and features, so do your own research and testing (HP SAM, IBM TMP missing).  Regardless, it is a must read if you are going down the CCON road.

Two other items of interest are VMware’s VDI forum and HP’s CCI forum.  Notice that there is very little activity at those forums.  That’s because most people still aren’t working on this.  Also, VMware’s product is in Beta.  That’s right…VMware’s broker is vaporware, yet they’re calling it VDM 2.0.  Now that’s good marketing.

That’s it for now.  Please let me know if you have any questions or if you have something to add.  There is so much information out there that I’m positive there is more to come.

Tom Yager of InfoWorld did an exhaustive review of the Blackberry 8300 and 8800, as well as several alternatives.  This is a great resource for anyone considering an alternative to Blackberry.

An alert just came in from Trend Micro that says they are concerned about a potential Internet attack.  This is vague and I know it sounds like it’s coming from the US Department of “Homeland Security.”  Here it is:

High Probe Traffic Seen on ServerProtect Port 5168

PSP Announcement - 8/23/2007 6:53:13 AM - Proactive Notification: High Probe Traffic Seen on ServerProtect Port 5168 - Dear All:ICS [1] has reported a spike in the probe traffic on port 5168 which is used by ServerProtect. This might be an indication that hackers are preparing to launch an attack against this port. At this point however, we have not received any reports or samples which demonstrate the exploit.Please ensure that your Server Protect Systems have applied security patch 4 to ensure that known vulnerabilities are patched.

This InfoWorld article says that fewer companies are planning to upgrade to Vista in the short term than even a few months ago.  They are basing this on a survey by Patchlink Corp.  I don’t trust Patchlink’s numbers, but I believe the conclusion is correct. 

There is no excitement for Vista.  I don’t know anyone that is upgrading to Vista or has Vista on their radar.  Vista doesn’t really provide anything useful to business customers.  It’s not worth the pain of upgrading.  My sense is that my company can easily run XP for at least 2 more years.  One reason for this is that XP is very stable (in our protected environment).  Another reason is that most apps developed over the next couple years will be XP compatible.  A third is that more apps are being ported to a browser every day.  I don’t need much more than a functional browser.

 Somebody should let me know when the Wow is going to start.

I went to the Microsoft Surface Demo at the Sheraton in NYC.  I was first in line at 9:30am.  It was a neat event.  There were three MS Surfaces on hand for some extremely controlled tire kicking.  There were no (positive) surprises about features and functionality.  The good news is that the Surface was able to do everything that was shown in the Launch videos.  The bad news is that it couldn’t do much more than that, and there were a few gotcha’s.  I’ve got all the dirt below.

 The Microsoft Surface Demo Event at the Sheraton was scheduled for 10AM.  NYPD barricades were set up wrapping around the side of the building on 53rd St.  I was first in line at 9:30.  A few others joined the line by 10AM, but the throngs of geeks didn’t show up.  There were no more than 50 people watching the demo, and many were hotel guests.  The main demo was conducted by Jeff Gattis of Microsoft.  (Jeff can be seen in this Popular Mechanics demo of the Surface.)  Jeff went through the different features such as Pictures, Puzzle, Music, drink ordering (Concierge?), and Paint.  I’m proud to say that I was the first person I know to crash the Surface.

Jeff from Microsoft launched the Puzzle feature that uses the clear tiles.  This feature basically illuminates the surface under the location of each of the tiles to create a puzzle effect.  I took a picture with flash and the whole thing locked up.  Jeff did something to the screen that reset it.  The Surface software ran slowly after that.

I also uncovered some of Microsoft’s smoke and mirrors.  Microsoft’s launch video show’s that you can place a Zune on the Surface which will automatically interact with the Surface and other Zunes.  This feature DID NOT work as advertised.  I borrowed a Zune from a friend to test this feature.  Jeff launched the Music app and placed his Zune on the Surface.  He copied music to the Zune.  I whipped out my Zune and placed it on the Surface and nothing happened.  This is when I was told that it’s not going to work because I didn’t have an ID tag on my Zune.  (BTW, Jeff was “very impressed” that I had a Zune.)  It turns out that every Zune, cell phone, glass, credit card, and comp card used for the demo had a special tag affixed to it.  I got a picture of the tag which you can see here: 

 There was also another incident where a Surface bug was exposed.  The Surface seems to have a problem with drastic direct changes of lighting.  Someone was using the Paint program.  They began drawing on the screen.  Someone else took a picture with flash.  The corner of the screen that was hit by the flash lit up solid green as if someone had “painted” it.  Thankfully the unit didn’t lock up this time.

The only other item of interest from the demo was a quick Q&A between Jeff from Microsoft and one of the attendees.  The attendee asked Jeff if he was familiar with Jeff Han’s work.  Jeff from MS said that he was and that he’s “very impressed” by it.  He said that a few guys at MS Research know Jeff Han, but that Jeff Han isn’t working on the Surface project. 

The ultimate question is whether it was worth waking up at 7AM on a Saturday to see the Surface in action.  I’d say yes.  Microsoft’s Surface is an early example of the more interactive computer interfaces that we’ll see in the future.  The Surface is barely capable of performing its demonstrated functions.  The greatest disappointment is that Zune’s and camera’s need to be tagged before they could interact with the Surface.  Jeff from MS claims that this will be fixed and seamless interaction is down the road.  I hope he’s right.

Check out the pictures and let me know what you think!

 Notice the tag on the bottom of the glass.   Kids Painting.   Puzzle Tiles.   Puzzle Solved.

 Buying a phone from T-Mobile.

This is a spectacular video of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs being interviewed together at the All Things Digital conference a couple weeks ago.  They talk about themselves, their history, technology, and the future.  I was extremely impressed with how engaging, down to earth, and obviously brilliant Bill Gates was.

 Make sure you watch all videos in order.  They are posted backwards on the site.  Start here: http://video.allthingsd.com/?bcpid=910498365&bctid=958475626

Apple released Safari 3 Beta for Windows today and the link got over 8000 Diggs.  I just can’t understand why.  Who cares if there is another browser for Windows?  Is it just BS Apple fanboy hype?  Is it Windows users that are excited to have another alternative?  Windows only users have no idea what Safari is.  I can’t imagine that they’d be so excited about it. 

I’m also wondering what this means for Apple, Windows, potential future browser wars. 

Apple must have learned that there is more money to be made where 90%+ of internet users reside rather than with their 5%.  I find it interesting that Apple created Safari for Windows.  It’s the first time that I remember (please correct me if I’m wrong) Apple creating an app for Windows that wasn’t either coupled with hardware (iPod) or required for compatability purposes (Quicktime).  Apple seams to be spreading out from their little closed world of Macs, iPods, etc.

And does Windows need another browser?  Maybe.  IE has been badly neglected by Microsoft.  IE7 is working fine for the sheeple, corporate environments, and MS fans.  Other than that, it’s lacking in innovation.  Firefox has been developed relentlesy and it has paid off (33.7% browser share in May).  Apple is a much bigger name than Firefox and they might be able to steal some browser share (currently at 1.5%).

So is this the first shot in the new browser war?  That’s up to Microsoft.  Do they want to develop IE anymore?  It doesn’t seem that way.  Is IE still important to Microsoft’s success?  I don’t think so unless Firefox and Safari intentionally don’t work with MS technologies.