Proponere

Sun and VMware webcast about VDI

 
If you missed our joint webcast with VMware about virtual desktop infrastructure, it's now available for replay on sun.com. Head over to:

http://www.sun.com/datacenter/consolidation/virtualization/vmwarevdi.jsp

Posted at 01:02PM Oct 10, 2007 by Chris in Sun  | 

Just 13 years

In terms of public access to knowledge, has there been a more amazing period in the history of the planet than 1994 to today?

Posted at 07:59PM Jul 14, 2007 by Chris in Personal  | 

Solar system objects bigger than 200 miles

This is a very cool image (click for the full size one):

It shows all the known objects in the solar system bigger than 200 miles in diameter.

Posted at 06:12PM Jun 08, 2007 by Chris in Personal  | 

Sun Ray Software 4 Update 2 beta

In case you missed it, the beta of Sun Ray Software 4 Update 2 is available for download and testing. Key new features include:

1. Integrated VPN client.
   
2. Client configuration graphical user interface.
3. Kiosk mode for GNOME sessions.
4. Solaris 10 with Trusted Extensions support.
5. Windows Vista support for the Sun Ray Connector for Windows.
6. New web admin console.
7. More to come!

Go get it!

Posted at 04:03PM Jun 04, 2007 by Chris in Sun  |  Comments[1]

SAP in Sun Secure Global Desktop Software

Posted at 04:02PM May 30, 2007 by Chris in Sun  | 

Google Voice Local Search

Google Voice Local Search (né Google 411) might be the most useful Google tool yet:

http://labs.google.com/goog411/index.html

To use it, just call:

1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411)

I've only done one search, but it was able to accurately decipher my request even on my sketchy IP phone. I'm going to try it out as my new standard 411 service for both home and on my mobile.

No more furiously typing searches into Google Maps on my Blackberry at red lights -- a shameful practice for sure, but one that I suspect will only become more common with the release of the iPhone in June. So, if Google Voice Local Search works as good as I think it will, I will only have to defend against those folks and not be one myself. Yay!

Posted at 08:21AM Apr 12, 2007 by Chris in Personal  | 

VDI Webinar Replay

The replay of the VDI webinar we did with VMware is now available here:

https://vmwareevents.webex.com/vmwareevents/onstage/g.php?AT=VR&RecordingID=277602335

Enjoy!

Posted at 01:18PM Mar 19, 2007 by Chris in Sun  | 

VDI Webinar

For the folks that attended the desktop virtualization webinar we did yesterday with VMware (and we thank you if you did!), I thought I'd post direct links to some of the things I talked about:

• VMware VDI Page
• Sun Desktop Virtualization Solution - Desktop Virtualization Blueprint
• Sun Virtual Desktop Access Kit for VMware Blueprint
  

As soon as I get the link for the archived webinar I'll post it here as well.

Posted at 02:20PM Mar 14, 2007 by Chris in Sun  | 

Ask Me Anything #4

Posted at 12:28PM Feb 16, 2007 by Chris in Sun  | 

Ask Me Anything #3

I want to make sure my users are logging into Sun Secure Global Desktop Software securely and I've heard about a separate security pack. Do I need to install this to enable security with SGD?

Thanks,
A reader

Both a little architecture and a little history are necessary to answer this question. First, have a look at this diagram:

It's a zoomed in view of the first two tiers of last week's diagram, but turned on its side. The client tier is the machine that the user is sitting in front of and the access tier is the machine (or machines) in the data center that are acting as the Secure Global Desktop server array.

You'll notice that there are two lines connecting the two tiers, one labeled "HTTP" and the other labeled "AIP". This is because accessing an application with SGD is really made up of two very separate steps:

1. User tells server who they are and server responds with a list of applications available to them.
2. User requests an application and server starts the application and displays it on user's system. 

These two functions are handled by the two different data connections. There is more detail here, for sure, but that's the basic gist.

For the first step, the user needs to know where an SGD server "lives" in order to access it. For example, our live demo server can be reached at https://sgddemo.sun.com. Using just a web browser, the user can login to the server at that address and be given a list of applications they can run. Out of the box, that connection is a standard HTTP connection, but with just a few steps it can be modified so that the secure HTTPS protocol is used instead. This is the preferred way to access an SGD server and should be considered mandatory for most deployments.

Once a user clicks the link of an application, we're on to step two and a separate connection is established to service the user's request. But this time it's not using HTTP or HTTPS, it's using our own AIP (Adaptive Internet Protocol) protocol. This is where a lot of the value in SGD is because we can do some clever things in AIP to ensure a good application experience on all kinds of different devices and with varying amounts of available bandwidth. However, simply enabling security on the web browser does not secure this separate AIP connection.

To solve this problem, a security pack was created that sets everything up properly so both types of connections (the web connection that is normally over HTTP and the AIP connection) can be secured. In earlier versions of the product this security pack was a separate installation, but as of version 4.3 it is now included as part of the base installation. And this ability to secure the client/server connections in SGD is not licensed separately, it is included when standard licenses are purchased.

Here are some links to more in-depth information:

• Sun Secure Global Desktop Software Security Considerations white paper
• SGD 4.3 Docs: Enabling security for application sessions
• SGD 4.3 Docs: Sharing that same certificate setup with the web server to secure the web connection
• SGD 4.3 Docs: Installing X.509 certificates

And remember, send your questions in to askchrisanything at Google's mail service. By default, I'm assuming each question is anonymous, but if you'd like your name displayed please let me know!

Posted at 07:38AM Feb 09, 2007 by Chris in Ask Me Anything  | 

Ask Me Anything #2

Posted at 06:00AM Feb 02, 2007 by Chris in Ask Me Anything  | 

Sunrise Earth

Posted at 03:12PM Jan 29, 2007 by Chris in Personal  | 

Ask Me Anything #1

I'm lucky to be able to frequently talk to customers about our desktop products. These conversations often cover many of the same questions, so I thought I'd address them here in a regular feature called Ask Me Anything. But first, a few ground rules:

1. This is a new feature, so I don't expect to have enough visitors to actually provide me with a steady flow of questions yet. That's OK, we'll improvise -- I will start the ball rolling with some made up questions (based on real conversations, of course) and supplement as necessary.
   
2. You can ask me anything, but I the questions I answer here will depend on a couple of factors. The first is general interest -- if the question is specific to one installation and won't generally be useful to other folks then the forums (Sun Secure Global Desktop Software forum, Sun Ray Software forum) are probably the best place to ask. But if the question is interesting to the general public then it will be good fodder for the blog. The second factor is how certain I am that I can deliver the correct answer. I don't want to be spewing out useless info to you folks! If I can answer accurately myself or get the correct answer from someone who knows then I will. Otherwise, I'll save the question until I can get an accurate answer.
   
3. Although I will always try my best, there are no guarantees that my answers will be 100% correct. If I discover that a response was flawed, I will do my best to correct it as quickly as possible.
4. I've setup a Gmail address to use for this (that way I can avoid flooding my Sun mailbox if this gets popular). The address will be highlighted in each entry but will be in some sort of code to try to fool the spambots. Or at least slow them down.
   
5. And remember, this is a demonstration, not a competition. Please, no wagering.
   

OK, let's get started:

Can I connect to a Windows XP Pro desktop with either Sun Secure Global Desktop Software or Sun Ray Software?

Thanks,
A reader

Yes, you can with both.

Previous versions of Sun Secure Global Desktop Software (SGD) were limited to connecting to Windows Server operating systems, but starting with version 4.3, you can now specify a Windows XP Pro system as a server object. This means that you can, for example, allow a user to access a Windows XP Pro system that is sitting on their desk when they are out of the office using only a Java technology-enabled web browser.

For Sun Ray Clients, Windows connectivity is handled with the Sun Ray Connector for Windows which shares many attributes with the Windows connectivity in SGD, including the ability to connect to Windows XP Pro desktops. A common use of this capability might be to provide individualized Windows XP Pro environments for Sun Ray client users by running many copies of Windows XP Pro in virtualization software like VMware. Each user can have their own separate Windows XP Pro environment without the overhead of a full fat client on their desk. You might recognize this as the VDI, or Virtual Desktop Infrastructure idea. VMware has a good overview of VDI on their site.

 
What sort of operating system is on the Sun Ray clients? Is it some sort of stripped down Solaris?

Regards,
A reader

No, although you have to be careful to separate the device from the user experience.

One of the benefits of the Sun Ray architecture is that the device itself does almost nothing. This is a big difference versus other thin clients that embed a versions of Windows or Linux on the device itself. In the Sun Ray case, the device only needs to know how to do a few things (negotiate the network, connect to a Sun Ray Server, draw graphics, etc.) and the logic behind all that is contained in a small bit of firmware in the device. No Windows, no Solaris, no Linux, just the bare minimum to get the device on the network and functioning.

But just because there is no significant operating system in the device itself, it doesn't mean that users won't have a full featured graphical OS to use. Once the device is turned on and connected to a server, the user can be given a Solaris, Windows, or Linux desktop environment. From the user's perspective it feels like the operating system is locally on the system itself (except it boots faster than they'd expect), but all of the processing is being done on the server and the Sun Ray client is just the interface mechanism. That means you can do things like yank the power cord out of the back of a Sun Ray client, plug it back in, and continue working right where you left off with no lost data. It's a bit like unplugging your phone -- you won't be able to talk while it's unplugged, but once you plug it back in you're back in business.

That's it for the debut edition of Ask Me Anything. If you have a question please send it to askchrisanything at Google's mail service.

Posted at 03:16PM Jan 26, 2007 by Chris in Ask Me Anything  | 

What in tagnation?

Fat Bloke tagged me, so here are 5 things you (probably) didn't know about me:

1) I started playing musical instruments at about 6 years old and have spent time as an artist, producer, and audio engineer with varying degrees of (very limited) success.

2) When one of the startups I worked for had financial issues and couldn't make payroll, I become a blackjack dealer for a short period of time. I wrote code at night to fulfill a large contract so the company could resume paying us and dealt blackjack during the day to pay the immediate bills. As a result, I can add up to 21 pretty well, as you might expect.

3) I won a National Association of Amateur Bowlers title almost 15 years ago.

4) "Almost died" is probably stretching it a bit, but I was in a very bad position, hanging upside down and underwater strapped into Honda Pilot when I was a teenager. I had gone over a jump, rolled in midair and landed upside down in a couple of feet of water from the runoff of a dirt bike cleaning area. I was able to get my mouth above water to breathe and thankfully a couple of people saw the incident and rushed down to flip the ATV over.

5) I worked on what the company claimed was the world's first Blue Book Enhanced CD (mixed CD audio and computer data) title, Prestige Studios of the World. I wonder now if it really was the first, but it was certainly at least one of the first titles available in that format. With the emergence of DVD, Enhanced CDs became less relevant, but that was a fun time to be working in multimedia. I also got a couple of trips to Skywalker Ranch out of the deal, which was nice.

Tagging:

Perley, Chris, Steviet (again), Tim, Jean-Etienne

Posted at 08:21PM Jan 25, 2007 by Chris in Personal  | 

Tagged and still it

Posted at 04:31PM Jan 22, 2007 by Chris in Personal  |