Citrix and Microsoft join forces against VMware...at VMworld!

There are limitations of this SFT filesystem. That's why for example the maximum package size is 4Gb, that's also why x64 isn't so easy to support. System Center includes alot of solutions that will fit together (in the near future). Maybe Citrix and/or others can integrate there solutions within System Center. Or maybe this is the second signal that MS wil buy Citrix ;-)

Why would they (buy Citrix). It will be expensive, it will raise questions (market dominance etc) and in this way MS has another company helping them with development, gaining marketshare and a sales force out there...for free

It will be expensive indeed, but Microsoft is trying to become a one stop shop for big enterprise solutions (Build for Big). They could be offering this as extra (paid) functionality which you can buy, meaning you don't have to. There are plenty of solutions which 'compete' with Citrix. And if they buy Citrix, those resources are not gone all of a sudden. There will be an Enterprise TS division, Xensource would be integrated in System Center, Ardence in virtualization and so on.

On a sidenote, I don't see MS buying Citrix anytime soon. 

To answer Brian, let me point to a second, easily missed, announcement Microsoft made at VMworld, "MSI Utility for Microsoft Virtualization".  Enough to make anyone click next.  But don't.   You'll need to stay with me here as I'm taking the "end around" route to your question. If you remember back when Microsoft bought Softricity I said that the value might not lie in the product, but in the parts. 

If you look at how Microsoft is [going to be] doing published apps in Windows Server 2008, you ultimately end up the RDP file and icons packaged into an MSI file and installed to the user's desktop (or start menu) as shortcuts.  SoftGrid also needs to put shortcuts on the desktop, although with an OSD file and icon instead.  Today the streaming server does that, although SMS shops can disable that and use SMS to push that out using something called the "SMS connector for SoftGrid".  Microsoft previously announced that they were dropping support for this connector, and rumor was that they would package the OSD and icon into an MSI and use the same method.

This second announcement is what we expected, but more.  Once the OSD and icon are on the user's desktop, the content of the application, the SFT file, must be streamed down to the client PC and cached. Then the user acquires authorization (a "license") to run the application from the server.  In this announcement, the SFT also arrives in the MSI, and it sounds like the "license" is handled there as well.  So you get application virtualization without the server.  Mostly this sounds like just a hack (include the SFT and a script in the MSI and you can do all except the "licence" today).  Virtual Application without streaming.  Just a part. 

There is still a bunch of stuff going on in the announcement that I don't yet understand.  It is all wrapped up in System Center stuff and naming, which can only confuse.  Plus there are some odd statements. 

For example, "The MSI utility deploys applications to stand-alone SoftGrid client only.  Clients (occasionally) connected to a SoftGrid Virtual Application Server typically use streaming for application deployment".  But I think that most large customers today would prefer to push out the virtual application without streaming.  So why is this method second-class???  In every SoftGrid training class I run a customer asks exactly for this.

Then there is a line which states this utility will be supported for only 12 months after the release of SoftGrid 4.5 (which they don't say when, but is expected to be released in 2008).  And a small chart which mentions a "native implementation" between SCCM 2007 and SoftGrid 4.5 that seems to eliminate the need for this connector.  But they don't explain what that is! 

So back to your question...  The SFT is a special file system created to remotely stream applications.  It has "different" attributes than a normal file system.  For example, if you open a file (run an exe or open in Notepad) on a mounted share, CIFS needs to bring the entire file over to your local system before operating on it.  The SoftGrid file system can just bring over the part that is needed (streaming).  If you break things up and don't need streaming, you don't need that special feature.  Also, because the user can't write to the SFT (all writes are redirected to the user's virtual copy) there is nothing in the way of ACLs.  Sometimes we want to mark something as "you can't even try to write here" to keep the user from writing into their cache (like to add a plug-in).  Then there is that 4G limit, which frankly isn't much of an issue (how many apps are bigger than 4G?)

[Note to brian:  Your system let me type a longer reply than it would post.  So the end of my post was lost.  Argh! ]

So the SFT is just a file system.  If, as you suggest, the SFT is to move to a VHD format (or any new format) it would be like going from FAT to NTFS.  You can bring over the content.  It is very important that customers can bring their old sequences over to anything new, and Microsoft seems to ackowlege this.  So if VHD is a convenient format that can simplfy Microsoft's life and maybe provide customers new features, OK.  I am, however, suspicous that VHD would be used with SoftGrid 4.5 (but I have no inside information on this) because 4.5 code should be close to completion given the TAP dates.  

No way will Citrix let VMWare have a booth at the "App Delivery Expo". Nor Packeteer, nor ...[fill in the name of your favorite vendor no longer able to attend  :-() ]

Whoops! Sorry about that bug. We'll get that fixed.

But I want to point out that this is Gabe's article, not mine.

Great insight though, as always, Tim.

I might have been dreaming but i am certaing Diane, CEO at VMware said in her keynote that VMware is gonna standardize their virtual machine layout together with Xensource and Virtual Server. So it will be possible to move the virtual machines around from one system to another in the future.

/LamerSmurf

Sun Microsystems just announced that they want to join this club. On http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/pr/2007-09/sunflash.20070912.1.xml they say that they want to ensure that Solaris runs well as a guest on Microsoft virtualization technology and that Windows runs well on Sun virtualization technology. Additionally Sun has signed on as a 64-bit Windows Server OEM. This means that in the future you will get Windows Server on Sun hardware!!!! And joint Sun-Microsoft solutions will cover the support of Remote Desktop Protocol on Sun's SunRay thin clients. What happened to the traditional rivalry between Sun and Microsoft that used to be so much fun for us watching it?

Benny

Yeah and thats what the Novell guy said back in the 90's.