NetScaler Application Delivery Controller

NetScaler Application Delivery Controller

Introduction to Citrix NetScaler SDX

High performance hardware with a flexible virtual architecture Citrix NetScaler SDX is a true service delivery networking platform for enterprise and cloud datacenters. An advanced virtualized architecture supports multiple NetScaler instances on a single hardware appliance, while an advanced control plane unifies provisioning, monitoring and management to meet the most demanding multi-tenant requirements—all with the industry-leading performance of the Citrix NetScaler MPX system architecture. Full resource isolation supports guaranteed performance SLAs as well as high availability, software version control, data separation and independent policy management. Providing a foundation for the consolidation of services in the enterprise, NetScaler SDX is also optimized to deliver next-generation cloud-based services.




Citrix Unveils NetScaler Control Center for VMware

NetScaler Control Center is a next generation cloud networking automation solution for integrating NetScaler SDX, VPX and MPX with cloud orchestration platforms. This solution automates deployment and configuration of NetScaler functionality within virtualized networks, particularly on the VMWare NSX network virtualization platform.



https://www.citrix.com/products/netscaler-application-delivery-controller/overview.html


For more information please visit http://www.citrix.com/netscaler

For more information:

Drs. Albert Spijkers
DBA Consulting
web:            http://www.dbaconsulting.nl
blog:            DBA Consulting blog
profile:         DBA Consulting profile
Facebook :   DBA Consulting on Facebook

email:          info@dbaconsulting.nl 

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SQL Server 2014 CTP and Data-intensive Applications in the Cloud Computing World

Data-intensive Applications in the Cloud Computing World

When we first started working with customers writing cloud-based data-intensive applications, most would use a relational database like Windows Azure SQL Database for all data storage, including telemetry data.  This could be expected because developers often use the tool(s) they are most familiar with, TSQL provides a quick and well-known interface to get data in and out of the database, and relational databases generally take care of threading and concurrency for developers.  At the time, the default thinking was that most data belongs in a traditional relational database where data is always stateful and carries atomic transactional properties.  However, in the distributed cloud computing environment, scale will likely come from the implementation of stateless as well as stateful data properties.  The new paradigm shifts us away from the use of a traditional RDBMS for all data.

SQL Server 2014 Faster Insight from Any Data

Sql server 2014 faster insights from any data level 300 deck from albertspijkers

An Example

Let me show you an example of a cloud application where multiple data stores are used.  The architecture is for an online gaming experience.  This application is designed to manage several thousand concurrent users and can scale out at several points, as needed.  After the diagram, I will explain the different functions of the application, the type of data store used for each function, and why that particular type of data store is used for that function.  As I describe each function, I will refer to a number in the diagram as a reference.

Function: Login and Initialize Profile — Looking at the bottom of the diagram, you see three users; let’s start there.  These users log in and their sessions are assigned to a Windows Azure web role (#1).  The web role hosts them while they are active on the system.  The first step is to authenticate them and bring their profiles into Windows Azure Cache (#5).  Their profiles are stored in Windows Azure SQL Database (#2).  Complex queries retrieve profile data from the SQL Database by joining data (game history, scores, activity, etc.) from multiple relational tables to store in the Cache.  A relational database is best suited for this type of persistent storage and complex query activity.  The user profile also needs to be updated when information changes, so the same types of complex transactions are required to update the information back into the SQL Database.  This is a good example of where a traditional relational database is best utilized as your data store.

Function: Play Games and Perform Online Activities — After the users are logged in and their profiles are in Cache, they can start the gaming experience.  As you might expect, the gaming experience will be all in Cache (#5).  The Cache is a high performance data store and is the obvious place to store active game data.  Because Cache is non-durable, leaderboard, profile, and friend information is pushed out to other data stores for persistence.

Function: Documenting and Updating Activities — All active game activity is recorded while the users are playing, and this activity needs to be durable during play while constantly making changes to it.  Activity data is stored in a Queue (#4).  This is a durable Queue, so unlike the Cache, activity data is not lost if an outage takes place.  Data stored in the Queue is processed by “activity processors” (hosted as Windows Azure worker roles) that process the data, carry-out application logic, and persist results and history.

Function:  Activity History — For each user, all activity is stored and kept as history.  Activity history is persisted on a periodic basis from the active Queue (#4) to a NoSQL store (#3).  This NoSQL store rests in a table, using Windows Azure Table service.  The table is used because the data is mostly write-only, with a requirement to easily grow in place with little need for complex query activity against it.  So, the Table service is the best store for this type of data activity.

Function: Friend Interaction and Leaderboard — While users are playing, they can communicate and interact with friends (other users) in the system.  They also might want to keep tabs of the leaderboard.  Friend and leaderboard data changes often but not constantly, so this data is best stored in an Azure SQL Database (#7).  The relational database is updated often, and the “cache tasks” role continuously pulls the latest information and ensures the active cache (#5) is always updated with the latest leaderboard and friend information through a query to the SQL Database.

Function: Data Warehouse — All user profile data and activity data is stored in a data warehouse (#6) for reporting purposes.  Unstructured data from the Azure Table service is stored in Hadoop (Windows Azure HDInsight), and structured data is stored in a relational data warehouse (Azure SQL Database).

Breakthrough Data Platform Performance with SQL Server 2014

Sql server 2014 level 100 deck from albertspijkers

SQL Server 2014 Mission Critical Performance

Sql server 2014 mission critical performance level 300 deck from albertspijkers

Summary

In summary, you can see that this single application uses five different data storage options:  Windows Azure Cache, Azure SQL Database, Azure Queue service, Azure Table service, and Azure HDInsight (Hadoop).  Each type of store was chosen because it represents the best option for the transactional needs of the operation being executed:

 - Windows Azure Cache is used for performance (non-durable).
 - Azure SQL Database is used for strong transactional consistency and for complex query needs.
 - Azure Queue service is used for performance with heavy activity (durable).
 - Azure Table service (NoSQL) is used for heavy inserts (write-only) and the need to grow easily
   and quickly.
 - Azure HDInsight (Hadoop) is used for reporting against unstructured data.

If this was an on-premise application, you could have used multiple data stores, too, but the overhead of procurement, installation, and configuration of all of these sources adds time and money to your solution.  As the diagram below suggests, with only a couple of clicks in the Windows Azure portal, you can have any of these data sources installed, configured, and up and running.

SQL Server 2014 Platform for Hybrid Cloud

Sql server 2014 platform for hybrid cloud level 300 deck from albertspijkers

Envisioning Microsoft Business Analytics




More information:

What Drives Microsoft's Data Platform Vision?
http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2014/01/29/what-drives-microsoft-39-s-data-platform-vision.aspx

Try and Explore SQL Server 2014 for your self:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/server-cloud/default.aspx#fbid=D87H2IOO7xJ

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/sql-server-2014.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn237258(v=sql.120).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb500435(v=sql.120).aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/archive/2013/10/17/sql-server-2014-ctp-2-now-available.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/b/dataplatforminsider/

For more information:

Drs. Albert Spijkers
DBA Consulting
web:            http://www.dbaconsulting.nl
blog:            DBA Consulting blog
profile:         DBA Consulting profile
Facebook :   DBA Consulting on Facebook

email:          info@dbaconsulting.nl 

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XenMobile Management 8.5

XenMobile Management

Complete enterprise mobility management (EMM) including mobile device management, mobile application management and enterprise-grade productivity apps




XenMobile enhances the user experience on BYO or corporate devices without compromising security. Unlike other mobile device management (MDM) and mobile application management (MAM) products, XenMobile provides the quickest path to productivity for mobile users with the lowest cost of ownership.

   -  Deliver enterprise-grade email, browser, file share, sync and editing users won’t reject
   -  Deliver mobile, Windows desktop, SaaS and web apps from a unified corporate app store
   -  Secure data with a FIPS-compliant container

1) Email, web browsing and file sharing with secure mobile apps

Deliver a rich user experience with Citrix-developed apps. Use WorxMail for secure email, calendar and contact access, WorxWeb for secure browsing and ShareFile for enterprise data sync.

2) Mobile application management with the largest ecosystem of business apps

XenMobile securely delivers Worx Mobile Apps, the industry’s largest collection of apps built for business. The Worx App SDK empowers the developer’s ability to add critical enterprise security features.

3) Deliver enterprise grade mobile device management

Configure, secure, and support mobile devices with MDM. Protect company data on any device or corporate asset by troubleshooting and selectively wipe any device if lost, stolen or out of compliance.

4) Protect company data with mobile device security

XenMobile FIPS-compliant secure container provides app data encryption on the device while separating personal and company information. XenMobile also offers a micro app VPN for over-the-air data transmissions that fully encrypts and protects company data.

5) Deploy on premises or in the cloud

XenMobile on-premises and XenMobile in the cloud deliver the same features, offering the flexibility to choose the best deployment option for your organization. XenMobile cloud multi-tenancy provides peace of mind with secure, dedicated instances and globally redundant infrastructure.




Compare XenMobile to the competition

XenMobile offers a complete solution for managing apps, data and devices. Whether your organization is replacing BlackBerry devices with BYO, finding a Good Technologies replacement due to poor user experience, or looking for a mobility solution that delivers more than just mobile apps, XenMobile provides a comprehensive set of capabilities that meets any mobile requirement.
The complete enterprise mobility solution

Only XenMobile provides a comprehensive enterprise mobility management solution that offers all of the following benefits:

What's new with XenMobile

XenMobile delivers employees applications including native mobile, Windows desktop, SaaS, and web while providing IT organizations a secure, scalable and cost-effective solution to manage complexity and cost in the mobile world.



Mobile users get more work done in less time

XenMobile enhancements to mail, calendar and contacts make mobile users productive on the go:

    - Fast join enables users to automatically launch and join GoToMeeting, Microsoft Lync and
      WebEx sessions directly from their calendar
    - Fast dial allows conference bridge numbers and participant IDs to be auto-dialed and entered
    - Mobile users can access work faster with fast auth and quickly access business apps from their
      mobile device by simply entering a PIN instead of complex Active Directory passwords that
      require capital letters, special characters, etc.
    - Two-factor authentication can be enabled via Active Directory certificates
    - Integrated contact support for FaceTime and SMS

IT organizations can respond faster and more easily to the changing needs of their business.

XenMobile simplifies enterprise mobility deployments across the varied platforms and devices that users bring into organizations. With the latest version of XenMobile, it's easier than ever for IT to configure and roll out mobility deployments, coupled with even more security capabilities and support for more mobile devices, data, apps and networks.

    - Quickly mobilize remote offices with wizards-based deployment
    - Enable day-one productivity and easily onboard new business units or subsidiaries via
      multi-domain support
    - Integration with Windows 8.1, Apple iOS 7 MDM APIs as well as Samsung KNOX and
      Amazon MDM platforms extend the 60+ application-specific policy controls of XenMobile
    - New support for HTML email, Lotus Notes and Office 365 enhances existing WorxMail
      capabilities
    - Enhanced SSO with Kerberos authentication and pin-based certificates to deliver advanced
      app authentication policies
    - Information rights management (IRM) policies for WorxMail to help control message attributes
       and expiration for highly secure environments

Flexible cloud deployment options

All three editions of XenMobile can now be deployed in the Cloud, hosted by either Citrix or a Citrix Strategic Partner. Citrix strategic partners extend the value of XenMobile with valued-added managed and consulting services that enable robust, integrated enterprise-ready mobility solutions.



Citrix XenMobile MDM is the market-leading enterprise mobile device management (MDM) solution.

Get the 10 Must Haves for Secure Enterprise Mobility:
Get the 10 Must Haves for Secure Enterprise Mobility

For more information:

XenMobile Overview


Citrix - Integrating mobile device management (MDM) in the enterprise 

Citrix XenMobile MDM is one of the industry's most innovative and secure mobile device management (MDM) solutions. Get an in-depth look at how XenMobile MDM snaps into your existing enterprise IT environment. We will cover managing security groups in Active Directory, integration with Exchange mail infrastructure and incorporation of mobile into SIEM or log management tools. Learn more at http://www.citrix.com/xenmobile/

For more information:

Drs. Albert Spijkers
DBA Consulting
web:            http://www.dbaconsulting.nl
blog:            DBA Consulting blog
profile:         DBA Consulting profile
Facebook :   DBA Consulting on Facebook

email:          info@dbaconsulting.nl 

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CloudStack Versus OpenStack Versus Eucalyptus

CloudStack Versus OpenStack Versus Eucalyptus: Lightning Strikes the IaaS Private Cloud

This session takes an in-depth look at the new open source private cloud IaaS distros from CloudStack, OpenStack, and Eucalyptus. It considers a high-level enterprise perspective and draws architectural comparisons but also blasts ahead and shows you how to configure and deploy your own private clouds for free with these technologies. Although it's not open source, Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) gets a quick look.

The presentation covers

• CloudStack, a 100 percent Java open source IaaS, backed by Citrix
• OpenStack, the best-known open source IaaS, backed by Rackspace
• Eucalyptus, the academic IaaS
• Amazon VPC, a closed-source option (but AWS is the "invisible hand" that guides the others)

Copyright © 2013 Oracle and/or its affiliates. Oracle® is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Oracle disclaims any warranties or representations as to the accuracy or completeness of this recording, demonstration, and/or written materials (the "Materials"). The Materials are provided "as is" without any warranty of any kind, either express or implied, including without limitation warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

CloudStack vs OpenStack vs Eucalyptus: IaaS Private Cloud Brief Comparison from bizalgo

Cloud tutorial-socc12 from albertspijkers

Also take a look at this website: http://tinyurl.com/nbb34w8

The Perspective of the Developer

What is “open” and how can we measure project openness under the perspective of a corporation interested in contributing to code development?. We would suggest to use the following measures:

- Development Model: Is the code developed over the Internet in view of the public?
- Developer Engagement: Is the development open to external contributions?
- Governance Model: How are the decisions about roadmap made?

The four CMPs are fully open-source software, accept contributions under similar license agreements, and are publicly developed over the Internet. However, there is a difference in their governance models. While OpenStack follows a foundation approach with a Board of Directors providing strategic oversight and CloudStack follows the Apache meritocracy rules, Eucalyptus and OpenNebula are managed by a single organization that focuses on the interest of the project and strategically leads it to ensure that it meets the needs of the users and the community. Benevolent dictator governance is the model followed by other successful projects like Android or Linux Kernel, and, in our view, it is the most effective way to focus on engineering quality, to be responsive to the users, and to ensure long term support.


The Perspective of the User

Let us now evaluate openness under the perspective of the user. In this case, we should consider both the perspective of the user of the cloud (consumer) and the perspective of the user of the technology (builder).

- From the perspective of the cloud consumer, “open cloud” is all about APIs and data formats. Common API’s give freedom to run anywhere, being this freedom supported or not by open source. This provides the ability for the user to compare cloud offerings, select the offer that best suits his needs, and change providers if he is unsatisfied with the service or finds a more competitive offering.
- From the perspective of the cloud builder, “open cloud” means that the community open-source software is enterprise-grade and commercially supported without having to install a vendor enhanced distribution (which would be much closer to an “open core model”). This is where technology buyers and users can evaluate openness for themselves.

From the perspective of the user, we would suggest to use the following measures:

- API Ecosystem: Is the software supporting a de-facto standard with a broad ecosystem?
- Production Readiness: Is the open-source software ready for enterprise use and commercially supported?

No much more to say about cloud API ecosystems, we do not want to start a new discussion about which of the cloud APIs is a de-facto standard and which ecosystem is bigger and growing faster. Production Readiness is a very interesting aspect which deserves a detailed discussion. Independently of whether the software is being used for development or for production purposes, it is understood that a corporation needs the open-source cloud management platform to be enterprise ready, which means to be stable, long-term commercially supported, and with a clear upgrade process.

From this perspective, it is clear that Eucalyptus and OpenNebula are more open. Both projects provide an enterprise-ready open-source cloud solution. Any organization can use the open-source distribution to build a production cloud, and receive best-effort support through a community mailing list. Additionally, any organization can purchase commercial support directly from the developers. The important aspect is that these projects do not deliver enterprise editions of their software, they commercially support the community software. In other words, the community versions of Eucalyptus and OpenNebula are not limited editions of enterprise versions. CloudStack could be also included in this group, given that Citrix CloudPlatform is basically an enterprise distribution that does not provide extended features.

On the other side, any organization interested in using OpenStack, and requiring commercial support and enterprise maturity, is recommended (please see addendum 1) to deploy any of the several enterprise distributions that are being released by the vendors contributing to the project. These enterprise-grade distributions incorporate different versions of the OpenStack components with extended features, custom enhancements and integrations that may make difficult their compatibility and interoperability. Moreover many of them include proprietary components and exhibit significant differences in the implementation of critical underlying functionality. So the organization is finally using proprietary software based on OpenStack and is locked to that specific distribution given that the vendor only supports its own stack, not the community version, and there is no way to migrate to another vendor distribution.


Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos Discusses Open Source Clouds

Talkin' Cloud (http://www.talkincloud.com) FastChat Video interviews Marten Mickos, CEO of Eucalyptus -- the open source cloud company. Mickos describes the Eucalyptus partner strategy, helping companies build private clouds that are compatible with Amazon Web Services. Produced by Nine Lives Media, a division of Penton Media. For cloud services provider news and information visit http://www.talkincloud.com.






For more information:
- http://tinyurl.com/op7p6lw  Eucalyptus
- http://tinyurl.com/nbb34w8  OpenNebula
- http://tinyurl.com/lgmmhg6  NetworkWorld Comparison
- http://tinyurl.com/ntr9oby  Bizalgo Comparison
- http://tinyurl.com/q7n6coq  ReadWrite Comparison
- http://tinyurl.com/qc42ptq  HP Cloud Comparison
- http://bit.ly/1cnb0RL       IBM Columbia University Comparison
- http://tinyurl.com/b665xz5  Talking Cloud





Drs. Albert Spijkers
DBA Consulting
web:            http://www.dbaconsulting.nl
blog:            DBA Consulting blog
profile:         DBA Consulting profile
Facebook :   DBA Consulting on Facebook

email:          info@dbaconsulting.nl 

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DB2 11 Technical Overview (Part 1 and 2)

DB2 11 Technical Overview Part 1 and 2

DB211 is here with More Cost savings and Critical Business Analytics

DB2 11: The Database for Critical Transactions & Analytics

Speed, Simplicity, Savings

DB2 11 for z/OS delivers new innovations: Save money, save time, reduce cost Enhanced continuous availability, scalability, and security for business-critical information Sophisticated Critical business analytics Simpler, faster migration for faster ROI Deep integration between DB2 and System z






DB2 11 Major Themes

Out-of-the-box CPU Savings*
• Improving efficiency, reducing costs, no application changes
• Up to 10% for complex OLTP
• Up to 10% for update intensive batch
• Up to 40% for queries
• Additional performance improvements through use of new DB2 11 features
Enhanced Resiliency and Continuous Availability
• Improved autonomics which reduces costs and improves availability
• Making more online changes without affecting applications
• Online REORG improvements, less disruption
• DROP COLUMN, online change of partition limit keys
• Extended log record addressing capacity (1 yottabyte)
• BIND/REBIND, DDL break into persistent threads
Enhanced business analytics
• Expanded SQL, XML, and analytics capabilities
• Temporal and SQLPL enhancements
• Transparent archiving
Simpler, faster DB2 version upgrades
• No application changes required for DB2 upgrade
• Access path stability improvements
• Product quality/stability: support pre GA customer production

DB2 11 overview UG november 2013 from albertspijkers

Watch this presentation for more information on DB2 11 Technical Overview and Performance improvements:

Performance “Sweet Spots”

Write-Intensive Batch Queries:
- With compressed tables
- With access path improvement
- With sort-intensive workload Accessing multiple DPSI partitions IDAA
- With large result sets Online transactions

Write-intensive transactions: 
- With large number of partitions (>200 partitions )
- With RELEASE(COMMIT)
- With large buffer pools
- With queries returning a large number of columns

-  “Chatty” DDF applications with z/OS Communications Server PM80004 / UK92097
-  Cost saving from zIIP-eligible address space SRB time
-  DBM1 address space in data sharing
-  MSTR address space for update intensive workloads 7

DB2 11 Technical Overview Part 1 

Feb 18 webcast__db2_11_technical_overview_part_1 from albertspijkers

DB2 11 Technical Overview Part 2

Feb 19 webcast__db2_11_technical_overview_part_2 from albertspijkers

Why IBM i? DB2 for i

Mark Anderson, distinguished engineer and chief architect of DB2 for i talk about why IBM i for DB2. More about IBM i @ Why IBM i? DB2 for IBM i

If you are a midsize business take a look at this ITG report on IBM i for midsized business. Offer registration is required. Download the report @ http://bit.ly/IBMiformidsize1

DB2 for z/OS Best Practice: Health Check Operations

This presentation is from a set of recommendations developed by reviewing multiple DB2 customers environments. Many customer environments can benefit from these lessons learned. This specific presentation deals with operating your DB2 environment. Topics include: preventative software maintenance, using virtual and real storage, and performance and exception-based monitoring.





IBM DB2 for i SQL Performance Workshop - IBM Training

This short video describes the IBM DB2 for i SQL Performance Workshop which covers the best practices for monitoring, tuning, and developing SQL applications on IBM i. Students who attend the course will learn how the SQL query optimizer works, how to use indexes and statistics to improve query performance, how to implement efficient SQL applications, and how to use the SQL performance analysis tools.

Brought to you by IBM Training: http://www.ibm.com/training






DB2 for z/OS RUNSTATS Profiles Skill Builder

This video introduces RUNSTATS Profiles, and demonstrates how to set, use, update, and delete.



Course Links:
DB2 10 for z/OS Database Administration Workshop Part 1 (CV831)
DB2 10 for Z/OS Database Administration Workshop Part 1

DB2 for z/OS - New Functions and Features in Version 10 (CV311)
DB2 for z/OS - New Functions and Features in Version 10

DB2 for z/OS - New Features in Version 10 Workshop (CV312)
DB2 for z/OS - New Features in Version 10 Workshop


Other links:
Training Paths: http://www.ibm.com/services/learning/ites.wss/zz/en?pageType=page&c=a0007973 
DB2 for z/OS Training Path: http://www.ibm.com/services/learning/ites.wss/zz/en?pageType=page&c=a0000400
Certification Program: http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/education/certification.html
DB2 10.1 Fundamentals (Test #000-610): http://www.ibm.com/certify/tests/ovr610.shtml 
DB2 10 DBA for z/OS (Test #000-612): http://www.ibm.com/certify/tests/ovr612.shtml
IM Certification and Skills : http://www.ibm.com/software/data/education


For more information please contact me at:

Drs. Albert Spijkers
DBA Consulting website:           http://www.dbaconsulting.nl
blog:              DBA Consulting blog
profile:            DBA Consulting profile
Facebook :       DBA Consulting on Facebook
email:              info@dbaconsulting.nl 

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