Author Archives: James O'Regan

Going Green with Liquidware Stratusphere UX: How Workspace Monitoring Drives IT Sustainability

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In today’s world, sustainability is more important than ever. As we become increasingly aware of the impact of our actions on the environment, it’s important to consider the sustainability benefits of the products we use in our daily lives. Liquidware Stratusphere™ UX is not only a powerful user experience monitoring and diagnostics solution but also an eco-friendly solution, that helps organizations improve their IT performance while contributing to a more sustainable environment. 

In this blog, we will examine the ways Stratusphere UX can be used to make an organization’s IT infrastructure more sustainable. By optimizing resource usage and reducing energy consumption, Stratusphere UX not only improves IT performance but also contributes to a more sustainable environment. 

How Stratusphere UX Helps Make Your IT Environment More Sustainable 

Stratusphere UX is a comprehensive workspace monitoring and user experience solution for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), virtual application environments as well as physical desktops. It provides valuable insights into user behavior, application usage, and infrastructure performance, helping organizations optimize their IT environments and improve user experience. But beyond its immediate benefits, Stratusphere UX also offers significant sustainability benefits. 

IT Sustainability The image is decorative

Reduce Energy Consumption 

Firstly, Stratusphere UX can help organizations reduce their energy consumption. Providing detailed insights into application usage and infrastructure performance, it can help organizations identify areas where they can optimize their IT environment to reduce energy usage. This includes identifying and removing unused applications, optimizing virtual machine settings, or identifying and addressing performance bottlenecks that are causing unnecessary energy consumption. 

Reduce Carbon Footprint 

In addition to reducing energy consumption, Stratusphere UX can also help organizations reduce their carbon footprint. By optimizing their IT environment, organizations can reduce the amount of energy they consume and, in turn, reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. This is particularly important in today’s world, where reducing carbon emissions is essential to combatting climate change. 

Reduce E-Waste

Another sustainability benefit of Stratusphere UX is its ability to help organizations reduce e-waste. By providing valuable information about user behavior and application usage, Stratusphere UX can help organizations identify areas where they can streamline their IT environment, reduce the number of devices they need, and extend the lifespan of their existing hardware. This not only reduces the amount of electronic waste generated by organizations, but also reduces the number of resources needed to produce new devices. 

Image showing the amount of e-waste created up until the end of 2022 The image has an informative purpose
Amount of E-waste produced in the world

Conclusion

Liquidware Stratusphere UX is not only a powerful workspace monitoring and user experience solution, but also offers significant sustainability benefits. Helping organizations reduce their energy consumption, carbon footprint, and e-waste, it is an important solution in the fight against climate change and environmental degradation. If you’re looking for a way to improve your IT environment and reduce your environmental impact,  you should definitely consider Stratusphere UX. 

If you want to learn more about the sustainability benefits of Stratusphere UX, be sure to check out our website. 

Look back at Ireland CUCG

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On the 9th of March 30+ brave souls ventured out into the arctic-like conditions to attend the Citrix User Group in Dublin but they were rewarded with some fantastic sessions, networking, food, and drinks.

The day started with an impromptu Dublin EUC Breakfast Club though it was rebranded Brunch given the time of the day

To start the day we had Marc Aurel Evers talking about how Google Chrome Flex is a secure Chrome-based endpoint software for accessing Citrix. Marc started with an overview of the product including the benefits over a Windows PC. These benefits focused on the fact you can extend the life of existing hardware by converting it with Chrome OS Flex. Extending the life of the device is obviously a huge sustainability gain for any organization and also there are the associated cost savings. Marc even passed around some converted devices including an old converted  XPS 13. Overall it was a very interesting session and will be fascinating to see how Chrome OS Flex compares against other vendors in this very competitive market.  

 

The next session was from David Pisa and Gavin Strong and they gave a very detailed overview of Citrix App Layering including a deep dive into how to set up the infrastructure required for an App Layering  POC in Azure.

Afterwards, we had a short coffee break then I gave the group an overview of Liquidware’s digital workspace solutions. I then introduced FlexApp and FlexApp One firstly outlining what it was not before describing the solution and then showing a demo video of how easy it is to run FlexApp One apps in a matter of minutes. Finally, I introduced our brand new innovative helpdesk remediation solution CommandCTRL coming later this year, and I even gave a live demo which thankfully went off without a hitch.

To finish the day Wendy Gay and Javier Lopez Santacruz delivered a session on Identity and SSO with Citrix and focused on Primary Identity and FAS (Citrix Federated Authentication Service). Identity and SSO are big topics in EUC so this was a very well received session to close out the day

Congrats to Paul Matthews who won the Liquidware Festival pack that is on the way to you

We then adjourned to the bar for drinks and food where the conversations could continue.

Overall it was a great event, with some very informative sessions, and great networking including reconnecting with my old IGEL colleague Ben Ward who is now Field CTO for the UK and Ireland at Liquit.  

The next event is scheduled in Belfast in June and should be another enjoyable day.

Introducing Liquidware Spotlight: Shedding Light on CommandCtrl, the Ultimate Helpdesk Remediation Solution

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Liquidware has recently launched a new video series called “Liquidware Spotlight.” This video series aims to showcase the latest product offerings from Liquidware and demonstrate how these solutions can help organizations optimize their digital workspaces.


One of the featured products in the Liquidware Spotlight video series is CommandCTRL, a helpdesk remediation solution that will streamline the IT support process and improve the end-user experience.


This product is currently in Beta and planned GA is in Q2 of 2023. You can sign up for the beta here.
The CommandCTRL solution is designed to simplify the troubleshooting and remediation process for IT support teams. The solution provides a centralized console that allows IT support personnel to easily view and manage end-user issues across multiple endpoints, including virtual desktops, physical desktops, cloud-based desktops and laptops.
In addition to the centralized console, CommandCTRL also includes a range of remediation tools that can help IT support teams quickly resolve issues. These tools include remote access, a command-line interface, file, and registry editing, and more .


The Liquidware Spotlight video series features a dedicated video on CommandCTRL, which provides a detailed overview of the solution and its key features. The video also includes a demo of the solution in action, showcasing how CommandCTRL can help IT support teams quickly troubleshoot and remediate issues.
Episodes one through three are now available, episode one focuses on a general overview of the product, while episode two dives into the scripting functionality with CommandCTRL, and, finally, episode three focuses on our unique DVR playback feature.

 

Overall, the Liquidware Spotlight video series is an excellent resource for IT professionals looking to stay up-to-date with the latest workspace management solutions from Liquidware. Whether you are looking for a helpdesk remediation solution like CommandCTRL or any of Liquidware’s other digital workspace management solutions, the Liquidware Spotlight video series is a valuable resource that can help you make informed decisions about your digital workspace strategy.


Go take a look now!

Spotlight Series

Meet Liquidware at the Irish Citrix User Group

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Great news! Liquidware is proud to sponsor the Irish Citrix User Group Community (CUGC) event happening on March 9th at the Radisson Blu hotel on Golden Lane in Dublin

This is the first time Liquidware have sponsored the Irish User Group and I am delighted at the support from Liquidware and in particular Jason E Smith.

I will deliver a session on how Liquidware’s solutions can benefit you. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn more about how our solutions can enhance your Citrix environments

The event has a packed agenda and registration is still open

You can still register on the link below

https://mycugc.org/events/details/cugc-ireland-presents-cugc-ireland-q1/

There are some great sessions topics including Identity and SSO, Citrix App Layering and Google Chrome OS with Citrix DaaS.

See you there !

Stratusphere UX 6.2.2-2 is released

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Check out Liquidware’s newest release of Stratusphere – version 6.6.2-2 – for a slew of exciting new features and enhancements! Among the new features are advanced troubleshooting capabilities, improved reporting, and expanded support for virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments. These updates make Stratusphere an even more powerful tool for monitoring and optimizing end-user computing environments.


The ADVANCED > INSPECTORS & API now includes a SESSIONS tab and API, displaying a summary and details of session events such as LOGIN/LOGOUT, LOCK/UNLOCK, REMOTE CONNECT/DISCONNECT, CONSOLE CONNECT/DISCONNECT, and more. The information provided includes user and machine details, the time of the event, and even the session type (CONSOLE, RDP/RFX, ICA/HDX, PCoIP, BLAST, etc.)
The STRATUSPHERE UX UI PREVIEW has been added, providing users with a sneak peek of the new user interface for future versions of the platform. It has limited functionality and is designed to gather user feedback to help improve the product.


Enhancements have been made to the ADVANCED > INSPECTORS & API, including adding support for multiple search values, Optimizer Profile as a BASIS in the ADVANCED > USERS, MACHINES, & LOGIN tabs, and new color-coded thresholds based on Standard Deviations from Mean for metrics within the Windows User Login Breakdown in the ADVANCED > INSPECTORS > LOGIN tab.


The domain the user has logged into on macOS machines is now displayed, reducing license usage. The macOS CID Key visibility has been improved by adding support for location information.


The Hub, Database, & Collectors have been enhanced, providing better visibility for error codes encountered by the CID Key while communicating by adding textual descriptions to explain the problem. The Apache Web Server now automatically compresses data while communicating with the client Web Browser for enhanced performance.
The DIAGNOSTICS > REPORTS have new exception reports that only show machines with unencrypted disks and firewalls that are turned off.


In addition to these features and enhancements, a lot of time and effort was spent on the overall reliability and user experience of ADVANCED > DASHBOARDS. There were more than 30 updates made under the hood to enhance the overall reliability & usability of Dashboards.


Overall, the latest release of Stratusphere offers a range of new features and enhancements, improving the user experience and providing better visibility and functionality across the platform. These improvements include new reports, dashboards, and alerts, as well as enhanced application support and more granular control over user data. With these new features, users can better monitor and optimize their virtual desktop environments, leading to improved performance and a more streamlined user experience.
All bug fixes for this release can be viewed here.


Stratusphere Release Notes v6.6.2-2 (February 28, 2023) (liquidware.com)

CommandCTRL -The Helpdesk Remediation Solution you have been waiting for!

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As we know more and more people are working from anywhere. Gartner states that currently 50% of employees will continue to work remotely and this continues to rise. According to IDC by 2024, mobile workers will account for nearly 60% of the total US workforce. This is a massive shift from Pre Pandemic.

Support any worker anywhere with CommandCTRL.

While this gives employees freedom and flexibility, it also increases IT Admins’ workload and creates new challenges in managing endpoints located anywhere.

To assist with this increased workload Liquidware will release CommandCTRL™ in Q2 of 2023, a powerful and innovative solution designed to allow IT to be able to monitor and remediate remote endpoints from anywhere.

CommandCTRL is a SaaS solution, so there are no infrastructure requirements and you can be up and running in a matter of minutes. As it is cloud-based it can scale to whatever your requirements and you can support users anywhere in the world. As it’s a SaaS solution, your admin can be anywhere and all they need to access the console is a browser!

The console provides you with Real-Time Metrics for the following:

• CPU Usage
• Memory Usage
• Disk Usage
• Network
• Identity Location
• Wi-Fi
• Plus much more…

CommandCTRL’s intuitive GUI helps to quickly remediate helpdesk calls.

While CommandCTRL displays real-time data metrics it can do so much more; such as killing off rogue processes or start, stop or restart services all via the console. You can even open up a PowerShell, CMD, or Bash session, and all of this can be achieved without interrupting the user by needing to take control of their endpoint. Of course, if you do need to take control this can be achieved using the built-in Quick Assist, Remote Assistance, and Teleconferencing options.

A key feature of CommandCTRL is the DVR-like functionality, this is extremely powerful and allows an Admin to go back in time and review what metrics were displayed at a particular point in time and this data is retained for 30 days. This is incredibly helpful in the troubleshooting process and dramatically reduces the time to resolution.

We will be releasing many more new and exciting features for the CommandCTRL beta, so stay tuned for a series of videos where I will go into detail and demonstrate each of the solution’s key features as we get closer to the launch date.

You can get in on the benefits of using CommandCTRL today by applying for the BETA!

Display protocol helps troubleshoot performance quickly.

For example get access to all the latest features, we just dropped Display Protocol on Friday!

With the Display Protocol, you can display metrics for Citrix, VMware and Microsoft remoting protocols.

Finally we now have an MSI package available to make it easier to deploy CommandCTRL.

For the next several weeks, there will be a weekly drawing for a $50 dollar Amazon gift card. All you have to do is complete the Beta Survey to have a chance to win.

Visit our Beta registration page to sign up now!