Those who know me know that I often speak in metaphor and analogy (a holdover from my high school English days). Take a hard concept and wrap something familiar around it and you will better convey a thought to your audience (a big Smithsburg High School Leopards shout-out to Albert Ritchick, one of the best teachers I ever had).
But I digress.
I was sitting at my favorite burrito joint (I won’t say the name here, but it rhymes with Flip-oht-lay) a few nights ago, enjoying some delicious goodness. I’m a consultant and travel a fair bit and so I’m often left alone with my thoughts over meals, something that, for me, can be dangerous. It’s where thoughts like the title of this blog post come from. So, take my hand, gentle reader, and follow me into the deep end of my head.
If you like burritos, then you are probably familiar with the proper way to construct one. It should be done horizontally, and not vertically — it’s an art form, really. There is an extraordinarily funny, but somewhat NSFW rant on the interwebs on this very subject (I encourage you to consult the Googles for it). Hilarity aside, the important point in this rant is that you want to get a bite of everything at once, and not just a single mouthful of guacamole, or a giant bite of just rice. Oh, there’s the chicken by itself all the way the the bottom! UGH. GIANT burrito fail.
Going a step beyond the burrito, however, you have the burrito bowl. NOW, we’re talking. What makes the bowl better? Choice. I get to choose how I eat my burrito bowl instead of letting some evil burrito folder — some tortilla-wrapping madman that wants me to have a huge bite of sour cream and tortilla — make the decision for me. A wrapped burrito is something of a mystery; you never know what a given bite will hold. That’s appealing to some people I guess, but less so to me. I like order in my life. I like my bite of grilled chicken with sour cream AND guacamole on it. The bowl lets me do that; the bowl gives me choice. And so it is with Citrix.
I’ve been a CTP — that’s a Citrix Technology Professional — for eight years. I am far better for the experience and for knowing my peers. I’m constantly reminded that I’m NOT the smartest person in the room, and that’s totally cool. Through all that journey, I’ve been pretty exclusive to Citrix. While I need to work with VMWare when my customers need, I’m only Citrix certified, and I’m only a CTP. Nothing else. That’s how I prefer it. Why? I could get into how I feel about VMWare as a company (*cough*), but I’ll just employ my burrito analogy. Citrix is the burrito bowl, VMWare is the wrapped burrito.
Citrix is all about choice.
As a company, Citrix has close to 30 years working on user experience. It’s core to their mission. I would argue that they spend more time on that mission than any other company in the industry. So many people that I could name inside of Citrix take that mission very seriously. They really want to give the best possible experience to a user who is just trying to get their Word document to print where they want it to. Seriously, who prints anymore (yeah, I know, almost everyone… *sigh*)? Citrix really does put a great deal of effort into delivering that app, making it responsive, and to giving the user flexibility in how they consume that app.
Moreover, Citrix gives a great deal of choice to the admins of the system on how those apps are delivered and maintained. VDI? PVS? RemotePC? No worries. You’re covered. All of those different types of app-and-desktop delivery are controlled via the same mechanism. No messy integrations to do. Just install and go. Yeah, apps can be a pain, but there’s AppDNA for that. There’s Unidesk and Norskale now, as well. There’s PVS and XenServer. More toppings for the bowl. Mix it all together for awesome. Enjoy a bite at a time for exactly the experience you want. It’s totally up to you. VMWare gives you a solution with similar ingredients, but mixes it all together in the way that they think is “good enough.” You know what that gets you? A mouthful of sour cream and hot sauce. Nasty.
So, go forth and enjoy your burrito (bowl) as you like it. Say YES to choice. Citrix can help with that.
