As Citrix Synergy 2017 gets closer and the planning ramps up for our flagship event in Orlando, coming up May 23–25, I’ve been enjoying reading through comments from Synergy 2016 about how valuable these programs are to our customers and partners. From expanding your management and troubleshooting skills to industry insights and networking, “Citrix Synergy is a great place for vision stretch!” as one customer said.

Hearing your feedback reminds me that the work our team is doing delivers measurable benefits to attendees and keeps us all focused on producing another memorable conference.

If you’re considering coming to Synergy and would like some help persuading your manager, check out the online Justify Your Trip tool, which creates a custom PDF of sessions and labs that are of interest to you and outlines exactly how valuable the conference is, not only for your professional development but for the actionable knowledge you bring back to your company.

There’s no better way to understand exactly what you’ll take away from the experience than by exploring the catalog. Beyond the sessions, there are a few programs that make Synergy a must-attend this year.

Our inspiring new Innovation Super Session series welcomes New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell and former U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell to discuss advanced analytics and the future of work as well as cybersecurity implications for government and business. A new Technology Keynote will be packed with demos, joint partner solutions, roadmaps and sneak peeks into future innovation that you won’t want to miss. And the Citrix Booth Experience shows how the workspace of the future is driving real change now in the Workspace Experience Center — an immersive, walkthrough showcase that highlights how Citrix and partner technologies transform healthcare, branch offices, and more.

And get ready for an unforgettable Final Night Party: we’re taking over Universal CityWalk™ and the entire Universal’s Islands of Adventure™ theme park. It will be an incredible night of exciting themed restaurants and a little magic, exclusively for Synergy attendees.

Okay, back to the reason for this blog post: the session catalog is live, and it’s overflowing with breakouts, special events, Ted-talk like sessions with experts, hands-on labs, fireside chats and more. You’ll also meet customers who are using Citrix solutions — they’re the best resource for learning about the benefits Citrix brings to the enterprise. You can search the catalog for sessions that align with your role, level of expertise and area of interest as well as by product category. Plus, we’ll have some surprises as Synergy gets closer, so follow us on social to stay current.

If you haven’t already registered and built your personal agenda, now’s the time! Take a look at my top ten sessions to watch for:

Technical Breakouts

SYN334: XenApp Essentials: the fastest way to deliver apps from Azure—Microsoft announced the next step in its broad partnership with Citrix: XenApp Essentials Service will build upon Microsoft’s vision for Azure RemoteApp by tapping industry-leading XenApp technology to provide additional management, user experience and security features. See how the new service — delivered from Citrix Cloud and sold through Azure Marketplace—will help create the simplest and fastest mechanism to deliver Windows apps securely from Azure.

SYN327: Identity federation 1×1 with NetScaler: SAML for SaaS, B2B and enterpriseSecuring access to corporate data has become complex. On one end, you need to handle more external users outside your own directory service boundaries while on the other, hybrid cloud architecture and service offerings that leverage SaaS and/or B2B scenarios have created an environment with dispersed data repositories. This session will showcase the new authentication and security architecture that SAML brings to the business, how NetScaler fits into federation technologies for inbound and outbound identity processing and why NetScaler is a critical component.

Labs

LAB601: Increase your NetScaler IQ to better manage your NetScaler ADCs — This Instructor-led Learning Lab will demonstrate how to configure your NetScaler environment for improved efficiency and performance through GLSB, Content Switching, clustering, SSL offload, and more. Plus, learn how to manage, monitor, and troubleshoot your entire infrastructure from a single, unified console, and use real-time analytics to identify and address app performance and security issues.

LAB611: Installing and configuring application layering — Application layering technology “containerizes” desktop apps as virtual disks for error-free, install-free delivery to end users as well as for package-once, update-once efficiency for IT. Learn how to virtualize all Windows apps right out of the box with one ordinary install. 

Hot Topics

SYN401: Fireside chat with IoT experts about automating Citrix with Octoblu — Octoblu, the Citrix IoT automation and integration platform, can enable automation of a wide variety of workflows across the Xen family. Learn how to create rich user experiences by integrating with external devices and services such as text messaging, instant messaging, and even voice control. 

SYN413: Microsoft Containers in a Citrix world — With the release of Microsoft Windows Containers with Server 2016, not only has the DevOps world been transformed by this resilient and very cool technology, but infrastructure has as well. In this session, we’ll discuss what Microsoft Containers are and how they can help solve problems and make your Citrix environment more resilient, as well as how Containers could be used to automate scale for Citrix implementations.

SYN414: Access and authentication options in a Citrix environment—With the growth of SaaS-based applications and an increased number of user identities, IT struggles to ensure secure access to applications. This session will explore some of the access and authentication options available in a Citrix environment, including how to leverage Citrix Federated Authentication Service to enable SSO from Microsoft Office 365 and Google Accounts.

Meet the Experts

SYN702: Why choose ShareFile over Box, Dropbox, Egnyte, Syncplicity, and other EFSS vendors — According to IDC, the enterprise file sync-and-share (EFSS) market will reach $2.3 billion by 2018. As the segment has grown, competition for market share has intensified. Join this session to learn about the major players in the market, the strengths and weaknesses of each.

SYN712: Analysis of a hack: how to defend and protect with Citrix — Security is a topic that should be on everyone’s agenda: your systems, data, identity and IP are at risk. Learn how to protect against hackers by understanding how hackers think: this session will present the analysis of a fictional attack where hackers managed to capture credentials, harvest password hashes, get elevated to administrator and bypass multifactor authentication. 

Customer Spotlight

SYN128: Yale University’s journey into the cloud—Hear firsthand how Yale University’s Public Computing Services department settled on Citrix Cloud to deliver a world-class service to the campus. Plus, learn how to leverage Smart Tools to control costs in your AWS cloud and how to tie in cloud-storage, including Citrix ShareFile, Google Drive, OneDrive, and more.

Check out the session catalog for even more targeted content and if you haven’t already done so, register now. I hope to see you in Orlando for Citrix Synergy 2017, May 23–25. I’ll update my feed with news as it happens: follow me on Twitter @merisummers.

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