Now that the numbers are in for Citrix Synergy 2017, I can share that this was one of our most well-attended conferences ever, with more than 5,100 attendees on-site in Orlando and 8,000+ virtual attendees on Citrix Synergy TV. In addition to keynotes on the future of work and deep dives into new technology, attendees were inspired by our first-ever Innovation Super Session series, featuring New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell and former U.S. Secretary of State Gen. Colin Powell.
In Orlando, attendees selected targeted training from more than 400 hours of program content, including 95 technical breakout sessions, 27 theater sessions, and over 100 interactive sessions such as Hot Topics and Match.Geek. They heard from more than 200 speakers and got hands-on with new technology in 50 demos as well as 30 labs, both self-paced and instructor-led.
Based on attendee survey comments, along with the numbers who attended both on-site and online via the live stream, I’ve compiled a list of the most in-demand sessions from Synergy. Even if you weren’t able to attend, you can experience some of the most intensive Synergy training by watching sessions on demand—along with the Vision Keynote and Technology Keynote—on Citrix Synergy TV.
Dive in to these in-depth sessions:
SYN103 Citrix App Layering
This session introduces the new standard for application packaging and lifecycle management, based on pioneering Unidesk layering technology. Attendees said:
- “Brilliant discussion of what app layering is and benefits.”
- “Best presentation of Synergy. Very well done and some of the takeaways are going to save so much time in our environment.”
- “Looks to be an extremely useful tool that can be immediate put to use in our environment.”
- “Just perfect …. I have to implement it ASAP.”
- “This is an awesome new product.”
SYN104 XenApp and XenDesktop: What’s new and roadmap
In this session, see how new features introduced in versions 7.11, 7.12 and 7.13 benefit SMB, mid-market, and enterprise businesses. Attendees said:
- “Very good product breakdown to understand new benefits for upgrades.”
- “Very informative. Best presenters I’ve seen in the sessions.”
- “We need to migrate from 6.5 to 7x so this session had good information for what’s new in 7.14 and XS 7.2.”
- “Excellent information about where XenApp and XenDesktop are heading.”
- “Great to connect to Citrix product managers! This was great content. Presenter was AWESOME!!”
SYN106 Fantastic four: the dos, don’ts and lessons learned of Citrix implementations
In this session, hear from four experienced Citrix Technology Professionals about the challenges of implementing Citrix application and desktop virtualization. Attendees said:
- “Understanding expectations, users and capabilities can be difficult and this session handled these components well.”
- “Some of my favorite presenters, all in the same room!”
- “Very cool and light take on hard topics we all deal with. Great speakers made it fun.”
SYN107 XenServer tech update: boot PVS desktops faster, protect against zero days, and patch without reboots
The Citrix stack really is “better together”: this session shows you how the unique features of Citrix XenServer will help you unlock benefits to your XenDesktop and XenApp deployment. Attendees said:
- “Great information on the improvements and advances in XenServer.”
- “Looking to move to XenServer down the road, very good info.”
- “With competition in the virtualization space, this positions XenServer in the top 3 virtualization software, hence the recommendation.”
- “Technical, good speakers and of course a great product.”
SYN121 What’s new with NetScaler Unified Gateway
See how customers are leveraging this SSL VPN as an additional asset in their security arsenal to protect business data and intellectual property for on-premises and cloud deployments. Attendees said:
- “Great content!!”
- “Covered important areas and told us about new features that we are excited about like built in OTP.”
- “Session was on point.”
- “Fantastic! Just what I needed.”
SYN301 XenApp and XenDesktop Tech Update: May 2017 edition
This session walks you through details on the newest release, the latest results from testing and optimizations, and updated design best practices. Attendees said:
- “Best session I’ve attended. Really good research done and thorough presentation content.”
- “Love the graphs, visits and tell data. Presentation is well prepared, entertaining, and informative every time.”
- “Dan always does a great job with metrics and data to show why we chart a course in consulting.”
- This is a mandatory session every year condensing a variety of information in one spot. The comparisons and data analysis are very valuable for smaller shops that are not able to run the extensive test scenarios featured in these sessions.”
- “Very informative. Loved the Chuck Norris jokes!”
SYN303 Independent Citrix experts’ deep dive on Remote Graphics, user experience and GPUs
In this session, two CTPs share highlights of the hundreds of new test scenarios they have executed. Learn more about GPU, user experience and resource consumption with XenDesktop, XenApp and Citrix Cloud. Attendees said:
- “Statistics, benchmarks, background, good speakers.”
- “It went into great detail on the comparisons between GPU products.”
- “Always awesome, super nerds.”
- “We watch this when I get back to work every year… Excellent as always.”
SYN305 Citrix provisioning survival guide
This session presents the ultimate list of dos and don’ts for Citrix provisioning—get tips on architecture design choices, pitfalls, sizing and best practices from the field. Attendees said:
- “Truthful insights without any bias.”
- “This was hands down the best session I have ever attended at Synergy or iForum. The content was completely relevant and timely.”
- “Pretty good high-level detail on PVS vs MCS.”
- “Great presenters who kept the content relevant and were engaging. Definitely recommend.”
- “Good explanation of strategies.”
SYN306 Solving PVS challenges with simple shell scripts
This session builds on practical examples from field implementations, covering differences in SDK versions between common releases. Attendees said:
- “These guys had just the right amount of humor and technical delivery to keep the entire audience engaged. Excellent presentation!”
- “So much useful information.”
- “Jim and Andy know what’s what with scripting and PVS (along with more). Attending this would help anyone who has PVS manually deployed.”
- “It really broke down the mechanics of how the PVS system works and the new cache features were great.”
- “Entertaining and educational.”
SYN330 Optimize and scale your XenApp and XenDesktop platform the CTP way
In this session, get the CTP view on HDX graphics modes and their impact on CPU and bandwidth, persistent desktops in a Citrix world, and power management. Attendees said:
- “Good to see the CTP angle on Citrix best practices and changes within updates.”
- “Would totally recommend. Session had me texting with my compute team verifying our settings.”
- “Very skilled presenters with many nice hints.”
- “Lots of useful tips that dive into specifics like how web browsing has a huge impact on density.”
Thank you to everyone who took time to fill out the surveys; your feedback is valuable to the events team and everyone who chooses to watch one of these sessions. Save the date for Citrix Synergy 2018, which is moving to Anaheim, California, May 8–10 at the Anaheim Convention Center. Meanwhile, be sure to check out Citrix Synergy TV for even more on-demand sessions.
