Loving the iPad: A Real Computer for Virtualizing Enterprise Apps

The iPad is dropping soon. The question remains, how big of an opportunity is it for the enterprise? Today we take a look at the work being done by software virtualization leader Citrix to get ready for streaming applications to the iPad. And we find that it looks more promising than ever to move quickly to supporting a tablet experience in the four walls of the enterprise.

Building on the massive momentum of the iPhone, software virtualization (running non native apps directly from iPad) allows existing apps to run on iPad without changing them. Citrix Reciever, an application designed to bring streaming software from one machine to your iPhone is being prepared for the iPad, and will also be able to interact with existing Windows applications in production environments.

The Ultimate Mashup: iPad Enterprise-Ready on Day 1

If your application isn't designed for Safari, or uses media objects that don't run on the iPhone, using Citrix Receiver - along with some design considerations - can give you an amazing mobile-ready experience for your existing applications. The Citrix Community Blog takes a look on how to optimize your current Web applications and desktop tools for the iPhone and iPad.

Attention to Detail

We thought that perhaps all of this is too good to be true, so we reached out to Chris Fleck of the Citrix mobile team. Here's what we learned.

• Can iPad processor handle virtualized software and display it smoothly? The A4 1 ghz processor looks like its clearly up to the task of delivering Web and desktop applications to the device and rendering them in real-time. The Citrix Receiver is already working on the iPhone, so at first glance it looks like scaling up to the bigger screen size scales nicely with the faster processor.
• What about the issue of background processing? This was one of the obstacles we were initially wary of. Today, the iPhone does a great job of enabling hooks within applications to remember the state of the application when it shuts down, so when going back there's the same map or email. Citrix Receiver does a similar thing, but even goes further by allowing the application to continue (if wanted) to run in the background on the host. And, according to Fleck, IT can set a policy on whether the application requires a new logon or not based on your preferences.
• Can it be branded and have my own icon? So, we wondered, can a team customize this experience so it carries the proper branding? Citrix Receiver allows you to drop a custom icon onto the desktop of the application, which is preset to a specific location on the homescreen of the iPhone/iPad and to a specific Citrix hosted app.
• Screen size. Steve Jobs said on stage at the Jan. 28 event, iPad is "the best Web browsing experience you'll ever have." One of our questions was whether the iPad would work well for existing applications. The good news as reported by Fleck on his blog: "It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024x768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once."
• Interactions: Mouse, gestures, landscape? Okay, so this is area that is going to be hard to confirm until we touch it, but we asked some hard questions. First, whether gestures will be supported, such as swiping, zooming, and the virtual keyboard. The answer is yes. Those are in the iPhone Receiver application now and are being worked on behind the scenes. In short, with the native functions in the iPhone SDK and some design work by Citrix, a good experience will be delivered out of the box.
• What about video, Flash, or processor heavy applications? One use that we expect to be important is the use of streaming protocols. This is an area where it is not yet clear that the processor has enough juice to keep up with streaming video. In exploring this with the Citrix team, we discussed ways to use smart application design (e.g. moving the video streaming out of the Receiver and into native apps) so that streaming video or Flash applications with lots of screen activity are optimized for viewing on the mobile device. Standard Flash applications should be no problem at all. It's is something that is still speculative in our minds, but this could very well be a place where a mixed-mode design could support streaming needs and also support the native Web applications.
• Peaceful co-existence: Native vs. non native apps joined as one? This is one of the areas we dove into. Is it possible for a user to have a great experience when in the virtual session and then go back and forth to native applications? Apple, by being forward thinking in the integration of Web applications has provided several tools to make this easier. First, proxy settings to open up native apps when links are clicked, and the ability to drag the virtual apps (like Web apps) to the home page of the iPad or iPhone go a long way in giving the tools to developers.

  Citrix Receiver does part of the work by creating a way for a Web link to have a custom icon and can "remember" its session so that when the application is clicked on, it goes to the right place in the virtual application. What does this mean? Since Safari is running on the iPhone/iPad and can not display a Receiver app at the same time, the real enterprise app could be running on a Citrix server and quickly reconnected after leaving Safari.
  

Health Care Opportunity

A few weeks back, we explored the opportunity of an iPad-like device in health care. In the context of virtualization leading the way to enterprise adoption, the hospital may be sweet spot for innovation.

If you're an EPIC or Cerner shop already, you are likely using software virtualization to deploy EHR (electronic health records) to your PCs in your hospitals. Citrix is already in this software virtualization space with its XENDesktop and XENApp products. Right now, we can picture the smiles on the folks in Kaiser Permanente's IT team. Their jobs just got more interesting, an effect we expect to see rippling across the industry.

Who Wins

Microsoft Windows: Applications get another client, and Microsoft wins in keeping its customers happy in supporting the newest innovation in technology.

Apple: The iPad will be able to run native apps and virtualized enterprised apps at the same time. A new opportunity in the iEnterprise and more sales into the channel. Perhaps it will take the iPad to finally bring the iPhone inside as well.

Citrix: It goes without saying that the XENDesktop and XENApp clients will rely heavily on this capability. New customers may emerge, and existing customers will get massive value from their existing relationships with Citrix.

Epic and Cerner: This is a bit harder to predict, but we suspect that even though these vendors are moving forward with their native iPhone applications, it can only be good news to see their existing products get support from the iPad. With this, the work of optimization can begin. In the future, we can see tuning one of these applications to enable "virtual but custom" views on the iPad and iPhone, while supporting investments already in place today.

Cisco's network: Having been a Cisco employee for five years in the past, I always like it when the network wins. Here, it clearly does, where streaming applications in real-time saves time and money, and then brings more value to real-time connections

Users everywhere: And finally, those of us who spend time in the large enterprise. It just wouldn't be fair for another class of cool technology to pass by the knowledge workers. This might be the time to investigate for your team how you might be able to get iPad in your hands - sooner than later.

Are you thinking of iPad and have XENDesktop today? Do you see holes in this approach to bringing the tablet to the enterprise?

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/cloud/2010/02/ipad-virtulaization-enterprise-applications.php?utm_source=ReadWriteCloud&utm_medium=rwchomepage&utm_campaign=ReadWriteCloud_posts&utm_content=Loving%20the%20iPad:%20A%20Real%20Computer%20for%20Virtualizing%20Enterprise%20Apps

Mobile Data Traffic Surge: 40 Exabytes by 2014

In only four short years, the worldwide mobile data traffic will reach 40 exabytes per year. This is according to new research from Cisco which sees the traffic jumping from 0.09 exabytes per month in 2009 to 3.6 exabytes per month by 2014. And in case you don't know what an exabyte is, it's 1 billion gigabytes. That's one quintillion bytes.

It appears that not only does the mobile web have a future, the mobile web is the future.

Global mobile data traffic has increased 160% over the course of the past year and is now at 90 petabytes per month, or the equivalent of 23 million DVDs, according to the Cisco Visual Networking Index (VNI) Global Mobile Data Forecast for 2009-2014. By 2014, it will have reached 3.6 exabytes per month, a 39-fold increase.

The researchers said there are two major global trends driving up the data usage. One, obviously, is the increase in the number of data-ready handsets. Simply put, more handsets capable of browsing the web means more data usage. By 2014, there could be over 5 billion personal devices connecting to mobile networks and over 400 million of those devices may represent the only means of connecting to the Internet that some people will have.

However, it's important to note that in Cisco's study, they also counted laptop air cards as mobile Internet devices, so these numbers don't just speak to the proliferation of smartphones themselves, they speak to how we will increasingly be using cellular data networks to access the Web in the future.

The other major trend driving up the data traffic numbers is the consumption of mobile video content. By 2014, mobile video will account for 66% of all mobile data traffic worldwide. This represents a 66-fold increase from 2009, the highest of any mobile data application. This expected increase has been noticed by other studies, too. In September 2009, for example, U.K.-based research firm Coda reported that we'll be using 1.8 exabytes of video per month by 2017.

Another way to get a handle on the increase is to look at the average mobile broadband connection and how much data traffic it uses. Right now, the average connection uses 1.3 gigabytes per month - the equivalent of 650 MP3 music files. By 2014, the average connection will use 7 gigabytes of traffic per month or the equivalent of 3500 MP3's.

The Middle East and Africa will have the highest compounded annual growth rate (CAGR), with a rate of 133%. Following that region is Asia-Pacific (119% CAGR), and North America (117% CAGR). India will be the country with the highest CAGR - they'll be at 222%. China will follow with a 172% CAGR and South Africa will have a 156% CAGR.

These are just some of the highlights from Cisco's research. If you're interested in learning more, you can read through the entire report here.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/mobile_data_traffic_surge_40_exabytes_by_2014.php

MeeGo: A New Linux OS to Fight iPhone, iPad and More

Nokia and Intel have just announced the creation of MeeGo, a new Linux-based operating system designed for portable devices including netbooks and smartphones as well as other non-desktop platforms like connected TVs and vehicles. The new OS is a combination of Nokia's Maemo and Intel's Moblin, both Linux-based computing environments. This partnership is notable not just for combining two different Linux platforms under one roof, but for its cross-platform support of both Intel and ARM chips, the latter currently popular in mobile devices like Apple's iPhone thanks to its low power consumption needs.

The MeeGo operating system is designed to let developers write once and then deploy to a number of hardware platforms including everything from smartphones to netbooks and more, a popular strategy these days in an increasingly fragmented mobile world. The same strategy has also been recently embraced by Adobe, who now lets their developers write once and then deploy their Flash apps to any operating system, both desktop and laptop-based or mobile.

Applications that previously worked on Maemo or Moblin will work on the new MeeGo OS, too, say the companies. Also, the new platform is not intended to replace Nokia's own Symbian OS, Nokia assures. Instead, using the Qt application and UI framework, developers can deploy apps to both MeeGo and other platforms, including Symbian. The resulting applications will then be marketed through Nokia's Ovi Store, for all MeeGo and Symbian-based Nokia devices while Intel's AppUp Center will handle the marketing of apps for Intel-based MeeGo devices.

Open Source vs. iPhone OS...and More

Both companies are positioning the new OS an open source alternative to the iPhone App Store model. Although they don't come out and directly call out the popular Apple iPhone OS by name, they hint at it by stating that with MeeGo, people "are not locked into one kind of device or those from any individual manufacturer."

Both companies are also preparing for a new range of tablet devices that will compete against the trail-blazing iPad. In an interview with CNet, Renee J. James, a senior vice president at Intel, affirms that "this kind of operating environment is targeted very well for a tablet-style device."

However, the platform isn't meant to just compete with Apple products. It will also go up against the upcoming netbook OS from Google, Chrome OS, as well as mobile, tablet, and in-car OS's from other vendors, including Microsoft.

MeeGo will arrive in the second quarter of 2010 with products becoming available starting in the third quarter.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/meego_a_new_linux_os_to_fight_iphone_ipad_and_more.php

Carriers Connect to Rival Apple's App Store

The Apple App Store, the company's one-stop-shop for over 100,000 different mobile applications, is getting a new rival - the Wholesale Applications Community. Twenty four individual mobile companies are joining together to form the group, which will represent over three billion customers world-wide.

While the applications will not be for the iPhone, and therefor not direct competition to the App Store, a centralized location for mobile applications may lure potential customers away from Apple and its iPhone.

According to the press release, the group is meant to be "an alliance to build an open platform that delivers applications to all mobile phone users." AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, Sprint and Verizon Wireless are among the companies joining the initiative. Three device manufacturers - LG Electronics, Samsung and Sony Ericsson - are also on board.

The alliance "aims to unite a fragmented marketplace and create an open industry platform that benefits everybody". The group will be conversing with W3C, the web standards consortium, to develop a standard for mobile application development. The group intends to make cross-platform development for a number a different mobile devices possible, with those applications available in one location, much in the same way that all Apple users rely on the app store.

The main question we have is, will this store also create the closed atmosphere that many complain about with the app store? Will there be a verification process for apps, giving the alliance the same sort of control Apple has, or will it be more of an open environment?

According to the release, the group aims to create "an ecosystem for the development and distribution of mobile and internet applications irrespective of device or technology," so on that end, things look good.

We would have to agree with Google, however, in noting that the number of different device technologies and platforms could make the dream of a unified mobile front against the dominant iPhone could just be a pipe dream.

 

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/carriers_connect_to_rival_apples_app_store.php

Virtualization Is the Trojan Horse to Take the iPad Beyond Apple’s OS

Citrix’s quiet announcement that its Receiver software will allow Apple iPad users to run Windows 7 sessions via virtualization has caused some to suggest that the iPad may have much promise as a business tool. But why stop at Windows? The iPad will reach beyond Apple’s iPhone OS and Windows.

As Citrix vice president Chris Fleck has noted in a blog post:

“It turns out the 9.7 inch display on the iPad with a 1024×768 screen resolution works great for a full VDI XenDesktop. Windows applications run unmodified and securely in the data center, and even multiple applications at once. The advancements that were made for the Citrix Receiver for iPhone will carry over to the iPad, however the iPhone restrictions of screen size and small keyboards are overcome with the iPad. It’s a beautiful thing!”

One of the primary details to note there is that multiple Windows 7 applications can run in a session on an iPad via Citrix Receiver and Xen virtualization. Of course, it’s also important to note that Fleck is describing applications housed on remote servers — not running locally. Apple has already announced that it will have its iWork applications available for the iPad, but why won’t many Windows 7-centric users and businesses want access to Windows applications that they can run concurrently as well? Doing so could eliminate multitasking limitations inherent to the iPhone OS, and a larger screen than the iPhone’s will only help encourage such usage.

PC World’s Randall Kennedy argues that the iPad’s limited connectivity and lack of a keyboard and a mouse will keep many business users from adopting it, even if it does Windows 7 sessions. I, too, have expressed my doubts about whether Apple will even market the iPad toward business users, and many Windows 7 users may favor Windows tablets over the iPad. Still, the more I think about it, the more it seems inevitable that the iPad, through virtualization, will reach out to other operating systems featuring myriad types of applications.

Also, why stop at Windows? Many businesses run on Linux platforms with robust virtualization options. Lots of Linux users are used to running Linux in conjunction with other operating systems, and they may reach for virtualization as a way to extend what their iPads can do, too. Despite its cloud-centric focus, users of Google’s upcoming Linux-based Chrome OS may end up wanting to add virtualized sessions to their iPad arsenals, too, especially because of the strong security it promises to have.

Years ago, virtualization implied performance hits and other problems that made it impractical for many users, but that has changed. Even though the iPhone OS doesn’t include it natively, the writing is already on the wall that other players will deliver virtualized solutions for the iPad. They’ll be available for free, too. One of the key drivers for all of this is that, as always,  rich applications are what solidify the future of hardware devices. For that reason alone, the iPad will reach out to other operating systems — and apps for them –whether Apple likes it or not.

 

http://gigaom.com/2010/02/09/virtualization-is-the-trojan-horse-to-take-the-ipad-beyond-apples-os/

All about EPUB, the ebook standard for Apple's iBookstore

Overlooked in much of the hype about the iPad announcement earlier in the week was a comment by Steve Jobs in the Keynote presentation where he mentioned that the iBooks app for iPad would take advantage of the popular EPUB format for electronic books. Since we're all going to get a lot more familiar with this format in the near future, we felt it would be a good time to provide our readers with more information about EPUB.

EPUB is the same format used by the popular Stanza [free, iTunes link] app for iPhone and iPod touch. It's a free and open standard format created by the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), and it's designed for reflowable content that can be optimized to whatever device is being used to read a book file. The IDPF has championed EPUB as a single format that can be used by publishers and conversion houses, as well as for distribution and sale of electronic books.

The format is meant to function as a single format that publishers and conversion houses can use in-house, as well as for distribution and sale. It supports digital rights management, something that's sure to warm the cockles of the hearts of publishers, but there's no DRM scheme that is currently specified as part of the format.

Other ebook readers that currently use the format include the Barnes & Noble Nook, the Sony Reader, iRex Digital Reader, and the iRiver Story.

If you're a budding publisher and want to get your ebook into the iBookstore, you'll need a tool to help you create your document in the EPUB format. Of course, we don't know if just anyone will be able to self-publish for the iBookstore, but Apple does note that they will have books from both "major and independent" publishers available.

For Mac users, the choice of tools is small, but good. First, there's the free Calibre ebook management tool. Calibre converts a number of different file formats to EPUB, so it's a good tool for doing an initial conversion. However, to do a lot of formatting, you'll need a full-powered EPUB editor like Sigil. Sigil is a free open-source editor that runs on a number of platforms including Mac OS X.

Next, there's the inexpensive (US$49.99 for a single license) iStudio Publisher. iStudio Publisher is a full-fledged desktop publishing application that can export text flows in EPUB format -- while that's good to hear, it's unclear if iStudio Publisher EPUB files can include photographs or diagrams.

If you happen to be an Adobe InDesign CS4 (US$699) user, you're in luck. The top-of-the-line tool for design and publishing supports EPUB, and it is possible to create files that will work on Amazon's Kindle as well. Lexcycle, the company that created Stanza, has a complete list of the tools for production and conversion of files here. It wouldn't be surprising to see a future version of Pages develop into a way to create EPUB documents.

While EPUB is a popular format, it's not without criticism. The format is great for text-centric books, but is considered unsuitable for publications that require advanced formatting or detailed layout, such as comic books and technical tomes. That could result in some issues for textbook publishers. The lack of a standard DRM scheme could cause the format to splinter into different factions unless Apple forces the issue by adopting an open scheme.

There are also issues with the lack of detail on links within EPUB books. This makes it impossible or difficult to link ebooks, or even provide links within an EPUB book. It appears from the keynote demonstration that Apple has come up with their own "standard" for linking, as there were very active examples of linking from a table of contents to individual pages within an ebook. The standards for annotating EPUB are also lacking, which means that each company using EPUB is coming up with their own way of handling this.

There's a very good possibility that Apple has created their own in-house standards for DRM, linking, and annotation. If the iPad and iBookstore are the successful products that they can be, Apple could finally force the industry to adopt a more robust EPUB standard.

So, that's it for our roundup of all things EPUB. As TUAW receives more information about how iBook and the iBookstore are going to work, we'll be sure to pass it along.

http://www.tuaw.com/2010/01/31/all-about-epub-the-ebook-standard-for-apples-ibookstore/

How should an iPad app differ from an iPhone app?

Skout, maker of the flirting-and-dating iPhone app, sent us an advance screenshot of the iPad version of their app. It will ship prrrrrobably in time for the first iPads — you never know with Apple’s mystery-box app review process.

I asked Skout to explain exactly how the design and expected use of the iPad app differs from the iPhone version. Here’s the bullet-list version of their answer:

- More real estate to play with. The iPad version will have a “Split View”, which allows two views to be visible at the same time. In the screen shot you see the HotMap and Singles Around You.

- Skout plans to make the two views dynamic, so that you can have open chat windows on the bottom of the screen, as you browse for more people on the Singles Around You section, for example. Maybe you want to browse someone’s photos as you are chatting with them. That can be done with the iPad, but is not easily done on the iPhone.

- With easier access to controls, the Split Vew can make detailed information accessible without deep hierarchies.

- Skout expects this app to be used mostly for browsing content and chatting with other singles.

- On Skout’s iPhone app, 80% of all pictures are taken with the iPhone camera. The camera-less iPad will require users to take their photos with another gadget.

- It is likely people will be less mobile using iPad, although that remains to be seen. Typical use won’t be “I’m out on a Friday night and no one in this bar appeals to me,” but rather, “I’m at home on my couch wanting to connect with hotties using my iPad.”

- HotMap (this might make it to the iPhone as well. Skout hasn’t decided yet.) Skout will provide iPad users with a Live HotMap that can show current and recent activity in their city based on your search criteria. Typical use case: “I would like to know where all the single Asian women between 26-38 (this is just an example, ok?) are hanging out tonight.” The HotMap would then show where you are most likely to encounter such women tonight based on recent check-ins, picture posts, status updates, etc. The app also takes historical data into account. Data is pulled from both Skout and from gay chat app Boy Ahoy.

 

http://venturebeat.com/2010/02/01/how-should-an-ipad-app-differ-from-an-iphone-app/