Citrix on the iPad

I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical about this, but as I think that “citrix-type” desktop virtualization is one of the best ways forward to maintain reasonable protection of organizational data (it’s just too darn hard to protect dozens, hundreds or thousands of full featured desktops in an organization), I decided to download the free iPad app and take a look. I’m pretty impressed! They let you create a demo account (not sure how long it persists) that gives you access to a Windows environment with Microsoft Office 2010 and some other tools. It took me a few minutes to figure out navigation, popping up the keyboard, “right” clicks, “Ctrl” key sequences, etc. I actually read the help and it was quite helpful!

Using Word was straightforward, though you do have to switch between scrolling and non-scrolling mode to scroll the display pane rather than move the screen. Pinch and zoom works to make small features easier to click. I went thru a Powerpoint presentation, even “right clicking” to back up slides. I did not try to see if it works with the VGA output.

I think that we’re going to continue to see an avalanche of useful business and productivity apps on the iPad…and with Android tablets right around the corner, Apple’s going to have to keep pushing the iPad platform aggressively, and to do that, they need to court the developer community…a virtuous cycle!

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