On Line Demos for Server Based Computing
The emails are going out to the SBC vendors listed in the left column asking them about their products. And I have received some return emails. Several including names of real people within the organization. One vendor had a technical representative ring me as they promised they would do. But that is not today's topic. We will come back to that topic on a later date.
As I started going down the list in the left column from 2 to T looking for contact names, I came across a blog within the Sun Development Network maintained by Greg Murray. In his blog he has a quote "A demo is worth 1000 words". How many vendors are confident of their products usability that they will allow a village idiot like me to test their product on line, in real time, via the Internet? Let's go surfing.
The test machine is an old IBM PIII with 512 MB of ram. The Bios has been updated to the 11/5/03 version. The operating system is Xandros 3.0.2 Deluxe with a build date of 2005-06-23 11:43. The browser is Firefox 1.0.7.
Lets start with Greg's blog. You can browse over to SDN using the AJAX link in the left column. Select Blog Central, then Choose Greg's blog. Or click here if you are in hurry to get to Murray. Technically this demo would not pass over my threshold as a demo of product usability. But I did borrow his 1000 word line and it was his blog that initiated the idea of searching for on line demos while waiting for SBC vendors to respond to my request for information.
There are four links to servlets for testing. Autocomplete, Basic Progress Bar, Realtime Form Validation, and Refreshing Data. Perhaps a corollary to "A demo is worth 1000 words" is a "journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step". With the exception of software development. You have to go about 685 miles before you run your first real build. Of course accounting now notes that you two thirds complete and informs marketing of their calculation. Marketing creates a press release that says development is more than two thirds done and expect a product release next quarter.
There is also a video "AJAX in Action". Warning, no car chases even though the sound track leads you to expect one.
Next on the list is Citrix. Citrix has "Auto Run Demos" and on line product tests. You can use the link in the left column to browse over to Citrix or click here to jump to their demos.
The topics include:
* Citrix Access Suite 4
* Citrix Presentation Server 4
* Citrix Password Manager 4
* Citrix & Courion Enterprise Single -Sigh-on and User Provisioning Solution
* Calculate Savings with the ROI Calculator
* Access Infrastructure for Government
* Access Infrastructure for Healthcare
* Access Infrastructure for Manufacturing
* Access Infrastructure for Education
* Access Infrastructure for Financial Services
* Introduction to Citrix SmoothRoaming
* Introduction to Citrix IT Consolidation
There are a few hardware requirements listed to view the Auto Demos. The presentations are very good and present the Citrix solutions. The product tests are located at the bottom of the demo screen and may be selected by company and product. May require a Java download.
ERICOM's demo page contains access to Windows and browser based applications. Click "here" to go directly to their demo page. The demos include a Windows application as well as connections to AS/400 session. They also have Power Term Web Connect for Java Client that I used to connect a AS/400 inventory application and two Open VMS demo sessions. It should be noted that ERICOM offers free support for downloaded evaluations. Many may agree that this may be as good, if not better, than a on line demo.
GraphOn GO-Global demo is very easy to test. GraphOn has Internet Explorer and Netscape clients. You can also select the Java "no client download" for this demo. Click on the GraphOn link in the left column and then select demo at the bottom of the home page or jump to their demonstration page by clicking "here". The day I was testing, I had some difficulties loading the word application from their server. However, I located another GraphOn demo site at Resource Dynamics that was operating at 100%. Click "here" to jump to the demo registration screen or click "Resource Dynamics" to go their home page. I selected the Java option because it has a zero foot print on my machine. Their demonstration page includes real applications that they offer with GO-Global. The performance was surprisingly good.
HOBLink has a on line demo that permits you to log into MS Server 2003 with just three clicks on the mouse. In fact once you are in, just double click on the short cut to the word document "Guestbook". Make a comment and leave you name on the document. Skeptical?
First click: HOBLink in the left column.
Second click: "Test Drive HOBLink JWT Online!" It is the second line on the page.
Third Click: "Test HOBLink JWT from Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, Apple MAC" about halfway down on the page.
Double click the shortcut to the "Guestbook" word document. Done.
I left a comment in the quest book. Wonder how long it will be there?
The last vendor on the list with a on line demo is NoMachine. In my opinion it is the best on line demo but it is not just three clicks to get there. However, this village idiot was able to successfully configure and run the on line demo on his first attempt.
The NoMachine test drive requires that a client component to be downloaded and installed. You can click on the NoMachine link in the left column to go to their Home Page. On the right of their home page is a box labeled "NX test drive". Click on this box and you are taken to the registration page. Select a country and then provide NoMachine with your name and email address. Within minutes you will receive the host name, log in name and password. Halfway home.
Just at the bottom of this screen is a link to "Step by Step" instructions. Just click on NoMachine "Here" link and your are taken to a page with "Step by Step" instructions. Select a topic and the preferred format to view. The documentation is good.
Just to right is a link to the download page. Available clients include Windows, Linux, Mac, and Solaris. I tested the Windows and Linux clients. I have some Server Based Computing experience but it still appears to me to be an easy download and install. Windows is just some mouse clicks. The Linux install is an RPM package. After the install copy the NoMachine icon to the desktop and off you go. The NoMachine documentation has a description for all the log in options. I used a KDE desktop on one test and GNOME on another.
April 10 Update. While out on the Tarantella old web site I clicked on their Live Demo link and was taken to Sun Micros Secure Global Desktop demo. Could not find the link via the SUN web site but have included the link to https://sgddemo.sun.com. No need to enter name or a password, just click on login to test the demo. Java enabled browser is required.
Finally, I added webexone to the demo list for two reasons. One, they know how to do a live demo and their product is most interesting. They claim that within 60 seconds you can be on line and testing their Web Office. Yes you can. They also have webinars and LIVE Chat to make sure you are able to use the product. I tested the live chat and a representative was on line in under a minute. The vendor offers a 30 day free trial and I am going to allocate some time over the next 30 days to better understand the product and it features. Is that not what a demo should do? Click on the link in the left column to get a 30 day trial.
There must be some reasons why the other vendors do not have an online demonstration of the product. Let us know what you think about the benefits of an on line demo or some reasons why they are not necessary.
Until the next post,
Steve
As I started going down the list in the left column from 2 to T looking for contact names, I came across a blog within the Sun Development Network maintained by Greg Murray. In his blog he has a quote "A demo is worth 1000 words". How many vendors are confident of their products usability that they will allow a village idiot like me to test their product on line, in real time, via the Internet? Let's go surfing.
The test machine is an old IBM PIII with 512 MB of ram. The Bios has been updated to the 11/5/03 version. The operating system is Xandros 3.0.2 Deluxe with a build date of 2005-06-23 11:43. The browser is Firefox 1.0.7.
Lets start with Greg's blog. You can browse over to SDN using the AJAX link in the left column. Select Blog Central, then Choose Greg's blog. Or click here if you are in hurry to get to Murray. Technically this demo would not pass over my threshold as a demo of product usability. But I did borrow his 1000 word line and it was his blog that initiated the idea of searching for on line demos while waiting for SBC vendors to respond to my request for information.
There are four links to servlets for testing. Autocomplete, Basic Progress Bar, Realtime Form Validation, and Refreshing Data. Perhaps a corollary to "A demo is worth 1000 words" is a "journey of a 1000 miles begins with a single step". With the exception of software development. You have to go about 685 miles before you run your first real build. Of course accounting now notes that you two thirds complete and informs marketing of their calculation. Marketing creates a press release that says development is more than two thirds done and expect a product release next quarter.
There is also a video "AJAX in Action". Warning, no car chases even though the sound track leads you to expect one.
Next on the list is Citrix. Citrix has "Auto Run Demos" and on line product tests. You can use the link in the left column to browse over to Citrix or click here to jump to their demos.
The topics include:
* Citrix Access Suite 4
* Citrix Presentation Server 4
* Citrix Password Manager 4
* Citrix & Courion Enterprise Single -Sigh-on and User Provisioning Solution
* Calculate Savings with the ROI Calculator
* Access Infrastructure for Government
* Access Infrastructure for Healthcare
* Access Infrastructure for Manufacturing
* Access Infrastructure for Education
* Access Infrastructure for Financial Services
* Introduction to Citrix SmoothRoaming
* Introduction to Citrix IT Consolidation
There are a few hardware requirements listed to view the Auto Demos. The presentations are very good and present the Citrix solutions. The product tests are located at the bottom of the demo screen and may be selected by company and product. May require a Java download.
ERICOM's demo page contains access to Windows and browser based applications. Click "here" to go directly to their demo page. The demos include a Windows application as well as connections to AS/400 session. They also have Power Term Web Connect for Java Client that I used to connect a AS/400 inventory application and two Open VMS demo sessions. It should be noted that ERICOM offers free support for downloaded evaluations. Many may agree that this may be as good, if not better, than a on line demo.
GraphOn GO-Global demo is very easy to test. GraphOn has Internet Explorer and Netscape clients. You can also select the Java "no client download" for this demo. Click on the GraphOn link in the left column and then select demo at the bottom of the home page or jump to their demonstration page by clicking "here". The day I was testing, I had some difficulties loading the word application from their server. However, I located another GraphOn demo site at Resource Dynamics that was operating at 100%. Click "here" to jump to the demo registration screen or click "Resource Dynamics" to go their home page. I selected the Java option because it has a zero foot print on my machine. Their demonstration page includes real applications that they offer with GO-Global. The performance was surprisingly good.
HOBLink has a on line demo that permits you to log into MS Server 2003 with just three clicks on the mouse. In fact once you are in, just double click on the short cut to the word document "Guestbook". Make a comment and leave you name on the document. Skeptical?
First click: HOBLink in the left column.
Second click: "Test Drive HOBLink JWT Online!" It is the second line on the page.
Third Click: "Test HOBLink JWT from Windows, Linux, Sun Solaris, Apple MAC" about halfway down on the page.
Double click the shortcut to the "Guestbook" word document. Done.
I left a comment in the quest book. Wonder how long it will be there?
The last vendor on the list with a on line demo is NoMachine. In my opinion it is the best on line demo but it is not just three clicks to get there. However, this village idiot was able to successfully configure and run the on line demo on his first attempt.
The NoMachine test drive requires that a client component to be downloaded and installed. You can click on the NoMachine link in the left column to go to their Home Page. On the right of their home page is a box labeled "NX test drive". Click on this box and you are taken to the registration page. Select a country and then provide NoMachine with your name and email address. Within minutes you will receive the host name, log in name and password. Halfway home.
Just at the bottom of this screen is a link to "Step by Step" instructions. Just click on NoMachine "Here" link and your are taken to a page with "Step by Step" instructions. Select a topic and the preferred format to view. The documentation is good.
Just to right is a link to the download page. Available clients include Windows, Linux, Mac, and Solaris. I tested the Windows and Linux clients. I have some Server Based Computing experience but it still appears to me to be an easy download and install. Windows is just some mouse clicks. The Linux install is an RPM package. After the install copy the NoMachine icon to the desktop and off you go. The NoMachine documentation has a description for all the log in options. I used a KDE desktop on one test and GNOME on another.
April 10 Update. While out on the Tarantella old web site I clicked on their Live Demo link and was taken to Sun Micros Secure Global Desktop demo. Could not find the link via the SUN web site but have included the link to https://sgddemo.sun.com. No need to enter name or a password, just click on login to test the demo. Java enabled browser is required.
Finally, I added webexone to the demo list for two reasons. One, they know how to do a live demo and their product is most interesting. They claim that within 60 seconds you can be on line and testing their Web Office. Yes you can. They also have webinars and LIVE Chat to make sure you are able to use the product. I tested the live chat and a representative was on line in under a minute. The vendor offers a 30 day free trial and I am going to allocate some time over the next 30 days to better understand the product and it features. Is that not what a demo should do? Click on the link in the left column to get a 30 day trial.
There must be some reasons why the other vendors do not have an online demonstration of the product. Let us know what you think about the benefits of an on line demo or some reasons why they are not necessary.
Until the next post,
Steve
