RKON’s Cameron Christo interviewed by Citrix during Summit 2011

Video of RKON’s own Cameron Christo discussing Citrix’s acquisition of Kavisa, Citrix Xen Desktop and Xen App with Citrix during Summit 2011. See the interview on the Citrix website

Growing Into our New Office Space

Last December, we moved a couple blocks east to our new space at 328 S. Jefferson. With the addition of 25 new employees since January 2011 and our projected growth, we needed something much larger. This space fits the bill with double the footprint and many new amenities:

• New 100 Mb Internet
• Updated Mitel VoIP phone system
• New and improved performance Lab
• Open floor plan with all new furniture
• More conference/break out spaces
• New card access security for Front Door, Server Room, and NOC
• TV monitors in the NOC for monitoring
• Updated kitchen/eating area
• Larger server room

If you haven’t come by yet to see it, stop by.

RKON Expands into Florida Market

Microsoft Adding New Windows 8 VDI Companion Device License

Microsoft has created a completely arbitrary new subscription license that is absolutely impossible to track or enforce and makes licensing VDI even more of a mystery than it was before. Click here to learn more.

BYOD Survey – IT Faces Numerous Challenges Managing Devices

In a survey conducted jointly by SolarWinds and Network World, IT professionals responded:

• 44% of respondents said they’ve seen an increase in help desk requests.
• Over 40% said they’ve experienced an increase in network traffic.
• Over 65% said they don’t have the necessary tools in place to manage non-company-issued mobile devices on the network.
• Over 27% said they are not at all confident.

A recent Harris Interactive poll commissioned by ESET suggested:

• 81% use a personal electronic device for work-related functions.
• 31% connect to a company network via a free/public wi-fi connection.
• 46% who use a personal device for work let someone else use it.
• 66% who use a personal device for work say their organization has not implemented a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) policy.

Does your organization have a BYOD policy?

RKON and VMware Partnership

As part of RKON’s ongoing strategy, today we announced our enterprise level partnership with VMware.

This partnership allows us to offer greater support and expertise to our customers who are virtualizing their servers, desktops and applications.  As a result, RKON is able to offer complete solutions to our customers for initiatives like VDI, Data Center Consolidation or migration strategies to the Cloud.

RKON continues to offer its customers clear cost models and reduced risk when adopting new technology.  Our continued partnership with VMware enables RKON access a mature ecosystem where RKON can offer its innovative solution offerings.

Citrix abandons OpenStack, takes CloudStack to Apache

Infoworld.com reported that Citrix has abandoned its Olympus OpenStack distribution and will focus instead on its open-source CloudStack operating system, which it has contributed as a project under the Apache Software Foundation. Click here to learn more.

Recent Security Breach Affects MasterCard, VISA

On Friday, March 30, VISA and MasterCard alerted banks across the country about a recent major breach at U.S.-based credit card processor Global Payments. The alerts also said that full Track 1 and Track 2 data was taken—meaning that the information could be used to counterfeit new cards. This recent attack illustrates the need for continued vigilance in securing your network. Click here to learn more about this latest breach, involving at least 1.5 million accounts (as reported on krebsonsecurity.com).

If you are wondering if your network might be vulnerable, contact us now for an assessment.

Now Hiring: Citrix Administrator

Citrix Administrator

Are you looking for a cutting edge technology position with a leading Chicago IT organization? Are you looking for a position that encourages you to continue your professional growth with real world hands on exposure to a wide variety of today’s virtualization and cloud computing technologies and platforms? We are seeking to add an experienced Citrix Administrator to our Managed Services team. Candidates should thrive in an open, fast-paced environment with a range of learning opportunities. This position will report to our Chicago office and service clients generally in the Chicagoland area.

We are a full service networking consultant team headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. We also maintain top-tier partnerships with industry leading hardware and software companies such as Cisco, Juniper, Check Point, Citrix, Riverbed, NetApp, F5, and Microsoft.

The Citrix Administrator will ensure the stability, integrity, and performance of Citrix-based services, including XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop, Provisioning Server and Citrix EdgeSight. This role requires ability to maintain, support, troubleshoot, and optimize of all Citrix solutions. As a member of a team that provides 24 x 7 x 365 operational support for an enterprise application delivery solution, individual must be willing and capable of performing hands on Citrix management activities. Success in this role demands great customer service skills, strong technical knowledge and excellent organizational skills.

Required Skills
• Participates in the fulfillment of customer service requests as demand requires.
• Collaboration with the team in identifying new technology initiatives, standards & major changes or upgrades to production environments.
• Accurately maintains all documentation as it relates to configuration, processes, service records, asset inventories, topologies, administration manuals, job instructions, support contacts etc.
• Regularly audits and reports on relevant hardware & software sunset dates (EoL, EoS, etc.).
• Participates in assuring operational readiness of new technology releases into production.
• Maintains efficient deployment processes & techniques for continued roll outs of standardized Citrix hardware & configuration deployments which assure compliance with approved configuration standards.
• May perform technical design for major changes to existing Citrix environments.
• Conducts routine scheduled Citrix maintenance & upgrades.
• Ensures management is aware of all known and identified risks to system availability, performance, reliability and security.

Key Qualifications
• 2 or more years of proven and progressive Citrix enterprise services infrastructure support and implementation experience.
• Solid experience in XenApp, XenServer, XenDesktop, Provisioning Server and Citrix EdgeSight.
• Capable of working effectively with minimal direct supervision.
• Excellent customer service skills.
• Previous experience in enterprise class organizations is strongly preferred.

Technical Qualifications
• Solid, active hands on experience with Citrix technologies.
• Solid experience with Microsoft technologies (Active Directory, Terminal Services, Server OS, etc).
• Administration, maintenance, and troubleshooting of printing in Citrix environments.
• Strong background with Group Policy management and PowerShell scripting.
• Solid understanding of SAN storage (NetApp) configuration.
• Familiarity with NetScaler functionality and configuration.
• Exposure to a broad cross‐section of IT technologies and disciplines including networking, architecture and server virtualization.
• Solid theoretical knowledge and hands on experience configuring, troubleshooting, optimizing and managing most of the following software technologies:
• Citrix XenApp/Presentation Server; XenDesktop, XenServer; Provisioning Server; EdgeSight

Education & Certification
• College diploma or university degree in the field of computer science, computer information systems, or computer engineering preferred.

One or more of the following certifications is desired:
• CCA for Citrix Provisioning Server
• CCA for Citrix XenApp
• CCEE
• MCITP

Now Hiring: Network Engineer

Are you looking for a Network Engineer position with a leading Chicago technology organization?   Are you looking for a position that encourages you to continue your professional growth with real world hands on exposure to a wide variety of today’s networking and security technologies?  We are seeking to add an experienced engineer to our Managed Services team.  Candidates should thrive in an open, fast-paced environment with a range of learning opportunities.  This position will report to our Chicago office and service clients generally in the Chicago Land area.

We are a full service networking consultant team. We also maintain top-tier partnerships with industry leading hardware and software companies such as Cisco, Juniper, Check Point, Citrix, Riverbed, NetApp, F5, and Microsoft.

 Responsibilities include:

• Support our customer’s engineers with questions or issues they may have
• Effectively interact with customers whose skills may range to Level 3 expert network engineers
• Engineer and implement Managed Services solutions
• Occasional face to face interactions with customers in pre-sales support role, installations, or onsite projects.
• Design, build & configure Routers, switches, firewalls, and other IT appliances
• Document and diagram clients environments

The following are essential for this position:

• Must have experience with an emphasis on client or customer support as a network engineer
• Must have solid current hands-on expertise with networking technologies – certification highly desired
• Must have solid experience with networking protocols such as BGP & OSPF
• Additionally other technologies such as Citrix, Check Point, F5, Juniper, Riverbed, NetApp experience and certifications a plus
• Proven record of organization and documentation skills
• Minimum of 3-5 years network engineering and support experience.
• Self-motivated and comfortable in a fast-paced startup culture.
• A “smart risk-taker” marked by creativity and strong problem solving skills.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written and oral).
• BA/BS in information technology or related field, or equivalent experience.
• Expertise with a variety of tools used for monitoring and managing networks

Please provide desired salary and salary history on resume.  If you feel that your skills are a match to our requirements, please email your resume in Word or text format to: resume@rkon.com