I was never in any doubt about Citrix XenApp Server’s ability to handle low speed connections, but recently I had an opportunity to prove that it really is the best in the business. I was flying from New York to Los Angeles on Virgin America and used their in-flight internet Wi-Fi. I was able to download my email, and connect in to our Citrix server to run some month end reports – fantastic.
However, all was not good on my travels; I was frustrated with my iPhone in that I had turned off data roaming for most of the time. Even though I used it sparingly, my bill for data roaming was 15x greater than a colleague who had a Blackberry – moral of the story, if you travel, a BlackBerry is your best bet! I allocate 50% of the problem to the actual device and its data usage, and the remainder to the gouging by mobile operators on their data plans.
With the pricing structures that both Vodafone and Telecom have for roaming, they made me think twice about alternative technology for making calls. Skype on my iPhone over Wi-Fi became my friend, and it was a great tool and cost saver.