Citrix Receiver w/ ShareFile (R1) Review

I recently caught a tweet from Trond E Haavarstein (@xenappblog) stating Citrix had released a test Receiver client for the iPad called "R1".  I immediately went out and installed it from the AppStore. Right off the bat, I noticed a new tab off to the right called "Docs". This tab provides ShareFile integration with Receiver. TOTALLY AWESOME! So I have been toying around with this client for a couple of weeks and I have to say, its pretty impressive. I enjoyed the ability to add my favorite docs to the home screen. In addition, you can use the Docs tab without being connected to your VDI environment which is nice. R1 in conjunction with ShareFile sync for Windows, provides a really cool way to keep your mission critical documents in sync with your XenApp or XenDesktop (or both) environment. I believe ShareFile can be utilized in a way that it might rid administrators, or at least shrink the Folder Redirection foot print found in VDI today. I see ShareFile with vDisk as a total win-win and I hope to test that theory in our lab in the upcoming weeks. In addition, ShareFile with StorageZones (Announced at Synergy) will provide enterprise companies with a lil more comfort, knowing their sensitive corp data is still in house, but still provide a means to deliver data to the ever growing BYOD/Mobile worker.  This certainly fits right in with Citrix's Follow me Data pitch. Of course there are some technical questions that come up like, quota restrictions, latency issues, encryption, etc. I will mention that the R1 client has a short, few second delay from the time you tap the "Docs" tab, to the time your ShareFile docs actually come up. Some folks might find that annoying. I do believe there is some really nice potential for ShareFile in VDI-land. Stay tuned for some more posts as I get my testing underway. Cheers!