Robin Wauters

Last week at Citrix Synergy, Citrix Systems announced the availability of the latest Citrix XenServer release, which delivers additional features across the product line, enhancing the enterprise-ready, cloud-proven virtualization platform with all the capabilities needed to create and manage a virtual infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of competing products.

The new XenServer 5.6 delivers enhanced virtualization management capabilities for both the free XenServer, as well as the more advanced Enterprise and Platinum editions. Citrix also introduced a new low-priced XenServer Advanced Edition, making it easier for enterprise and cloud customers running free XenServer to add more advanced high availability and management capabilities at a fraction of the cost of competing solutions.

XenServer 5.6 adds multiple new features designed to address the common challenges faced by IT administrators when managing virtual environments, including:

• The XenServer 5.6 Free edition enhances the existing enterprise features to extend the limits of host memory, CPU, network and operating system support. While the free edition already provides a rich feature set for enterprises to deploy and centrally manage full enterprise-class virtualization on any number of servers with no upfront costs, the enhancements in XenServer 5.6 enable virtualization users to achieve greater server consolidation ratios, flexibility and best-in-class VM density for server, cloud and desktop workloads.
• The new XenServer 5.6 Advanced edition includes everything in the free edition, as well as dynamic memory control, high availability and a host of advanced reporting and alerting capabilities. The Advanced edition is designed to provide a simple and cost-effective solution for enterprise customers and cloud providers to deliver highly available application services from their virtual infrastructure.
• New and enhanced capabilities added to XenServer 5.6 Enterprise include automated workload balancing, host power management, advanced storage integration with StorageLink™, live memory snapshots and role based administration. The Enterprise edition has been the primary choice for a majority of XenServer customers because it builds on the enterprise-ready, cloud-proven free edition to enable customers to integrate directly with a wide range of enterprise storage environments. The new XenServer 5.6 Enterprise Edition not only expands StorageLink™ support, but also adds new features to existing storage management capabilities, enabling customers to optimize application performance, reduce power consumption and define detailed access rules and roles for managing virtualization infrastructures.
• XenServer 5.6 Platinum extends the free, Advanced and Enterprise editions to deliver a suite of IT automation capabilities that help administrators accelerate the delivery of IT services that drive the business. Specifically, XenServer 5.6 adds StorageLink SiteRecovery and a self-service portal extension to Lab Manager. The new SiteRecovery technology provides an automated way to recover from a datacenter outage through a single console that leverages the native capabilities of a customer’s existing storage array. The self-service portal enables employees to quickly access needed IT resources, allowing them to create new environments or use an existing virtual environment, along with on-demand documentation.

XenServer 5.6 will be available on May 28. The new XenServer Advanced Edition is $1,000 per server, or $30 per month for cloud service providers. The Enterprise and Platinum Editions are $2,500 and $5,000 per server, respectively.

Last week at Citrix Synergy, Citrix Systems announced seven new turnkey solutions that make it easy for cloud providers to deliver practical business services to enterprise customers.

The new solutions leverage core Citrix virtualization and networking technologies that are used daily to power the world’s largest and most demanding cloud and internet sites. Unlike proprietary solutions from other virtualization vendors, however, the new Citrix Cloud Solution portfolio is based on an open framework that allows cloud providers to add their own innovation to each solution, creating unique, differentiated services that address real business needs.

The new Citrix Cloud Solutions are based on an open technology stack with deep interoperability between layers, enabling enterprises to leverage existing investments, including third-party virtualization technologies and tools. Unique integration of Citrix platform virtualization, edge networking, and desktop delivery services are augmented with targeted capabilities aligned to specific workloads, such as application lifecycle management, migration and regulatory compliance.

By targeting the practical business-oriented scenarios that make the most sense for customers to purchase as a cloud service, Citrix is focusing its strategy on a more pragmatic approach to cloud computing that meets the real-world needs of customers today. Customer choice is built into each solution as a key tenet with technologies designed to transcend traditional datacenter and networking boundaries, providing unfettered mobility of application workloads among multiple cloud providers without requiring forklift upgrades of existing infrastructure. In addition, customers can be confident with the assurance that the solutions have been verified via the Citrix Ready program.

The initial Citrix Cloud Solutions include:

• On-Boarding – Enables seamless migration of existing applications and workloads into cloud infrastructures, including secure access, optimized network delivery, virtual machine migration and full support for the open virtualization format (OVF). Services based on this solution can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of datacenter-to-cloud migration.
• Development and Test – Incorporates on-demand application lifecycle management to help organizations cut both the time and budget required to set-up and allocate new infrastructure for test and development workloads in the cloud.
• Disaster Recovery – Helps customers prevent unexpected interruptions to applications and data by leveraging virtualization, storage, data replication and orchestration services to support cloud-based delivery of disaster recovery services. Cloud providers delivering services based on this solution can offer customers a compelling alternative to dedicated ‘hot-site’ standby facilities.
• Compliance – Helps customers in regulated industries meet strict compliance requirements, while providing unparalleled control over sensitive data stored in both enterprise datacenters and public clouds. This approach reduces compliance costs, allowing customers to focus on their core competencies, while bringing proven expertise to industry-specific compliance mandates.
• On-Demand Applications – Transforms traditional Windows enterprise applications into a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering that can be delivered over the web as an on-demand service to users anywhere, on any device.
• On-Demand Desktops – Enables enterprise customers to deliver complete Windows virtual desktops from the cloud, combining the cost and manageability benefits of desktop virtualization with cloud elasticity and capacity-on-demand.
• On-Demand Demos – Lets software companies make their product demos available to customers and prospects over the web with no setup, downloads or configuration required