Virtualization.com

News and insights from the vibrant world of virtualization and cloud computing

Citrix Systems

Citrix Debuts Beta Of All New XenServer

by Leave a Comment

According to Virtualization.info, Citrix has just opened the beta program for the next version of XenServer, code-named Project George, which will be entirely free. Citrix says that the beta will be open until the end of this month.

The most interesting capabilities:

  • Active Directory integration. Specify the AD domain to use for authentication by the pool and use your AD credentials to connect to the pool via XenCenter and ssh. You control which AD users/groups are allowed access.
  • Workload balancing. Guest and host performance metrics are used to create star ratings for individual VM placement and balancing recommendations for resource pools to achieve optimal performance.
  • LVHD. Fast cloning and snapshots are now supported on all SR types through integration of our software VHD stack and LVM-based Storage Repositories (SRs).
  • StorageLink integration. CLI-only support for a new StorageLink Gateway SR that adds native standards-based support for HP MSA, HP EVA, EMC Clariion, and NetApp storage arrays over iSCSI and Fibre Channel with automated initiator/fabric/array management.
  • Expanded guest OS support. RHEL 5.3, Debian Lenny, and SLES 11 Linux guests.

Citrix Systems Newest Member Of The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) Board

by Leave a Comment

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) today announced that it has elected Citrix Systems to its board of directors. In addition, CA, which was appointed to the Board last year, was elected to a full term and joins Advanced Micro Devices, CA, EMC, Fujitsu, IBM, and Microsoft Corporation who were re-elected to the board. These seven companies join Broadcom, Dell, HP, Hitachi, Intel Corporation, Novell, Oracle, Sun Microsystems and VMware to drive the development of DMTF standards and initiatives in 2009.

The DMTF board of directors works together to set cross-industry priorities, promote interoperability for enterprise and Internet environments, foster alliance partnerships and lead the organization’s committee work. DMTF technologies are designed to address the industry’s requirements for interoperable distributed management, providing valuable tools for managing multiple platforms.

“Citrix looks forward to sharing our considerable expertise in the enterprise to alleviate the challenges of managing complex IT environments,” said Abolfazl Sirjani, CTO Office and senior director of advanced products at Citrix. “Over the past 20 years, we have had the privilege of being part of the fabric of many blue-chip companies, in 100 million corporate desktops and 1 million datacenter servers. Our solutions, best practices and ongoing research and development should be of great benefit both to DMTF and to the industry as a whole.”

Sirjani will represent Citrix on the board. Other individuals representing the board member companies include:

  • Valerie Kane, AMD
  • Uri Elzur, Broadcom
  • Paul Lipton, CA
  • Jon Hass, Dell
  • Wayne Adams, EMC
  • Hiro Kishimoto, Fujitsu
  • Jishnu Mukerji, HP
  • Nobutoshi Sagawa, Hitachi, Ltd.
  • Mike Baskey, IBM
  • Kevin Cline, Intel Corporation
  • Josh Cohen, Microsoft Corporation
  • Robert Wipfell, Novell
  • Tony DiCenzo, Oracle
  • Mark Carlson, Sun Microsystems
  • Winston Bumpus, VMware

Citrix Receiver Technology Preview for iPhone Released

by Leave a Comment

Today, Citrix released the Technical Preview of the upcoming ICA client for the Apple iPhone called “Citrix Receiver” (iTunes link).

Anyone with a properly configured Citrix XenApp environment can download the Citrix Receiver and access authorized company apps from their iPhone today ! Now is the time to start testing the iPhone in your environment, look for ways to increase productivity, and have some fun.

Note: Works with Wi-Fi or 3G connection, Citrix XenApp and XenApp Web Services, Windows applications hosted on Citrix XenApp.  And the Citrix XenApp secure application feature is not supported with this Technology Preview Release.

Also watch this Citrix Receiver video from Chris Fleck.

Citrix Project Satori Sees Light Of Day

by Leave a Comment

From the Xen blog:

Citrix Project Satori is the result of a collaborative agreement between XenSource and Microsoft, and was carried forward after XenSource was acquired by Citrix Systems. The base Satori components are released by Microsoft as the Linux Integration Components for Hyper-V, and provide support for paravirtualized XenLinux guests running on Hyper-V. The Linux Integration Components can be downloaded here.

The complete source code and license information (GPL version 2) on this project is now available here.

Here Comes Citrix XenDesktop 3

by 1 Comment

Citrix Systems today announced Citrix XenDesktop 3, the newest release of its desktop virtualization solution. XenDesktop 3, a key component of the Citrix Delivery Center product family, incorporates several of the company’s new Citrix HDX technologies, giving virtual desktop users a richer “high-definition” experience with enhanced support for multimedia, audio and video.

XenDesktop 3 also dramatically improves scalability, hosting twice as many virtual desktops per server as previous versions. And with version 3, XenDesktop becomes the first product on the market to deliver Microsoft Windows desktops from a common set of centrally managed images that can be run either in the datacenter (hosted), or directly on a PC or thin client device (local). This new capability gives IT organizations far more flexibility, reducing desktop management costs by making efficient use of distributed processing power across both servers and end point devices.

XenDesktop 3 includes several enhancements that dramatically improve virtual machine density and efficiency in the datacenter, allowing customers to host up to twice as many hosted virtual desktops per server as previous versions.  These new optimizations cut server acquisition costs in half and dramatically reduce ongoing management and power consumption costs, allowing significantly larger deployments than before at no additional cost.

With version 3, XenDesktop becomes the first solution on the market to deliver both hosted virtual desktops and local streamed desktops from a single image store, leveraging the same delivery infrastructure. Most virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions on the market offer only hosted virtual desktops, in which each desktop runs inside a virtual machine in the datacenter.

Adding support for local streamed desktops lets XenDesktop administrators stream desktops from the same golden master images, and execute them locally on any network-connected endpoint capable of running a desktop operating system. This powerful combination adds significant flexibility and cost savings, allowing IT to centrally manage desktops for office workers and run them wherever it makes the most sense, leveraging the distributed processing power of both servers and endpoint devices.

XenDesktop 3 also includes a variety of new features to support simpler management, easier user personalization and enhanced security. Most significant among these new features is fully integrated user profile management, making it far easier for IT to provide a consistent, personalized experience for each unique user every time they log in. Version 3 also includes broad support for smart card security authentication systems which are widely adopted throughout government, financial services and healthcare organizations.  XenDesktop not only enables this added level of security for gaining general access to the desktop environment, it also ensures that this information is seamlessly and transparently passed through to individual applications within each virtual desktop.

Citrix XenDesktop 3 will be generally available from authorized Citrix partners in February 2009, and from the Citrix website at http://www.citrix.com/xendesktop. Suggested retail pricing begins at $75 per concurrent user.

Citrix And VCs Invest Another $15 Million In Virtual Computer

by Leave a Comment

Virtual Computer today announced it has secured $15 million in series B funding, in a round was co-led by series A investors Highland Capital Partners and Flybridge Capital Partners with additional investment coming from Citrix Systems.

The latest round of financing positions Virtual Computer to significantly accelerate its global sales and marketing efforts and further advance development of the company’s NxTop product offering.

NxTop, Virtual Computer’s next-generation PC management platform, makes it as easy to manage thousands of PCs as it is to manage one, dramatically reducing PC management costs while improving PC reliability and security. NxTop isolates the PC’s critical components — hardware, operating system, applications, and user data — allowing each to be managed independently in a highly-scalable fashion without a persistent network connection.

“This is a blockbuster funding round for any company, especially in this economic environment,” said Dan McCall, president and CEO of Virtual Computer. “Not only did our current investors show their continued support for the company, but we were able to add a proven leader in the virtualization market as a strategic investor. We are looking forward to working with Citrix to help make Xen a market standard for PC lifecycle management.”