citrix xenserver

HP To Embed Parallels Virtuozzo In Integrity Server Line

July 2, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

eWeek reports that HP will start selling and supporting Parallels‘ container virtualization technology, Virtuozzo, with its Integrity server line-up, starting today.

HP Integrity servers support the company’s Unix operating system, HP-UX, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 and several variations of Linux. The Parallels Virtuozzo containers are designed to work with both Windows and Linux. HP already embedded VMware ESX Server and Citrix XenServer at factory level, so this is a way for them to give customers even more options to virtualize.

The Parallels Virtuozzo containers will cost $4,500 per two processors and the Parallels Infrastructure Manager bundle costs $5,000. The Virtuozzo suite does not currently integrate with HP’s management software for Integrity.

Citrix Pushes Embedding XenServer With Extended OEM Incentive Program

July 2, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Citrix has extended its Citrix Advisor Rewards program today to pay channel partners on sales of Citrix XenServer software that ships as an embedded feature in servers from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) like HP.

The program, originally introduced in 2004, pays Citrix Solution Advisors for designing and delivering solutions based on Citrix application delivery products, even if a different channel partner ultimately fulfills the order. Extending the program to include embedded versions of XenServer eliminates any potential channel conflict with OEM partners and ensures strong incentives across the board by compensating partners that influence embedded XenServer deals as well as those who fulfill them.

Citrix has announced several OEM agreements in recent months to embed XenServer in servers from systems vendors such as HP. As a result of today’s announcement, the Citrix Advisor Rewards program now pays channel partners on sales of these products, effectively eliminating potential channel conflict and focusing the extensive expertise of Citrix Solution Advisors on delivering the best possible solutions to customers.

“Customers want to implement virtualization with reduced risk, and HP understands that the channel is essential to meeting those requirements,” said Scott Farrand, vice president, Industry Standard Server Software, HP. “Citrix’s new channel program enables partners to offer a comprehensive virtualization solution that integrates the power of HP ProLiant servers with the rich functionality of the Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition from a single, reliable source.”

INetU Powers Virtualized Dedicated Hosting With Citrix XenServer

June 16, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Managed web hosting company INetU recently announced it has selected, after extensive research and testing, Citrix Systems’ XenServer for the launch of its new virtualization offering. INetU will be managing virtual servers for clients running Microsoft Windows and Red Hat Linux.

Dev Chanchani, President and CEO of INetU noted,

”We selected Citrix XenServer for a variety of factors. Some of those factors included strong Industry support from Microsoft and HP, along with impressive benchmarks and appealing management features. We feel strongly about the benefits virtualization brings within a managed hosting environment. Our support of virtualized environments allows our clients and prospects to start taking advantages of virtualization. For example, clients can quickly deploy additional servers to increase scalability or quickly migrate their virtualized servers to newer hardware without the hassle of reconfiguring a new server setting by setting.”

[Source: TheHostingNews]

“Benchmarking” The Citrix / XenServer Combo with Ian Pratt (Video Interview – Part 4)

June 15, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

During the Fosdem 2008 conference, we had a chance to sit down (on a bench) with Xen Guru Ian Pratt. Below is the fourth and last part (see part 1, part 2 and part 3) of our exclusive interview, where Ian shines his light on Citrix Xenserver, relocating virtual machines (VM), VM-mirroring, OVF, page tables algorithms, open source community involvement, management frameworks, the Citrix take-over, Virtualization marketing with OS-enlightment, FUD-tactics by VMWare, self-healing servers, Xen embedded in firmware, why Amazon goes with Xen, the Xen GPL license, OracleVM, xVM (Sun), Parallels and the future of virtualization…

We cut the interview into 4 digestable pieces, which we publish one at a time (see part 1, part 2 and part 3). As said, this is the final part (soon, you’ll also find a written transcript below for your convenience):

The video is also up on YouTube and Steamocracy.

Symantec Teams Up With Citrix, Enhances Veritas Virtual Infrastructure Suite

June 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters Leave a Comment

Symantec has announced Veritas Virtual Infrastructure, which it claims to be the first solution to offer advanced storage capabilities for virtual server environments that effectively manage storage in large scale, x86 production environments.

Veritas Virtual Infrastructure combines storage management capabilities from Veritas Storage Foundation with Citrix XenServer technology. Veritas Virtual Infrastructure aims to preserve all of the key storage management benefits enterprise customers rely on in their physical environments, but are not available in current file-system based virtualization approaches.

Veritas Virtual Infrastructure uses a new distributed volume manager specifically designed to deliver advanced storage management capabilities for virtual servers. It uses a client/server architecture that establishes a unique, individual relationship between each virtual server and its underlying storage, just as if it were a physical server. Since it leverages Storage Foundation, Symantec claims its users can realize all of these benefits from their existing, heterogeneous SAN storage.

Veritas Virtual Infrastructure is expected to be available in the fall of 2008 with proposed pricing starting at $4,595 per 2 socket server.

Stratus Technologies Releases Avance, Integrates With Citrix XenServer for Software-Based High-Availability Solution

June 11, 2008 by Robin Wauters 1 Comment

Stratus Technologies has announced (PDF) its Stratus Avance software, the company’s first software-based high availability (HA) product. Using embedded virtualization and running on ordinary x86 servers, Avance claims to provide levels of availability superior to, and without the complexity of, high-availability cluster solutions for Linux and Windows applications.

Stratus’ new software-based solution targets the SMB market as well as “edge” applications in large distributed networks where IT-staff support is minimal or non-existent. Prospective customers include medical practices, retail chains, small companies, branch banks, remote office or departmental computing, or distributed warehouses, distribution hubs or manufacturing facilities, for example.

Unlike other high-availability solutions, Avance HA positions itself as instant and automatic. Processing takes place on one server and data is simultaneously written to the mate, which can seamlessly assume
processing duties at any time should the primary server go out of service. If that happens, the affected server is removed from the network, alerts go out to user-defined recipients, a repair is made, and the server is brought back online to resynchronize with the active node with no downtime or data loss.

Avance is integrated with Citrix XenServer, and the U.S. list price for Avance software is $2,500 per server (including the license for Citrix XenServer). Avance software is available from Stratus channel partners and distributors, and in volume purchases directly from Stratus.