Virtual computing solutions specialist Citrix Systems debuted
several additions to its OpenCloud infrastructure platform for cloud
providers, including open lifecycle management, open cloud
interoperability and open cloud networking. In addition, the company
announced it has signed an agreement to acquire VMLogix, a provider of
virtualization management for private and public clouds.
The acquisition of VMLogix is expected to close in the third quarter of
2010. A company release stated the deal would add lifecycle management
capabilities to the OpenCloud platform and allow Citrix to add an
intuitive, self-service interface to its XenServer virtualization
platform, a major component of the OpenCloud framework. The company
said this would enable users to access and manage their own virtual
computing resources in on-premise private cloud environments, similar
to virtual services provided by large public clouds such as Amazon or
Rackspace.
“At Citrix, we believe in providing choice as a fundamental driver for
enterprises and cloud providers to truly drive cloud economics. This
isn’t about giving customers the ability to buy the same offering from
multiple sources – it’s about providing them the opportunity to choose
from a wide variety of cloud services designed around an open framework
that encourages both innovation and interoperability while optimizing
cost,” said Citrix’s group vice president and general manager of
networking and cloud product group Klaus Oestermann. “With the expanded
capabilities of the OpenCloud platform for lifecycle management, cloud
interoperability and cloud networking, we are further delivering on our
core belief to provide true choice for our customers.”
The VMLogix acquisition will add open virtual lifecycle automation and
self-service capabilities to virtualization platforms, helping IT teams
to build, share and deploy production-like environments on-demand in
both private and public clouds, and migrate virtual workloads between
production stages. Citrix will also be integrating the Citrix OpenCloud
infrastructure platform with OpenStack, the open-source orchestration
and management technology it is co-developing with Rackspace, NASA,
Dell, and other technology and cloud service providers.
Jim Curry, general manager of OpenStack, said by embracing OpenStack
cloud software, Citrix is demonstrating a great testament to the power
of the open model and Citrix has shown “tremendous support” for that
model by contributing development resources to ensure XenServer
compatibility with OpenStack. “We are excited to see an
OpenStack-powered solution for enterprises integrated with the
XenCenter management console,” he said. “We think this is just the
start of many advances that will be built on OpenStack and we welcome
Citrix and the rest of the tech world to use this powerful model to
advance the world of cloud computing.”
The OpenCloud platform will also be adding virtual switching
capabilities that leverage the Open vSwitch project, and support the
OpenFlow protocol, an industry standard that pools the resources of
per-host virtual switches to create a distributed, policy-controlled
cloud fabric. These capabilities are designed to enable rich packet
processing capabilities at the network edge, according to a company
release.
Cloud Computing 
