Citrix enters server and desktop virtualisation on XenSource
1 min read
Server-based computing systems developer Citrix is getting into the high growth virtualisation market by acquiring virtual infrastructure firm XenSource for $500 million in cash and stock.
We will now see the Citrix name associated with server and desktop virtualisation – making its application delivery infrastructure and scope far more flexible for today’s end-to-end business computing requirements.
XenSource provides enterprise-class virtual infrastructure solutions built on the open source Xen hypervisor. Created by the founders of XenSource at University of Cambridge, the Xen virtualisation engine is now developed collaboratively by an open source community that involves Intel, IBM, HP and AMD.
The company claims that this open collaborative approach significantly accelerates innovation and improvements in performance, scalability and cross-platform support.
In fact, the acquisition announcement came on the heels of a substantial new release of XenEnterprise, the company’s flagship product, with v4 providing new management, availability and ease-of-use features.
Additionally, both Citrix and XenSource work closely with Microsoft – with XenSource products designed to be interoperable with the upcoming Microsoft Windows hypervisor, code named Viridian.
“The combination of Citrix and XenSource brings together both presentation and server virtualisation to deliver more choice and flexibility to the market, particularly Citrix’s strong installed base,” comments John Humphreys, program vice president of enterprise virtualisation for analyst IDC.
“By adding mobility, monitoring and storage integration in the recently introduced XenEnterprise v4, XenSource has narrowed the capability gap and delivered a viable virtualization solution for server consolidation,” he adds.
The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2007.
