![]() Open vSwitch is used to virtualize network connections within a hypervisor, which is in contrast to the closed source distributed switch controller that Citrix sells with its for-fee versions of the Essentials for XenServer stack, which orchestrates network connections between distinct hypervisors in a network of machines. The open Xen Cloud Platform embraced the Open vSwitch alternative, which is being distributed under an Apache 2 license. The one thing that the Xen stack has been missing is a virtual switch, something that Cisco Systems has with its Nexus 1000v and that VMware embedded in its vSphere 4.0 product last year. That is what the OpenCloud product from Citrix is about. Service providers and HPC labs like open source code, and they also like to hack together their own stuff - which is why the Xen Cloud Platform was launched in the first place.Ĭommercial businesses don't care so much about open source, but they do want a complete product with support from as few vendors are possible, and they really want to be Unitarian about it - there can be no more than one tech-support contact. At last year's VMworld extravaganza, the open source Xen community, which is controlled by Citrix, rolled up and rolled out an open source DIY cloud management kit called the Xen Cloud Platform, which is a cloudy infrastructure framework into which you plug hypervisors and deployment and management tools (such as Eucalyptus) to create virtual server slices and manage them. OpenCloud was formerly known as Citrix Cloud Center, and before that was called XenServer Cloud Edition. The richer functionality will come in XenServer Enterprise and Platinum Editions, of course, and will also be part of the OpenCloud platform. Some of the LabManager and StageManager features relating to self-service are going to be bundled into the freebie XenServer Express hypervisor. Wes Wasson, chief strategy officer at Citrix, said that VMLogix will be the foundation of the cross-platform, self-service cloudy management tools sold by the company to support a wide variety of hypervisors. The company has said that the Citrix deal allowed it to double its customer base and its revenues in 2009, and that it now has hundreds of customers worldwide. ![]() The company's first round of financing came to $3.5m, and while the company never provided financial details on the OEM arrangement with Citrix for the addition of LabManager and StageManager to the XenServer stack, the company said that it made enough money off the deal that it didn't have to pursue additional financing. VMLogix was founded in 2004, and is actually a spinout of a software company called Trilogy, with private equity financing from Bain Capital. ![]() And Citrix, which has always embodied "co-opetition" in its partnership with Microsoft, will no doubt try to use the VMLogix tools to position its OpenCloud platform as a better, more open alternative to managing ESX-based clouds - even better and certainly more open than vSphere, which doesn't manage anything but ESX server slices and their storage and networking. The main premise at VMLogix was for LabManager and StageManager to do lifecycle management for any production hypervisor customers were asking for - and to make money.
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