Citrix takes the battle to VMware with launch of XenServer 6.1

Citrix is raising its virtualization battle with VMware to a whole other level. The company recently released the latest version of its server virtualization platform, XenServer 6.1. But instead of just focusing on new hypervisor features and functionality that would directly compete with vSphere, Citrix is leveling up its virtualization data center product to create a next-generation platform for IaaS (infrastructure as a service) cloud computing.

XenServer 6.1 is an enhanced version of the Citrix server virtualization platform that moves further up the stack by offering tighter integration with the Apache CloudStack and Citrix CloudPlatform. New cloud-related capabilities will help users easily partition firewalls, balance workloads, and prevent attacks on systems in both public and private cloud environments, according to Citrix.

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“The tight integration between XenServer and CloudPlatform demonstrated in XenServer 6.1 will provide a new level of manageability and security that will provide a strategic advantage for our cloud customers,” said Peder Ulander, vice president of product marketing for the Cloud Platforms Group at Citrix.

After acquiring Cloud.com in July 2011, Citrix made a strategic decision to change course and remove itself from the OpenStack equation earlier this year and instead contribute the CloudStack code to the Apache Foundation, establishing a new open source alternative to OpenStack.

While things are still in the relatively early stages for both cloud groups, OpenStack has been getting much more media attention, most recently because of the group’s newest board member: VMware. It remains to be seen whether VMware’s joining OpenStack will have a positive or negative effect on the open source cloud group.

But what if your organization isn’t quite ready to make the move to the cloud? Don’t worry, XenServer 6.1 isn’t just about the CloudStack integration. There are other hypervisor features in this release that can stand on their own, though they also extend further support to the cloud. These key features include: live storage migration, improved network security, and VM conversion.

One of the key new features in XenServer 6.1 is most certainly something called Storage XenMotion, which is very similar to the “share nothing” architectures introduced in Microsoft’s Hyper-V 3.0 platform and VMware’s vSphere 5.1. This is a key technology for Citrix because it not only ticks another check box on the features parity list when compared to other hypervisors, it adds a key component that most modern virtualization and cloud users are currently demanding: virtual machine mobility and storage mobility without the need for expensive and complicated hardware.

According to Citrix, XenMotion works equally well across all storage types and without being confined to an arbitrary resource pool concept. The new storage feature allows virtualization administrators to move and live migrate virtual machines from one physical server to another without requiring a SAN. That means XenMotion will make use of local, direct-attached storage on the host servers, and there is no requirement for clustering or shared storage between servers.

According to Tim Mackey, XenServer evangelist at Citrix Systems, “This same philosophy was used for the network security and performance improvements which include everything from LACP 802.3ad, 4 NIC bonds, and IPv6 guest support all the way down to switch-port locking to prevent MAC and IP spoofing.”

Mackey added that Citrix even went so far as looking at the amount of time it took to create a large number of VLANs, and improved upon that by a few orders of magnitude.

Finally, XenServer 6.1 adds another important feature for the growing use of XenServer in both the virtualized data center and the cloud: a relatively simple tool called Conversion Manager that automates a batch conversion of VMware virtual machines into XenServer virtual machines. This is another check box on the features parity list, as both Microsoft and VMware already provide a similar tool.

According to Citrix, this tool is for companies looking to maximize cost and performance. It enables customers to ensure they are using the best virtualization platform for their chosen applications in the data center and in the cloud.

“Despite the various pricing changes VMware has made, the reality is that VMware focused attention on the cost of its virtual infrastructure and companies are looking at ways to contain the cost of leveraging vSphere,” said Mackey.

He went on to say this really boils down to leveraging vSphere for its strengths and, when vSphere isn’t really needed, looking to alternate platform such as XenServer. That’s where Conversion Manager comes into play; with it users can easily migrate their existing vSphere virtual machines over to the Citrix XenServer format.

With this latest release Citrix finds itself well positioned as a serious competitor to Microsoft and VMware. Beyond the fight to reach hypervisor features parity, Citrix is well on its way to becoming a key ingredient to moving up the cloud stack. And let’s not forget, Citrix still has announcements at the upcoming Synergy 2012 event in Barcelona planned later this month, followed by the first ever Apache CloudStack Collaboration Conference to be held in November. Stay tuned!

XenServer 6.1 is available now. Citrix is offering consumers four product versions to choose from: free (according to Citrix, it has been downloaded more than 1 million times and is powering over 100,000 customer sites), Advanced, Enterprise, and Platinum. The premium editions have a starting price of $1,000 per server. Citrix also includes a management application, XenCenter, with each edition as a bonus.

This article, “Citrix takes the battle to VMware with launch of XenServer 6.1,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in virtualization and cloud computing at InfoWorld.com.