VMLogix brings virtual lab automation to Citrix XenServer

VMLogix is joining forces with Florida-based Citrix to make its virtual lab automation solution, VMLogix LabManager, the first solution of its kind available on the Citrix XenServer hypervisor.

The partnership is an extension of a relationship that was originally established in August 2007 between VMLogix and XenSource. XenSource was the commercial side of the open source Xen hypervisor, which was acquired by Citrix in October of that same year.

VMLogix LabManager is an all-inclusive software lifecycle management solution which supports all leading enterprise-level virtualization platforms. VMLogix LabManager helps software engineering organizations ensure fast, repeatable and consistent development and test environment setups. The application, coupled with powerful virtualization platforms like Citrix XenServer, enables significant server consolidation in the build farm and test lab. Finally, LabManager drives increased collaboration between support, development and test, increasing employee productivity and accelerating time to market for everything from bug fixes to new product applications.

To find out more about this announcement, I was able to catch up with Sameer Dholakia, CEO of VMLogix, during his busy schedule at the Citrix Summit event taking place in Florida.

(Q) Having gone head to head with VMware Lab Manager, have you learned anything that you were able to add into your Citrix support?

(A) Fundamentally, we are working to build the best virtual lab management solution available across all major virtualization platforms. So that implies that whatever improvements we deliver for Citrix XenServer we are also committed to delivering on our other supported platforms. That said, the Citrix release is certainly a beneficiary of all the research and customer facing work we have engaged in over the past few years. It delivers a set of advanced 3rd generation VLA capabilities. Specifically, we have:

• refined our workflows for the most common software Dev, QA & Support use cases;

• built powerful automation capabilities for not just VM management but also automation of complex operations that span VMs and within the guest OS itself;

• built advanced collaboration and user management capabilities that allow fine-grained sharing, User Interface customization, and resource access controls.

The second and third bullets, coupled with our industry-leading platform support (customers want choice and flexibility, which they get from us and not VMware Lab Manager) are the reasons that customers are selecting VMLogix over VMware Lab Manager in head-to-head evaluations.

(Q) How has the transition from XenSource to Citrix been for VMLogix? Any noticeable changes or has it been business as usual?

(A) We have had a tremendous working relationship and partnership with the XenServer team, dating from April 2007. From business development to engineering to marketing to sales – every function has helped us build the joint offering and educate the market on the benefits of the VMLogix/XenServer solution. The XenServer development team is extremely talented, and focused on delivering a world-class platform upon which partners like VMLogix can build robust, scalable solutions.

Since the acquisition, we have been actively working on go-to-market activities with Citrix as well. In fact, we are at the Citrix Summit in Orlando this week, working to educate the Citrix reseller channel about VMLogix as the superior XenServer alternative to VMware for Virtual Lab Automation.

Net net: the transition post-acquisition has been extremely smooth and positive.

(Q) Is there any difference between your VMware supported product and the Citrix one?

(A) One of the key capabilities of VMLogix LabManager is to manage virtual machines running on multiple hypervisors from the same management console. Thus, in our previous version, you could manage hosts in the lab running VMware ESX, VMware Server, and Microsoft Virtual Server. The new release, LabManager 3.3, is the same application (with improvements noted above), but with the ability to manage XenServer hosts now as well.

This multi-platform support means there is virtually no barrier for a VMware shop to switch over to VMLogix LabManager and Citrix XenServer for future virtualized servers. All the “legacy” ESX managed hosts (servers) can still be leveraged and managed from the same VMLogix LabManager console that is also managing the new XenServer hosts.

All the major features of LabManager are supported on both platforms. If there are differences, they tend to be minor platform specific implementation dependencies. In our judgement the XenServer team & platform has rapidly bridged all major gaps in the past few months.

(Q) Since Citrix doesn’t have a QA product like this in-house (like VMware), and there are no other competitors yet, can you expect anything different with your Citrix relationship as opposed to the one you have with VMware?

(A) Absolutely! Our Citrix partners recognize Virtual Lab Automation as an important virtualization management application and are excited to have VMLogix fill that role in their partner ecosystem. I imagine we will continue to collaborate with the Citrix team on ways we can integrate with their other offerings to unlock more value for our joint customers.

VMware, on the other hand, given its competitive product offering in the space, isn’t interested in helping us evangelize our solution on their platform nor identifying additional product opportunities. That said, we are a member of their Technology Alliance Program and they provide us all the support, APIs, etc. we need to provide a great integration to the VMware platform.

On the XenServer platform, we deliver a compelling, enterprise-grade solution. In return, Citrix assists us by evangelizing to their channel and loyal customer base on why the VMLogix-XenServer solution is the best option available.

(Q) Have you gotten any feedback from customers or potential customers about your Citrix product that you can share with readers?

(A) Our customers are universally very receptive to deploying their virtual labs on XenServer. They find the economics of XenServer very compelling without having to make sacrifices on technical capabilities. In addition, many large customers are keen to avoid vendor lock-in and plan to build hybrid labs which involve not just Citrix and VMware but also Microsoft’s Hyper-V platform down the road. For that reason, they’re quite excited about starting with a VMLogix/XenServer solution, or even migrating an ESX lab into VMLogix while adding XenServer for their new virtualized servers.

(Q) Any final thoughts that you would care to share with us today?

(A) We fundamentally believe the following:

• More and more customers are focusing on management applications for their virtual infrastructure. Once servers are consolidated and users start creating a lot of VMs, customers need tools to manage it all (the same reason that Systems Management Software is such a big industry).

• Moreover, customers want an “open” management application that will support multiple hypervisors. It’s increasingly clear that VMware’s days as the monopolistic player of the platform are numbered. Customers want flexibility as they navigate these uncertain virtualization waters – working with a VMLogix allows them to change course, because they are not tied to a specific platform.

• Lab Management is a critical management app, responsible for all the VMs in the pre-production, or Dev/Test, environment. Using Virtual Center / XenCenter / SC VMM for the production VMs makes a world of sense – but the use case/workflows in Lab Management are unique (which is why VMware acquired Akimbi’s lab management offering the first place).

Given all the above, we’re excited about the trajectory of our space, and are confident that VMLogix LabManager will continue to see uptake as the best-in-class Virtual Lab Automation solution. Additionally, VMLogix now has customers based in North America, Europe and Asia; they range from start-ups to multi-billion dollar corporations; they include ISVs, Enterprises, and Hosting Providers. And most importantly, every one of them evaluated VMware Lab Manager, Surgient VQMS, or both – and chose VMLogix as their Virtual Lab Automation provider.

VMLogix LabManager for XenServer is available now, and pricing starts at $25,000. For more information about the product or partnership opportunities, click here.