Following the release to manufacturing of Windows Server 2008 R2, Citrix moved to provide its own virtualization management and automation solution tailored to the latest iteration of Windows Server. In this regard, while Microsoft delivered the R2 flavor of Windows Server 2008 along with the Hyper-V hypervisor technology, Citric made available for download a new release of Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. Customers running Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2008 can test drive Citrix Essentials for HyperV 5.5 Beta.

In tone with Windows Server 2008 R2, Citrix Essentials 5.5 for Hyper-V is considered the 'R2' variant of Citrix Essentials. The solution from Citrix is designed to extend Microsoft’s latest releases of Hyper-V and System Center.

“Windows Server 2008 R2 contains Microsoft's most powerful virtualization portfolio ever, spanning both server and desktop virtualization with flexible solutions for consolidation, software deployment, application compatibility, disaster recovery, and more. But no single solution is right for everyone, and, in a great example of Microsoft partner synergy, Citrix has released a new version of its Citrix Essentials that's not only compatible with R2, it actually takes advantage of technologies only the latest Windows Server can provide,” revealed Oliver Rist, senior product manager for Windows Server Marketing.

Citrix Essentials for HyperV 5.5 Beta goes beyond providing customers Windows Server 2008 R2 integration. Citrix noted that the solution had been set up to play nicely with both the latest versions of Windows server and client operating systems. Even in Beta stage, Citrix Essentials for HyperV 5.5 comes with support for Windows 7.

“Citrix Essentials 5.5 supports all the latest features available in Windows Server 2008 R2, Hyper-V in R2 and System Center. Citrix's StorageLink Site Recovery can utilize Hyper-V in R2 and new features in Microsoft Clustering to ease disaster recovery testing and staging and has a lighter management burden using Windows Server 2008 R2's new management capabilities as well as features like Live Migration,” Rist added.