14 DAY TRIAL // Server vendor Hewlett-Packard has teamed up with remote access software company Citrix for the implementation of advanced virtualization into the 64-bit HP ProLiant server lineup. According to the two companies, the new ProLiant server solutions will come with an enhanced version of the Citrix XServer software.
The two companies have already developed a new integrated virtualization server solution, suggestively named Citrix XenServer HP Select Edition. The software will be available to HP and Citrix customers.The software will also be integrated into Hewlett-Packard's Insight Control, that lets advanced users get physical access to the servers manufactured by the company.
"Citrix and HP share the belief that virtualization should be a natural extension of the hardware platform," said Peter Levine, senior vice president and general manager of virtualization and management at Citrix.
The main purpose of the new collaboration is to allow users cut down on deploying and managing the virtualized environments, as they get more and more popular on the enterprise market. Virtualization is touted as the best solution to fight against the increasing costs of ownership, while minimizing the footprints for the complex data center architectures.
The new technology is alleged to dramatically decrease the complexity of virtualzation, thus decreasing the time in recovering the initial investment costs.
"Enabling virtualisation to be simple from the very beginning not only helps proliferate virtualisation technology, but enables enterprises to adopt it faster and easier," said Mark Bowker, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group.
HP has teamed up with other top-tier hardware virtualization specialists, such as VMWare, to increase its iVirtualization portfolio. The HP ProLiant iVirtualization powered by VMware ESX Server 3i has been announced in February this year and represents a viable method for fast deployment of a server into a VMware environment.
Products in HP's ProLiant iVirtualization portfolio can be integrated with a server at HP's factory before being shipped to a customer or it can be integrated with a server by an HP reseller partner. The products that are available in the ProLiant iVirtualization portfolio can be integrated within the server directly on the production line, which means that it will support advanced virtualization out-of-the-box.
The new HP ProLiant servers with Citrix's technology will be available starting March 31. However, the company has not announced pricing yet.