Citrix Systems, the global leader in application delivery infrastructure, and NetApp, a leading provider of innovative data management solutions, have signed a partnership deal to deliver a complete server virtualisation solution capable of leveraging the power of NetApp storage solutions.

Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP enables customers to unlock the power of virtualised storage in Citrix XenServer environments, said an official spokesman.

This jointly developed certified solution simplifies virtual machine creation and management by allowing customers to centrally manage storage configuration and provisioning from a single console, making it one of the industry’s few virtualization solutions optimized for storage environments.

Citrix and NetApp are building on their existing relationship and extending virtualised data management environment capabilities included in Citrix XenServer 4.1, which began shipping today.

The growth of virtual servers has complicated the way in which many IT professionals approach networked storage by requiring additional new layers of management software or disruptive changes to the underlying storage architecture. 

Unlike other server virtualisation solutions, Citrix XenServer features an open architecture that allows customers to manage storage in the same way for both their physical and virtual server environments. 

The Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP takes this one step further by allowing customers to access all the storage features in NetApp Data ONTAP directly from the XenServer management console. 

This approach dramatically simplifies the process of implementing virtual servers in NetApp networked storage environments and enables customers to leverage their existing investments in storage infrastructure without retraining users or implementing new layers of management when using the NetApp V-Series systems. 

“ManageOperations has successfully deployed both Citrix XenServer virtualization software and NetApp Storage for customers such as T-Systems and Daimler, automating the management of their large computer centers running anywhere from 3,000 – 8,000 servers,” said founder of manage operations Jim Corrigan.

NetApp Data ONTAP enables IT staff to process resource-intensive storage services in the storage array to free up physical server resources to run business-critical application workloads.  With the new Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp, these benefits can now be seamlessly leveraged for virtual server environments running Citrix XenServer. 

As a result, customers can quickly take full advantage of the rich data management and data protection capabilities in their existing NetApp storage systems directly from the XenServer management console, including thin provisioning, cloning, replication, deduplication and backup and recovery. 

Customers can now leverage XenServer to use NetApp Data ONTAP for instant thin provisioning of virtual disk images (VDI), and for VDI cloning and Snapshot copies, improving performance of these data-intensive operations without affecting the performance of the virtual machines (VMs) themselves. 

The Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP is included with XenServer 4.1 and is available today at no additional cost. – TradeArabia News Service