[VMworld 08] Citrix has now HA and talks about Cloud Server

Sum up in english : Citrix has made a partnership with Marathon Technology to provide High Availibilty and fault tolerance feature to its Xen Server 5.0. One of the missing functionnality to better compete with VMware. Citrix also unveils its strategy on cloud computing, named C3. The Citrix C3 solution integrates “cloud proven” virtualization and networking products that power many of today’s largest Internet and web service providers. This unique combination lets next-generation cloud providers take advantage of the most widely-adopted virtual infrastructure platform for hosted cloud services, as well as the most proven infrastructure to deliver those services reliably and securely to both cloud consumers and enterprise datacenters. The Citrix strategy will focus on equipping both new and existing cloud providers with the infrastructure needed to deliver successful clouds to their customers.

En français : Il manquait à Citrix pas mal de fonctionnalités clés à son XenServer pour être réellement compétitif face à VMware, qui dispose de VMotion, HA et DRS depuis plusieurs années. Citrix a passé un accord avec Marathon technologies, ce qui lui permet de fournir des fonctionnalités HA, et de tolérance de panne (selon Citrix, ce serait unique sur le marché)
Comme nous vous l'annoncions il y a deux jours, Citrix profite également de VMworld pour annoncer sa nouvelle stratégie en matière de Cloud Computing, baptisée C3, qui regroupe en fait une grande partie des produits de Citrix, à savoir XenServer, NetScaler, WanScaler, Workflow Studio.
Tout à l'heure, à l'ouverture du salon, j'aurais normalement l'occasion de rencontrer Simon Crosby, CTO.


Sur la fonction HA, quelques détails sont donnés dans le communiqué :

XenServer HA is one of the key enhancements of the new Citrix XenServer 5. Unlike other products that charge extra for base-level high availability, XenServer HA provides auto-restart high availability as standard functionality for Citrix XenServer 5 Enterprise and Platinum Edition customers. These customers can deploy base level availability across their enterprise. Citrix selected high availability partner Marathon Technologies due to Marathon's proven expertise in providing award-winning high availability software for Microsoft Windows applications in physical and virtual environments.
The two companies’ joint development of XenServer HA creates a seamless integration of XenServer HA and everRun VM.
When coupled with everRun VM, Citrix XenServer 5 is the only virtualization platform that lets IT professionals select the right level of availability for each application. XenServer 5 customers who add everRun VM will be able to select three levels of availability.
Both the everRun VM availability upgrade for Citrix XenServer 5 customers and the everRun VM bundle (XenServer 5 Enterprise Edition and everRun VM with level 1 and 2 availability) will be available October 30, 2008. For North America, suggested retail pricing is per server:
Marathon everRun VM - $2000
Marathon everRun VM with Citrix XenServer 5 Enterprise Edition - $4500