Wednesday, 8 November 2006

XenSource Unveils XenEnterprise for Windows and Linux

XenSource, a provider of infrastructure virtualisation solutions based on the open source Xen hypervisor, has revealed that it will work with Citrix to provide Microsoft Windows desktop support for deployment within the Citrix Dynamic Desktop Initiative. The solution is a brokering solution, which will operate with XenEnterprise, a commercially packaged server virtualisation solution based on the Xen hypervisor, to provision the appropriate virtualised desktop environment, the company said.

"We see strong demand in the desktop virtualisation market for XenEnterprise which will be shipping with support for Windows XP this quarter. We also believe that the combination of XenEnterprise, Citrix Desktop Broker and the new processors from Intel and AMD present a good proposition for any organisation planning to deploy the solution today,” said John Glendenning, vice president worldwide sales at XenSource. “Citrix invented and established the whole market around a hosted Windows desktop and we are delighted to be working closely with them on this initiative."

The relationship between XenSource and Citrix will improve how the Windows operating system functions on the Xen hypervisor by allowing for the Desktop Broker to determine the optimal desktop environment, enabling it to provision the appropriate virtualised desktop environment based on a number of factors including security, application type and user type. A user will be able to have their desktop provisioned through a Terminal Server or virtualised Windows XP-based environment. In addition to the technical interoperability, as a result of this partnership, Citrix and XenSource have joined each others partner programs to support the combined solution and further Xen virtualisation, the company said.