Virtual News

Citrix Systems Inc. disclosed the next phase of its Citrix Delivery Center product strategy while Sun Microsystems Inc. unveiled improvements to xVM VirtuaBox software. In other news, VMware Inc. announced it was acquiring B-hive Networks Inc.

Focal Points:

• At its Citrix Synergy event Citrix announced the he expansion of its Citrix Delivery Center product family with three new additions. The Citrix Branch Repeater is an appliance that sits between corporate datacenters and branch offices, amplifying and retransmitting applications to branch office users. The new Citrix Desktop Receiver and Citrix App Receiver are lightweight software clients that run on end user devices and are responsible for receiving the delivery of centralized desktops and applications. Both receivers offer an extensible architecture that will support plug-ins from existing Citrix delivery infrastructure systems as well as third-parties, according to the company.
• Sun announced release 1.6 of its xVM VirtualBox, a high performance, free and open source desktop virtualization software. xVM VirtualBox 1.6 software is the first free hypervisor to support all major host operating systems, including Apple Inc. Mac OS X, Linux, a number of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows versions, and Sun's Solaris and OpenSolaris. The new version includes more than 2,000 enhancements. It features newly added support for high performance virtual devices, improved scalability and Web services for remote administration and lets users create "virtual machines" into which they can install whichever operating system they choose. The software can be downloaded free of charge at www.virtualbox.org and www.openxvm.org.
• VMware agreed to buy B-hive Networks, an application performance management vendor in San Mateo, Calif., and Herzliya, Israel, for an undisclosed sum. B-hive's research team will become the core of VMware's new Israel development lab, according to company officials. B-hive's Conductor software can monitor the behavior and performance of applications running in VMware virtual machines. B-hive has about 50 customers. The company declined to comment on the future of B-hive's Citrix product.

Experton Group believes non-mainframe virtualization technologies continue to undergo significant changes, as vendors seek to position themselves as thought leaders and primary providers of comprehensive virtualization solutions.  With Microsoft's HyperV hypervisor slated for rollout later this year, Citrix is repositioning itself to take advantage of its relationship with Microsoft while VMware is hustling to remain ahead of the crowd and protect its turf. Sun acquired innotek earlier this year so that it could add its xVM VirtualBox software as a key element to its overall xVM virtualization portfolio strategy. IT executives should understand the different virtualization architectures offered, determine which products and product road maps best conform to corporate target architectural requirements and then work with selected vendors to implement the platforms in accordance with the company strategy.