Virtually Speaking: The Vendors Deliver

If ever these was a time for virtual spring cleaning, this appears to be it.

Two weeks ago Citrix and HP announced, an enhanced version of Citrix XenServer will ship with 10 64-bit HP ProLiant servers.

These servers, along with XenServer 4.1, began shipping on Tuesday as planned.

Dell followed HP into the spotlight with some virtual partnering of its own. Last Tuesday, Dell and Egenera announced that Egenera's PAN Manager infrastructure virtualization software, which it decoupled from its BladeFrame hardware last November, will be available on a variety of PowerEdge servers later this quarter. A full suite of Dell's Infrastructure Consulting Services will be made available at that time as well.

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PAN Manager on Dell systems will be sold through Dell directly with Dell providing installation and Level 1 support. Egenera will provide Level 2 and Level 3 support.

In addition to partnering with Dell, Egenera has partnered with Fujitsu Siemens Computers, which intends to integrate Egenera PAN Manager software with its Primergy server line as part of its FlexFrame Infrastructure offerings.

Egenera has posted a FAQ about the deal on its site.

Egenera's PAN Manager infrastructure virtualization software differs from the traditional server virtualization model in that the integrated software dynamically allocates compute, storage and networking resources as needed.

Citrix, meanwhile, hopped back on the partnering bandwagon on Tuesday when it announced, along with the arrival of XenServer, a partnership with NetApp. In addition to the features noted back in February, this new version of XenServer will include the Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP, thanks to the agreement.

The Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTA is designed to deliver what the company calls "storage-optimized virtualization." The jointly developed solution aims to simplify virtual machine creation and management by enabling users to centrally manage storage configuration and provisioning from a single console.

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Citrix XenServer Adapter for NetApp Data ONTAP integrates the storage features in NetApp Data ONTAP with the XenServer management console. Users can leverage NetApp tools like RAID-DP, Snapshot, FlexVol and FAS deduplication, regardless of their hardware.

VMware, never one to be left out when things are hopping, weighed in with news of its own on Monday with the release of Lifecycle Manager. The software, announced at VMworld Europe February, is designed to facilitate the entire virtual machine lifecycle process, from provisioning, through operation and decommissioning.

Organizations can use it to track and control who owns a virtual machine, when it was requested, who approved it, where it is deployed, how long it has been in operation and when it is scheduled to be decommissioned.

Amy Newman is the managing editor of ServerWatch. She has been covering virtualization since 2001.