In a bid to strengthen its alliance with Microsoft in the desktop and application delivery market, and Citrix Systems Inc. has made Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format as a common runtime environment for both virtualized operating systems and applications.
Thanks to the collaboration, Citrix’s Desktop Server and virtual application solutions will adopt the Microsoft VHD format. Simultaneously, Microsoft will be adapting a future version of Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization
for both the desktop and Terminal Services to the VHD format.
In addition, Microsoft and Citrix will collaborate on emerging virtualization technologies and virtual infrastructure management tools to help ensure interoperability and simplified administration for end users. With the collaboration, mutual customers and partners will be able to design virtualization directly into their solutions, using their existing investment and providing a road map for the future.
Microsoft and Citrix have been offering solutions that enhance the delivery of Windows applications and desktops using Citrix Presentation Server running on Microsoft Terminal Services. Both the companies have recently collaborated on solutions designed to simplify branch office computing using Citrix WANScaler running on the Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Microsoft Internet Security and Acceleration Server platforms.
“Microsoft offers a comprehensive set of virtualization products at the server, desktop and application levels, and the management platform for both physical and virtual environments, so customers can deliver computing in a much more flexible, dynamic and responsive manner,” said Mike Neil, general manager of virtualization strategy at Microsoft. “By standardizing on a common virtualization format for both operating systems and applications, Microsoft and Citrix will enable customers to run interoperable solutions that can be centrally managed using our technologies.”
Microsoft SoftGrid Application Virtualization, Virtual PC 2007 and System Center Configuration Manager 2007 for application deployment simplify application compatibility and deployment on desktops, while Terminal Services, Virtual Server 2005 R2 and System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2007 help reduce the total cost of ownership
and enables a more dynamic environment in the datacenter.
On the other hand, Citrix offers a comprehensive end-to-end infrastructure for delivering any application, to any user, over any network. Citrix Presentation Server offers Windows applications, Citrix Desktop Server for delivering Windows desktops and Citrix NetScaler delivers Web applications and Citrix WANScaler for accelerating the delivery of all applications to branch office users.
“Citrix envisions a world where computing resources can be dynamically combined and reassembled on the fly to ensure fast, secure, efficient delivery of applications and desktops to end users. Our application and desktop delivery solutions incorporate presentation and application virtualization today based on the Windows platform,” said Wes Wasson, vice president, worldwide marketing, Citrix Systems. “Agreement on VHD is a necessary first step we are taking to ensure IT can rapidly adopt the full benefits of virtualization. Today’s announcement signals our continuing, joint commitment with Microsoft to provide virtualization solutions to create and manage dynamic IT environments well into the future.”
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Niladri Sekhar Nath is a contributing writer for ContactCenterSolutions covering telecommunications, service providers and networking. To see more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
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