VMLogix Supports Citrix XenServer

• By John K. Waters
• 02/04/08

Microsoft isn't the only company courting virtualization and app delivery infrastructure vendor Citrix Systems. VMLogix is joining forces with the Fort Lauderdale, FL-based company to make its virtual lab automation solutions available on Citrix's newly acquired XenServer.

The partnership is actually an extension of a relationship established in 2007 between VMLogix and XenSource, which Citrix acquired in October of that year. XenSource was the commercial distributor of the open source Xen hypervisor. VMLogix is billing its new LabManager for Citrix release as the first and only virtual lab automation solution to run on that hypervisor.

The VMLogix LabManager takes virtualization into the software development lifecycle. It provides software developers and testers with a configuration library of build, test and production environments. It allocates infrastructure, provisions operating systems, sets up software stacks and packages, and installs development and testing tools automatically. It also provides a central repository of ready-to-use machine configurations, stores the operating system disk images and software packages, and transfers those assets to the system as needed.

Combining LabManager with Citrix XenServer adds server consolidation capabilities in the build farm and test lab, explained Sameer Dholakia, CEO of VMLogix. Server consolidation is still the sweet spot in the virtualization market, Dholakia said, but many companies actually dip their toes in the virtualization pond initially through application testing and development solutions.

"The original use case for virtualization was in the development and test lab," he said. "It was for software engineers who wanted to test their applications on one server instead of five. That was the genesis of this market. And it makes a lot of sense. It's contained. It's not in your production data center with your live transaction processing systems. It's not exposed to your customers or partners. It's a really smart way to dip your toe in the water."

Dholakia also sees virtualization in the software development lifecycle as a driver of increased collaboration among enterprise support, development and test groups. Configurations can then be shared, replicated and synchronized among multiple teams, locations and outsourcing partners.

VMLogix is expected to announce integrations with IBM Rational BuildForge and ClearQuest later this year. Developers will soon be able to plug a VMLogix-based virtualization and automation capability into those two applications, Dholakia says.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced an expanded partnership with Citrix, through which the two companies plan to jointly market services that will enable virtualization for computers, operating systems and applications. Dholakia believes that the work his company has done to integrate LabManager with XenServer will expedite a possible future integration with Microsoft's virtualization technologies.

VMLogix LabManager for XenServer is available now. More information is available on the VMLogix Web site.