February 13, 2012, 4:26 PM — Citrix is shipping a new version of its cloud management software CloudStack that makes it simpler for service providers and large businesses to manage and provision cloud services.
This is accomplished primarily through integration with its XenServer virtualization and NetScaler application delivery controller products, but also with closer ties to networking gear from the likes of F5, Cisco and Juniper, the company says.
BACKGROUND: Citrix targets virtualization, orchestration layers
With the new software, the first upgrade since Citrix bought CloudStack last year with its purchase of Cloud.com, which commercialized the CloudStack open-source platform.
CloudStack lets users define services, which are then provisioned in the various network and virtualization elements of the cloud without having to configure those devices directly. So, for example, the platform could set new load balancing rules or set up new virtual machine instances in a multi-tenant cloud.
Resources can be provisioned within private clouds, public clouds such as Amazon Web Services, hosted clouds and between private and public or hosted clouds. Citrix says CloudStack has about 50 service providers federated around the platform, many of whom are about to go public about this feature.
CloudStack integrates with OpenStack Object Storage to manage static data that is stored long-term. It also makes it possible for end users to provision the services they need through a simple user interface that doesn't require a high degree of technical knowledge.
