Citrix Systems moved past the engagement stage with OEM Aurema and into wedding on Feb. 14 when it announced it has acquired the workload management assets of the privately held company.
Citrix, which has licensed portions of Auremas processor workload management technology for use in the Citrix Presentation Server since 2004, would not reveal the price it paid for the technology assets.
Aurema, a small but profitable privately held firm, has marketed workload management technology for a variety of hardware platforms for over 20 years.
Citrix intends to use the technology specifically to improve the performance of its Presentation Server, and the company said it does not intend to market workload management products for other platforms.
“We already use their technology as part of Presentation Server 4.5, and we can leverage their technology even more going forward. That is the main purpose of the acquisition,” said Sumit Dhawan, director of product management for the Citrix Virtualization Systems Group in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
“We have no intention to enter the workload management and systems management market,” he added.
Auremas existing OEM relationships with vendors such as Fujitsu and IBM will continue until existing contracts expire. Citrix may or may not extend those contracts, Dhawan said.
The patented Aurema technology Citrix acquired will improve monitoring and management of processor workloads in Presentation Server.
Specifically, Citrix intends to use the technology assets and expertise it acquired from Aurema to enable Presentation Server to perform “autonomic load management, which is simply doing the appropriate workload assignment to each user on the back end in the data center so they get the best user experience,” said Dhawan.
“With the Aurema technology well be able to get all the guts of the technology we need to build this capability as part of our product line,” he added.
The Aurema technology can profile different users and their unique workload needs and allocate resources appropriately to deliver the best possible user experience. The technology can dynamically learn what the users requirements are.
That capability is part of the Citrix Project Constellation initiative, which the company has been discussing for the past 18 months.
In acquiring specific assets, along with selected staff, Citrix took a different turn in its acquisition spree. Previous acquisitions included the entire company.
Citrix in 2006 acquired Ardence, Orbital Data and Reflectant Software. The company also acquired Teros, NetScaler and Net6 in 2005 and 2004.