Citrix Systems is buying virtualization management software maker VMLogix as part of a larger strategy to improve the scalability and interoperability of its OpenCloud infrastructure platform.
The platform is designed to help service providers create offerings around virtualization and cloud computing. Citrix officials made their announcement Aug. 30 at VMware’s VMworld show in San Francisco.
The terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the third quarter, were not disclosed. The acquisition will enable Citrix to add life-cycle management capabilities to its OpenCloud platform that will enable cloud service providers to offer services that range from pre-production to staging, deployment and business continuity.
It also will give Citrix a self-service interface for its XenServer virtualization platform, which officials said is a key part of the OpenCloud architecture. The interface will let users access and manage their virtual computing resources in on-premises private clouds in a fashion similar to what they see in public clouds from Amazon.com, Google and Rackspace.
VMLogix has been a growing company since its founding in 2004, according to company officials. In February, the company announced that it had seen record growth in 2009 that included doubling the revenues and number of direct customers. Officials also said there were “hundreds” of enterprises, ISVs and universities using the company’s technologies.
It was also last year that VMLogix expanded from a private cloud virtual lab management software vendor to the maker of a public cloud package when it released VMLogix LabManager-Cloud Edition.
VMLogix in 2009 also signed an OEM agreement with Citrix, in which VMLogix’s LabManager and StageManager software was bundled with Citrix Essentials.
As part of the VMLogix acquisition, Citrix also is adding open virtual life-cycle management and self-service capabilities that will support all of the leading virtualization platforms, including VMware and Microsoft’s Hyper-V. The new capabilities will enable businesses to create production-like environments in both private and public clouds, and to migrate virtual workloads with a single mouse click, Citrix officials said.
In addition to purchasing VMLogix, Citrix also is integrating OpenStack, an open-source orchestration and management technology that the company is developing with Rackspace, NASA, Dell and others, into its OpenCloud platform.
The OpenCloud platform will have new virtual switching capabilities via the Open vSwitch project and will support the OpenFlow protocol, which helps pool resources of per-host virtual switches to create a dynamic and distributed cloud fabric.
Citrix will be demonstrating the capabilities of its OpenCloud framework at VMworld.
The new capabilities in the OpenCloud platform dovetail with Citrix’s push to offer choices to enterprises and cloud providers, according to Klaus Oestermann, group vice president and general manager of Citrix’s Networking and Cloud Product Group.
“This isn’t about giving customers the ability to buy the same offering from multiple sources,” Oestermann said in a statement. “It’s about providing them the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of cloud services designed around an open framework.”