Nutanix, the next-generation enterprise computing company, has announced it is working with Citrix to drive down the costs and infrastructure complexity of deploying new app and desktop virtualisation environments. In addition, Citrix is supporting the complete Nutanix Acropolis solution, which is now verified as Citrix Ready. The Nutanix Acropolis solution provides customers with a high-performance, scalable infrastructure to power the industry-leading XenDesktop and Citrix XenApp products. Together, Nutanix and Citrix will provide a complete, simple, scalable and cost-effective solution for delivering virtual desktops and applications.
In the initial phase of this alignment, the Nutanix Xtreme Computing Platform running the Acropolis Hypervisor has been verified as Citrix Ready for XenApp and XenDesktop 7.6, as well as NetScaler and ShareFile. This verification, coming just two months after the Acropolis Hypervisor was introduced to the market, now affords joint customers more choice over the infrastructure solution powering their XenApp and XenDesktop implementations.
Customers will benefit from the Acropolis Distributed Storage Fabric that delivers enterprise-class storage services to all virtualised desktops and apps, and scales linearly to support any size deployment. Based on patented Web-scale technologies, the Nutanix platform ensures fast end-user performance with advanced features such as data locality to reduce storage latencies, and innovative Shadow Cloning to reduce network traffic and accelerate overall performance during boot storms.
Joint customers are also expected to benefit from a greater selection of supported hypervisors for their VDI initiatives, including the new Acropolis Hypervisor. The Acropolis Hypervisor, along with integrated consumer-grade virtualisation management, lowers overall infrastructure costs and speeds virtual desktop deployments. The Nutanix Acropolis solution streamlines datacentre design by eliminating the hypervisor as a separately purchased and individually managed silo in the overall infrastructure stack, bringing operational and management simplicity and improved economics to VDI projects.
The innovative Nutanix App Mobility Fabric, which provides seamless migration of virtual workloads between hypervisor environments, will benefit customers by providing the freedom to choose the technologies best suited for their environment and IT budget.
Industry-leading XenApp and XenDesktop deliver a brilliant user experience on a variety of devices and network connections. XenApp and XenDesktop give customers the flexibility and security needed to mobilise businesses. The full XenApp and XenDesktop solution includes NetScaler and ShareFile. Together, Nutanix and Citrix will provide a complete, simple, scalable and cost-effective solution for delivering virtual desktops and applications. Mutual customers can:
* Deploy a complete virtual desktop solution in just hours without requiring specialised storage skills
* Scale VDI infrastructure from small pilots to large-scale production environments with tens of thousands of users predictably, with high performance to deliver a high fidelity VDI user experience
* Lower overall infrastructure costs by eliminating the need procure and manage separate virtualisation software
“By working with Nutanix, Citrix is once again demonstrating its commitment to enabling end users to work from anywhere, on any device,” says Bill Burley, vice-president and GM, Windows App Delivery at Citrix.
“Working with Nutanix, we are providing additional infrastructure options for deploying XenApp and XenDesktop that will help accelerate customer time to value, and drive even greater efficiencies and success in app and desktop virtualisation projects.”
“Nutanix is proud to have earned the support of Citrix for running their flagship products on Nutanix Acropolis,” says Sunil Potti, senior vice president of engineering and product management, Nutanix. “Eliminating the complexities of datacentre infrastructure allows Citrix customers to focus on the applications and services that power their business.”
Enterprises are facing high cost and complexity in their application and desktop virtualisation space because of the misalignment between infrastructure, virtualisation, and workspace delivery inclusive of applications, desktops and data,” says Mark Bowker, Senior Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “A joint Nutanix and Citrix solution leveraging Acropolis and a complete Citrix user workspace will help datacentre and desktop teams bring IT’s focus back to the end-user with favourable economics, streamlined management, scalability, and maintain the focal point on user experience.”
“Our Desktop as a Service offering, based on Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp on the Nutanix Xtreme Computing Platform had been core to our Cloud IT services for residents, schools, and Ward offices and staff,” says Seiji Urayama, CIO, Adachi Ward, Tokyo. “We are pleased to endorse the support of XenDesktop and XenApp on the Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor as it is enabling my team to drive further TCO reductions, improve productivity and performance to better serve all our users.”
“We’re excited to see two industry leaders partner together with a focus on delivering more choices and more value to our customers, especially around the areas of application and desktop virtualisation,” says Jody Elkins, vice president and managing director, Agile 360. “As a solution provider that differentiates itself through unmatched customer-focus, we are constantly looking at ways to help our customers improve end user experience and support business initiatives at lower costs. The relationship between Citrix and Nutanix supports those enduring goals.”