Beta of Virsto for XenDesktop on vSphere

Virsto Software Corporation is deepening its commitment to Citrix desktop virtualization solutions with the release of a beta program for Citrix XenDesktop on vSphere.

The integration of Virsto's purpose-built storage hypervisor for VMs with Citrix XenDesktop delivers savings on storage in virtual desktop deployments with accelerated provisioning and simplified management of thousands of virtual desktops.

A partner of Citrix, Microsoft and VMware, Virsto has established a track record of virtual machine storage innovation. Its ability to help organizations reap the benefits of server virtualization with increased I/O performance and lower storage costs has proven well-suited to removing the severe I/O bottlenecks and delivering accelerated provisioning for VDI.

Just as the hypervisor did for servers, Virsto delivers new levels of efficiency, affordability and agility for storage in virtualized environments with its storage hypervisor software. Traditionally, provisioning storage in virtualized environments requires a choice between production-level performance and efficient storage capacity consumption. With its hypervisor-agnostic, software approach to VM storage, Virsto combines performance and efficiency to transform the economics of storage for VMs.

Changes the economics of XenDesktop deployments
With the release of Virsto for XenDesktop on vSphere, Virsto is changing the economics of XenDesktop deployments by lowering the storage costs per desktop by more than 50% while providing performance gains of up to 10x, storage utilization gains of up to 10x, and ease of virtual desktop provisioning and patching.

Organizations already using XenDesktop can take advantage of Virsto's virtual storage architecture - a software-only storage hypervisor - while using native Citrix desktop management workflows. This is because Virsto integrates into existing workflows, presenting performance, space-efficient storage that is provisioned and supports HA features like failover, using any block-based storage already in the environment.

Virsto for XenDesktop on vSphere delivers:

• Native support for vSphere 4.1 and 5.0
• Integration with existing VM management tools and preservation of existing workflows
• Virsto's Rapid Deployment Utility supports deployment, update and recovery workflows for any existing desktop machine types
• Improve storage throughput by a factor of 10 through a software architecture that supports any underlying block-based and/or SSD storage
• Reduced CAPEX)with more than double the desktop density per host, without requiring any additional disk array, SSD, or memory purchases
• Reduced OPEX with integration into standard provisioning processes with no retraining costs
• Easy-to-use storage management features including VM storage self-provisioning, automated storage space reclamation, thin provisioning, and tiering of golden master and user data volumes

Virsto vSnaps and vClones: scalable, performance snapshots and writable clones, delivering provisioning and granular backup and recovery

Availability:
Virsto for XenDesktop on vSphere is available in beta. The product will be generally available in Q3 of 2012.

Mark Davis, CEO, Virsto, said: "Virsto integration with XenDesktop has been a loudly enunciated customer demand. Virsto has enjoyed a strong partnership with Citrix for years, and today we are pleased to expand our support for Citrix' industry leading virtual desktop solutions. Virsto now integrates with all of the major VDI platforms and hypervisors, with persistent or non-persistent desktops, giving customers the highest performing and most efficient storage utilization for virtual machines."

Kevin Strohmeyer, director of product marketing, Enterprise Desktops and Applications, Citrix, said: "For successful, scalable desktop virtualization, customers need access to optimized storage solutions. Virsto is developing a solid approach that allows customers to manage storage costs for XenDesktop deployments running on vSphere, while ensuring that users get the high-definition user experience they've come to expect from XenDesktop."

Deni Connor, founding analyst, StorageStrategies Now, said: "Virsto represents an innovative approach to delivering higher performance and better utilization of storage capacity in virtualized environments with simplified management of storage resources for virtual machines. New approaches like this are changing the economics of storage for virtual desktop and server environments. Introducing Virsto on XenDesktop extends the company's ability to deliver differentiated solutions to both of the leading VDI brokers in the market."