3par Expands XenServer Support to Target Internal Cloud

3PAR, Inc. expanded alliance activities with Citrix Systems, Inc. to target internal clouds, including becoming a Citrix Ready Partner, ongoing certification of the 3PAR InServ Storage Server with Citrix XenServer, and collaboration to integrate the 3PAR Utility Storage platform with Citrix StorageLink technology under the Citrix Ready Open Storage Program.
 
“Citrix XenServer is an enterprise-class, cloud-proven server virtualisation platform that delivers the critical features of live migration and centralised, multi-server management,” said John Fanelli, vice president of solutions and community marketing at Citrix Systems, Inc. “3PAR Utility Storage arrays feature storage virtualisation technologies designed to improve VM density and reduce capacity requirements, ultimately reducing the server and storage assets necessary for enterprise private clouds. Together, Citrix and 3PAR deliver a server and storage virtualisation combination that offers strategic value.”
 
All InServ Storage Server models have been tested
and certified as Citrix Ready for Citrix XenServer 5.5.
Joint 3PAR and Citrix customers have experienced the following benefits:

• Up to 50% reduction in physical server purchases. 3PAR Utility Storage has been shown to increase virtual server performance without sacrificing reliability, which allows server virtualisation customers to double the number of virtual machines configurable per physical server (also known as ‘VM density’). This means that XenServer customers are able to purchase and deploy up to 50% fewer physical servers when using 3PAR Utility Storage in place of traditional arrays.
• Simplified administration. 3PAR Utility Storage has reduced customer storage administration time by up to 90%. The platform also includes autonomic storage management features designed to complement the streamlined management of Citrix XenCenter®, which delivers scalable setup and administration to XenServer environments. The combined benefits of both server and storage virtualisation have been shown to result in a leaner, more agile datacentre that requires less time to manage and maintain than environments using traditional storage.
• Cost savings. Hyper-efficient 3PAR Utility Storage has been shown to reduce customer storage capacity requirements by using thin technologies to break the traditional link between allocated and purchased capacity. For example, by leveraging 3PAR Thin Provisioning software during the up-front provisioning of storage resources for XenServer, customers are able to maximise virtual datacentre cost savings by purchasing and consuming physical storage capacity only as needed. In addition, 3PAR’s new Get Thin Guarantee program guarantees qualifying customers converting from existing ‘fat’ volumes on traditional storage to new ‘thin’ volumes on 3PAR InServ arrays a 50% reduction in storage capacity necessary to support their XenServer deployments.

Citrix Ready is a product verification program that showcases and recommends partner products, like 3PAR Utility Storage, which can be used with confidence in Citrix environments. The Citrix Ready Open Storage Program is a new program that uses innovative StorageLink technology to facilitate storage platform interoperability with both Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V. Under this program, 3PAR and Citrix have agreed to work together to integrate Citrix StorageLink with 3PAR InServ arrays. This integration is aimed at allowing virtual server infrastructures to benefit from the advanced, array-based capabilities of the 3PAR Utility Storage platform.
 
“The combination of 3PAR Utility Storage and Citrix XenServer has exceeded every expectation we had for our internal cloud,” said Jonathan Levine, COO at LinkShare. “With 3PAR and Citrix, we are able to use the proven Xen hypervisor in conjunction with a storage platform built from the ground up to save time, spend less money, and react more quickly to changing business needs.”
 
“3PAR’s support for Citrix XenServer and planned integration with StorageLink technology deliver unique, combinatory benefits such as cost, equipment, and time savings,” said David Scott, 3PAR President and CEO. “The flexible, low-cost, virtualised infrastructure produced by combining 3PAR Utility Storage with Citrix XenServer forms an ideal foundation for service providers and other organisations building hyper-efficient, hyper-agile cloud computing datacentres.”