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."