INDUSTRY
XenSource Introduces XenServer Product Family
- Written by: Writer
- Category: INDUSTRY
ailable Now, XenEnterprise, XenServer and XenExpress Offer Revolutionary New Choice for Easy Deployment of x86 Server Virtualization to Enterprise Customers of Any Size: XenSource, Inc., the leader in infrastructure virtualization solutions based on the open source Xen hypervisor, today announced a comprehensive family of server virtualization products supported and maintained by the company leading the evolution of Xen. Designed to meet the needs of a broad range of users, the XenSource XenServer product family includes the recently announced XenEnterprise, the market's first enterprise-grade commercially-packaged Xen virtualization solution supporting both Microsoft Windows and Linux guests. New additions include XenServer, for Windows standard server environments; and, XenExpress, a free, production-ready product which enables anyone to quickly get started with Xen virtualization. Available now, all three products share the same architecture, delivering bare metal performance and facilitating easy migration and upgrades. Additionally, the new products offer a broad array of hardware device support, giving customers hardware investment protection and high utility. With extensive code contributions from Intel and AMD to optimize Xen performance on their newest CPUs, the new products immediately enable users to leverage the power of the Xen paravirtualized architecture and processors with Intel VT and AMD Virtualization -- which include hardware virtualization support for superior performance. "Now that virtualization of multiple OS environments is possible, more individuals and companies will look at using Xen in their data centers as well as for specific test activities," said Tony Iams, vice president of System Software research at Ideas International, Inc. "By offering a complete product family for server virtualization, XenSource is helping to make Xen and virtualization simple, accessible, and able to address the needs of any size environment." Based on the latest version of the open source Xen hypervisor, the XenServer product family delivers bare metal performance for virtualized guest operating systems. The commercial products, available now, are: -- XenEnterprise - Designed for the heterogeneous environment of enterprises, XenEnterprise delivers the performance, open source innovation, unified architecture and broad hardware support of the Xen hypervisor for x86 server virtualization of multiple operating systems, including Windows and Linux. XenEnterprise emphasizes ease of use, and simple deployment of the Xen hypervisor and guest virtual servers. It also provides the ability to install and manage multiple guests on the same server, with no imposed limit to concurrent virtual machines; network storage support; and resource controls for CPU, memory, net and disk. XenEnterprise offers integrated support for Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters from Emulex and QLogic. XenEnterprise will include additional features such as live migration, 64-bit support, high availability/failover and concurrent shared storage support in the first half of 2007. -- XenServer - Designed for Windows standard server environments, XenServer gives IT professionals a high performance, easy-to-use virtualization platform for Windows now. It is an easy-to-use server virtualization platform for running Windows virtual machines on bare metal x86 systems with Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization assist. Key features include Windows compatible guests, up to eight concurrent virtual machines, multi-host management console, network storage support and resource controls for CPU, memory, networking and disk I/O. -- XenExpress - Ideal for developers and technology enthusiasts, XenExpress is a free, production-ready product which enables anyone to quickly get started with Xen virtualization. XenExpress offers all of the performance and features of XenEnterprise, while enabling users to manage one server at a time. XenExpress can be freely downloaded today from the XenSource website and includes a license for a single server and four concurrent virtual machines. XenExpress supports both Windows and Linux guests. Additionally, because of the common, unified architecture, XenExpress can be easily upgraded to XenServer or XenEnterprise with a simple license key. "We are sparking a revolution in the mass adoption of virtualization with XenSource and the XenServer product family. XenSource is freeing up demand for virtualization which has been constrained by high priced, proprietary solutions. Because of our open source business model and the support of hundreds of developers worldwide XenSource products offer tremendous performance, broad hardware support, and a rich feature set for our customers," said John Bara, vice president of marketing at XenSource. "The immediate availability for purchase of the XenServer product family will enable customers to confidently and quickly get started now with commercial versions of Xen virtualization regardless of the type of environment or size of data center they have." Supported Operating Systems Guests and Hardware Requirements XenSource products include support of Microsoft Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP guests. Guest support for Windows Server 2000 will be added in Q1 2007. Windows requires x86 systems with Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization support. Supported Linux guests include Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Debian Sarge. Linux runs with any standard x86 system, and does not require Intel VT or AMD-V hardware virtualization support. Availability and Pricing XenEnterprise, XenServer and XenExpress are available now. XenEnterprise and XenServer can be purchased from an authorized XenSource reseller, and pricing for XenEnterprise starts at $488 for an annual subscription license per dual socket server, and $750 perpetual license per dual socket server. XenServer pricing is $99 for an annual subscription for a dual socket license. XenExpress is free, and can be downloaded from the XenSource Web site. For more information about XenSource products or information on becoming a XenSource reseller or partner, visit: its Web site or contact info@xensource.com