Citrix acquires VMLogix, mulls open strategy
Citrix has bought virtualisation management tools company VMLogix in order to add a self-service interface for its XenServer virtualisation product line, and is also considering releasing some of the acquired code as open source.
The acquisition, announced on Monday, is expected to be complete in the third quarter of 2010. The company said it will give XenServer users tools built with VMLogix technology to help them manage their virtualised estate from within the private cloud. The two companies have a prior relationship, with VMLogix' Lab Manager being bundled with platinum editions of the XenServer product.
"We had an OEM relationship with VMLogix, so the combination of learning a lot about the company and being impressed with their product and quality, combined with the investments we are making in cloud — specifically around helping our customers build private clouds — plus the combination with the Bangalore-based team made it an acquisition target for us," Lou Shipley, group vice president and general manager for the XenServer product group at Citrix, told ZDNet UK on Tuesday.
Citrix is a participant in the OpenStack scheme, and said as part of the announcement that it will further integrate the standards behind Citrix’s own OpenCloud infrastructure platform with OpenStack. A drive to open up the standards behind the XenServer product line to also integrate it with OpenStack "is being considered", according to Shipley, but there are currently no concrete plans.
The VMLogix acquisition is going to factor "very centrally into [Citrix’s] open cloud platform," according to Shipley, but "we have not yet made a decision to open source anything — at this point we’re buying the intellectual property and have plans to commoditise it, but we’re not taking anything off the table yet."
Citrix uses the XenServer product line as a way to create a virtualisation market for Citrix-developed add-ons, such as its Essentials virtualisation management package. However, Citrix's most recent earnings report pointed to desktop, not server virtualisation, as its major driver, with chief executive officer Mark Templeton saying that "the desktop virtualisation revolution is here now and adoption is accelerating".