Citrix, MS join forces for Project Encore

Bengaluru: Taking a cue from a successful 20-year partnership in application and desktop virtualization, Citrix Systems announced 'Project Encore', extending its collaboration with Microsoft into the adjacent server virtualization market. As part of this strategic alliance, Citrix unveiled the availability of a new solution called Citrix Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V, offering advanced virtualization management capabilities for Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V to help customers create highly scalable, manageable and agile virtual infrastructures. The new solution will extend the enterprise management capabilities of Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V and System Center in the areas of storage management, provisioning services, and lab automation. To accelerate broad availability to Microsoft Hyper-V customers, Citrix will make Essentials for Microsoft Hyper-V available to both Citrix and Microsoft resellers worldwide and collaborate with Microsoft on marketing and training activities.

“Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V will enable Microsoft customers to obtain even more value from their investments in the Windows platform and Microsoft virtualization solutions,” said Mike Neil, GM-Virtualization Strategy, Microsoft.

“We see Citrix Essentials as a powerful extension that enables customers to accelerate their Hyper-V adoption in the enterprise in much the same way Citrix XenApp has extended the Windows Server platform for nearly 20 years in the application delivery arena. Microsoft also will work to ensure that a future release of Microsoft System Center will support Citrix XenServer for customers with mixed Hyper-V and XenServer environments,” added Neil.