Today at Citrix Synergy™ where virtualization takes center stage, Citrix Systems announced “Project Olympus,” a groundbreaking new cloud infrastructure product based on the popular OpenStack project. By leveraging OpenStack, Project Olympus inherits all the collective experience and innovation of hundreds of experienced open source cloud developers – and a rapidly growing list of more than 60 supporting commercial hardware and software vendors. As a result, Project Olympus helps customers build real infrastructure-as-a-service clouds that are scalable, efficient and open-by-design, because they use the same architecture, approach and technology that powers the largest and most successful clouds in the world. This approach stands in stark contrast to first-generation solutions that try to simulate cloud environments by adding proprietary management layers on top of existing datacenter virtualization stacks.

What’s New

  • Next-Generation Cloud Infrastructure Platform: Project Olympus is comprised of two primary components: a Citrix-certified version of OpenStack and a cloud-optimized version of Citrix XenServer®. Both versions incorporate Xen® technology, the virtualization platform of choice in more than 80 percent of the public cloud today.
  • Open-by-Design: Project Olympus will support a wide range of infrastructure, management and development solutions, making it easy for customers to expand and build on it. Reinforcing the Citrix commitment to customer choice, Project Olympus will also support Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware vSphere, just like it does in the desktop virtualization space with its market-leading Citrix XenDesktop® product line.
  • Ideal for both Public and Private Clouds: Project Olympus is perfect for public cloud providers who want to focus their attention on providing differentiation and innovation, rather than recreating core cloud infrastructure. It is also ideal for enterprise customers who want to build private clouds with all the efficiency and flexibility that make the real cloud so transformative.
  • Key Part of the Citrix Cloud Portfolio: Project Olympus is a key new addition to the Citrix open cloud computing portfolio. It complements the recently announced Citrix NetScaler® Cloud Gateway, which gives IT an easy, unified way to orchestrate the delivery of any mix of SaaS, web and Windows apps to end users, and NetScaler Cloud Bridge, which gives IT unlimited capacity by seamlessly and securely extending any datacenter to any external cloud service.
  • Built-In Cloud Networking: In addition to complementing NetScaler Cloud Gateway and Cloud Bridge, Project Olympus will come pre-integrated with the Citrix Cloud Networking fabric to ensure cloud applications and services are delivered with the best performance, security and reliability. It will also enable customers to fully leverage virtual switching and intelligent L4-7 capabilities in Networking-as-a-Service models.
  • Early Access Program: Project Olympus will begin shipping later this year. For customers who want to begin pilots and proof-of-concept deployments today, Citrix is also introducing the Citrix Project Olympus Early Access Program, with key support from fellow OpenStack founding members, Dell and Rackspace. The program provides a sneak peek into the upcoming Citrix solution and helps customers get everything they need to start building scalable clouds today. To help customers get started, Dell and Rackspace are offering certified solutions for the Early Access Program, including:
    • Dell Early Access Support: As a founding member of the OpenStack project, Dell understands that configuring servers, storage and the networking to build cloud infrastructures for the first time can be complex and time-consuming. To address this, Dell is providing deployment software and a fully optimized reference architecture based on the PowerEdge C server platforms for Citrix Project Olympus Early Access Program members.
    • Rackspace Early Access Support: Also a founder of OpenStack and customer of XenServer in its own public cloud operation, Rackspace is one of the largest public clouds in the world. To support the Citrix Project Olympus Early Access Program, Rackspace will leverage its expertise to provide deployment services, training and ongoing customer support for customer clouds. Rackspace Cloud Builders, a team of OpenStack experts, can help deploy and support private or public OpenStack clouds in any data center.

Why it Matters

Project Olympus is a game-changing new solution that provides:

  • Openness: As open source-based IaaS solutions become more prevalent, the freedom of the cloud will be extended with seamless connections between other open source datacenters. By bringing an open cloud alternative to the industry, Project Olympus not only provides IT more scalability, but it also allows them to enhance and innovate their services and apps while dynamically expanding their compute capabilities without capital expense.
  • Proven Technology – Proven technologies used by the largest clouds in the world – including Citrix NetScaler and XenServer, OpenStack and Xen – have been leveraged to provide a tested, certified, packaged version of the open source OpenStack with a cloud-optimized version of Citrix XenServer. As a result, the benefits of public cloud infrastructures are accessible to the development of private clouds for the enterprise and service providers.
  • Rich Ecosystem: Project Olympus will further accelerate the rapidly growing, rich ecosystem of OpenStack cloud solution partners, including Dell, Intel and Rackspace and a range of solutions for cloud management (e.g., Rightscale); security (e.g., Trend Micro) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) (e.g., GigaSpaces, Engine Yard).

Quotes

Sameer Dholakia, VP of Product Marketing, Datacenter and Cloud Division, Citrix

“Public clouds like Amazon and Rackspace have set the bar for how real clouds should be built, yet many vendors want to force-fit the cloud into existing server virtualization architecture, giving customers more of an imitation cloud. Citrix believes it is time to leverage the open source community to bring cloud to a new level of innovation with a solution that brings the open, elastic, scale-out infrastructures of leading IaaS clouds to private clouds. There was no better project to help bring Project Olympus to fruition than OpenStack, with its dedicated industry support, rich ecosystem and rapid pace of innovation.”

John Igoe, Executive Director of Development Engineering, Dell

“Dell has been a part of the OpenStack initiative since the beginning. We’ve participated in the community by providing reference architectures, optimized PowerEdge C servers, and innovative software to meet growing customer demand for an open-source based cloud. By providing cloud-enabled versions of Xen and XenServer, Citrix is augmenting and strengthening OpenStack, helping drive new solutions that make it easier to accelerate virtualization and cloud deployments alike. This is just the first step. Dell, RackSpace and Citrix will continue collaborating closely to drive new innovative cloud offerings and solutions.”

Jim Curry, General Manager, Rackspace Cloud Builders

“The momentum behind OpenStack is growing rapidly, and we are seeing enterprises and service providers hungry to deploy OpenStack-based clouds. Having a certified OpenStack distribution from an industry leader like Citrix will provide a further rallying point for the ecosystem and help drive adoption with service providers and enterprises looking for a trusted, commercial software provider to stand behind this mission-critical piece of infrastructure software.”

Pricing and Availability

Early Access Program customers will receive Citrix Project Olympus beta software free of charge. To sign up for the Early Access Program, please visit: www.citrix.com/olympus. Project Olympus – including the Citrix-certified version of OpenStack and a cloud-optimized version of the popular Citrix XenServer – will be generally available later this year.

Related Links

  • More information on Project Olympus
  • Announcement: Citrix Unveils End-to-End Cloud Networking Lineup
  • Citrix OpenStack Community page
  • Dell OpenStack Community page
  • Rackspace OpenStack Community page
  • OpenStack Community Member Blogs
  • Dell:
    • Citrix to Launch OpenStack Distro (with a little help from Rackspace and Dell), Barton George, Cloud Evangelist
    • One Giant Leap for Cloud: Citrix, Dell, and Rackspace Step Up with OpenStack, Joseph B George, Cloud Strategist
    • The OpenStack Rocket: How Citrix, Dell & Rackspace Collaboration Propels OpenStack, Rob Hirschfeld, Cloud Architect
  • Engine Yard: Ruby, the Cloud, and Open Standards, Mike Piech, VP of Product Management and Marketing
  • GigaSpaces: GigaSpaces Citrix integration on top of OpenStack, Nati Shalom, CTO and Founder
  • Intel: Let’s Just Leave the Barn Door Open, Billy Cox, Director, Cloud Builders
  • Rackspace: OpenStack Gains Enterprise Backing: A Peek at Project Olympus, Mark Collier, VP of Marketing and Business Development
  • Rightscale: Commercial Support for OpenStack on the Horizon, Thorsten von Eicken, CTO and Founder
  • Trend Micro: Open Source Clouds Become Enterprise-Grade: Citrix and OpenStack, Dave Asprey, VP Cloud Security

Follow us Online

  • Citrix Synergy Newsroom
  • Project Olympus page
  • Citrix Tech Previews
  • About Citrix Synergy
  • Twitter: @Citrix, @Citrix_Synergy, @CitrixCloud, #CitrixOlympus, #CitrixSynergy

About Citrix

Citrix Systems (”Citrix”) (Nasdaq: CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacenters for IT. More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with more than 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2010 was $1.87 billion. For more information on Citrix, visit www.citrix.com.

For Citrix Investors

This release contains forward-looking statements which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements in this release do not constitute guarantees of future performance. Those statements involve a number of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially, including risks associated with revenue growth and recognition of revenue, products, their development and distribution, product demand and pipeline, economic and competitive factors, the Company’s key strategic relationships, acquisition and related integration risks as well as other risks detailed in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Citrix assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking information contained in this press release or with respect to the announcements described herein.

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