Pillar Axiom Available For Citrix XenServer

Pillar Data Systems announced the availability of new Citrix XenServer storage profiles for the Pillar Axiom, bringing the industry’s highest utilization rates and leading performance to Citrix environments. Now, customers deploying Citrix XenServer will be able to take advantage of the Axiom’s Application-Aware capabilities and guaranteed 80-percent utilization rates. Additionally, Pillar is supporting the Citrix Ready Open Storage Program and Citrix StorageLink technology.  
 
The new XenServer application profiles for the Pillar Axiom makes it the only storage system in the industry that can be automatically and dynamically optimized for a multitude of applications and server virtualization environments.
 
“With the Pillar Axiom on board with our Citrix Ready Open Storage Program, we will be able to further broaden our storage interoperability initiative and increase the value of storage virtualization in the datacenter,” said Benn Schreiber, director of business development at Citrix Systems. “Offering a virtualization platform that gives customers more flexibility helps them turn that into cost savings, and with the Axiom’s efficient utilization rates, we’ve created a very compelling combined solution.”

The Pillar Axiom is the only storage system that allows administrators to provision storage uniquely tuned to the application need and priority, running on virtual servers. Storage can be provisioned in both a ‘thin’ and ‘physical’ context. The XenServer profile configures the Axiom in a way that maximizes performance for the application running in a virtual machine by assigning greater priority, more cache and faster spindles to those actions deemed most important.

“By extending its innovative Application-Aware approach to cover more of the major storage environments, Pillar is driving to make efficiency a reality as opposed to just an industry buzzword,” said Mark Peters, analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group. “Pillar has recognized that a key way to optimize any storage infrastructure is to center it on application needs and priorities. And they’re delivering a way to do just that.”

Typically, server virtualization projects require as much as two to four times more storage to mitigate the utilization and performance degradation associated with traditional storage systems in virtual environments. The Pillar Axiom alleviates this problem and increases cost savings by reducing deployment time, management and training costs while providing as much as three times the disk utilization rates of competing storage systems. Additionally, the Axiom reduces storage administration complexity by automating data layout and volume allocation prioritization – even with applications that fluidly change due to virtual server resource scheduling and load balancing.

“Not only is Pillar now extending its expertise in efficiency-driving technology to Citrix users, but our guarantee for higher utilization rates and superior performance goes along with it,” said Bob Maness, vice president of worldwide marketing and channel sales for Pillar Data Systems. “Citrix was always a leader in breakthrough technology, so the innovative solutions from our companies are a perfect match. I think our end users will be very happy with this integration.”
 
Data center resources have traditionally been underutilized, while drawing enormous amounts of power and taking up valuable floorspace. Virtualization has been a positive evolutionary step in the data center, driving consolidation of these resources to maximize utilization and power savings and simplify management and maintenance.
 
Today’s news builds on a series of certifications Pillar has completed for XenServer with the delivery of its Axiom Storage systems, which are listed in the Citrix Ready catalog. As a member of the Citrix Ready program, Pillar continues to keep current with Citrix certifications to ensure that joint customers will be able to leverage the simple management, scalability and intelligent resource allocation inherent in the Pillar Axiom.