HP to Support Citrix StorageLink

HP announced new virtualization offerings that enable customers to reduce costs and drive greater efficiencies across their entire technology infrastructures.

The offerings include enhancements to the HP StorageWorks and HP client virtualization portfolios that deliver a seamless transition from a physical to a fully virtualized environment.

“Customers are continuously looking for new ways to simplify the deployment of virtualization while reducing the administrative costs and complexities associated with the transition process,” said Bob Meyer, worldwide solution manager, Virtualization, HP. “HP offers a comprehensive range of solutions that allow customers to address their virtualization needs from the desktop to the data center.”

Enhance data center automation
with HP StorageWorks and Citrix StorageLink
To enable organizations to become more efficient, HP is working with Citrix to provide a high degree of storage automation and integration within virtualized environments. HP announced in May that it is a charter member of the Citrix Ready Open Storage Program. Today, HP is expanding the collaboration and will now support Citrix Essentials with StorageLink technology to allow customers to maximize their HP storage array capabilities.

Citrix StorageLink is an interface that automates storage provisioning and management within virtualization and application delivery products from Citrix and Microsoft. This enables HP StorageWorks EVA, MSA and LeftHand arrays to be optimally utilized with Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V. With StorageLink, virtual server and desktop environments can be managed simultaneously with storage environments through a single administrator, saving both time and operational costs.

The new offering allows customers to reduce administrative costs, while taking full advantage of HP array features. This can improve performance, increase availability, enable faster response time to IT changes and enhance storage efficiency.

“Our collaboration with HP provides an economical solution to the ever-growing complexities and resource costs associated with data center deployments,” said N. Louis Shipley, group vice president and general manager, XenServer Product Group, Citrix. “StorageLink not only maximizes the functionality of HP’s storage arrays but also enhances HP’s overall solutions for virtualization.”

Simplify the transition to client virtualization
with operating system streaming
A powerful new version of HP Image Manager Operating System (OS) streaming software helps customers gain the security, reliability and manageability features of client virtualization with a simpler infrastructure investment. The solution is ideal for organizations that are just beginning their transition to virtualization or for non-technical user deployments such as in education environments.

With HP Image Manager, one single software image containing the operating system (Microsoft Windows XP Pro or Vista), applications and drivers is streamed on demand from a server to all desktops in the environment. Personal settings and projects remain unique and secure on the server, while the operating system and applications are executed locally on the thin client.

HP’s Image Manager solution ensures that the latest client software is safely stored on the server and is always available unmodified and uncorrupted. Because the software runs locally on the client, end-users get the response times and multimedia experience they have come to expect from rich clients.

HP Image Manager is now available for use with the HP t5735 Thin Client as well as other clients through HP Customization Services.