Today at Citrix Synergy™ 2009, the conference where virtualization, networking and application delivery meet, Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) unveiled Citrix® NetScaler® VPX, a new software-based virtual appliance version of its industry-leading NetScaler® MPX hardware appliance product line. In addition to accelerating and securing web applications for thousands of corporate customers, NetScaler is also the delivery infrastructure of choice for most of the world's largest consumer websites and cloud providers, touching an estimated 75 percent of all Internet users each day. In the past, NetScaler has typically targeted large scale, mission-critical web applications via purpose-built equipment that required specialized networking expertise to deploy and manage. With the new NetScaler VPX release, all of this functionality will be available to customers in an easy, flexible, low-cost format that can be downloaded from the web and run on any standard server platform. Virtualizing the NetScaler platform also opens up a wide range of new dynamic, on-demand deployment options, both for enterprise customers as well as cloud service providers.

NetScaler VPX represents a fundamentally different approach to the growing convergence of virtualization and networking technologies in the modern datacenter. Unlike some leading networking vendors who promote proprietary hardware as the focal point of this convergence, Citrix believes it is best accomplished through open, flexible solutions that work with the technology customers have already invested in, allowing them to extend the value of their existing investments in ways they never thought possible before. NetScaler VPX not only enhances the delivery of virtualized server and application resources, it actually enables the NetScaler appliance itself to become a virtualized service that can be easily and rapidly deployed anywhere in the datacenter on standard server resources, just like any other virtual workload.

This increased flexibility allows customers to deploy application delivery capabilities closer to the actual application infrastructure, giving development teams who best understand the unique requirements of each application easy access to NetScaler functionality like caching, compression and application security that were previously accessible only to networking teams. Application owners with embedded video, interactive Web 2.0 capabilities or unique security requirements, for example, will now be able to quickly and affordably deploy advanced NetScaler capabilities on a per-application basis with NetScaler VPX, while relying on NetScaler MPX appliances for functionality common to all applications in the datacenter. Using software-based application delivery controllers (or “soft ADCs”) also makes it easier for IT organizations to apply established application deployment processes for tasks such as provisioning, charge-back and automation to their application delivery infrastructure.

“SoftADCs will be an important component of the ADC market, serving customers from small to mid-size enterprises where price is critical to large enterprise and cloud data centers where flexibility and agility are paramount,” said Joe Skorupa, Research VP at Gartner, Inc. “By 2013, SoftADCs will account for nearly one third of all ADC units shipped.”*

Because NetScaler VPX is built on open standards and supports industry-standard protocols, it can be installed on “off-the-shelf” hardware for simple deployment and management. Separating web application delivery capabilities from often expensive, vendor-mandated hardware is a crucial step in virtualizing next-generation datacenters and application delivery infrastructures, and brings to the industry much-need cost reductions and flexibility.

NetScaler VPX also expands the market for web application delivery by enabling deployment models not previously possible with hardware appliances. By virtualizing web delivery controllers, more users of more applications can now realize faster performance, greater application availability and better security. Specific benefits include:

• Lower TCO for Public and Private Cloud Infrastructures: NetScaler VPX complements existing NetScaler MPX appliances to create a comprehensive, centrally managed web application delivery fabric. In a two-tier architecture, for example, NetScaler VPX can be deployed in close proximity to each web application, delivering specific capabilities demanded by that application such as custom application security protection and sophisticated traffic management policies. At the datacenter edge, NetScaler MPX appliances handle network-wide tasks such as SSL encryption, denial of service (DoS) attack prevention and global load balancing to provide disaster recovery in multiple data center environments. Pairing high-performance NetScaler MPX appliances with easy-to-deploy NetScaler VPX software brings unparalleled flexibility and customization capabilities to modern, large-scale datacenter environments.
• Integrated, On-demand Provisioning: NetScaler VPX can be easily provisioned along with any web application it is assigned to deliver, whether it is the deployment of a brand new application, or the addition of capacity “on the fly” to an existing application in order to meet a sudden, unexpected increase in demand. Citrix Workflow Studio orchestration technology seamlessly integrates with NetScaler VPX to provide an efficient datacenter automation solution that can mesh with any datacenter environment. Because NetScaler VPX runs on the Citrix XenServer virtualization platform, centralized management of NetScaler VPX virtual images can now be managed through the XenCenter management console, alongside other server workloads in the datacenter.
• Global Scalability with “Cloud Balancing” Capabilities: Because of its unique form factor, NetScaler VPX brings unprecedented ability to follow applications across traditional enterprise boundaries without the constraints typically imposed by physical infrastructures. In the past, bringing new application capacity online to meet a sudden surge in demand, for example, entailed duplicating a complete physical network infrastructure or running with considerable excess capacity. With NetScaler VPX, customers can now leverage a “virtual-only” footprint for disaster recovery or “burst” scenarios. These on-call virtual NetScalers could also be spun up in external cloud environments, allowing for true “cloud balancing” scenarios as needed. Breaking the dependence on physical infrastructure drives lower overall costs and allows NetScaler VPX to be tightly coupled to existing application deployment processes.
• Flexible and Affordable Multi-Tenancy: NetScaler VPX provides web application delivery to a variety of service provider environments by enabling multiple NetScaler instances to run simultaneously on a single physical server in complete isolation from one another. This makes it easy for any organization to provide multi-tenant services without having to invest in expensive, special-purpose networking equipment. As individual tenant needs change, NetScaler VPX instances can easily be given more capacity or migrated to higher performance hardware.
• Simplicity for SMB and Departmental Use: NetScaler VPX also puts advanced web application delivery functionality within the reach of small and medium businesses (SMBs) and departmental workgroups for the first time ever. In addition to supporting low-cost server hardware, NetScaler VPX uses Citrix AppExpert Templates for quick deployment and configuration of popular applications like Microsoft® SharePoint®.
• Integration with Mainstream Solutions: Because NetScaler VPX is a portable, virtualized software solution, it can also be embedded directly into a variety of existing hardware and software solutions, including next-generation networking and infrastructure platforms, as well as numerous solutions. Embedding NetScaler functionality into other infrastructure elements already in the application line-of-site simplifies networks and lowers application delivery costs.

“Offering NetScaler as a virtual appliance will have a significant impact on the market as it opens application delivery functionality to anyone, anywhere,” said Klaus Oestermann, group vice president and general manager, NetScaler Product Group at Citrix. “This offering brings together virtualization and networking for the first time, bringing unparalleled flexibility and agility to datacenter architectures.”

With the release of NetScaler VPX, Citrix web application delivery capabilities become even more tightly integrated into the Citrix Delivery Center™ product family, a comprehensive datacenter-to-desktop system that helps customers transform static datacenters into dynamic “delivery centers.” Later this year, Citrix will offer virtual appliances for its popular Citrix Access Gateway™ secure remote access appliance, as well as a beta version of the virtual appliance for Citrix® Branch Repeater™, its branch optimization appliance that accelerates application delivery while drastically reducing bandwidth costs and simplifying branch infrastructure.”

Availability

NetScaler VPX will be available for public tech preview on May 18, 2009, and can be downloaded at www.citrix.com. NetScaler VPX will be available for general commercial purchase in Q3 2009. Citrix Access Gateway VPX will be generally available in the second half of 2009. Branch Repeater VPX will be in beta in the second half of 2009, and will be generally available in the first half of 2010. Pricing for the new VPX versions of these appliances is not being announced at this time.