All of StoneFly’s (News - Alert) IP SAN configurations reportedly have completed Citrix Ready compatibility verification testing for use with server virtualization solutions from Citrix Systems (News - Alert), Inc.

 

StoneFly says its High-Availability Storage Concentrator, Integrated Storage Concentrator and OptiSAN Storage Concentrator product lines have been optimized for Citrix XenServer server solutions, which are designed for virtualizing application workloads across any number of servers in the data center.

 

StoneFly expects the optimization to bolster existing support for fast integration of networked storage with virtual servers, available through “StoneFusion,” the company’s IP-based, block-level provisioning platform.

 

David Roussain, group vice president of product marketing, virtualization and management division at Citrix Systems, said that efficient, highly available storage is a vital component in every virtualization scenario, and is often underestimated. With Citrix XenServer virtualization, StoneFly’s customers can increase server and storage use, while reducing expenditures on equipment, power, cooling and data center space.

 

Roussain added that StoneFly is a great addition to its growing list of ecosystem partners.

 

The certification comes as market demand rises for consolidated server and storage resources, with “a growing need to provision storage and server resources centrally,” according to Bahman Jalali, director of product management for StoneFly.

 

Jalali believes his company can leverage its relationship with Citrix to build upon its mature storage virtualization platform while also providing customers with a higher level of XenServer expertise.

 

According to StoneFly officials, XenServer compatibility will enable them to further simplify IP SAN deployment for customers. They say that with StoneFly’s support for network boot technologies (both software and hardware initiator based) in diskless virtual server environments, IT administration saves time and streamlines operations. By using IP SANs to facilitate the use of diskless servers and virtual servers, customers can also cut down data center costs and consolidate resources.

 

Ken Friend, channel and OEM director for StoneFly, said that by taking advantage of the strength within the Citrix channel, StoneFly’s reseller network will also benefit from this announcement.

 

He said that StoneFly looks forward to its continued work with Citrix XenServer teams through joint channel partners as it helps solution providers understand how they can benefit from combining IP SANs with XenServer deployments.

 

“To that end, our internal support and professional service teams have been refining their expertise in Xen virtualization practices in order to optimize our capabilities in this fast-growing area,” Friend said.