Q&A: Citrix's CTO on why the cloud needs virtualisation

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Until the regulatory issues get solved, and until the software licensing gets solved, none of those mission critical workloads will move to the cloud.

The licensing issues relate to the operating system – Microsoft still has its homework to do – but also to the applications themselves. Sometimes they are tied to a physical machine and the agility is not there.

Which companies are actively trying to sort this issue out? How much is Microsoft holding up the show?

Microsoft has been trying. Microsoft has been hobbled pretty severely by its own regulatory environment. It’s almost a regulated industry. After the consent decree, Microsoft has been very...it has to move so slowly, as it has to check everything with the DoJ.

It is actually making a very sincere attempt to address many of the licensing issues, but is hobbled in many respects. Many people are actively seeking to screw it up – Oracle being one. Oracle is a real standout. And it has its own agenda – good for them – but I think finding good citizens... If you look in the app world, SAP’s been a shining example of doing the right thing.

It certified against all the leading virtualisation platforms, it has a very active ecosystem approach and has completely known solutions and so on. It is a leader in terms of the core perhaps.

How important are partnerships and ecosystems and teaming up to making cloud computing work? Do you all need to go forward holding hands for it to work?

Our approach is to be open in a Microsoft-like way. Microsoft has always been very good with ISVs. Microsoft’s core philosophy is that it builds the platform and the ISVs add the value. It has always had that view. Our approach is very similar.

You’ll see more and more integrated stack, coming from some key vendors. So, for example, if you look at this Cisco/VMware/EMC thing that is kind of a preintergrated solution, so-called cloud in a box, I guess.

In my view, that is a bit of a threat to the channel, and its ability to be an independent advisor to the customer...

The more pre-integrated solutions are, like vBlocks from EMC and Cisco and VMware, the less value those guys get to bring, and I think that‘s a fairly substantial assault on the channel and its ability to be an independent advisor. And I know the channel doesn’t like that at all.

Citrix is very committed to that channel model of dirstrubution and sale. It’s key to our efficiency and to margin and bottom line growth.

VMware has increasingly started to take deals direct, and the channel hates it. They really hate it. If there’s a really large deal, some VMware presale will come in and help, and then they’ll take the deal direct and they’ll give the reseller some amount of money but it’ll be substantially less.

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