Citrix launches Type 1 hypervisor before VMware

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Citrix has announced its new XenDesktop virtualisation software, featuring a Type 1 hypervisor named XenClient.

A Type 1 hypervisor, otherwise known as a bare-metal hypervisor, is installed directly onto desktop hardware instead of being placed on top of an operating system.

This hypervisor enables virtual desktops to run directly on client devices such as laptops, allowing users to operate either online or disconnected without any having to check in or out of an environment.

This is beneficial for companies wanting find an answer for expanding virtualisation out to remote workers, while allowing the IT department to keep control over user machines, Citrix said.

Citrix will be pleased to have rolled out a Type 1 hypervisor before rival VMware, which has promised to produce such a technology but is yet to do so.

The announcement comes just days before the start of VMware's annual conference, VMworld, in San Francisco.

“I think a lot of other virtualisation technologies and vendors are actually having a hard time delivering the core technology,” Dave Austin, director product marketing in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) for Citrix, told IT PRO.

“VMware have recently said they’ve abandoned their Type 1 project. For the time being it’s too hard for them to do.”

The second major addition to the XenDesktop package is XenVault, which automatically stores user data in an encrypted folder.

The software also automatically encrypts data created by any corporate app that is delivered by Citrix XenApp, while remote wiping capabilities make it easy to kill data.

“It gives [the IT department] a high degree of control, to ensure not just the applications or the desktop but the data itself is secured according to the policies that they have,” said Austin.

“I’m unaware of any other vendor that’s doing anything like this.”

The new XenClient and XenVault technologies will be shipped out in the new XenDesktop 4, Feature Pack 2 release at the end of September.

A free Express edition of the technology is also due to be rolled out at the same time, which can virtualise and sychronise up to 10 machines.

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