ZNet India Blog

For the first time, production deployment on world class application delivery infrastructure is available for free. Yes, FREE! Citrix, a world leader in application delivery infrastructure with annual revenues grossing over $1.6 billion has come up with this innovative offering, XenServer. This server packs in a lot a virtualization punch with freebies like XenMotion for unlimited server management, and integrated storage management amongst other things.

The latest and free XenServer is powered by the same Xen® virtualization engine which drives nearly every independent cloud today. It is significant to know that today close to 75 percent of corporate servers globally are not virtualized. The decision of Citrix to offer virtual platform free would jumpstart a new revolution enabling performance strides in enterprise datacenters by harnessing the scale and economics of the cloud for the first time!

The latest Citrix XenServer is a feature-loaded virtual infrastructure engine with great elements like:

• Proven Hypervisor Engine powered by the 64-bit industry standard Xen open source hypervisor that leverages performance, scalability and security in next-generation servers, microprocessors and operating systems.
• Live Motion and Multi-Server Resource Sharing that facilitates movement of virtual machines from server to server without service interruption or zero downtime.
• Powerful Central Management allowing total management for unlimited number of virtual machines and servers.
• Easy Administration & Setup with intuitive Web 3.0 style search, and built-in auto-help that makes learning a snap for new administrators.
• Integral Storage Management compatible any existing storage systems with features like dynamic multi-pathing capabilities and host-based logical volume management.

Nathan Day, Chief Technology Officer of Softlayer commenting on the Xen virtualization engine said, “We can gain even further leverage using the full power of XenServer in our next-generation cloud computing platform with more efficiency and richer functionality than ever before. XenServer, as part of the Citrix Cloud Center (C3) platform, is really leading the way in the emerging cloud segment by helping its customers and partners navigate the rapidly-evolving technology.”

Mark Bowker, Enterprise Strategy Group’s analyst remarked, “Free hypervisors with limited functionality have been around for a long time. We see this move as substantially different because it offers a competitive, enterprise-ready virtual infrastructure platform with full centralized management, live motion and support for unlimited virtual machines and servers – with no strings attached.”

What could be the idea behind such a wildly incredible step from a global company to offer state-of-art infrastructure to both Enterprise and Cloud providers amidst soaring server prices? The move is aimed actually to spur the adoption of virtual platform for enterprise-level customers and to initiate full Windows support by external cloud providers to their current Linux offerings.

Please check our recent case study with Microsoft:

ZNet India Standardizes Messaging Infrastructure, Enhances Services:
http://www.microsoft.com/india/CustomerEvidence/details.aspx?casestudyid=558&type=V

Indian Hosting Company Offers Fully Loaded Dedicated Hosting and Hyper-V Based Virtual Private Servers to Customers: http://www.microsoft.com/india/CustomerEvidence/details.aspx?casestudyid=557&type=C

ISVs don’t have to spent large amounts of money in order to deploy their own server. Rather there are excellent ready made hosting/server solutions for ISV’s available in the market today.

Many ISVs require an independent server on which they can host their application and software. This task can be achieved through hosting solutions tailored to meet the needs of ISVs. Special hosting solutions are also available for ISVs that desperately require a dedicated server but do not possess the financial strength to invest in one. The independent Hyper-V VDS is one such program that has been specially prepared for IVSs in this situation.

Then there are other fully loaded or managed dedicated servers to be used with Windows 2008 Datacenter Edition, Windows 2008 Virtual Machines, Donetpanel Hyper-V Manager and SQL Server 2008. By making use of such a bundle pack you can actually create a Hyper- V for your self.

Special preconfigured highly suitable server solutions have also been developed on the statistics attained through conducting an in depth market survey. Interested customers now have the chance to choose between Database Server, Web Server, Storage Server and Cluster Server solutions.

Such services can come in handy for small and medium size businesses that have the need but do not possess the finances to go with conventional hosting solutions. The wide range of server solutions developed for such IVSs offers them basic to dedicated hosting server packages. Businesses that require full time sophisticated enterprise solutions are also being catered to by the range of hosting/server solutions for IVS’s. These revolutionary services have enabled IVSs to enhance there business and keep up with the global standards without having to invest a great amount of money that would strain their finances.

There are lots of people who choose web hosting by considering the price and that is the reason why you can find them going with the option of shared hosting. But, the problems like slow speed, no option to install programs, reduced security, etc can create problems more often than not. It is mainly because of the restrictive services associated with shared hosting that large organizations prefer VPS hosting.

In VPS or Virtual Private Server hosting, a physical server is divided into several parts and each part is assigned to each user. This means that different people stay on the same server like shared hosting but they get more control since they can use their part/space on the server in their own specific way.

The security feature of VPS hosting has always been impressive but it has become even incredible with the introduction of Windows 2008 VPS and Hyper-V VPS hosting. Hypervisor-based technology or Hyper-V provides you enhanced security by making use of hardware virtualization which isolates you from other users present on a physical server.

This virtualization technology is getting popular because of the use of microkernelized hypervisor-based architecture that enhances the reliability and security which is essential for all organizations.  In fact, Hyper-V allows users to enjoy several other benefits. For instance, multiple operating systems, like Linux or Windows, can be virtualized on the same server by Hyper-V. It also offers larger memory support, snapshotting and backup. Moreover, Hyper-V Virtual Private Servers come with AMD-V-enabled processors which contribute towards true virtualization.

Because of all these advantages, there are lots of countries where hosting companies are now introducing Hyper-V Virtual Private Servers Just like India where ZNET India is the first to offer such hosting services.