Barney's Blog

Blog archive

New Citrix Tool Promises Virtual Interoperability

Citrix this week announced "Project Kensho" (which is a Zen term referring to one's initial enlightenment), a set of tools that should make your choice of hypervisor, as Dr. Evil might say, "inconsequential."

Kensho tools take advantage of Open Virtual Format (OVF), a standard that lets IT and application makers build virtual machines that run independent of the hypervisor. This way, a VM could be easily moved from VMware to Xen to Hyper-V.

Here's how Simon Crosby, Citrix CTO, described Kensho in a recent blog:

"Kensho will allow application vendors and IT users to produce virtual appliances once as 'golden application templates,' independent of the virtualization platform used to deploy them -- and is a clear demonstration of how Citrix will add value to Hyper-V."

Another advantage of Kensho? It will eventually let Microsoft System Center VMM manage other hypervisors such as XenServer. Microsoft has got to love that.

With this kind of interop, does the hypervisor even matter? What do you think, and what is your favorite virtual tool? Answers welcome at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on July 16, 2008


Featured

  • World Map Image

    Microsoft Taps Nebius in $17B AI Infrastructure Deal To Alleviate Cloud Strain

    Microsoft has signed a five-year, $17.4 billion agreement with Amsterdam-based Nebius Group to expand its AI computing capabilities through third-party GPU infrastructure.

  • Microsoft Brings Copilot AI Into Viva Engage

    Microsoft 365 Copilot in Viva Engage is now generally available, extending Copilot's AI-powered assistant capabilities deeper into the Viva platform.

  • MIT Finds Only 1 in 20 AI Investments Translate into ROI

    Despite pouring billions into generative AI technologies, 95 percent of businesses have yet to see any measurable return on investment.

  • Report: Cost, Sustainability Drive DaaS Adoption Beyond Remote Work

    Gartner's 2025 Magic Quadrant for Desktop as a Service reveals that while secure remote access remains a key driver of DaaS adoption, a growing number of deployments now focus on broader efficiency goals.