News

Updates to CloudStack and XenApp, XenDesktop

CloudStack 4.3 supports Hyper-V, dynamic computing; XenApp/XenDesktop 7.5 simplify hybrid cloud deployments and provisioning; Oracle rolls up with VirtualBox 4.3.10.

• By Michael Domingo
• 03/26/2014

Quite a few releases of the cloud and virtualization variety have hit all at once, all clamoring for attention.

First on the list today is the point release of the Apache Software Foundation's CloudStack cloud computing platform, which is significant for one big reason: Support for Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor. CloudStack 4.3.0 is written in Java throughout, but there's a version of the CloudStack agent written in C#. That agent basically manages communication between CloudStack and Hyper-V VMs, but it conceivably can extend CloudStack to any solutions that you want to deploy if they're also written in C#.

Other notable features that are highlighted in an Apache blog post announcing the new release include support for dynamic computing, which allows for resources attached to a running VM to be scalable, as long as the hypervisor that's attached to the VM supports it; the addition of an extension for the SolidFire Storage QoS plug-in; Palo Alto Firewall integration; site-to-site VPN connectivity; and support for Juniper Network's OpenContrail SDN controller, among other features.

CloudStack 4.3.0 is available for immediate download via the Apache blog post linked above.

Up next is Citrix, which has released new point versions of XenApp and XenDesktop that have support for hybrid cloud environments. Specifically listed in a Citrix blog post, the new 7.5 versions support the delivery and provisioning of applications and desktops on Citrix Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services. There's a bevy of other new features listed here, but what sticks out is Wake-on-LAN support in XenDesktop, as well as the addition of the full version of the AppDNA application validator for subscribers of the Platinum editions of XenApp and XenDesktop.

Citrix will be blogging about those features and others in follow-up posts in the next few days.

Not to be ignored, Oracle said that a maintenance release of its open-source hypervisor platform, VirtualBox 4.3.10, is now is now available. A changelog published here shows that it's mainly a roundup of bug fixes, but what's noteworthy is support for what Oracle lists as "experimental native full screen support for [Mach OS X] Mountain Lion and Mavericks" interfaces, as well as the removal of a "mini-toolbar minimize button which doesn't work under Mac OS X full screen mode anyway."