Citrix Releases CloudStack 3

Citrix (previous CloudAve coverage) today announced the release of CloudStack 3, the open source cloud platform which will let enterprises and service providers roll out Amazon like cloud services. This is the first major release after they acquired Cloud.com last year. First they made an open core product into open source and now the new release offers a more optimized experience than before.

Some of the features in this release include:

• Cloud optimized version of Xenserver 6 is now a core feature
• Support for KVM, OVM, vSphere and Xen
• Deeper integration with Citrix Netscaler
• Allows service providers to upsell network services by creating a custom catalog of networking offerings and network services options
• A much better user interface
• Integration with OpenStack Swift, their object oriented storage offering

Essentially, this is a version that is fully integrated with other core Citrix products essentially unifying the experience for Citrix customers moving to cloud with CloudStack. This is something that was expected after the acquisition.

However, I am still curious about two issues which they are not talking publicly

1. I was told before the acquisition that CloudStack will use OpenStack compute for the compute side of the cloud
2. Randy Bias (keep in mind he has bet his company Cloudscaling’s business on competing OpenStack) once tweeted about how Tata Communications in India are having scaling issues with CloudStack. Even though Peder Ulander and Christian Reilly (then at Citrix and a fellow CloudAve blogger) have categorically denied this, I am still waiting to talk to Tata about it. If you are associated with Tata Communications, please put me in touch with someone who can talk to me on this topic.