Citrix and Nexenta Deliver Flexible and Cost-efficient Software-Defined Approach to VDI

By Michael Letschin, Director of Product Management, Solutions

We had a great time at Citrix Summit 2015 and had a chance to talk to partners about our new converged infrastructure validated solution stack for VDI workloads using Citrix XenServer. XenDesktop and NexentaStor.

Available as an industry standard x86 architecture, this economically viable, converged and integrated solution is geared for small and mid-sized businesses that are looking to embrace and benefit from the security and efficiencies of desktop virtualization and Software-Defined Storage. NexentaStor brings dramatic economic benefits through substantially higher performance, lower cost per terabyte and a pre-integrated converged infrastructure stack based on Citrix XenDesktop MCS.

The solution starts at a minimal 4U of physical space and is able to present 355 desktops at full workload.  The Citrix XenDesktop and Nexenta converged architecture can easily scale to provide up to a 1000 desktops in only 6U, a 25% density improvement compared to EVO: RAIL. The solution minimizes storage latency with over a 98 percent cache hit ratio, giving the fastest possible end user experience.

Over the past few years, we’ve collaborated with Citrix to produce multiple cost-efficient, flexible and scalable infrastructures for customers to build and scale VDI workloads. NexentaStor has proven to deliver the best performance and value on hybrid or pure storage configurations, as part of the Citrix Ready VDI Capacity Validation Program. This is just another step in the collaboration.

“Citrix sees great value for customers from the integration of Citrix XenDesktop and NexentaStor,” said Calvin Hsu, vice president of product marketing, Desktop and Apps, Citrix. “The end result is that our existing customers and prospects will benefit from the flexibility and cost-effectiveness of this solution.”

Details of this solution can be obtained by downloading the Citrix Validated design reference architecture.

Additional Resources: Nexenta Delivers a Converged Infrastructure Citrix Ready Validated Solution Stack