The core Xen hypervisor technology has been open source since day one, but the overall server virtualization technology has not been.
XenServer’s roots go back nearly 7 years to August of 2006 when XenSource released its XenEnterprise product. XenSource was acquired by Citrix in August of 2007 for $500 million, and XenEnterprise got folded into what is now known as XenServer.
Citrix also recently moved the Xen hypervisor project itself over to the Linux Foundation in an effort to enable and foster a broader and more transparent open development model.
“XenServer 6.2 is now fully open source, so there is a fully featured version available for free to all users,” Scott Lindars, senior product marketing manager at Citrix. “Citrix will have a paid version that includes tech support and maintenance for customers that want to have a commercial engagement.”
Lindars stressed that the key for any open source project is to have a community for users and developers that is open for participation. To that end, Citrix is also launching the XenServer.org community portal. The goal of the portal is to enable users and developers to have a forum for discussion with Citrix’s product management.
Read the full story at ServerWatch:
Citrix Takes XenServer Open Source
Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.