VMLogix provides a management console for cloud deployment, allowing users to automate and manage the provisioning of both internal and external cloud resources. Citrix intends to include the VMLogix console within its OpenCloud platform to provide a complete cloud management offering that works across different products, including Microsoft’s Hyper-v, Xen and VMware’s own virtualization offerings.

This acquisition, and the broader OpenCloud initiative, is in response to the demand from enterprises for a hybrid approach toward cloud computing (the desire to manage and automate provisioning of systems regardless of where they are: on-premise, public cloud, or a combination of the two).

It’s a busy area. I recently covered Adaptive Computing, a company that offers similar software and will soon announce a Series A funding led by none other than Intel Capital. In my post, I detailed the significant funding and acquisition activity in the space; we also recently covered Joyent’s aquisition of Layerboom. All this activity is indicative of the jockeying for position in what is set to become the massive hybrid cloud automation space.

What’s interesting about the Citrix OpenCloud approach is its complete vendor agnosticism. It allows enterprise customers to manage a mix of public and private cloud services from a single management console, even if they use these services from diverse cloud providers. In commenting on the acquisition, and the broader OpenCloud strategy, Wes Wesson, chief strategy officer for Citrix said:

What we hear continually from corporate customers in this space is, first I want the economics and elasticity of the cloud today in my existing data center… Second I want the flexibility to move workloads as it makes sense between private and public clouds, with security and performance assured. And third I want the flexibility to change and move providers.

The VMLogix acquisition and the general OpenCloud initiative are helping meet these objectives. Strategically, the move allows Citrix to shift focus somewhat away from their own infrastructure products and services, and gain market share providing a solution-agnostic management level that sits atop discreet infrastructure offerings. Citrix has also come out in support of OpenStack, the Rackspace and NASA-led grouping working on open-source tools designed to ease the multiple cloud vendor management pain. At VMWorld, Citrix will demonstrate the ability to manage workloads across XenServer running as both on-premise and virtual machines running in an OpenStack-managed public cloud, all from within a single management console.

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Ben Kepes is an independent consultant and contributing writer for GigaOM. Please see his disclosure statement in his bio.

Jason Hoffman at Structure 2009

Joyent, the hosting company turned private cloud provider, has purchased Layerboom, a Vancouver-based startup, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition helps Joyent create an easier on-ramp to the cloud for customers of its appliances and software. Layerboom, a Bootup Labs incubated company, makes software and an appliance that enables a company to manage virtual machines running the Windows and Linux operating systems. Joyent CTO Jason Hoffman says the acquisition will help customers who still need to manage legacy hardware make the transition to Joyent’s ideal of running a platform as a service.

Joyent, which began as a hosting company in 2003 2004, is betting that enterprises don’t want to manage their own servers — even if they are virtual — and would rather build applications on top of language-specific or database-specific platforms. It offers an appliance that companies can use to create private internal clouds, but in 2009, it also bought a company called Reasonably Smart to allow its customers to internally offer the equivalent of a Google App Engine–like platform as a service for customers, on top of Joyent’s appliance or customers’ own hardware. The Layerboom deal sits beneath those two layers and will help customers more at the virtual machine level, because as Hoffman said, “You may always need to have a few Windows boxes running around.”

Hoffman says the deal came about because, as Layerboom was raising its Series B round of funding, investors inevitably came to Joyent for its input. Hoffman decided to take a look, and Joyent ended up buying the company. Hoffman says Joyent has purchased four startups (including Reasonably Smart) at a similar stage because it saw a chance to extend its vision. This vision is a compelling one as enterprises eye the cloud and need ways to maintain or transition from their legacy infrastructure.

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