www.citrix.com
Citrix Cloud Solution for
On-boarding
Contents
Introduction... 3
The On-‐boarding Problem Defined ... 3
Considerations for Application On-‐boarding... 4
Citrix Cloud Solution for On-‐boarding ... 7
Summary ... 9
INTRODUCTION
Moving applications to the cloud can be complex, and depending upon the application the target cloud environment, may require re-architecting the application and network stack. Many factors must be considered when moving an application to the cloud: application components, network stack, management, security and orchestration. The Citrix On-boarding Solution helps solve all these issues by leveraging technologies around a robust virtual platform, virtual machine migration, open virtualization format (OVF) and key cloud technologies and leading cloud providers. In short, the desire to move application workloads to the cloud should be seamless and with minimal manual effort making cloud computing a reality giving system administrators a solution to move to the cloud with ease.
THE ON-‐BOARDING PROBLEM DEFINED
Before an application can be successfully on-boarded into a cloud data center, several things must be taken into account. The application itself likely consists of far more components than will initially appear, and some of these components, especially those like directory services that are shared by other applications, likely cannot be moved to the cloud. Therefore, secure connectivity between the enterprise and cloud data center must be established, as well as mechanisms for applications running in the cloud to continue to leverage application components that still reside within the enterprise premise. Conversion – be it physical-to-virtual (P2V) or virtual-to-virtual (V2V) – between how the applications runs in the enterprise vs. how it will run within the cloud also must be considered. And with the application essentially running across data centers, centralized management must be enabled.
Defining an application workload An application workload can defined as a logical container that houses all of the necessary components needed for the application to run. Using a web site as an example, an application workload initially appears to consist of two components machines; a web server and a database.
However, there is more to the application workload than just the core application stack. Things like the network, storage and security will play a big role into how easy it is to migrate an application to a target cloud. The core problem is how to move application workloads to a target cloud without having to re-architect the whole application stack. Complexities include but are not limited to:
• Application Components
• Network
• Management
• Security
• Orchestration/Provisioning
Secure Enterprise to Cloud communication
Communication between the premise datacenter and the cloud rely on:
1. Need to have a secure and optimized communication layer between the premise datacenter and the cloud.
2. Need to have transparent network configurations across the premise datacenter and cloud to ease application
workload migration.
3. Need to secure and enable seamless access to
components like LDAP directories, web, data and storage that do not migrate to the cloud.
Easy migration of application workloads
Migrating an application workload to a target cloud can present challenges. Virtual to virtual will be the likely use-case, but physical to virtual may also arise in other use-cases. Thus begs the question;
what if the application workload is based on a different virtualization platform then the target cloud migrating to? Can the application workload moved to a target cloud that is hosted on another virtualization platform that is different from the premise datacenter?
Centralized Workload Management
Finally, to tie the solution together, management will be required and some type of graphical user interface whether a web portal, a console application or both. In the end, a holistic view of the application workloads whether in the premise datacenter or the target cloud is desired.
CONSIDERATIONS FOR APPLICATION ON-‐BOARDING
A comprehensive on-boarding solution will address these issues as application workloads are migrated to public and private clouds, enabling the enterprise to:
1. Define an application workload.
When migrating applications to the cloud, moving one virtual machine to the cloud may not suffice and sometimes more than one virtual machine will need to migrate to the cloud thus defining the whole application. As an example, an application could consist of a virtual machine containing the core application stack and a virtual machine containing a web stack the application may leverage.
An application workload can be defined as of one or more virtual machines needed to define a whole application stack and are migrated to the cloud as one entity.
2. Establish a transparent bridge and access between the cloud and premise datacenter.
Migrating application workloads to the cloud is only a minor part of the equation when considering cloud computing. Considerations like: network transparency, accessibility to key components back in the datacenter, content management, application firewalling, WAN optimization and secured communication between the cloud and the premise datacenter. By creating a “bridge” between the premise datacenter and the cloud, the network will become transparent and applications will function with no re-
architecting needed.
Streamlining the connection to things like LDAP, data and storage with WAN and delivery optimization in the mix will enable seamless migration of application workloads to the cloud.
3. Migrate application workloads to the cloud.
Migrating an application workload to a target cloud can present challenges. Virtual to virtual will be the likely use-case, but physical to virtual may also arise in other use-cases. Citrix® XenConvert™
will seamlessly on- board application workloads to any of the key Citrix Cloud Partners. Supporting the Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) will allow virtual machines to be packaged into
applications workloads.
4. Support virtualization heterogeneity.
The on-boarding of application workloads from a premise datacenter that may be running on a different virtualization platform than the key Citrix Cloud Partners is possible with the Citrix Cloud On-boarding Solution. Examples include virtual to virtual application workload migrations
conversions from .xva, .vmdk, .vhd, and .ovf to a private or public cloud.
5. Enable seamless access to resources remaining in the enterprise data center.
With a secured bridge in place and access back the premise datacenter, application workloads will seamlessly migrate to the cloud with minimal changes needed to the application stack, the network stack and the
operating system stack. Key features such as a management portal for
provisioning, billing and metering information, monitoring
capabilities and basic lifecycle management will allow for tight integration of the premise datacenter and cloud.
CITRIX CLOUD SOLUTION FOR ON-‐BOARDING
Based upon the Citrix Cloud Solution for On-boarding reference architecture, Citrix Cloud Partners use a combination of their own internally developed technology and processes coupled with
infrastructure from Citrix and partners to meet these requirements.
Open Cloud Framework
Cloud framework services provide the foundational logic for rapidly provisioning, managing and controlling workloads deployed into multi-tenant, shared infrastructure clouds. The cloud framework ensures policy enforcement and security, and provides for integration with existing services such as billing, metering and self-service portals. Interoperability with other popular Cloud interfaces, and extensibility of the framework itself, provide the flexibility to leverage existing investments when migrating between clouds.
Requirement Citrix Cloud Solution Capability
Policy-‐driven control of orchestration, management and security for compute, network and storage resources
Open Cloud Framework
Enable the on-‐boarding of any application workload format to the cloud. Currently supported formats to cloud: .xva, .vmdk, .vhd, .ovf.
Heterogeneous Formats
Automate the “on-‐boarding” of production application workloads to the cloud, so these application workloads can be used to create templates for future provisioning or instantiate and run the application workloads in the cloud.
Migration Services
Ability to use identity management infrastructure w/in the enterprise with the application workloads deployed in the cloud
Cloud Access Services
Seamlessly connect the enterprise datacenter and the cloud datacenter with full security, performance and network transparency
Cloud Bridging Services
Enable enterprise SLA support via high availability, global access, optimization, load balancing and secure remote connectivity.
Edge Networking Services
Easily allocate pooled network, CPU and memory capacity to bring up server, application, and network appliance instances on demand.
Platform Virtualization
For more information on how Citrix CloudController™ provides an extensible, full-featured policy engine for controlling a heterogeneous, multi-tenant environment, click here.
To learn how Cloud.com CloudStack provides graphically driven management and deployment of cloud environments, please click here.
Cloud Migration Services and Heterogeneous Formats
Migration Services will leverage Citrix XenConvert to seamlessly on-board application workloads to the cloud. Supporting the Open Virtual Machine Format (OVF) will allow virtual machines to be packaged into applications workloads. XenConvert will on-boarding application workloads from a premise datacenter that may be running on a different virtualization platform than the key Citrix Cloud Partners. Examples include virtual to virtual application workload migrations conversions from .xva, .vmdk, .vhd, and .ovf to a private or public cloud.
For more information on Citrix XenConvert, click here.
Cloud Access Services
Citrix CloudAccess ™ is a pragmatic solution to the cross-domain authentication problem that leverages existing enterprise infrastructure and works to extend the policy framework that has already been put in place. Features include: Unified Password Management for SaaS, SSO to Cloud/SaaS applications, Password Workflow Automation, support for all major SaaS providers, and integrates into the with full transparency. Benefits include: Improve security across all applications, no end user training required standardizes password policy across both internal and external applications, automatically removes access to applications for users removed from the enterprise authentication framework, and simplifies password reset for end users.
For more information on Citrix CloudAccess™, click here.
Cloud Bridging Services
Citrix CloudBridge provides a seamless extension of the enterprise network into the cloud making the network stack transparent when migration application workloads to the cloud. Citrix
Cloudbridge will prevent forklift changes to network as apps move to the cloud. Key capabilities include: Overlay network across physical and virtual topologies, network transparency from the premise datacenter to the cloud and multi-tenant on cloud side. Citrix CloudBridge leverages key capabilities within Cirtrix NetScaler, Citrix Branch Repeater and Citrix XenServer.
For more information on Citrix CloudBridge™, click here.
Edge Networking Services
Edge networking services leverages Citrix Netscaler® and Citrix Branch Repeater™. Citrix NetScaler is an integrated Web application delivery controller that functions as an application accelerator through caching and HTTP compression, and provides advanced traffic management through Layer 4-7 load balancing and content switching functions. NetScaler also includes
application security via a Web application firewall, including PCI-DSS security mandate protection, and SSL VPN. NetScaler further off loads application and Web servers to ensure application
availability, increased security through SSL, and server consolidation. Citrix Netscaler takes the layer 4-7 load balancer capabilities and applies them worldwide across geographically distributed server farms. Global server load balancing can be leverage from datacenter to cloud providing critical business continuity and disaster recovery support in case of site-level disruptions and outages.
For more information on Citrix NetScaler, click here.
Citrix Branch Repeater, available as a physical or virtual appliance, is a WAN optimization solution that provides a high definition desktop and application experience to branch and mobile users while dramatically reducing WAN bandwidth costs and simplifying branch infrastructure. Branch Repeater accelerates desktop and application delivery, decreases WAN bandwidth consumption, and enables server consolidation.
For more information on Citrix Branch Repeater, click here.
Platform Virtualization Services
Citrix XenServer™ is the only enterprise-class, cloud-proven server virtualization platform that delivers the critical features of live migration and centralized multi-server management at no cost.
XenServer is an open and powerful server virtualization solution that radically reduces cloud
computing costs by transforming static and complex cloud environments into more dynamic, easy to manage IT service delivery centers. XenServer is powered by the industry-standard Xen®
hypervisor, and created by the inventors of Xen. XenServer’s heterogeneous format support or capability to import various virtual machine formats enable seamless migration strategies to the cloud. For more information on XenServer, click here.
Citrix NetScaler VPX™ provides the complete NetScaler web application load balancing, acceleration, security and offload feature set in a simple, easy to install virtual appliance. IT organizations of any size can deploy NetScaler VPX on industry standard servers—on-demand—
anywhere in the datacenter and cloud. For more information on Citrix NetScaler VPX, click here.
SUMMARY
With the Citrix Cloud Solutions, cloud computing will become feasible for more use-cases moving forward. On-boarding will enable:
• Migration and Virtualization Heterogeneity
• Enabling Hybrid Cloud Computing
• Powerful Cloud Partnerships
To summarize, on-boarding can be more than just moving an application to a cloud but rather the whole application stack; or an application workload. The Citrix On-boarding Solution helps solve all migration issues by leveraging technologies around platform virtualization, edge networking services, Cloud Bridging Services, Cloud Access Services, migration services, heterogeneous format support, and cloud management.
The key benefits of the Citrix On-boarding Solution are:
• Applications are on-boarded to the cloud with minimal effort without the need to re- architect the application and/or network stacks.
• Applications can be bundled into application workloads that encompass key components such LADP, storage, data access and web that the application may need once on-boarded to the cloud.
• There is no dependency on the premise datacenter virtualization platform when moving to the cloud, where various virtual machine formats are supported enabling heterogeneous format support.
• Once on-boarded, application workloads will function as if they are still in the premise datacenter coupled with robust management capabilities.
The Citrix On-boarding Solution will make moving to the cloud seamless and the ability for application workloads to move to the cloud without the need to re-architect the application and network stack making cloud migration a reality.
About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is the leading provider of virtualization, networking and software as a service technologies for more than 230,000 organizations worldwide. Its Citrix Delivery Center, Citrix Cloud Center (C3) and Citrix Online Services product families radically simplify computing for millions of users, delivering applications as an on-‐demand service to any user, in any location on any device. Citrix customers include the world’s largest Internet companies, 99 percent of Fortune Global 500 enterprises, and hundreds of thousands of small businesses and prosumers worldwide. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies worldwide in more than 100 countries.
Founded in 1989, annual revenue in 2008 was $1.6 billion.
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