Nutanix boasts that it has achieved Citrix Ready status after completing a “rigorous” process to ensure that its offering is fully compatible with XenDesktop. The certification is a big win for Nutanix because virtualization is one of the top use cases for its flagship Virtual Computing Platform appliance, and Citrix is the VMware of VDI.

Nutanix decided to mark the occasion by releasing a reference architecture that includes blueprints for deploying different XenDesktop configurations on its hardware, including those leveraging Machine Created Services (MCS) and Provisioning Services (PVS). The guide includes “recommended design, performance and configuration information” for deployments ranging from a few hundred virtual desktops to over 20,000.

“Nutanix’s outstanding ability to scale predictably and economically along with their extremely dense footprint made their solution the clear choice for our Citrix XenDesktop and XenApp deployment,” said Doug Conard, director of infrastructure at Think Finance. “The combination of Citrix XenDesktop and the Nutanix Virtual Computing Platform improves employee efficiency and output while driving higher employee satisfaction for business-critical services.”

Nutanix’s massively scalable appliances have gained a tremendous amount of traction in recent months. A few weeks ago the company reported that it has reached an annualized run rate of over $80 million a mere six quarters after the first Nuranix Virtual Computing Platform left its doors.

Nutanix says that its solution eliminates the need for traditional NAS and SAN solutions, but some its competitors would beg to differ. Hewlett-Packard rolled out a massive software upgrade for its StoreEasy line of network-attached storage solutions earlier this month. The update included a provisioning tool that automates volume creation, native snapshot management capabilities, and a configuration wizard for clustered StoreEasy 3830 Gateways. The vendor also made HP Data Protector Autonomy LiveVault available for the platform.