After releasing PlateSpin Recon 3.5 in December 2008, Novell announced PlateSpin Recon 3.6. The new version includes the following major enhancements:

• Support for Sun Solaris Containers
• Support for Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11
• Enhancements for including virtual clusters in virtual infrastructure reports

In its announcement, Novell clearly underscores that PlateSpin Recon enables "data center managers to gain new insight into their virtual infrastructure." This direct focus on the enterprise is quite different from the focus at Lanamark for enabling solution providers to deliver IT infrastructure assessment, planning and design services for enterprises using Lanamark Suite.

Comparison of Lanamark Suite versus Novell PlateSpinRecon and VMware Capacity Planner

During its announcement of vSphere on April 21, 2009, VMware highlighted the tremendous performance enhancements in VMware vSphere. To illustrate this, VMware compared performance of an Oracle database workload running on

• Physical server with Intel Xeon 5100 Series dual-core processor
• VMware vSphere virtual machine hosted on a physical server with Intel Xeon 5500 Series quad-core processor with hyper-threading

The issue with this experiment is that it is impossible to evaluate the performance improvements of vSphere because not only was the original workload running on a physical machine, but it was also running on a machine with a different processor. Furthermore, the workload selected heavily leverages multi-core and hyper-threading technologies. So is performance improving because of enhancements to hardware or software?

To answer this question, the following experiments with different types of workloads should have been setup to measure

• Hardware Improvements: Physical machine with Intel Xeon 5100 Series processor versus a physical machine with Intel Xeon 5500 Series processor
• Hardware Improvements for Virtualization: VMware vSphere virtual machine on a host with Intel Xeon 5100 versus the same virtual machine on a host with Intel Xeon 5500 Series processor
• Software Improvements: VMware vSphere virtual machine versus a VMware Infrastructure virtual machine on identical underlying virtual machine hosts with Intel Xeon 5500 Series processor for each platform

Based on internal comparison of the two processors at Lanamark, the Intel Xeon 5500 Series is an order of magnitude superior compared to the Intel Xeon 5100 Series. It has four cores and up to eight threads versus only two cores without hyper-threading in Intel Xeon 5100 Series. Intel Xeon 5500 Series offers 6X-8X higher raw performance improvements in terms of operations per second. It also makes a huge leap forward in I/O processing thanks to

• Intel QuickPath Technology which provides speeds of up to 3.5X higher (25.6 GB/s) among processors and the I/O hub
• Intel Virtualization Technology for Connectivity (VT-c) which provides up to 2X throughput compared to non-hardware-assisted devices
• Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) which eliminates a significant amount of virtualization overhead by giving virtual machines their own dedicated I/O devices

By taking a close look at the "substantial leaps in virtualization performance" announced by VMware, it is clear that these performance leaps are overwhelmingly driven by the hardware improvements highlighted above. Obviously VMware worked closely with Intel and vSphere takes advantage of the above hardware features. But if these hardware features enable the majority of virtualization performance improvements then Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V and other virtualization platforms will reap similar benefits.

Intel Xeon 5500 Series is now supported in Lanamark Suite and support for VMware vSphere will be offered within two weeks of the general availability announcement from VMware.

Here is the comparison of licensing and pricing for VMware vSphere announced on April 21, 2009 versus VMware Infrastructure 3.

• $995 for 3 servers OR $165 per processor
• Closest ancestor: VMware Infrastructure Foundation Acceleration Kit: $2,995 for 3 servers
• Savings: $2,000 (67%)

Essentials Plus ($2,995 for 3 servers)

• $2,995 for 3 servers OR $499 per processor
• Includes High Availability and Data Protection
• Closest ancestor: VMware Infrastructure Standard High Availability Acceleration Kit: $5,995 for two 2-processor nodes
• Savings: $3,000 + $2,995 for VI Standard + $2,495 for VI HA Add-on = $8,490 (74%)

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Standard ($795 per processor)

• Up to 6 cores per processor
• Includes High Availability and Thin Provisioning
• Closest ancestor: VMware Infrastructure Standard: $2,995 for two 2-processor nodes
• Savings: $1,405 per 2 processors (47%)

Advanced ($2,245 per processor)

• Up to 12 cores per processor
• Standard Edition + Availability (Live Migration, Continuous Availability, Network Security Zoning, Data Protection)
• Closest ancestor: VMware Infrastructure Standard: $2,995 for two 2-processor nodes plus features above 
• Price Difference: $1,495 per 2 processors (50%) for features in the Availability package

Enterprise ($2,875 per processor)

• Up to 6 cores per processor
• Advanced Edition + Automated Resource Management (Dynamic Resource Allocation, Power Management, Storage Live Migration)
• Closest ancestor: VMware Infrastructure Enterprise: $5,750 for two 2-processor nodes
• No price change per 2-processor nodes

Enterprise Plus ($3,495 per processor)

• Up to 12 cores per processor
• Enterprise Edition + Simplified Operations (Third-party Multipathing, Distributed Switch, Host Configuration Controls)
• Closest ancestor: VMware Infrastructure Enterprise: $5,750 for two 2-processor nodes plus features above
• Price Difference: $1,240 for features in the Simplified Operations package

Overall it looks like VMware is making pricing more aggressive for SMBs where it has the most price pressure from the free Citrix XenServer Enterprise Edition and Microsoft Hyper-V. To learn more, please see the official VMware vSphere 4 Pricing, Packaging and Licensing Overview.

Novell PlateSpin Recon and Lanamark Suite provide similar visual charting and reporting capabilities. However there is a significant difference in the amount of time it takes solution providers to prepare reports for customers. This is largely because Novell PlateSpin Recon is designed for enterprises whereas Lanamark Suite is optimized for usage by consultants, system integrators and value-added resellers delivering IT infrastructure analysis and design services.

Based on feedback from Lanamark partners who have used PlateSpin Recon in the past, it takes 60% to 80% less time per project to perform analysis and reporting using Lanamark Suite. This typically translates to time savings of one-to-two days per project. For a five-day project, this results in 20% to 40% savings in manual effort required from the solution provider. Here is why reporting with Lanamark Suite is so efficient:

1. Project files

Lanamark Suite allows solution providers to create a project file using a snapshot containing inventory and performance data, and a project template containing one or more report templates. This ensures that customer data from different snapshots and reports are never mixed across different projects, making analysis and reporting much more manageable and efficient.

2. Report templates

Report templates can be exported and shared among a team of consultants. When a project is created and a report template is selected, the data in the snapshot is automatically projected onto the report template.

3. Automated data projection

There is no need to generate each report and then export it to the file system. Lanamark Suite automatically projects snapshot data onto report templates which can be immediately published into various file formats.

4. Plug-in for Microsoft Office Word 2007

Lanamark Suite enables solution providers to create a report document template in Microsoft Office Word 2007 with embedded charts and tables. This allows a report to be produced for customers without exporting, copying and pasting each chart and table into the report document, dramatically reducing the amount of time required for preparing customer deliverables.

Because Lanamark Suite is designed to enable solution providers to deliver assessment, planning and design services, every bit of efficiency is multiplied by the number of projects. This is the reason why reporting automation is an integral part of Lanamark Suite.

On Monday, April 20, 2009 Oracle announced that it is going to acquire Sun Microsystems. This acquisition is of vital importance to the virtualization industry for three major reasons:

1. Oracle is already the largest enterprise software company with the brand, products, technology and partnerships to make virtualization a core part of its enterprise solution portfolio.

2. With Sun Microsystems under its wing, Oracle will be able to offer a complete solution stack to customers spanning hardware, software and services.

3. With a robust ISV community building Java-based applications, Oracle has all the necessary ingredients to stimulate development of virtualization management applications.

Today, VMware continues to be the de facto leader in enterprise virtualization deployments. Citrix and Microsoft are challenging VMware's position but both vendors are more likely to succeed in the SMB segment, at least in the short term. In contrast the Oracle/Sun combination has the potential to become a formidable challenger to VMware in the enterprise, especially since Oracle will be able to offer a complete stack across hardware and software.

The big question now is how quickly will Oracle be able to integrate Sun and accelerate its investment in virtualization?

On March 30, 2009 Citrix opened the floodgates and started offering Citrix XenServer Enterprise for free. However to get some of the enterprise features such as High Availability it is necessary to purchase Citrix Essentials for XenServer. Here is a comparison of enterprise virtualization offerings from Citrix and VMware:

• Citrix XenServer Enterprise with Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise Edition: $2,750 per server with one year Subscription Advantage.
• VMware Infrastructure Enterprise: $6,958 per 2 CPUs + VMware vCenter Server: $6,044 with one year Gold Support for both products.

Price Comparison

• N two-way servers (N > 3): $6,044 + N x $4,208
• Citrix XenServer Enterprise with Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise Edition: $2,750 x N
• Citrix XenCenter: $0
• VMware Infrastructure Enterprise: $6,958 x N
• VMware vCenter Server: $6,044 

• N four-way servers (N > 3): $6,044 + N x $11,166
• Citrix XenServer Enterprise with Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise Edition: $2750 x N
• Citrix XenCenter: $0
• VMware Infrastructure Enterprise: $6,958 x 2N
• VMware vCenter Server: $6,044 

Examples

• 5 two-way servers: $6,044 + 5 x $4,208 = $27,084 savings with Citrix XenServer
• 5 four-way servers: $6,044 + 5 x $11,166 = $61,874 savings with Citrix XenServer
• 10 two-way servers: $6,044 + 10 x $4,208 = $48,124 savings with Citrix XenServer
• 10 four-way servers: $6,044 + 10 x $11,166 = $117,704 savings with Citrix XenServer

Of course software licensing costs are only a component of the total cost of ownership and a number of other factors such as performance and management applications available must be considered when choosing a virtualization platform. This is exactly what solution providers using Lanamark Suite try to accomplish when presenting enterprise customers with side-by-side comparisons across end-to-end virtualization solutions that encompass hardware, software and service components.

As soon as VMware releases its new pricing, a new before-and-after comparison will be published.

As companies look at desktop and server virtualization to cut costs and improve operational efficiencies, "free" virtualization products may sound very attractive. The reality is that enterprises do not buy virtualization products - they buy virtualization solutions composed of

• Virtualization platforms
• Management applications
• Hardware: servers, storage, networking
• Services: consulting, system integration, hosting

There is no such thing as "free virtualization" - every vendor in the virtualization space is looking to build a business, not a philanthropy. So when evaluating the cost of a virtualization solution, it is valuable to consider all components in that solution. Service providers using Lanamark Suite do just that - they present virtualization solution options to enterprises across virtualization platforms with hardware, software and service components. This ensures that the comparison is accurate and valid.

So how are vendors supposed to make money when virtualization products such as Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V and VMware ESXi are free? Here is how:

1. Shift value up the stack towards management applications

Citrix offers Citrix Essentials for XenServer, Microsoft has a System Center family of products and VMware has too many management applications to list here. The picture is very similar with other vendors.

2. Sell additional products and services

Ultimately having a relationship with a customer is very important to each vendor. So giving away a free product is simply an investment in building and growing this relationship.

Microsoft built a phenomenal business by getting Windows (without giving it away) onto almost every PC and then building applications on top of Windows to grow the business relationship it has with each customer. VMware is attempting to deploy VMware Infrastructure (essentially an operating system) into every data center and then use it as a foundation to offer customers a broad array of management applications on a single platform. Sounds familiar?

How to choose?

So before deciding which virtualization platform to go with, it is essential to consider:

1. Total cost of the virtualization solution with management applications, hardware and services, as well as ongoing administration.

2. Where the vendor is moving long-term and what additional products and services from this vendor's portfolio are attractive.

3. Vitality of the vendor's ecosystem of software, hardware and services partners who offer other key parts of the solution.

Nothing is more expensive than trying to switch platforms. This is why choosing a virtualization vendor should not be a tactical decision based on "free" products and bells and whistiles alone. It needs to be a strategic decision and consider the total cost of the virtualization solution.

While new servers with multi-core processors and higher memory capacities enable enterprises to run more virtual machines per host, companies often do have servers that may be good candidates for redeployment. The article entitled As IT budgets decline, old servers called to virtualization duty offers great insight on this topic (thank you Rich for referencing this article and for sharing your point of view).

To determine if a server is a good candidate for redeployment the following questions must be answered:

• Is the server under warranty and how soon will its warranty expire?
• How many processors are installed on the server?
• What is the maximum number of processors supported?
• Do processors have virtualization extensions?
• Are the processors 64-bit?
• How much physical memory does the server have?
• What is the maximum amount of memory supported by the server?
• Is the server running a workload that can run in a virtual machine or possibly on a less powerful machine?

Lanamark Suite enables solution providers to answer these questions about each server in the data center and build much more cost-effective virtualization solutions that combine existing and new hardware. Of course candidate servers must be checked against hardware compatibility lists of virtualization vendors but this is much simpler to do once the pool of redeployment candidates has been identified.

Simon Crosby, CTO at Citrix Systems recently responded to our blog post on why there may be great synergies between Parallels and Symantec by writing his own post entitled The Strategic Role of the "Could Be" Vendors. Despite our different views on the topic, Citrix and Lanamark have a great relationship and I correspond with Simon regularly. Citrix has also been working closely with Lanamark as a design partner on the Server Virtualization Design Module and Lanamark provides first-class support for Citrix XenServer in Lanamark Suite.

That said, Simon's blog post merits a response:

1. Lanamark hasn't "just signed a deal with Symantec and/or Parallels". We have a great relationship with Parallels and actively work with Parallels partners world-wide. Same goes for Citrix, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and VMware as well as their channel partners. In fact Citrix XenServer and VMware ESX were the first two platforms supported by Lanamark Suite without any "deals" with Citrix or VMware.

2. As a company that focuses on enabling solution providers to deliver virtualization assessment, planning and design services we know a thing or two about virtualization platforms. If Parallels delivers what it promises, then it will have a more versatile and robust virtualization solution that offers high consolidation ratios, automation and performance.

3. If Citrix did not acquire XenSource then it would have been in a similar position Symantec is in today, simply partnering with other platform vendors such as Microsoft. But given its robust portfolio of virtualization, backup, DR, security and other systems management soluions, Symantec has a lot of potential to be a leader in the virtualization space not just a "could be" vendor.

4. Parallels owns significantly more than a "microslice" of the web hosting market and has healthy growth in enterprise deployments.

5. A virtualization platform is of marginal value to an enterprise without proper management and automation tools. So in evaluating whether a solution is free, it's important to consider the TCO of all components in a solution, including automation and management applications that are needed to make the most of the virtualization platform. Hence while Citrix XenServer is free, the reality is that the complete solution is not, unless Citrix of course starts to give away management applications in Citrix Essentials for free as well.

Lanamark today announced availability of the Desktop Analysis Pack for Lanamark Suite. This new analysis pack is designed to help solution providers

• Efficiently analyze existing physical desktop infrastructure.
• Right-size virtual desktop infrastructure to avoid under- or over-provisioning.
• Help enterprises rationalize software licenses to reduce software costs and the risk of non-compliance.

The Desktop Analysis Pack for Lanamark Suite

• Distinguishes desktops from laptops to identify mobile users.
• Determines associations between workstations and external devices such as monitors, printers and scanners.
• Leverages Lanamark Software Intelligence (LSI) technology to recognize software applications installed versus ones actually used across the enterprise.

The combined information about desktop hardware and software enables solution providers to

• Identify desktops most suitable for virtualization
• Determine what type of thin client devices would be most appropriate for end users
• Recommend how software applications should be allocated to minimize licensing costs.

As IBM walks away from its acquisition of Sun Microsystems, it is clear that Cisco Systems and Hewlett-Packard have a renewed opportunity to pursue Sun Microsystems. There are several factors favoring these vendors:

1. The Sun Microsystems Board of Directors is probably frustrated in dealing with IBM and would welcome another more aggressive suitor.

2. The last offer Sun Microsystems was willing to explore was $9.55 per share or approximately $7 billion. In other words, both vendors know approximately how much the acquisition would cost.

3. Chances of anti-trust issues would be minimal compared to IBM.

Would HP bid on Sun Microsystems or is Cisco going to strike first?

Lanamark Inc., a global provider of data center analysis and design solutions for optimizing physical and virtual infrastructure, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Citrix Systems (CTXS) of Fort Lauderdale, FL, a global leader and the most trusted name in Application Delivery Infrastructure, for approximately $6 billion in a combination of cash and stock. The acquisition moves Lanamark deeper into application, desktop and server virtualization markets. The combination of Lanamark and Citrix brings together significant customer, technical, channel and go-to-market synergies. This will allow Lanamark to extend its leadership in the virtualization market by adding key enabling technologies that unify virtual infrastructure analysis, design and execution. The acquisition will also strengthen each company’s strong partnership with Microsoft and commitment to the Windows platform.

“We are excited about adding Citrix products, team and culture to the Lanamark family,” said Mark Angelo, CEO of Lanamark. “Incorporating Citrix System’s end-to-end application delivery infrastructure solutions to our market-leading IT infrastructure analysis and design software will enable our entire product line to be more flexible, agile and dynamic. The acquisition will be a cornerstone of our strategy to take over the virtualization marketplace.”

Shares of Citrix Systems (CTXS) were up 4% immediately following the announcement.

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