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.
