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 vSphere Enterprise: $2,875 per CPU (up to 6 cores) + VMware vCenter Server Standard: $4,995.

Price Comparison

• N two-way servers (N > 3): $4,995 + N x $3,000
• Citrix XenServer Enterprise with Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise Edition: $2,750 x N
• Citrix XenCenter: $0
• VMware vSphere Enterprise: $5,750 x N
• VMware vCenter Server Standard: $4,995

• N four-way servers (N > 3): $4,995 + N x $8,750
• Citrix XenServer Enterprise with Citrix Essentials for XenServer Enterprise Edition: $2750 x N
• Citrix XenCenter: $0
• VMware vSphere Enterprise: $11,500 x N
• VMware vCenter Server Standard: $4,995

  Examples

• 5 two-way servers: $4,995 + 5 x $3,000 = $19,995 savings with Citrix XenServer
• 5 four-way servers: $4,995 + 5 x $8,750 = $48,745 savings with Citrix XenServer
• 10 two-way servers: $4,995 + 10 x $3,000 = $34,995 savings with Citrix XenServer
• 10 four-way servers: $4,995 + 10 x $8,750 = $92,495 savings with Citrix XenServer

To take full advantage of VMware vSphere Enterprise six-core licensing limit, it may be worthwhile to consider the following servers with six-core AMD and Intel processors to maximize VM density:

• HP ProLiant BL465c G6, BL495c G6, BL685C G6
• HP ProLiant DL385 G6, DL585 G6, DL785 G6
• IBM BladeCenter LS22, LS42
• IBM System x3755
• Sun Blade X6240, X6440
• Sun Fire X4140, X4240, X4440

• HP ProLiant BL680c G5
• HP ProLiant DL580 G5
• IBM System x3850 M2, x3950 M2
• Sun Blade X6450
• Sun Fire X4450

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.

On November 10, 2009 Lanamark announced Lanamark Suite 2009 R2. The new release dramatically extends scalability to 50,000 systems and adds support for the latest OS and virtualization platforms, including: Citrix XenServer 5.5, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V, Microsoft Windows 7, VMware vSphere 4.0 and VMware vCenter. Lanamark also introduces aggressive pricing for virtual machines and enhances the Lanamark Storage Design Module to provide deep insight into current and historical usage of local and networked storage resources.

The new release is a culmination of more than nine months of close collaboration with our alliance and channel partners. Many thanks to everyone who helped us push the envelope of innovation and deliver a world-class product.

Read the official press release

Learn more about what's new in Lanamark Suite 2009 R2

As speculation looms around plans from Citrix to release Citrix XenServer as open source, it's worthwhile to analyze how such a move would impact other leading software vendors in the virtualization space.

On February 23, 2009 Citrix announced that it will give away the full version of Citrix XenServer for free. Since Citrix is not generating any revenue from XenServer, open sourcing it seems like a logical step. But how will such a move impact the marketplace? Why would Citrix spend $500M on XenSource and then make Citrix XenServer open source?

As a Microsoft partner, Citrix understands that it's better to cooperate than to compete with the software giant, particularly in the server virtualization space. By open-sourcing Citrix XenServer, Citrix would:

1. Expand Citrix XenServer market share and drive additional revenue through virtualization management software such as Citrix Essentials.
2. Offer enterprises an open-source alternative to Microsoft Hyper-V with feature parity and high degree of interoperability.
3. Increase community-based support for development and maintenance of Citrix XenServer, rather than funding R&D completely.
4. Enhance adoption and survivability of Citrix XenServer by getting other software vendors such as Novell and Oracle to support it.

Microsoft

Microsoft benefits the most from this move because there would be an open-source server virtualization alternative that would isolate two other Linux-based virtualization platform vendors: Red Hat and VMware. In other words, Microsoft is squeezing these vendors from one side with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V and from the other side with the help of Citrix XenServer.

Novell

As a company that already has good relationships with both Citrix and Microsoft, Novell has an opportunity to provide virtualization management capabilities across these two platforms. It already does this with the PlateSpin family of products. Novell may also do a port of Citrix XenServer to Novell SUSE but this is probably not a trivial effort and would take quite a bit of time.

Oracle

Oracle VM is already based on the Xen hypervisor. Whether Oracle decides to adopt Citrix XenServer depends on whether Oracle wants to give away its intellectual property to the open source community or to build dominance in the server virtualization space on its own. However, given its active participation in the Xen community, support for open source development model and antagonism towards Red Hat, Oracle may just throw its weight behind an open source Citrix XenServer.

In a nutshell Citrix, Microsoft, Novell and Oracle have a lot to gain from an open source Citrix XenServer, while Red Hat and VMware have a lot to lose from such a move. Perhaps Citrix will also rename Citrix XenServer back to XenSource Server?!

Update (November 2, 2009)

According to an interview with Simon Crosby, CTO at Citrix, XenServer will be open-sourced but the following components will not be:

• Citrix XenCenter
• Citrix XenConvert
• Drivers for Microsoft Windows

To provide enterprises with virtualization management capabilities, Citrix offers Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V in Enterprise and Platinum editions. What's interesting is that the pricing for the Hyper-V version is actually cheaper than it is for the XenServer version. In essence, Citrix is incentivizing customers to go with Hyper-V.

As of October 22, 2009 the per-server pricing is as follows:

• Citrix Essentials for XenServer, Enterprise Edition: $2,750 USD
• Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V, Enterprise Edition: $1,650 USD
• Citrix Essentials for XenServer, Platinum Edition: $5,500 USD
• Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V, Platinum Edition: $3,300 USD

In a nutshell, Citrix Essentials is

• $1,100 more expensive per physical server running XenServer for the Enterprise Edition
• $2,200 more expensive per physical server running XenServer for the Platinum Edition

  What's even more interesting is that Citrix even offers a free Citrix Essentials Express Edition for Hyper-V but not for XenServer.

Regardless of the underlying platform selected, Lanamark Suite supports virtual infrastructure solution design (including licensing calculations) for both Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V. Citrix Essentials in Enterprise and Platinum Editions as well as Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager can be included in the what-if scenarios presented to enterprise customers by Lanamark partners.

Today VMware announced VMware vCenter CapacityIQ 1.0, a capacity management product for virtual infrastructure. The new product is rough around the edges. For example it still does not support VMware vSphere (VMware should have a policy for not launching new products that do not support its latest platform) nor does it provide enough emphasis on storage capacity planning.

In a nutshell, VMware CapacityIQ allows customers to reduce costs by right-sizing resources allocated to virtual machines. It also helps customers model the effect of capacity changes and forecast future capacity needs.

One particular company that will be severely impacted by VMware vCenter CapacityIQ is VKernel. At present, all VKernel products only work with VMware ESX and VMware vSphere, putting the company in a bit of a vice until support for other platforms is added. Each major VMware vCenter CapacityIQ feature competes with a product offered by VKernel:

• Capacity Awareness competes with VKernel Capacity Analyzer
• Capacity Optimization competes with VKernel Optimization Pack
• Capacity Prediction competes with VKernel Modeler

While VMware vCenter CapacityIQ is a fairly new product, it does have a critical mass of capabilities to spell trouble for VKernel and any other vendor offering capacity management software to the enterprise on top of the VMware platform. VKernel does seem to have a superset of capabilities available in VMware CapacityIQ such as support for vSphere, but it's just a matter of time before VMware closes the necessary product gaps.

VKernel announced its plans to support other platforms such as Citrix XenServer and Microsoft Hyper-V later this year. Now the pressure is on VKernel to deliver.

Update (October 21, 2009)

David Marshall wrote the VMware tries its hand at capacity planning article on InfoWorld, quoting Alex Bakman, CEO of VKernel, saying "CapacityIQ may be good enough for some but our Capacity Analyzer and Optimization Pack provides many more features and functionality and delivers our users the answers and actionable information to make them successful in managing and optimizing their environments."

Indeed, VKernel does have more capacity management capabilities - after all, this is all VKernel has been focused on as a company for the last two years. As much as Alex would like to "thank VMware for validating the market need for capacity planning, management, and optimization," VMware is going to sell CapacityIQ as part of a complete vCenter stack and injecting a third-party (VKernel) appliance will not be an easy sell. Even if VKernel manages to get into the sales cycle and go up against CapacityIQ, the sales cycles will become longer and more expensive - not particularly favorable for a startup.

Update (November 9, 2009)

David Marshall followed up with another article on VKernel, detailing how VKernel is making Capacity Modeler free until December 31, 2009 in response to VMware CapacityIQ. VKernel Capacity Modeler 1.0 was released on March 31, 2009 with pricing starting at $199 per CPU socket.

The move only validates the frustration VKernel must be experiencing as it starts to see VMware in its sales cycles. And no matter how much VKernel and other vendors discount VMware CapacityIQ, the product is obviously "good enough" to force VKernel to go on the defensive. It's ironic that VKernel initially discounted VMware's offering and then actually had to discount its own.

With the launch of Parallels Server Bare Metal, Parallels is expanding its value proposition in the crowded virtualization marketplace. But how is its approach different from other virtualization vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft and VMware?

First, Parallels offers a differentiated approach to virtualization that includes both hardware virtualization with Parallels Server Bare Metal and OS virtualization with Parallels Virtuozzo Containers. When the OS environment is heterogeneous, Parallels Server Bare Metal provides flexibility for hosting workloads with different operating systems on the same physical server. This approach is similar to Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Oracle VM and VMware vSphere. However when the OS environment is homogeneous, Parallels provides capabilities to consolidate workloads with much lower virtualization overhead and much higher consolidation ratios. This is particularly useful for desktop virtualization.

Second, Parallels is clearly positioning itself for cloud enablement. Changes in messaging from "Automation and virtualization leader" to "Cloud enablement leader" clearly speak to that. And while other vendors are getting ready for cloud adoption, Parallels is already there with major market and mind share from service providers. Starting from its position of strength, Parallels can now go to all its partners using Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and help them expand their value proposition to customers with the addition of Parallels Server Bare Metal.

Finally, Parallels provides Parallels Virtual Automation for comprehensive management of both physical and virtual environments. Because of its strong expertise in enabling services providers, these capabilities push self-service and automation to levels that dramatically reduce the cost of implementing and managing virtual infrastructure.

In the last six years, leading vendors made significant investments to capitalize on opportunities presented by virtualization technologies:

• EMC acquired VMware in 2003 for $635 million
• Citrix acquired XenSource in 2007 for $500 million
• Red Hat acquired Qumranet in 2008 for $107 million
• Oracle acquired Virtual Iron in 2009 and is finalizing acquisition of Sun Microsystems

Now the big question is, who else wants to have a strong play in the virtualization and the cloud space?

Regardless of what happens, Lanamark Suite will enable the IT channel to design and deliver desktop and server virtualization solutions across all the leading virtualization platforms.

While most analysis around Citrix XenServer has been focused on enterprise customers, the new product pricing and packaging from Citrix is going to have a profound impact on solution providers:

• Premium pricing of VMware vSphere is causing more enterprises to ask solution providers to compare VMware vSphere to other platforms. Citrix XenServer is a natural candidate given its aggressive pricing.
• VMware-centric solution providers will need to diversify their portfolio of supported virtualization platforms or face the risk of walking away from opportunities that require a vendor-neutral approach.
• Because Citrix XenServer pricing is more competitive, solution providers have more flexibility in pricing professional services.
• Convincing enterprises to move forward is much easier when the cost of a potential virtualization solution makes economic sense.

Using Lanamark Suite, solution providers can deliver services and build desktop and server virtualization solutions across all the major virtualization platforms: Citrix XenServer, Microsoft Hyper-V, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers, Virtual Iron (Oracle) and VMware vSphere. Lanamark Suite factors in the cost of hardware, software and services, ensuring that solution providers can offer customers the most choice and flexibility when selecting a virtualization platform.

With VMware continuing to dominate the marketplace and other competitors emerging, Microsoft is skillfully playing virtualization chess. How can Microsoft build a dominant position in the virtualization marketplace while showing goodwill towards the Linux community and completely isolating its competitors? Here is how

1. Provide (selective) support for Linux. Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is the only Linux distribution officially supported by Microsoft Hyper-V.
2. Offer an alternative virtualization platform for enterprises using Linux that is interoperable with Hyper-V. This is where Citrix XenServer comes in, partially because it provides much broader support for Linux guest operating systems.
3. Build virtualization management applications that span the two. This is where management applications such as Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V come in. Microsoft System Center and Novell PlateSpin family of products will also provide cross-platform support.

To maximize its grip over the virtualization marketplace, Microsoft wants customers to choose between a Linux- and a Windows-based hypervisor that it endorses and supports. The strategy code looks like something this:

if customer(running primarily Windows & wants Windows-based hypervisor) then return Microsoft Hyper-V + Microsoft Windows Server

else if customer(running primarily Linux & wants Linux-based hypervisor) then return Citrix XenServer + Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server

else return Microsoft Hyper-V + Microsoft Windows Server

This approach gives customers choice and essentially isolates all the other Linux-based virtualization platform vendors: Red Hat, VMware, etc... This approach is also sound from an anti-trust perspective because it would ensure that Microsoft is not perceived as a monopoly in the virtualization space a few years from now.

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%)

View image

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.

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.