Come visit us and Redapt Systems in Booth 516. We will be showing a preview of Lanamark Suite Express which will be available for free to both enterprises and IT solution providers in June.
Recently in Citrix Category
May 11, 2010
Lanamark is at Citrix Synergy in San Francisco
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:
With AMD Opteron 24xx or 84xx Series- 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.
On November 3, Red Hat announced general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers. How does the server virtualization offering from Red Hat compare to the one from Oracle?
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| Oracle | Red Hat | |
| Packaging | Oracle VM comes with the Oracle VM Manager management console | Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor (REVH) comes with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers management console (REVMS) |
| Licensing | Free to download, use and re-distribute both Oracle VM (GPL) and Oracle VM Manager (private source) | Subscription |
| Pricing / Year (USD) | $599 for 24x7 support per server with up to 2 sockets $1,199 for 24x7 support per server with unlimited sockets |
$499 subscription for 12x5 support per socket $749 subscription for 24x7 support per socket |
| Hypervisor | Xen 3.4 in Oracle VM 2.2 (Xen is also used by Citrix, Novell and other ISVs) | KVM (through acquisition of Qumranet) |
| Supported Operating Systems | Microsoft Windows 2000, 2003, 2008, XP, Vista Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.x, 4.x and 5.x Oracle Enterprise Linux 4.x and 5.x |
Microsoft Windows 2003, 2008, XP Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.x, 4.x and 5.x |
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As part of the launch, Red Hat did a comparison of its virtualization offering versus ones from Microsoft and VMware. In reality, the closest competitors are actually Citrix and Oracle, especially if Citrix does indeed release Citrix XenServer as open source. This means that both Red Hat and VMware would get squeezed by
- Oracle VM and Citrix XenServer on the Linux side of server virtualization
- Microsoft Hyper-V on the Windows side of server virtualization
- Citrix and Microsoft on the Windows side of desktop virtualization
What's more interesting is that Red Hat pitches its offering for "heterogeneous servers and clouds." With a subscription-based licensing model and without a freely downloadable, re-distributable software, this strategy is going to be rather challenging to execute.
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:
- Expand Citrix XenServer market share and drive additional revenue through virtualization management software such as Citrix Essentials.
- Offer enterprises an open-source alternative to Microsoft Hyper-V with feature parity and high degree of interoperability.
- Increase community-based support for development and maintenance of Citrix XenServer, rather than funding R&D completely.
- 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.
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.
Oct 6, 2009
interAct Partner Day a tremendous success!
Today, Lanamark had the pleasure of exhibiting at interAct Partner Day and meeting with a number of channel partners delivering virtualization solutions. Mark Angelo, CEO of Lanamark, shared the stage with Rudi Lenaerts, CEO of interAct, who delivered the keynote in the afternoon. Mark Angelo also participated in the CEO roundtable and was interviewed by the IT Reseller magazine.
The event was very well organized and executed by a stellar interAct team. Other exhibitors at the event included AppSense, Citrix, DataCore, Endeavors Technologies, IGEL, RES Software and ScriptLogic. During his keynote, Scott Herren, Group Vice President and General Manager, Virtualization Systems at Citrix Systems announced XenDesktop 4.0.
Many thanks to everyone at interAct who worked tirelessly to put together the event and to all channel partners who took the time to participate.
Mark Angelo sharing the keynote with Rudi Lenaerts
Mark Angelo getting serious at the CEO Roundtable
Lanamark today announced a partnership with Avnet Technology Solutions, a leading distributor of enterprise computing products, software and services with locations in more than 30 countries. The partnership will enable value-added resellers, system integrators and system builders working with Avnet Technology Solutions to use Lanamark Suite to accelerate design and delivery of desktop virtualisation, server virtualisation and storage solutions to enterprises in EMEA.
The partnership between Avnet Technology Solutions and Lanamark allows IT solution providers to offer real options to customers across virtualization and hardware platforms, rather than limiting them to a fixed combination. Now VARs, system integrators and consultants can mix-and-match:
- Software from vendors such as Citrix, Microsoft, Oracle, Parallels, Quest and VMware
- Hardware from vendors such as EMC, HP, Hitachi, IBM, Fujitsu, IGEL, NetApp, Sun and Wyse
By doing so, solution providers can build solutions that are best for their customers and then purchase all the key components of these solutions from Avnet, all while shortening sales cycles and maintaining control of sales and services opportunities.
Lanamark will showcase Lanamark Suite at interAct Partner Day 2009 in Vilvoodre, Belgium on October 6, 2009. The event will be hosted by its distribution partner interAct, which specializes in data center and virtualization solutions.
If you are a current or a prospective partner in Belgium or Luxembourg, please visit us during the event. To set up a one-on-one session with a Lanamark executive or to learn more about partnering with interAct and Lanamark, please register.
Other exhibitors will include AppSense, Citrix, DataCore, Endeavors Technologies, RES Software, i365, IGEL, ScriptLogic and ThinPrint.
