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.

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.

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.

VMware Capacity Planner is probably the best known tool for planning VMware Infrastructure deployments. But what about other tools and how do they differ from VMware Capacity Planner? Below is a summary of two alternative solutions compared to VMware Capacity Planner:

Lanamark Suite

Learn more about Lanamark Suite

Novell PlateSpin Recon (formerly PowerRecon)

Learn more about Novell PlateSpin Recon

VMware Capacity Planner

Learn more about VMware Capacity Planner