Citrix recently released XenServer 5.5 in three stratifications: XenServer 5.5 (free download), Essentials for XenServer 5.5 Enterprise (list $2,500 per host), and Essentials for XenServer 5.5 Platinum (list $5,000 per host). Citrix Essentials for XenServer 5.5 Platinum Edition includes the additions of directory services integration, role based access controls, and improved auditing/logging - features not found in the 5.0 release. In comparison to the other product stratifications, only Essentials 5.5 Platinum Edition includes role based access controls adequate enough for the needs of our clients. Essentials 5.5 Platinum Edition enforces RBAC using the Lab Manager interface for delegation of administrative duties.. But technical requirements are not all that’s required to meet enterprise production virtualization needs. Licensing and support are also required at levels Enterprise IT organizations expect. On July 8th, Citrix updated their support lifecycle such that they now meet 100% of Burton Group requirements as set forth for production class x86 virtualization hypervisors. (Report available here.) Citrix now specifies that a major product version will be supported in the market a minimum of three years: “The standard policy will set the EOM date a minimum of three years following the GA date, and the EOL date a minimum of five years following the GA date.”
This is a great milestone for the industry as it marks the first time that the x86 market has more than one vendor (VMware) offering an enterprise production worthy virtualization solution. Chris Wolf and I have been saying that 2009 would be the year of choice in x86 virtualization and now that has come to fruition.
However, this is not to say that Citrix XenServer 5.5 exceeds VMware vSphere 4 in features and function. Burton Group’s production class hypervisor requirements specify technical and product features that fall into three buckets: Required, Preferred, and Optional. While Citrix now meets 100% of the Required features, it still falls behind the x86 virtualization leader in the Preferred and Optional criteria. The following chart illustrates how Citrix Essentials for XenServer 5.5 Platinum ranks compared to VMware vSphere 4 Enterprise Plus:
[Posted by: Richard Jones]
Hello,
I am curious as to what is the market share of top players (Citrix, VMware, Microsoft) in the server-based computing market? This includes traditional server based computing model as well as the hosted virtual desktop models.
Posted by: Sam C | February 03, 2010 at 07:16 AM