Trade in XenApp for VMware View part 2
It is always nice to see how Citrix fan-boys reacts on publications about VMware View. Especially when it comes to an comparison or XenApp for View trade in. It is often said that Citrix listens to their customers but they are seldom heard! People need simple solutions in a complex IT world. Why pay for a very high end piece of engineering like a Ferrari if I can get the job done with a Volkswagen! OK, it is nice to have a car that nobody else has and can do 320 km/h but in times were budgets are under pressure, I have a hard time defending expensive, complex and high-end solutions.
The fact that VDI is putting a significant load on the storage is true, but that counts for every VDI solutions including XenDesktop, so no differences there. Also the new upcoming version of View includes a basic profile management solution “Persona Management”. Which makes the use of linked clones a very workable solution.
When you compare installing View and XenDesktop you will see the following diagram.
When it comes down to management consoles the two solutions also look very different.
XenDesktop:
Multiple non-integrated consoles, wizards, and tools
VMware View Administrator:
Single Web-based Management Console
Sizing & scaling (Based on published documentation from Citrix and VMware)
VMware View Benefits from:
- Better VM density
- Fewer components
Citrix numbers do NOT include XenApp / Presentation Server or extra storage requirements
When I do a quick calculation for a full continuous operation company this shows me that the named user or device license model from Citrix is going to cost me a lot more money than the concurrent user model from VMware.
The questions I would like Citrix Engineers to answer are:
1) How long will it take to deploy XenDesktop in my environment?
2) How many XenDesktop customers are deploying VMware ESX for the backend and why?
3) Which XenDesktop reference customers have deployed 1000+ seats in production? How long did it take and what is the TCO?
4) How do you deploy and manage different types of desktops? Can they all be managed with a single management console?
5) What is the cost per virtual desktop in a 1,000 user XenDesktop implementation?
6) What is my year 2 and 3 SA if I trade-up with Citrix?
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Something tells me you haven't even taken the time to look at what XenDesktop is. How interesting is it how much time it costs to deploy a VDI solution … If I can choose to deploy crap in an hour or a real solution in a day I'd go for the last option.
And comparing XenApp to View is typically something you do when you let VMware marketing material push away logical sense in your head: VDI isn't the holey solution. SBC still is the better solution in 80% of the use cases so any company trying to sell you VDI as the holey grail is thinking money over what a customer wants/needs.
Disturbing to see how narrow minded some Citrix admins/consultants are. Broaden your view, think out of the box and deploy the solution which fits your customers needs best. SBC isn't the holy grail but VDI isn't either.
Something tells me you haven't taken the time to look at VMware View also. I never used words like a crap solution not for XenDesktop or XenApp. SBC is indeed a solution in 80% of the use cases. VDI is a solution for 98% of the use cases when you consider one to one VDI sessions with for example blade PC. It is always utopia to think that there is a 100% solution for all use cases. Wake up that's life…there is never one size fits all solution. People think, act and are different…and remenber IT users are just like people.
Citrix Desktop Versus Vmware View:
See the comparison and see who win…not new for people that work with Citrix Xendesktop :)
http://blogs.gartner.com/chris-wolf/2010/05/19/…
Quote “Both products do not deliver what we consider to be essential features.” LOL no winner here.
True, XenDesktop scores higher but it's a question of what the customers wants and for what price.
I agree Erik. I would change the statement of “what the customer wants” to what the customer needs though because wants and needs are two different things. My boss always jokes that his wants become a need so he may not agree with me.
I'm still laughing when setting this up. Xendesktop was EASY to setup, less licensing issues, easy platform, ( the above graph is made-up by a disgruntled vmware salesperson that has never even tried to build the setup).
The dont even have a client hyper-visor that works well.
Xendesktop can get complicated when dealing with multiple sites, repeaters and gateways, but those are very cool options that vmware doesnt even offer. And the offers they do have either are very complicated for the user or don't work AT ALL!
PS the Tolly group that is doing reports “commissioned” (bought and paid for) by VMWARE is saying that vmware is easier. But this was only the older Citrix 3 xendesktops.