Virtualization & Cloud Computing News [09.04.09] April 9, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: BlueCat, Cisco, Citrix, Devon IT, ESX, StorMagic, Tidal Software, Veeam, Vimware View, XenDesktop
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- Thin clients from Devon IT Europe have been VMware View certified
- BlueCat launches its Proteus and Adonis products as virtual appliances for VMware ESX
- VMware View 3.0 has been arwarded a 7,5/10 by Infoworld Test Center (report), the last test of XenDesktop (version 2.0) resulted in 8.3 (report)
- Veeam introduces version 4.5 of nWorks Management Pack for integration in vCenter and SCCM (more)
- Cisco to buy Tidal Software, who have a focus on intelligent application management and automation solutions, which will be integrated into Cisco’s Data Center 3.0 view.
- StorMagic , who specializes iSCSI SAN management software for virtualized environments, launched an extensive channel program (more
Citrix XenDesktop Design Handbook [Part I] April 7, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Data Center Management, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, Daniel Feller, Marathon Technologies, SQL, Thomas Berger, VDI, XenDesktop, XenServer
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Now that VDI is top-of-mind, more an more people ask us about design consideration, architecture, who can we VDI (if VDI would be a verb), … Most VDI vendors have some sort of guidelines or handbook and now Citrite Daniel Feller (senior architect) and Thomas Berger are “writing” the Encyclopedia Brittanica on XenDesktop: “the XenDesktop Design Handbook”.
The first part (of a multi-chapter handbook) has been released to the support-site of Citrix. This part focuses on ‘operating systems’, application and virtual desktop delivery design decisions. Over the coming months they will expand the series into different design dicision areas.
Some recommendations:
- Use provisioning services for ‘device collection’ for better organization of the devices and start with a minimum of different vDisks.
- Configure the SQL database in a fully redundant matter …. XenServer + Marathon Technologies everRun VM
- What about storage … page 4
- Where to store the write cache …. page 6
- …
NVIDIA SLI Multi-OS for XenDesktop … offloading graphics to March 30, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: NVIDIA, SLI Multi-OS, XenDesktop
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Altough Citrix XenApp has already an enormous number of graphics acceleration tools onboard, sometimes a user got stuck with an application (not only by the graphics, but a lot of these apps are not multi-user, multi-session).
With the recent ‘boom’ in virtual desktops, a lot of companies looked at XenDesktop as a solution to centralize all these graphic-intensive applications. Within XenDesktop, Citrix has also done a lot for an optimal graphical experience, but one factor remains an issue: the graphics card in the server.
Wouldn’t it be great when you can offload all these graphic calculations to the graphical card within the server. It would be great, but no card was ready… till today … Nvidia announced Nvidia SLI Multi-OS Technology which supports multiple OS at the same moment using a virtualization technology, so two users can connect to a server and the server will provide each user with a maximum of graphics, as graphic-resources can be allocated to a user.
At present the technology is only available for workstations with Intel VT-D, but during last Citrix Summit there were talks about an appliance with 4 graphical cards offering maximum graphic performance to XenDesktop users, this might be it. There is a great market out-there for desktop virtualization when using off-the-shelf servers with this card.
(more on the NVIDIA website)
Virtualization & Cloud Industry News [04.02.09] February 4, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Cloud Computing, Data Center Management, File Virtualization, I/O Virtualization, Memory Virtualization, Server Virtualization, Storage Virtualization & Storage, datacenter, desktop virtualization.Tags: 3D graphics, Citrix, Clustered Systems, fanless cooling system, HDX, McAfee, SaaS, XenDesktop
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McAfee launches internal division which will focus on SaaS, the division has the goal to increase the number of applications which the company will offer as a SaaS concept.
Citrix releases Citrix HDX with XenDesktop 3.0, which enhances multimedia, video, voice, 3D graphics and “adaptive orchestration” that sense the underlying capabilities in the data center (more)
Clustered Systems is developing a fanless cooling system for servers using a cold plate, which contains a tubing system filled with liquid coolant. By removing fans and dedicating more power to processors, the company says its product will support power densities of up to 80 kilowatts per rack (more)
New release of Citrix XenDesktop imminent February 4, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, XenDesktop
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Citrix will shortly release (on February 13th) a new version of Citrix XenDesktop, this new release will incorporate the following additional advantages:
Generic USB device support
Smartcard credential support for CAC
Enhanced multimedia support for Windows Media streams
End user desktop restart
Portable Profile Manager (management of centrally stored profiles, consistent enduser experience
Minimed storage when using single image provisioning with persistent images
Improved scalability of XenServer pools for XenDesktop deployment
In short, XenDesktop will reduce the TCO by 40%, it offers centralized desktop lifecycle management, offers increased business agility and security. Project Indepenced, which will offer to capability to take offline a VM, will not be integrated in this release. Pricing starts from 45 USD for an annual license (runtime: 12 months) or 75 USD for a perpetual license.
Community-articles on the imminent release of XenDesktopo 3.0:
[eweek.com article] - [DABBC.com article]
VMware & Teradici threaten Citrix? January 26, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, VDM, virtualization, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer
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Tom Valovic posted an interesting article about an interview with Stuart Robinson of Teradici on the purported benefits of Teradici’s PC over IP protocol licensed by VMware. Tom reports on a Teradici claim that PC over IP has a lead over ICA in that it has an ability to dynamically adjust the bandwidth needed by the remoting protocol, in response to available network bandwidth. Specifically, Robinson (who actually knows better) claims that ICA has no such ability.
Is Offline VDI and the Client Hypervisor: Worth The Effort? January 22, 2009
Posted by Yves Peeters in Application virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: Citrix, Hyper-V, Microsoft, VDI, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop
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Citrix has announced that they’ll be offering an alternative to traditional on-line VDI deployments (ala XenApp) in the form of a client hypervisor (Project Independence, posted yesterday). In essences, a client hypervisor allows a user to run a full-blown virtual machine on their desktop — basically a throw-back to running VMware Workstation/Player in the enterprise before we had all these fancy virtual platforms like Virtual Infrastructure and Hyper-V.
It allows users to work anywhere without concern about having an uplink. On planes, in coffee shops where there’s no Wifi or the connection is too small to reliably delivery a VDI experience. It also paves the way to true application virtualization, where the CPU-based hypervisor can be trimmed down to support running applications directly without the bloated guest operating system.
To learn more and to read the entire article at its source, please refer to the following page, Offline VDI and the Client Hypervisor: Worth The Effort?
Citrix & Intel – Local Virtual Desktops [Project: Independence] January 21, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in desktop virtualization.Tags: Independence, Intel, XenDesktop
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Following our post yesterday on the joint-collaboration between Intel and Citrix on a Type-1 hypervisor, Citrix and Intel have announced project “Independence”, a solution for ‘local virtual desktops’. On the following page there are some demo’s of the solution.
The concept:
- Bare metal hypervisor with very low overhead
- Central managed image with central distribution & management of the image (updates, …)
- Local Virtual Desktop has access to local resources, interesting for 3D & resource intensive applications
- Offline use of corporate desktop
- Desktop ownership
- Buy-Your-Own-Computer reducing investments and TCO when it comes to desktop purchases
Availability:
Expected availability is not completely clear, however a new version of XenDesktop (in which the solution probably will be included) is probably foreseen for next month. I do not believe that this solution will already be included in this new version.
AppSense & Brian Madden Tutorial January 16, 2009
Posted by Jürgen De Wolf in Data Center Management.Tags: Appsense, hybrid profiles, Profile Management, User workspace management, VDI, virtualization, XenDesktop
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If you like to watch an online training tutorial for version 8 check the following website: http://www.appsense.com/brianmaddentraining/
Presented by Brian Madden, a leading independent technology analyst in the desktop virtualization space, this tutorial provides an in-depth analysis of AppSense’s Environment Manager Version 8.0.
Microsoft MVPs give thumbs-up for XenDesktop January 8, 2009
Posted by Roel Gydé in desktop virtualization.Tags: XenDesktop
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Danielle Ruest and Nelson Ruest, both Microsoft MVPs, have analyzed Citrix XenDesktop and …
Citrix Systems’ XenDesktop is a state-of-the-art product for hosted desktop virtualization and may be the gold standard by which other products are judged in a feature-for-feature comparison. Here’s a look at the capabilities, options and feature sets available with this product, as well as how to install, set up and configure it in the data center.
Other conclusions:
Put It on Your Short List
XenDesktop, unlike many other VDI tools on the market today, runs with any of the major three server virtualization technologies. This makes it a clear winner in our book.
That integration capacity — plus its ability to work with differential images only; its use of the Citrix ICA protocol instead of Microsoft’s RDP; and its ability to pre-provision images — make it one of the very best VDI options on the market. XenDesktop is certainly off to a good start and should be part of the short list for any organization that wants to move to VDI.
The complete review also focussen on ‘the benefits of VDI’, ‘remote desktop delivery’, ‘installing & running XenDesktop’, the versions, ‘VDI Deployment Models’ and ‘Advantages and cautions’.
Frank Anderson of Citrix commented in his blogpost.
Report on Endpoint Virtualization … November 17, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: App-V, Citrix, Provisioning Server, Symantec, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop
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Recently Symantec has commissioned a study on ‘Endpoint Virtualization’, finally the document is freely available. It has taken some time but here are the main results:
- More than a quarter (28 percent) of respondents said at least 40 percent of their organizations’ IT resources are spent on managing operating system and application delivery to endpoint devices
- 76 percent of respondents said their organizations have implemented some form of endpoint virtualization technology into their IT infrastructures
- 36 percent of respondents said at least a quarter (26 percent) of their entire 2009 IT budget is earmarked for endpoint virtualization initiatives
- 52% of those that have enabled endpoint virtualization, do this with Microsoft or Citrix
There are some ’strange’ results, 76% confirm that they are using endpoint virtualization, unfortunately it is completely unclear how this is divided over application virtualization (XenApp, WTS), application streaming (XenApp, ThinApp, App-V), Desktop Virtulization (XenDesktop, MS VDI, VMware VDM) or OS Streaming (Provisioning, …). It would have been nice if this information would also be made available, afterall, Microsoft and Citrix take 52% of the complete share for their account, but is that on XenApp or WTS or App-V or with Citrix Provisioning Server, completely unclear.
Furthermore Symantec pops up with an 8% marketshare (fourth place) after Microsoft, Citrix and VMware. Believing that Symantec has built-up a marketshare of that size in such a short time, only confirms our toughts, a more detailed division is required between:
- Server side application virtualization (XenApp, WTS)
- Client side application virtualization (XenApp, App-V, ThinApp, …)
- Desktop Virtualization
- OS Streaming
However, the report clearly indicates that virtualization is being adopted in all layers of the infrastructure. Recent studies have shown that approximately 14% of the x86 servers are virtualized according to Citrix.
France Telecom moves from Minitel to virtual desktops November 17, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in desktop virtualization.Tags: XenDesktop
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France Telecom has been well known for its minitel terminals, which it distributed across the country offering customers the first online information (train schedules, phonebook, …) … They are at it again with Orange Business Services they will be offering a hosted VDI (Citrix XenDesktop) to SMBs for around 99 euros, thin client included ! (more)
Looking at XenDesktop take care of these concepts November 11, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Application virtualization, Data Center Management, Server Virtualization, desktop virtualization.Tags: concepts, XenDesktop
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In a previous post,, Daniel Feller (Citrix talked about the 3 layers of a virtual desktop (OS, Apps and Personalization) and spent some time discussing the must haves and might need items that should be part of the base OS build. This time he talks about the second layer, application delivery.
“As you are probably aware, application delivery in a XenDesktop environment is done with XenApp. Now, I’m not going to tell you about how cool XenApp is (I leave that to the product marketing people). What I do want to spend time talking about is how we choose the best application delivery technique for a virtual desktop, because XenApp gives us three options: …” (more)
Microsoft getVirtualnow – Xendesktop live demo on Hyper-V September 21, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, Provisioning Server, XenDesktop
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Robin Brandl (Microsoft Technology Evangelist for Citrix) being interviewed by Joey Snow (Technet Edge) during the Microsoft getVirtualnow event. A live demo of XenDesktop running on Hyper-V using Citrix Provisioning Server and Microsoft App-V.
TEST: Citrix XenDesktop hits VDI high … September 18, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, XenDesktop
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Citrix XenDesktop 2.0 leverages streaming applications, server virtualization, and swift tools for a scalable and manageable virtual desktop infrastructure solution.
The Infoworld testteam, have concluded their analysis of XenDesktop 2.0 with an impressive score of 8.3 out of 10. XenDesktop scores a 9 when it comes to manageability, a 7 on performance, 8 on setup and an impressive 9 both on scalability and value.
Full test analysis here.
Windows CE-Based Virtualization by Igel September 10, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Ericom, Igel, Leostream, XenDesktop
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IGEL announced the availability of its latest Microsoft Windows CE firmware. The inclusion of the Ericom PowerTerm WebConnect client allows customers to choose from 10 hypervisors when delivering virtual PCs. The firmware upgrade also includes support for the Citrix XenDesktop Appliance standard. All Windows CE-based IGEL thin clients can be switched from a traditional IGEL Universal Desktop to a tightly defined virtual PC using ICA to access Citrix XenDesktop. These features come in addition to the existing support for the Leostream connection broker that can connect to a VMware VDI infrastructure plus other digital services such as terminal emulation, web and media player.
Full report here.
Citrix releases secure access solution for Virtual Desktops June 9, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Access Gateway, security, Smart Access, VDI, XenDesktop
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The latest release of Access Gateway includes the necessary secure access software in order to provide secure access to a virtual desktop. This release 8.1 includes
- Smart Access: determing the rights on a virtual desktop based on a role (including system, user, link, active processes, …) …
- Improved scalability …
- Fast configuration & deployment …
VMware VDI more a concept than a product … ? June 4, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: FreeNX, Leostream CB, Powerterm, VAS, VDM, XenDesktop
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Computerworld posted an article about VMware’s VDI being more of a concept than a product. They have indicated four major components (and this is according to me correct for all VDI vendors):
- client
- broker
- virtualization server
- virtual machines
Especially the broker onces again got my attention, they actually listed the most well-known brokers in the market: Citrix Broker, VMware Desktop Manager, Linux Virtual Server, Provision Network VAS, Leostream CB, FreeNx, NoMachine, Clearcube Sentral, Ericom Powerterm. They actually found a report comparin all these, unfortunately the report is a little bit out of date, but probably the majority of the information is still accurate. Most of these reported brokers only support Windows machines which use RDP, here is the catch RDP is not the best protocol to go ahead with VDI due to its heavy payload. Furthermore there is a clear need to get a broker that supports multiple vendors, multiple protocols. Who will win? The full computerworld article can be found here.
Printing in VDI … June 3, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: .Print Application Server Engine, .Print Desktop Engine, ThinPrint, XenApp, XenDesktop
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ThinPrint just confirmed its commitment to provide a high quality printing solution for the Citrix Delivery Center. The .Print Desktop Engine is the license you need for XenDesktop, .Print Application Server Engine is the one for XenApp.
It is clear that ht eprinting issues that there were in the past in SBC environments come again with the VDI solutions. You give the VDI a printjob and whats next? The printjob is locked into the VDI but it needs to get out on the other side. ThinPrint is a good solution as it compresses the printjob enormously this way providing bandwith for the ICA traffic.
Press announcement available at NewsWire.
Lost in XenDesktop licensing-translation and features? June 2, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Licensing, Microsoft, VECD, XenDesktop
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As of today XenDesktop is available and the general availability is foreseen for June 20th, with its 5 versions it is not always that easy to get the right type of product.
XenDesktop comes in 5 flavors: express, stnadard, advanced, enterprise and platinum. All products do the same, they generate a virtual desktop infrastructure in which a full desktop OS is active.The more you pay, the more you get 
Lets start with the standard version, this version is OK up to 100 desktops, it provides the virtual machine infrastructure, desktop access management. Do not forget that there is no provisioning foreseen in this edition, we will try to find out if Provisioning Server for Desktops will work as well.
The advanced edition is a more extensive version that acutally gives you the provisioning and secure remote access. Here is a little catch: the remote access provides access to an Access Gateway Standard edition and not to an Access Gateway Enterprise edition.
The price difference between advanced and standard is 120 USD. This 120 USD gives you an Access Gateway Standard CCU license (which costs around 100 USD) and the Provisiong services for desktops (which costs around 150 USD), so you pay 120 more and get 250 in place. Hmm … difficult decission. Furthermore the SA renewal fee for XenDesktop Enterprise is lower than the combination of the SA Renewal of XenDesktop Standard + AG Standard License + Provisioning Server for Desktops.
The enterprise edition is even more extensive and provides additional support for XenApp of Virtual Desktops. Here it is important to note that this feature is based on the streaming technology, so you can stream applications into your VDI, this way you can keep the OS pristine. We will post more about this aspect shortly.
The platinum edition is the rolls royces under XenDesktop and also provides WANscaler clients, Edgesight clients (altough it is not 100% clear to us if you apply the EdgeSight client to the access device or to the VDI), GoToAssist (1/200ccus), a secure access license to connect to AG Standard or Enterprise.
One point that have not covered here is the Microsoft licensing in this environment. it is clear that altough Citrix is ccu-licensing, Microsoft remains the big one here with its named-user licensing. Rob Hammersmith (Citrix Inc.) wrote an entry for Brianmadden about licensing costs and the Microsoft licensing cost in a XenApp, XenDesktop environment, you can find the post here.
XenDesktop 2.0: Quick Start Video May 29, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: XenDesktop
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Go to www.citrix.com/xdvideo (free) for a video providing a complete overview of building a complete XenDesktop VDI environment and installatin & maintaining the Desktop Delivery Controller
Apollo 3D Graphics preview May 29, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Apollo, Citrix, XenApp, XenDesktop
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… Most customers’ graphics needs are already well met by SpeedScreen Progressive Display (a revolutionary technology introduced in XenApp Presentation Server 4.5 and also included in XenDesktop), working with large 3D graphics models often demands the added computational power of a graphics processing unit (GPU). Project Apollo follows in the footsteps of Project Pictor which developed the technology behind Citrix’s new Virtual Design Studio product for applications built on the popular OpenGL graphics API. …
Addition by Channelvirtualization – 02/06/08 ♦ Video about the architecture can be found here, the integration of Apollo in XenDesktop can be found here.
VMware releases VDM 2.1 May 29, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, VDM, VMware, XenDesktop
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Virtual Destkop Manager (VDI) 2.1 includes:
- Pools spanning datastores in order to better manage resources
- Localization of VDM Web Access and Client for Windows in Japanese and German
- Command line parameters for VDM Client
- Integrate MMR multimedia extensions DLL with VDM Client (Windows XP)
- Allow end users to change password
- Multiple sessions per user within a pool
- Allow end users to restart their VM
- Defined process for bulk import of individual desktops
- VDM Configuration Backup (command-line only)
- Allow blocking of incoming RDP connections that are not from VDM Clients
- Allow VDM administrators to set default desktop (command line only)
Full overview here
XenDesktop on Hyper-V RC0 with SCVMM May 28, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Hyper-V, SCVMM, XenDesktop
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Gabe Carreio at Citrix has been able to setup XenDesktop on a Hyper-V RCO system with SCVMM, full report (and shortly the video) here. Currently Microsoft advises those that wishes to use SCVMM to go ahead with RC0 and not yet RC1.
Add: 29/05/08 – Gabe just confirmed us that he expect the SCVMM for RC1 to be available in around 2 to 3 weeks, after its release he will test the solution again with XenDesktop on Hypver-V with SCVMM. Thanks Gabe !
Slow logon to XenApp ? Citrix Fast Launch ! May 28, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix Fast Launch, XenApp, XenDesktop
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Check the preview of Citrix Fast Launch here and the follow-up video here. Your apps on XenApp will now boot faster than your local applications ! Business Continuity at its best !
It will be a free utility, probably available from the CDN pages. If the utility will be available for XenDesktop is still unclear, we are awaiting input from Citrix.
VMware behaves like a 2-year old child ?! – Reactions from the community May 26, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: VDM, XenDesktop
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Remember the post earlier last week about the agressive attack VMware was executing on XenDesktop in order to minimize the ‘momentum’ that Citrix XenDesktop had generated, here are some reactions from fellow bloggers and the cross-platform community enjoy
- Gareth James (DABCC blogs) – article
- Jason E Smith (DABCC blogs) – article Also read the post about VDI adoption in general by Jason here.
If more reactions pop-up, we will post the links here.
A nice article (altough not immediately a reaction to the agressive tactics of VMware) was posted today by Brian Maddem, in which he asks if VMware has awaken Microsoft (the giant) and what will happen in the next five years.
Anyway, there is the famous quote: “Even bad news is good marketing”
Quest Software compares Connection Brokers (Provision, VMware, Citrix) May 26, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: VDM2, Virtual Access Suite, XenDesktop
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Patrick Rouse at Provision Networks (part of Quest) has created a connection broker comparison. Indeed, they have compared their product against VMware VDM2 and Citrix XenDesktop. The report and comments can be found here.
Computer Lab International Announces Support for Citrix XenDesktop Virtualization May 23, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, CLI, XenDesktop
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Credit Suisse expects the desktop virtualization market to be worth at least $1.8 billion by 2012 up from nothing. May 22, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, VMware, XenDesktop
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(Sys-Con) – Pushing back against VMware, its chief rival, Tuesday, Citrix released its ballyhooed, on-demand XenDesktop, the widgetry that delivers custom, managed virtual Windows desktops from a data center server to a user over the network, and priced the stuff.
VMware behaves like a 2-year old child ?! May 22, 2008
Posted by Roel Gydé in Uncategorized.Tags: Citrix, Provisioning Server, ThinApp, VMware, XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer
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VMware tries to kill XenDesktop on its release-day (article at Virtualization.info) :VMware sent a letter to its partners completely destroying the value of the Citrix solution. Among the other claims, VMware states that the product marketing message is misleading and confused the press, that the software is complex, poorly integrated and most of all built on a platform that has an uncertain future.
There is one thing that I do not get at all, everytime Citrix makes a strategic announcement or rebranding VMware follows with kindergarden-response.
- Citrix moves to XenServer, XenDesktop and XenApp, VMware suddenly decides that Thinstall is not a good name and rebrands it to Thinapp
VMware indicates that the Citrix solution is poorly integrated, yet Citrix has purchased companies that have been around in virtualization for over many years and integrated these company to offer a complete portofolio. Furthermore these companies have shown to be market-worthy.
- Citrix offers provisioning services for desktop OS & server OS under the name of Provisioning Server. This was the result of the acquisition of Ardence. Currently VMware can not offer the same flexibility with that little needed storage as Citrix Provisioning Server.
- Citrix offers paravirtualization services for servers under the XenServer brand. This was the result of the acquisition of XenSource, the open source company that actually had an important position in the XEN open source project, which still exists and to which Citrix often commits code.
Probably VMware is a little afraid of the joint-development that is taking place between Microsoft & Citrix, which will result into the possibility to move Hyper-V VMs to XenServer and vice versa. VMware is not invited to that party. Furthermore Microsoft employees often indicate that Citrix is the best party to work with when Microsoft solutions do not fit as Citrix is Microsofts’ largest ISV worldwide.
End-to-End Virtualization does not end with Server-, Desktop- or Application virtualization it also requires good network access (secured, f.e. Citrix Access Gateway), optimized traffic (Citrix Wanscaler), secured DMZs (Citrix Application Firewall).
Before I lower myself to a 2-year old kid, like VMware is currently doing, I am going to round of this post. Probably this fighting will go on for a while. But remember VMware is getting agressive into the following market: 7% of de servers in the world are virtualized and 0,01% of the desktops (a guess). That means that there is an open market of 192,99% and they behave as a 2-year old kid. What a shame for a public company. They should know better !
