Which way to go Citrix, Microsoft, or Vmware?, in the Citrix XenApp / Presentation Server forum on BrianMadden.com

Please, everyone who responds, take note of the user number -- 200 users -- and tailor your answers to 200 users or less.

This would be an excellent sweet spot for the Citrix/Xen/MS gurus to comment about the many things to consider in his question relative to a

Ed also doesn't mention if all his users are in one place or not, or if there is any kind of WAN setup, which makes a big difference bandwidth-wise in many areas of the US that are not in big cities, which is where many techies are located...

Thank you, Tom

These 200 users are spread out in 8 different states in the US and 2 provinces in Canada with the site being located in Tulsa, OK.

Ed

Hi Ed,

You've already paid for VMware and it does what you want. Changing over to Xen would also involve extra work that has to be considered as an additional cost.

Then I'd have to ask why pay Citrix yet more money for a product that's not nearly as mature? In addition to more functionality, VMware still outperforms XEN in the i/o stakes so while most of the virtual machines you're hosting at the moment would probably perform equally well on either virtualization platform, you'd probablyt on your virtual file/print server.

If Citrix could offer you a single integrated management console etc then you could argue that Xen will at least offer you management efficiences but that's not the case at the moment.

My advice is to stick with what you've got because it's actually not too bad. Review your options once Citrix have their act together and get more realistic with their pricing.

regards,

Rick

I personally think it is a good time to sit on the fence if you have no compelling reason to make a change (i.e. killer features that provide significant business benefits). The new technology is fascinating (i.e. app virtualization, VDI, virtual disks, etc), but change for the sake of change is seldom advisable - use them only if you need them and do extensive research and testing.

The virtualization landscape is changing so fast and consolidation within the industry is going to accelerate. These mergers and aquisitions will continue until only the big boys and niche players are left.

In the interim, the early adopters will pay through the nose for immature products (like current VDI offerings) that are poorly supported and many early adopters will get burned by diving in too quickly. Eventually, prices will drop as the vendors jockey for what's left of the market. At the same time, more mature offerings will emerge and vendor tech support will get better as techs get up to speed.

I realize that these same arguments could apply to IT in general, but the virtualization space just now is particular hot, fluid, and unpredictable.

Whatever you decide to do, good luck!