Childish? Asinine? Short-sighted? Arrogant? All of these?
Those were just some of the words used by many of the VMware partners who attended Citrix's synergy this past week in Houston, TX.
At Citrix Synergy (Citrix's client convention), Citrix announced the availability of Citrix XenDesktop and it was a major focus of the event. At the keynote, the demo of XenDesktop started off well. Then during the demo of high def video over Citrix XenDesktop, it ran into an issue and it failed. We've all been there with live demos. After the scheduled keynote break, they resolved the issue and showed the remainder of the demo of high def video over XenDesktop.
VMware sent an email response to all of their partners concerning the failed demo during the keynote, as if it was one of the major reasons to not deploy Citrix XenDesktop. The email also had few false statements that were just blatantly false and misleading. All of the Citrix partners that implement VMware solutions were all discussing the childish nature of the email. If VMware thought they were gaining some points with its partners... they were highly mistaken. Any partners wooed by the email are probably not the partners that VMware should be banking on to deliver their messaging.
Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) is a hot topic. Citrix XenApp (formerly Citrix Presentation Server - Don't get me started, but we will save that one for another day) has been providing virtual desktops for years. Citrix's XenApp is a shared infrastructure (1 os with multiple users) with very limited capabilities for users to perform any personalization of their environment. This benefit for administrators vaulted Citrix Xenapp to the leader in large scale application deployments and for small and medium organizations to lower their administrative costs. These same benefits were eventually realized by most organizations and though growth of XenApp deployments was not slowed more and more companies were identifying apps they couldn't deploy on XenApp or the users required more rights and personalization ( such as rights to install updates or their own personal apps). The reality is that tight control is great but more and more users and applications are requiring that personalization that Xenapp can't always deliver.
In comes the concept of VDI!!! Yeah (multiple OSes to 1 physical server). More personalization for everyone. More rights in the user hands to install software. More rights to modify the system. Hey... Wait a second. That might mean more work administration or hardware/storage costs. That statement is correct. You still need to manage and patch the OS, and the applications. Install all of the same anti-virus tools, remote management, etc and then when a new OS comes out, you get to do it all over again. If you don’t have your current PC management down pat, then VDI doesn’t help a whole ton. Just because VDI sounds cool, doesn't mean it solves everything. Imagine picking up the low end $1000 PC that sits underneath someone’s desk that is low cost real estate and putting it your most expensive real estate (your data center) on the most expensive hardware and storage. While this example may be extreme, just look at your current PC administration capabilities, and ask yourself “How would moving my desktops into my datacenter help decrease my costs?”. (Note: One might say VDI is machine to drive more virtualization and more data center centralization - thus more virtual infrastructure, more storage, more of the latest server hardware, more of the latest core networking, etc... And I for one wouldn't stop you from saying that.)
Now, that is not to say there are not ways to mitigate these desktop administrative costs. What if 1 image could be used to deploy 100’s to 1000’s of desktops? What if administrators can choose the best delivery method of applications (maybe some are hosted, some are streamed, and some are installed in the image)? What if the applications that need to be upgraded to the latest version can still be delivered without breaking existing applications? Some companies are trying to figure out how to decrease administrative costs of VDI (Citrix and Provision Networks), while others are not. Ask yourself “What is a desktop without any applications?” (read http://alsolorzano.com/blogs/opinion/archive/2007/04/25/why-do-even-need-a-desktop-os-aka-why-do-i-need-vista.aspx)
Debunking time. DeFUDing time. Let’s just make the water a little less muddy.
Myth 1 from the e-mail - Citrix XenDesktop requires Citrix XenServer for the OS virtualization component
False - Citrix XenDesktop can utilize virtual infrastructure from any of the major solutions : VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-v or Citrix XenServer. The exact line from the e-mail: "Customers who deploy XenDesktop will use a virtualization platform that has an uncertain future". That is just horribly false and inaccurate.
Myth 2 from the e-mail - VDI solves everything
False. The exact line from the e-mail: One of the main value propositions of a virtual desktop is that all your applications work in a VDI environment. Sure it installs but can RDP (remote display protocol used by VMware Virtual Desktop Manager) support the application over the WAN? What about from home? What about high end graphics? What about CAD based applications?
Myth 3 from the e-mail - The exact line from the e-mail: VMware VDI is mature and much simpler to deploy than XenDesktop
True and False. Notepad is simpler than Microsoft Word, but does that mean it is better. The first part of the last sentence is true, but the rest of the sentence was false. And concerning VMware VDI being more mature... I'm not really sure the 3 month old baby is that much more mature than then 1 day old.
Myth 4 from other conversations - Citrix XenApp doesn't give you any personalization.
False - Citrix XenApp does give you personalization for many components. Anything stored in your profile or home directory. Personalization can be defined in many ways. Citrix XenApp admins shouldn't let you install applications, but you can change the option in Microsoft Word and have it stick with you. So a developer may think Citrix XenApp can't be personalized, but I can't point to a lot of task-based users who would speak otherwise who have enough capabilities for them to do their job
Myth 5 from other conversations - Storage of virtual disks is not a concern.
False - Storage costs are a large component of costs when deploying virtual desktops. Data de-duplication isn't a feature on every SAN and even then only works on "de-duping" on the same volume/LUN. A large or enterprise deployment would require multiple LUNs to run efficiently. Citrix Provisioning Server is way to decrease the costs of storage and not tying you into a particular SAN manufacturer or model. I'm not saying it is the only way, but there are multiple ways to skin a cat.
Myth 6 from other conversations – Citrix XenApp (and other Server Based Computing) will be going away.
False – If that were true, then we wouldn’t have needed it years ago to attempt to get away from distributed PCs. One can think of VDI as an evolution of Server Based Computing (SBC), but others look at as a step back. Either way you look at it, I think they join hand in hand. Not many clients were 100% SBC due to application issues or network connectivity requirements. VDI still has the network connectivity requirement and now tries to prop up RDP as a better protocol. I’m sure you will see the next evolution be offline desktops or the ability to check out your desktop while traveling. Maybe it will be a new protocol for remote display or more ubiquitous network connectivity. But until that happens, more implementations will probably be a hybrid of SBC and VDI to keep costs low (SBC) but provide flexibility and increased desktop control (VDI) when necessary.
In conclusion,
if you work for VMware sales... please don't quote from that e-mail. You will just embarrass yourself.
if you work for VMware software development... just go develop a better product (better than what you have now and potentially better than Citrix XenDesktop) and let your code do the talking.
if you work for VMware marketing... show some class.
if you work for Citrix, don’t think this lets you off the hook. You have plenty of work to do yourself. "Desktop Appliances are not thin clients" and "On Demand Desktops" are great tag lines for selling, but when I have to explain the technical behind the marketing, it usually leaves the client a little sore.
Just stop gloating and trying to out do one another in the community and just go make better products to help with real client issues.
My 2 cents.