That might be a good follow up. How many are considering Linux VDI with SaaS?
jimcurtin
VERDE does both Windows and Linux. As a matter of fact, the majority of our customers run Windows guests. We leverage Linux as the base infrastructure and achieve great Windows guest densities. It is analogous to VMware's ESX Linux heritage - we also leverage Linux but we run different guest. Of course, we can run Linux guests as well from the same infrastructure so folks who want to segment their user populations and avoid at least some of the VECD tax, have more options. Our approach is 1/5 the cost of VMware and Citrix when you factor on hardware, storage and VDI SW costs -- coming in at about $200 per user! versus over $1000 for the others. We also currently support Windows 7 as well as XP and 2000.
That's interesting to know Jim. Some time ago, I had previously visited your site http://vbridges.com/wp/ and I admit that I was left with the impression that VERDE was a primarily Linux focused solution.
Mike
However, if it's not able to support hosted and streamed applications you won't be able to meet most companies demands. It's important to invest in a solution that actually meets the users demand instead of looking at the price. It's almost impossible to look at todays VDI solutions when only comparing costs. All but Citrix solution today offers pure VDI (maybe cept for view which could use thinapp, however, thinapp itself is'nt very good). However, VMwares new protocol is very impressive when looking at the performance but since you can't tunnel the protocol it's pretty useless. But at least they're finaly putting some preassure on the ICA protocol.
jimcurtin
Mike, please take a look at VERDE before making sweeping generalizations about functionality. There is more than one way to skin the cat. Citrix is focusing on streamed apps because that is their bread and butter. If you have a well-managed gold master model like VERDE, application streaming is less relevant and you avoid a lot of the management complexity. That being said, for customers who feel app streaming is important, VERDE does support app streaming into VMs at a fraction the cost of XenApp.
Some other things to point out, VERDE includes a managed client-side hypervisor for disconnected use and local processing, in addition to VDI. It has been generally available since May.I would argue that this is as important or more important than app streaming.
I also refer you to our "Cloud Branch" capability that allows organizations to seamlessly extend VDI and disconnected use infrastructure down to the branch level, taking out the WAN latencies, complexities and costs associated with VMware and Citrix. No matter how sexy they make their protocol sound, they still have a hard time addressing VDI at the branch level.
So, no, it is definitely not only about cost, but it is also not about being a big company who can act like VMware is their only competitor, or ignore that there are vendors out there offering more functionality and at a tremendously lower cost.
Dwayne
Jim...you could use a little brushing up yourself, before making sweeping statements. Application streaming is a feature of XenApp, definitely not it's 'bread and butter'. And Citrix isn't 'focusing' on that technology. What Citrix is doing is understanding that the real challenge for business is delivering applications and that is what they are focusing on. Sometimes, this requires a desktop, sometimes it does not. With most of Citrix VDI competitors, if it really doesn't require a desktop, they don't have a solution. So they recommend VDI anyway, because it's the underlying application delivery infrastructure. Not the case with Citrix. Oh and by the way, Citrix biggest competitor is traditional PC deployment, not VMWare.
