Prepress
Citrix Unveils Groundbreaking New XenServer Pricing Model Making Virtualization Easier and More Affordable for Customers Everywhere
Wednesday 02. April 2008 - Innovative New Licensing Model Allows Unlimited Virtual Machines Per Server at a Single Low Price; New Data Shows Rapidly Growing XenServer Installed Base and Channel Momentum
Citrix Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq:CTXS), the global leader in application delivery infrastructure today announced the general availability of Citrix XenServer 4.1, the product lines first release since Citrix completed the acquisition of XenSource in late 2007. With the new release, Citrix also unveiled a groundbreaking new pricing model that allows customers to deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines per server at a single low price. The new simplified pricing applies to all editions of XenServer, including the recently announced XenServer Platinum Edition that brings the benefits of the dynamic datacenter to both physical and virtual servers for the first time ever. These enhancements, together with a rapidly expanding list of resellers and strategic infrastructure partners are making virtualization far easier and more affordable for customers of all sizes.
“Server virtualization technology is tracking to be equally as ubiquitous as the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), with embedded hypervisors being an assumed server component in coming years,” said Chris Wolf, senior analyst, Burton Group. “As organizations increasingly virtualize their data centers, they are consistently asking virtualization vendors for simple, predictable pricing and licensing policies. Vendors who work to simplify licensing and pricing in a time of virtualization ubiquity are showing leadership by demonstrating that they are clearly putting their customers interests first.”
Most server virtualization solutions on the market charge incremental license fees based on the number of CPU sockets on each server. Not only does this model significantly increase the overall cost of virtualization, it adds complexity for customers who must constantly track the number of deployed CPU sockets across their entire datacenter to ensure licensing compliance. With the new 4.1 release of XenServer, Citrix has removed this roadblock by offering a simple per-server licensing model across the entire XenServer product line. As a result, customers can now deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines or guest operating systems on each physical server for a single low price, regardless of whether it has one, two or four CPU sockets. The new pricing applies to the Standard, Enterprise and Platinum editions of Citrix XenServer. A free Express Edition of XenServer is also available for unlimited use on a single server.
“By introducing this new, streamlined licensing model, were taking yet another step toward friction-free deployment and continuing to make Citrix XenServer the easiest virtualization solution to own and deploy,” said Matt Fairbanks, VP of product marketing, Virtualization and Management Division for Citrix. “By combining the robust, high performance, and easy-to-manage XenServer product with this simplified licensing approach, were able to bring the benefits and ROI associated with virtualization to more customers across more segments of IT – from the smallest shops to the largest enterprises.”
Rapidly Growing Customer and Partner Communities
Since acquiring XenSource a few months ago, Citrix also continues to dramatically expand the XenServer partner community and customer base. The number of reseller partners trained and authorized to sell XenServer has grown over eight-fold from just 300 in October 2007 to more than 2500 today, while the customer installed base has more than doubled. In addition to this rapid expansion in customer and reseller demand, Citrix has recently announced new strategic OEM agreements with Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC, resulting in XenServer now shipping embedded on more than 50 percent of all 64-bit x86 servers sold worldwide. Citrix has also recently unveiled partnerships with leading storage vendors like NetApp, enabling customers to manage their virtualized server and storage environments in a simpler and more integrated fashion (see yesterdays announcement at: http://www.citrix.com/English/NE/news/news.asp?newsID=1340336). These enhancements and partnerships have all furthered Citrixs goal of making end-to-end virtualization far easier and more accessible to customers of all sizes.
Citrix XenServer Platinum – Available Soon
Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition, which will be available in April 2008, includes powerful new capabilities that dynamically provision both virtual and physical servers, extending the products value to servers running native workload images and assuring server consistency within silos by provisioning simultaneously from a single standard workload image. The result is increased IT responsiveness and agility by enabling capacity on-demand, and the ability to dynamically manage provisioning for disaster recovery and business continuity.
Pricing and Availability
Customers can download a free 30-day trial of the new Citrix XenServer 4.1 starting today at http://www.citrix.com/xenserver. XenServer product suggested retail pricing starts at $600 per server for an annual license and $900 per server for a perpetual license. XenServer Express also remains available as a free download from the same web site. The new pricing applies to all industry standard 64-bit servers with up to four CPU sockets.