According to rumours in the press today, XenServer will soon be given away free of charge. As this is very new news, I don't know the ins and outs, I'm sure we will hear more over the coming days, but, if it's true, this would be something of a sensation. We can supposedly expect an announcement on Monday 23rd February.
As I understand it, the XenServer Enterprise product, as it is at the moment, will become free of charge. The only thing that is currently available in the Enterprise Edition that will be removed in the free one is the automated HA functionality. Obviously the extended HA possibilities that the Marathon tie-up enabled will also remain a chargeable option, nor will Provisioning Server (currently available in the Platinum Edition) be included. However XenMotion, XenCentre, Resource Pooling and all the other cool stuff will be in the free edition. Existing users will be able to download a new license file free each year. None of this has officially been confirmed yet I hasten to add.
Apparently, Citrix are aligning themselves with Hyper-V and are bringing out a set of management tools, called Citrix Essentials (not at all confusing, considering Citrix have another product called Access Essentials!) These tools will manage both XenServer and Hyper-V environments and Citrix will charge for these instead of the hypervisor technologies.
My initial thoughts are twofold:
Firstly, this move is perfectly in sync with the original dogma of the Xen project: that hypervisors - and, more broadly, virtualisation - should be free to everyone. Simon Crosby and Prof. Ian Pratt, the two main XenServer gurus at Citrix, have always said that this technology has such profound benefits, it should become a standard as quickly as possible and should, therefore, not be subject to the barrier of a financial outlay. Effective management of these virtual environments, on the other hand, is fair game.
Secondly, VMWare are going to have a field day on this unless Citrix have some very well-prepared arguments. I'm sure they will do, a move like this will cause such a stir, it surely won't have been dreamed up over night, nevertheless I can see lots of headlines to the tune of "XenServer price now reflects real value of product" or "Citrix admits defeat and gives up virtualisation battle" by the VMWare lovers (and/or Citrix haters) out there.
Having said that, perhaps the laughs will also have a touch of nervousness about them too, once this sinks in. VMWare will certainly get a few cheap shots out of this announcement and good luck to them, but, in the long run, where does this actually leave them? Can they really withstand such an aggressive joint attack from Microsoft and Citrix? How long will VMWare be able to continue justifying their extortionate prices? Will Citrix continue to invest in XenServer? How will this announcement affect those users who have already bought XenServer?
Lots of questions. Hopefully we will get some answers over the next few days.
