VMware View & Citrix XenApp, the similarities & differences.

Last week I held a presentation for our Sales department. As we sold a lot of Citrix Xantippe over the last few years they wanted me to tell them more about the differences between a VMware View and the traditional terminal server based Citrix XenApp solution. So I made a summery about the differences and similarities. When VMware also asked me about the presentation I decided to translate it into English and share it with you all.

Similarities with VMware View	XenApp
Crappy written applications are not good candidates for a centralized computer environment.	Same
Display protocol is key for a good user acceptance.	Same
Introduction of an extra management layer.	Same even more.
Extra costs per user (View+VECD+Profile Mngt)	Same (XenApp+TS CAL+Profile Mngt)
Excellent and high available back-office environment.	Same
Endpoint Management is not a thing to forget.	Same
Need a network connection (not with offline VDI).	Same (not with App. Virtualization)
Easy to offer remote access.	Same
Good network connection between locations are key.	Same

Differences with VMware View	XenApp
VDI maximizes the today’s resources like processors,memory and storage.	Not, Because of a lot application are 32Bit today the Windows OS is the limitation.
VDI uses a desktop operating system.	XenApp uses a Windows server operating system.
Same way of thinking about desktop management.	Different way of thinking about desktop management.
Desktops clone, delete, suspend and snapshots.	No cloning, snapshots and always on.
Bad applications only affects only virtual desktop user.	Bad application affects all users.
Color depth 32Bit.	24Bit
Large user freedom possible.	Not possible because of shared OS.
On the fly maintenance possible.	Not possible to move sessions between hosts.
User session roaming easier.	Only with web interface.
Designed for LAN-Speeds	Designed for WAN-Speeds
Depends less on desktop OS.	Depends more on Windows server OS.
Mix of OS: Linux, JEOS, 64Bit, 32Bit etc etc	Bound to the Windows server OS.
More logical choice after server virtualization.	Not logical and big step.
Easy back-up and recovery.	More complex back-up en recovery.

Tags: Citrix, View, VMware, XenApp

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 15:56 and is filed under Citrix, View, VMware. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

About Alex Muetstege

Alex Muetstege works as a Solution Architect for Imtech ICT. He currently provide hosting services for VMGuru.nl. In everyday life he usually does a lot of general IT infrastructure stuff. Messaging and collaboration is his main area of expertise. He is a virtualization enthusiast/newbie/probie but not a lot more than that according to himself. In 2011 VMware awarded him the VMware vExpert status for his community efforts.

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JC

this is not comparable matrix you should compare is Xendesktop versus Vmware View and not with Xenapp since V,ware don’t have any similiar product in their protofolio, and your matrix comparisation are in most of the case complete wrong, for me you don’t understand what Xenapp solution is otherwise you won’t make this matrix as you have made.

Regards
JC

this is not comparable matrix you should compare is Xendesktop versus Vmware View and not with Xenapp since V,ware don’t have any similiar product in their protofolio, and your matrix comparisation are in most of the case complete wrong, for me you don’t understand what Xenapp solution is otherwise you won’t make this matrix as you have made.

Regards
http://www.solution-consultant.nl/ Arjan van 't Hoff

JC, you are absolutely right it is not a comparable matrix. The reason for that is simple because it was never intended to be a comparable matrix!! It is a matrix about the differences and similarities, as the title says. See it this way women and men also have differences and similarities, that doesnot make the one better than another it just makes them different from eachother !!!
Arjan
http://www.solution-consultant.nl Arjan van 't Hoff

JC, you are absolutely right it is not a comparable matrix. The reason for that is simple because it was never intended to be a comparable matrix!! It is a matrix about the differences and similarities, as the title says. See it this way women and men also have differences and similarities, that doesnot make the one better than another it just makes them different from eachother !!!
Arjan
Jan

VDI maximizes the today’s resources like processors,memory and storage
Uhhh storage in vdi needs a big investment in a san with lots of storage space,AND lots of memory –> citrix not
-citrix xenapp does cpu en memory optimization already since metaframe
-citrix xenapp user session roaming only by webinterface?? my god…who told u this?
- citrix xenapp bad application affect all users? ever heard of application isolation and streaming?

I'm sorry but this comparison makes no sence to me since there are a lot of faulty facts here.
Better ask someone who's xenapp cca for some real facts when you make a comparison

good effort though!

grts,

Jan

Jan
VirtArc

Christ I can't believe you posted this rubbish, no wonder you're in sales.