Free Citrix XenServer or Free VMware ESXi (xenserver vs esxi)

Seems like a lot of people are comparing XenServer vs ESXi so I thought I’d update this post with new data. (revised 6/4/2012)

In the blue corner what VMware has to say:

Comparing VMware vSphere Hypervisor, Citrix XenServer, and Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V

And in the red corner here’s what Citrix says, too:

Technical and Commercial Comparison of Citrix XenServer and VMware vSphere

Looks like we have a split decision that will quire you to test for yourself.

Original Post

I remember two years ago when XenServer (XenSource) used to come as a free package in some Linux distributions, then Citrix scooped them up and I thought – all good things must come to an end. The same thing happened with VMware Server.

Well, today I was reading through the virtualization news and I noticed an article about XenServer that caught my eyes, “Is Citrix the Real Challenge to VMware?” by Jeff Vance.

Hmm, I’m sure some would like to think so, but I think Microsoft Hyper-V will soon give VMware a run for their money as soon as they can get it to stop crashing and hanging up.

XenServer Hypervisor on the other hand has been around for a while and is slowly gaining more market shares from customers who want more than just free ESXi.

I visited Citrix.com and found a table comparing free XenServer with free ESXi and I thought – something must be wrong because Citrix is sure giving a lot away for free?

Then I realized their strategy takes VMware’s free ESXi and Microsoft Hyper-V 2008 to the next level. Just like a drug dealer giving away free samples of “crack”, once you install and “Live Motion” a few times, you’re hooked and then the cash starts flowing for management tools. Capacity planning, server consolidation, monitoring, and forecasting tools will all cost you dearly, so go on – just install and Live Motion, it’s fun, it’s cool and it’s free… However, ESXi still holds the belt for now.

Citrix Interview Questions you should be ready to answer.

See more virtual machine software options: Introduction to Hypervisors