Virtualization comparison & reviews

Summary
Rank
2nd 1st 5th
Score
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Analysis expand Romain Serre
by Roman Macek Gica Livada
Select All
General expand
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  • Fully Supported
  • Limitation
  • Not Supported
  • Information Only
Pros
  • + mature and feature-rich offering
  • + great ecosystem & support
  • + skills prevelant
  • + mature and feature-rich offering
  • + great ecosystem & support
  • + skills prevelant
  • + - Citrix Hypervisor (former XenServer) it is OpenSource based
  • + - It is highly optimized for XenApp and XenDesktop workloads
  • + - Leader in virtual delivery of 3D professional graphics
Cons
  • - needs clear strategy for public cloud future
  • - comprehensive capability but can become expensive
  • - NSX leading SDN solution but skills scarce
  • - needs clear strategy for public cloud future
  • - comprehensive capability but can become expensive
  • - NSX leading SDN solution but skills scarce
  • - - Less features in free edition. See https://tinyurl.com/yy2z5y6o
  • - - Niche product
  Content  
  •  
Content Creator
THE VIRTUALIST
THE VIRTUALIST
The VIRTUALIST (Gica Livada) and Enzo Raso (Citrix)
  Assessment  
  •  
Overview
vSphere 6.5 Enterprise Plus - Click Here For Overview
vSphere 6.5 Standard - Click Here For Overview
Citrix Hypervisor 8 Enterprise Edition includes features that are not available in the Standard Edition, focused on enterprise customers needs, as well as Citrix support:
- Live patching and automated updates
- Conversion manager for vSphere
- Dynamic Workload Balancing & Audit Reporting (WLB)
- Accelerate Citrix Provisioning Services performance

For Standard vs Enterprise edition, please check: https://tinyurl.com/yy2z5y6o
NEW
  •  
Maturity
Release Dates:
vSphere 6.5 : November 15th 2016
Release Dates:
vSphere 6.5 : November 15th 2016
Citrix Hypervisor 8 Release date April 2019
  Pricing  
  •  
Virtualization
Ent+ :
$3,495/socket + S&S 1Y: $734 (B) or $874 (Prod)
Std: $995/socket + S&S:$273 (B) or $323 (Prod);
Std + Ops Mgmt: $1995 / socket + S&S:$419 (B) or $499 (Prod)
Free or two commercial editions, pricing for Standard Edition is: $763 / socket, Premium: $1525/ socket - both including 1 year of software maintenance.
The Express Edition provides a reduced set of features and is not eligible for Citrix Support and Maintenance. Express Edition does not require a license. Hosts that are running the Express Edition of Citrix Hypervisor are labeled as “Unlicensed” in XenCenter.

Express Edition was called Free Edition in previous releases of Citrix Hypervisor. The name of the edition has changed to align with other Citrix products, but the features and capabilities provided by the edition have not changed.

Citrix Hypervisor uses the same licensing process as other Citrix products, and as such requires a valid license to be installed on a License Server.
  •  
Management
$5,995(Std) + $1,259(B) or $1,499 (P)
$5,995(Std) + $1,259(B) or $1,499 (P)
Free (XenCenter)
  •  
Bundle/Kit Pricing
yes
yes
Yes
  •  
Guest OS Licensing
No
VM Mobility and HA expand
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  VM Mobility  
  •  
Live Migration of VMs
Yes (vMotion)
Yes vMotion
- Cross vSwitch vMotion Only
Yes XenMotion
  •  
Migration Compatibility
Yes (EVC)
Yes (EVC)
Yes (Heterogeneous Pools)
  •  
Maintenance Mode
Yes
NEW
Yes
NEW
Yes
  •  
Automated Live Migration
Yes (DRS) - CPU, Mem
NEW
No
Yes Workload Balancing
  •  
Power Management
Yes (DPM)
No
Yes Workload Balancing
  •  
Storage Migration
Yes (Live Storage vMotion)
Yes (Live Storage vMotion)
Yes (Storage Live Migration)
  HA/DR  
  •  
Cluster Size
max 64 nodes / 8000 vm per cluster
max 64 nodes / 8000 vm per cluster
64 hosts / resource pool
NEW
  •  
Integrated HA (Restart vm)
Yes (VMware HA)
NEW
Yes (VMware HA)
NEW
Yes
  •  
Automatic VM Reset
Yes (VMware HA)
NEW
Yes (VMware HA)
NEW
No
  •  
VM Lockstep Protection
Yes (Fault Tolerance) 4 vCPUs.
NEW
Yes (Fault Tolerance) 2 vCPUs.
NEW
No
  •  
Application/Service HA
App HA
No
No
  •  
Replication / Site Failover
Yes (vSphere Replication)
DR Orchestration (Vendor Add-On: VMware SRM)
NEW
Yes (vSphere Replication)
DR Orchestration (Vendor Add-On: VMware SRM)
NEW
Integrated Disaster Recovery
NEW
Management expand
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  General  
  •  
Central Management
Yes (vCenter Server Standard)
NEW
Yes (vCenter Server Standard)
NEW
Yes (XenCenter)
  •  
Virtual and Physical
Limited (plug-ins)
Limited (plug-ins)
Limited (plug-ins)
  •  
RBAC / AD-Integration
Yes (vCenter and ESXi hosts)
Yes (vCenter and ESXi hosts)
Yes (hosts/XenCenter)
  •  
Cross-Vendor Mgmt
vRealize Automation (Vendor Add-On)
vRealize Automation (Vendor Add-On)
No (native)
Yes (Vendor Add-On: CloudPlatform)
  •  
Browser Based Mgmt
Yes (vSphere Web Client, HTML5 Web Client)
NEW
Yes (vSphere Web Client, HTML5 Web Client)
Not directly with XenCenter but possible with XenOrchestra (Open Source)

More info: https://bit.ly/1gcmTYN
  •  
Adv. Operation Management
Limited (native) - vCenter Operations
Full (with Vendor Add-On: vRealize Operations)
Limited (native) - vCenter Operations
Full (with Vendor Add-On: vRealize Operations)
Not included but available via Citrix Director
  Updates and Backup  
  •  
Hypervisor Upgrades
Yes (Update Manager)
NEW
Yes (Update Manager)
NEW
The XenCenter released with XenServer 7.0 allows updates to be applied to all versions of XenServer (commercial and free)
XenServer 7.1 introduced Live patching
  •  
VM Patching
Limited (Update Manager)
Limited (Update Manager)
Yes
  •  
Live VM Snapshot
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Backup Integration API
Yes (vStorage API Data Protection)
Yes (vStorage API Data Protection)
Yes
  •  
Integrated Backup
Yes (vSphere Data Protection) - Replication of backup data, granular backup and scheduling
Yes (vSphere Data Protection) - Replication of backup data, granular backup and scheduling
No (Retired)
  Deployment  
  •  
Automated Host Deployments
Yes (Auto Deploy)
NEW
No
Yes, via UEFI boot
NEW
  •  
VM Templates
Yes (Content Library)
Yes (Content Library)
Yes
  •  
Tiered VM Templates
Yes (vApp/OVF)
Yes (vApp/OVF)
vApp
  •  
Host Profiles
Yes (Host Profiles)
NEW
No
No
  •  
Storage Profiles
Yes (Storage Based Policy Management)
Yes (Storage Based Policy Management)
No
  Other  
  •  
Resource Pools
Yes
Limited (host-level only)
No
  •  
P2V
Yes (vCenter Converter)
Yes (vCenter Converter)
No (XenConvert: retired), V2V: yes
  •  
Self Service Portal
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vCloud Suite, vRealize Automation)
No
No (Web Self Service: retired)
  •  
Orchestration / Workflows
Yes (vRealize Orchestrator)
Yes (vRealize Orchestrator)
Yes (Workflow Studio)
  •  
Security
Yes (ESXi Firewall, vShield Endpoint, VM Encryption)
Yes (ESXi Firewall, vShield Endpoint)
Direct Inspect APIs and Basic (NetScaler - Fee-Based Add-On)
  •  
Systems Management
vSphere’s REST API, PowerCLI, vSphere CLI, ESXCLI, Datacenter CLI
vSphere’s REST API, PowerCLI, vSphere CLI, ESXCLI, Datacenter CLI
Yes (API / SDKs, CIM)
Network and Storage expand
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  Storage  
  •  
Supported Storage
DAS, NFS, FC, iSCSI, FCoE (HW&SW), vFRC, SDDC
DAS, NFS, FC, iSCSI, FCoE (HW&SW), vFRC, SDDC
DAS, SAS, iSCSI, NAS, SMB, FC, FCoE, openFCoE
NEW
  •  
SAN Multipath
Yes (enhanced APD and PDL) PDL AutoRemove
Yes (enhanced APD and PDL) PDL AutoRemove
Yes
NEW
  •  
Shared File System
Yes (VMFS v6)
NEW
Yes (VMFS v6)
NEW
Yes (SR)
  •  
Boot From SAN
Yes (FC, iSCSI, FCoE and SW FCoE)
Yes (FC, iSCSI, FCoE and SW FCoE)
Yes (iSCSI, FC, FCoE)
  •  
Boot from USB
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
Virtual Disk Format
vmdk, raw disk (RDM)
vmdk, raw disk (RDM)
vhd, raw disk (LUN)
  •  
Max Disk Size
64TB
64TB
2TB (16TB with GFS2)
  •  
Thin Disk Provisioning
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
NPIV Support
Yes (RDM only)
Yes (RDM only)
No
  •  
Linked Images
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vCloud Suite, vRealize Automation)
No
Yes - Clone on boot, clone, PVS, MCS
  •  
SW Storage Replication
Yes (vSphere Replication)
Yes (vSphere Replication)
No
  •  
Caching
Yes (vSphere Flash Read Cache)
No
IntelliCache and in-memory read cache
  •  
Virtual SAN
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vSAN 6.5)
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vSAN 6.5)
No
  •  
Storage Integration (API)
Yes (VASA, VAAI and VAMP)
No
Integrated StorageLink (deprecated)
  •  
Storage QoS
Yes (Storage IO Control )
Limited (basic, no SIOC)
Basic
  Networking  
  •  
Advanced Network Switch
Yes (vDS)
No
Yes (Open vSwitch) - vSwitch Controller
  •  
NIC Teaming
Yes (up to 32 NICs)
Yes (no LACP Support)
Yes
  •  
VLAN
Yes
Yes
Yes
NEW
  •  
PVLAN
Yes
No
No
  •  
IPv6
Yes
Yes
Yes (guests only)
  •  
I/O Pass-Through
Yes (SR-IOV and VMDirectPath)
VMDirectPath (No SR-IOV)
SR-IOV
NEW
  •  
Jumbo Frames
Yes
Yes
Yes
  •  
Offload Support
Yes (TSO, NetQueue, iSCSI)
Yes (TSO, NetQueue, iSCSI)
Yes (TSO)
  •  
Network QOS
Yes (NetIOC)
Limited (no NetIOC)
Yes (outgoing)
  •  
Traffic Monitoring
yes (Port Mirroring)
No
Yes (Port Mirroring)
Hypervisor expand
0%
0%
0%
  General  
  •  
Hypervisor Details/Size
Virtual Hardware version 13
Virtual Hardware version 13
Citrix Hypervisor 8: Xen 4.11 -based
NEW
  Host Config  
  •  
Max Consolidation Ratio
1024 VMs
1024 VMs
1000 VMs per host
  •  
Max CPU / Host
576 physical
576 physical
288 (logical)
  •  
Max Cores per CPU
unlimited
unlimited
unlimited
  •  
Max Memory / Host
12TB
12TB (EXCLUDING Reliable Memory Technology)
5TB
  VM Config  
  •  
Max vCPU per VM
128 vCPU
128 vCPU
32
  •  
Max RAM per VM
6TB
NEW
6TB
NEW
1.5TB
  •  
Serial Ports
32 ports
32 (no vSPC)
NEW
No
  •  
USB Support
Yes (USB 1.x, 2.x and 3.x) with max 20 USB devices per vm
Yes (USB 1.x, 2.x and 3.x) with max 20 USB devices per vm
Yes
  •  
Hot Add/Plug
Yes (CPU, Mem, Disk, NIC, PCIe SSD)
Yes (CPU, Mem, Disk, NIC, PCIe SSD)
Yes (disk, NIC)
  •  
Graphic Acceleration
Yes (NVIDIA vGPU)
No
Yes
NEW
  Memory  
  •  
Dynamic / Over-Commit
Yes (Memory Ballooning)
Yes (Memory Ballooning)
Yes (DMC)
  •  
Memory Page Sharing
Yes (Transparent Page Sharing)
Yes (Transparent Page Sharing)
No
  •  
Large Pages
Yes
Yes
No
  •  
HW Memory Translation
Yes
Yes
Yes
  Interoperability  
  •  
OVF Support
Yes
Yes
Yes, incl. vApp
  •  
HW Compatibility
Very Comprehensive (see link)
Very Comprehensive (see link)
Improving
  •  
Guest OS Support
Very Comprehensive (see link)
Very Comprehensive (see link)
Good
NEW
  •  
Container Support
Yes
NEW
No
NEW
Yes
  •  
Scripting / APIs
Web Services API/SDK, CIM, Perl, .NET, Java SDKs, Client Plug-In API, vSphere Clip, vMA
Web Services API/SDK, CIM, Perl, .NET, Java SDKs, Client Plug-In API, vSphere Clip, vMA
Yes (SDK, API, PowerShell)
  •  
Cloud API
vCloud API
No (vCloud API)
CloudStack APIs, support for AWS API
Extensions expand
0%
0%
0%
  Cloud  
  •  
Overview Cloud
VMware Cloud Foundation
NEW
No
CloudPlatform; OpenStack
  Desktop Virtualization  
  •  
Overview VDI
VMware Horizon 7 (Vendor Add-On)
VMware Horizon 7 (Vendor Add-On)
Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops
  1  
  •  
Virtual SAN
vSAN 6.5 (Vendor Add-On)
vSAN 6.5 (Vendor Add-On)
no
  2  
  •  
Application Management
App Volumes
App Volumes
Vendor Add-On: XenDesktop
Citrix Director
  3  
  •  
Security Add On
NSX (Vendor Add-On)
NSX (Vendor Add-On)
Vendor Add-Ons: NetScaler Gateway, App Firewall, CloudBridge
  4  
  •  
Workflow / Orchestration
vRealize Orchestrator
vRealize Orchestrator
Workflow Studio (incl.)
  5  
  •  
Site Failover
Site Recovery Manager (Vendor Add-On)
Site Recovery Manager (Vendor Add-On)
Integrated Site Recovery (incl.)
  6  
  •  
Chargeback
vRealize Business (Vendor Add-On)
vRealize Business (Vendor Add-On)
Vendor Add-On: CloudPortal Business Manager, CloudStack Usage Server (Fee-Based Add-Ons)
  7  
  •  
Network Extensions
NSX (Vendor Add-on)
No
NSX (Vendor Add-on)

Matrix Score

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  •  
  • Microsoft
  • VMware
  • Citrix
  •  
  • 2 nd
  • 1 st
  • 5 th
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