Virtualization comparison & reviews

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Pros
  • + mature and feature-rich offering
  • + great ecosystem & support
  • + skills prevelant
  • + Not Specified
  • + 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
  • - Not Specified
  • - Less features in free edition. See http://bit.ly/2ddQiVL
  • - less general purpose; specialized (EUC, cloud)
User Reviews
Details (by section) Expand All Data
General
60%
86%
58%
Content
Content Creator
THE VIRTUALIST
WhatMatrix
The VIRTUALIST and Enzo Raso (Citrix)
Assessment
Overview
vSphere 6.7 with Operations Management Enterprise Plus - Click Here For Overview
WS 2016 + SC 2016 (Standard)  - Click Here For Overview
XenServer 7.3 Standard Edition includes Citrix support. XenServer 7.3 extends alignment with XenApp and XenDesktop release cycles while the expanded XenServer Enterprise entitlement ensures you can leverage unique app and desktop performance integrations only available with XenServer. For Standard vs Enterprise edition, please check: http://bit.ly/2ddQiVL
NEW
Maturity
Release Dates:
vSphere 6.7 : April 17th 2018
Release Dates - W2016, SC2016: October 2016 (initial Hyper-V: Jun 08, SCVMM Sep 08)
NEW
XenServer 7.3 Release date December 2017
Market Position
Leader (Position 1)
Niche Quadrant (behind VMware and MS)
Pricing
Virtualization
OM Ent+ :
$4,275/socket + S&S 1Y: $897 (B) or $1,068 (Prod)
Standard: $882 for 16 physical cores.
NEW
Open Source (free) or two commercial editions, pricing for Standard Edition is: Annual: $763 / socket, Perpetual: $1525/ socket - both including 1 year of software maintenance.
Management
$5,835(Std) + $1,224(B) or $1,458 (P)
System Center 2016 Datacenter: $3,607 or Standard $1,323 per managed endpoint (up to 16 physical cores)
NEW
Free (XenCenter)
Bundle/Kit Pricing
yes
Vmware switch offer until July 2017
NEW
Yes
Guest OS Licensing
No
yes - up to two virtual OSEs with Standard (Windows Server vms)
No
VM Mobility and HA
60%
86%
58%
VM Mobility
Live Migration of VMs
Yes (vMotion)
Yes (Unlimited Concurrent, Shared Nothing; new compression & SMB3 options)
Yes XenMotion
Migration Compatibility
Yes (EVC)
Yes (Processor Compatibility)
Yes (Heterogeneous Pools)
Maintenance Mode
Yes
Yes
Yes
Automated Live Migration
Yes (DRS) - CPU, Mem
Yes - Dynamic Optimization (CPU, mem, disk I/O, Net I/O) and VM Load Balancing
NEW
No, Workload Balancing
Power Management
Yes (DPM)
Yes - Power Optimization
No Workload Balancing
Storage Migration
Yes (Live Storage vMotion)
Yes (Live and Shared Nothing)
Yes (Storage XenMotion)
HA/DR
Cluster Size
max 64 nodes / 8000 vm per cluster
64 nodes / 8000 vims
16 hosts / resource pool
Integrated HA (Restart vm)
Yes (VMware HA)
Yes (NIC and unmanaged Storage failure detection - Virtual Machine Compute Resiliency - NEW)
NEW
Yes
Automatic VM Reset
Yes (VMware HA)
Yes (Heartbeat)
No
VM Lockstep Protection
Yes (Fault Tolerance) 8 vCPUs. 128 GB RAM.
NEW
No
No
Application/Service HA
App HA
Yes (VM Compute Resiliency)
NEW
No
Replication / Site Failover
Yes (vSphere Replication)
DR Orchestration (Vendor Add-On: VMware SRM)
Hyper-V Replica - Storage Replica
NEW
Integrated Disaster Recovery (no storage array control)
Management
60%
86%
58%
General
Central Management
Yes (vCenter Server Standard)
Yes (System Center 2016 / VMM) 
NEW
Yes (XenCenter)
Virtual and Physical
Limited (plug-ins)
Yes (Complete SC mgmt, Fabric Updates, Storage Management)
Limited (plug-ins)
NEW
RBAC / AD-Integration
Yes (vCenter and ESXi hosts)
NEW
Yes (SCVMM)
Yes (hosts/XenCenter)
Cross-Vendor Mgmt
vRealize Automation (Vendor Add-On)
Improved (VMware) & removed (Citrix)
No (native)
Yes (Vendor Add-On: CloudPlatform)
Browser Based Mgmt
Yes (vSphere Web Client, HTML5 Web Client)
Limited (SSPs)
Not directly with XenCenter but possible with XenOrchestra (Open Source)

More info: http://bit.ly/2m7FVIG
Adv. Operation Management
Yes (VMware vRealize Operations)
Yes (SC Operations Manager)
No
Updates and Backup
Hypervisor Upgrades
Yes (Update Manager)
Yes (Cluster Aware Updates, Fabric Updates; Management Servers - NEW)
The XenCenter released with XenServer 7.0 allows updates to be applied to all versions of XenServer (commercial and free)
VM Patching
Limited (Update Manager)
Yes (WSUS, SCCM, VMST)
No
Live VM Snapshot
Yes
Yes (Checkpoint) - NEW: Production Checkpoint
NEW
Yes
Backup Integration API
Yes (vStorage API Data Protection)
Yes (VSS API)
Limited
Integrated Backup
Yes (vSphere Data Protection) - Replication of backup data, granular backup and scheduling
Yes (WSB & DPM incl. Linux VMs - NEW), Azure Backup (New Fee Based Offering)
NEW
No (Retired)
Deployment
Automated Host Deployments
Yes (Auto Deploy)
Yes (bare metal through VMM), incl. Storage Spaces Direct - NEW
NEW
No
VM Templates
Yes (Content Library)
Yes (now incl. Gen 2 templates)
Yes
Tiered VM Templates
Yes (vApp/OVF)
Yes (Service Templates), guest cluster support - NEW
vApp
Host Profiles
Yes (Host Profiles)
Yes (physical computer profiles)
NEW
No
Storage Profiles
Yes (Storage Based Policy Management)
Yes (Storage Classifications - incl. file shares - NEW)
No
Other
Resource Pools
Yes
Yes (Host Groups)
No
P2V
Yes (vCenter Converter)
No (use down-level VMM versions)
No (XenConvert: retired), V2V: yes
Self Service Portal
No (native)
Yes (with Vendor Add-On: vCloud Suite, vRealize Automation)
Yes (VMM console, Service Manager, Azure Pack, Azure Stack -NEW)
NEW
No (Web Self Service: retired in XS6.2)
Orchestration / Workflows
Yes (vRealize Orchestrator)
Yes (SC Orchestrator, SC Service Mgr)
Yes (Workflow Studio)
Security
Yes (ESXi Firewall, vShield Endpoint, VM Encryption)
NEW
Windows Security, Hyper-V Extensible Switch (DNSSEC, PVLANs, port ACLs, BitLocker etc., Shield VM - NEW)
NEW
Basic (NetScaler - Fee-Based Add-On)
Systems Management
vSphere’s REST API, PowerCLI, vSphere CLI, ESXCLI, Datacenter CLI
Yes (WMI + PowerShell)
Yes (API / SDKs, CIM)
Network and Storage
60%
86%
58%
Storage
Supported Storage
DAS, NFS, FC, iSCSI, FCoE (HW&SW), vFRC, SDDC
NEW