XenDesktop/XenApp or vWorkspace Enterprise

Great post Louis,

May I add another question to the list?

- When will Quest offer localized versions (or at least the ability to localize them) of key components, like the AppPortal?

Cheers,

dani

I'm not sure that I agree with you that XenDesktop and vWorkspace are the same price point.  At the low end (basic VDI) you are right but when you start moving up the stack including XenApp function vWorkspace is less costly.  Also, you need to factor in that Citrix pricing is per named user and no longer using a concurrent user model.

Quest does offer a service provider license but you will need to discuss pricing with the sales team.

The depends comes into play when you start comparing features between products and what is more important to your organization.

I will say that the one way that vWorkspace kills most others is the ability to leverage Windows Server OSes as a virtual desktop; thus avoiding Microsoft VDA licenses and sticking with Microsoft Server Data Center Edition.

Great discussion here! I'll try and answer some of the key questions:

- How is Quest going to offer more value that what Citrix does, seeing that there is not really any difference in the product cost?

> I would say we are little as half the price, especially when you consider that we price on concurrent user and Citrix prices by named user/device. And we include 24x7 support and maintenance at no extra cost. We are also adding new value with things like the Connector for Zero PCs (so you can repurpose PCs), letting you choose a lower cost hypervisors like Hyper-V/SCVMM (with real integration) or Parallels Virtuozzo, and now support for Hyper-V differencing disks. Also, by providing an integrated product for managing VDI, TS/SH and provisioning all from one place we save you time = money.

- What is Quest strategy insofar being seen as competiton to Citrix?  All that Citrix talk about is View this and View that when we all know the real competitor is vWorkspace?

> Why don't you ask them?

- When will Quest offer a SaaS/hosting provider licensing model as Citrix does?

> We already have this. Ask our sales team please

- When will Quest offer different licensing solutions for education, government, non profit organisations and that of converting existing Citrix customers to vWorkspace?

> We have pricing programs for all these customers and situations. Again, please contact our sales team

- When will Quest have a self provisioning portal available as Citrix does in the cloud, that partners can leverage is showing the Citrix capabilities to their customers without the need for a time consuming POC?

> Hopefully you just saw our Surgient acquisition, which will let us do this too. More details to come

- When will Quest have a decent looking application portal available?  The same is true for a replacement of the Web-IT look and feel and Secure-IT interface?

> 2011

Other than this, how is Quest going to compete with the likes of Kaviza ...

> We are looking at providing a low-cost solution using local storage and Hyper-V. We have some great technology to enable this in Quest. Use of local storage allows "VDI in a box"-style appliances like Kaviza

... and Panologic

> Panologic is a high-bandwidth LAN-only solution, but it's a lovely little cube and I like the zero management story. That's why we launched the Connector for Zero PCs today in beta, and why we are working on zero thin clients with TC vendors too

Localization

> There are many parts to vWorkspace, so I'd love to hear which ones you would prioritize. The Web Access UI can be customized to some extent right now. The Management Console will soon have a complete PowerShell alternative, so you could actually build your own UI (localized) using Quest PowerGUI! Of course, in time we will also localize it ourselves, but we like to provide solutions so smart partners and customers can fix their own problems

What about the questions that lots of clients ask me....

We have some virtual desktops,  Published apps, published desktops and even some virtual apps...I want one console/DB/deployment tool to do it all and for one concurrent user price?

Does Quest make a product that will provide access to a VM-Hosted application that works?

When will Quest support multiple protocols and not just a proprietary one?  Like RGS and Remotefx...

I want to separate my user sessions to a print server that integrates a univesal print mechanism that is not running on the Terminal Server AND is not another $1000 per server?
We have NetApp or ESX or SCVMM and want to reduce the management and storage costs ....so when will quest integrate with MS differencing disks?  or flexclones or linkedclones?
I have MS EA for the desktops and I like the idea of a thin client but I dont want to pay the additional $100/user/year for VDA?

What if I dont know if I want VDI or Terminal Server?
What if I dont have a week or two to stand up a POC so we can let our Biz units test?

Have you tried vWorkpspace 7.2? The installation and configuration can take less than 15 minutes to have a fully functional POC environment including a our broker, web access user profiles management and of course EOP!

Just to be clear...vWorkspace does all of these things today.

One app to publish apps, desktops, broker vdi and at a concurrent price.

vWorkspace delivers applications hosted on a virtual desktop session (it works and it's crazy easy.)

RGS, RDP, EOP, RfX, TCX  protocols supported

Dont need to buy a print enhancement tool  at an additonal cost.

Flexclones, LinkedClones, SCVMM, vCenter, Differencing Disks...all supported and integrated today.

Leverage the included ThinShell to avoid user customizations causing issue with the local machine and still be covered via MS EA instead of purchasing MS VDA @100/user/year.

vdi AND Remote Desktop/Terminal Server managment are both included with vWorkspace enterprise --AND they are concurrent not named AD user.

Deliver a virtual desktop and applications in 1/2 a day or less.

One of the biggest if not the biggest features of vWorkspace for us is to be able to assign resources based on the users physical location! This can be desktops, applications, shortcuts, files/data, printers, policies, etc... And you can use a combination of all.

I think a lot of people often under estimate just how powerful this feature is! It can solve a lot of the big problems that the other vendors can't without the use of 3rd party solutions (at a cost).

Dan.

There are a few things that need calrifying about licensing:

Quote - Leverage the included ThinShell to avoid user customizations causing issue with the local machine and still be covered via MS EA instead of purchasing MS VDA @100/user/year.

To be more clear: If you are providing VDI and have not purchased a volume license upgrade with SA for the OEM Windows license on the desktop then you MUST purchase the yearly VDA for the desktop.  If you are using a desktop without an O/S,  using a linux system, or even a MAC and connecting to a VDI system (Windows 7 for instance) then you must also purchase the VDA licensing for that client machine.

Another note about VDI thats important for Service Providers.  SPLA does NOT cover VDI and you must provide terminal Services only.  You have the option of providing VDI using the Clients Volume Licenses BUT, you cannot provide them ANY mixed licenses or shared environment.

For instance, if you are providing hosted exchange under the SPLA you cannot also provide the VDI services with their volume licenses.

Currently Microsoft is screwing all of us Service Providers when it comes to VDI....its terminal services or nothing.