Monthly Archives: June 2011

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Beware of Vendor-Sponsored “Analysis” Reports

June 16, 2011 12:27 pm ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅

Mark Twain allegedly came up with the famous line: "Figures don’t lie, but liars figure." That’s a good thing to keep in mind any time you’re looking through a report that was sponsored ("sponsored" = "paid for") by a vendor that concludes that their product is better than the other guy’s.

Maybe it is better than the other guy’s. But you might want to look closely at what was tested, how it was tested, and whether they were, shall we say, selective in the facts they present.

Case in point: The Tolly Group’s report, released May 27, comparing VMware View 4.6 Premier Edition to Citrix XenDesktop 5 Platinum edition. There are several interesting aspects to this report, which are dealt with in detail in Tal Klein’s blog over on the Citrix Community blog site. Here are a few of the more egregious items:

  • VMware View 4.6 Premier licensing costs less than XenDesktop 5 Platinum. Absolutely true, and absolutely irrelevant. That’s like pointing out that if you load every possible dealer option onto your new car, it’s going to cost more than the basic model. Thank you, Captain Obvious. If you want an "apples-to-apples" comparison, you need to compare VMware View to the XenDesktop VDI Edition. But wait, if you do that, XenDesktop is actually less expensive, and that would be an awkward point to publish in a paper that’s being paid for by VMware.
  • VMware’s PCoIP provides a more consistent multi-media experience than XenDesktop 5. (Over a LAN. Using a single thin client device that did not support any of the Citrix HDX media acceleration features.) Sorry, guys, but once again this is not an apples-to-apples comparison. And did they publish any results of testing across a WAN link? Nope…and for the same reason they didn’t use XenDesktop VDI Edition for their price comparison.
  • It’s easier to upgrade View 4.5 to View 4.6 than it is to upgrade XenDesktop 4 to XenDesktop 5. Once again, both true and irrelevant. It’s easier to give your kitchen a new coat of paint than it is to rip out the cabinets and completely remodel it. Anybody surprised by that? There are significant architectural changes from XenDesktop 4 to XenDesktop 5. It shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that this will involve more effort than a "dot release" upgrade.

I’ve always been skeptical of vendor-sponsored "analysis" reports, and, to be fair, Citrix has used the Tolly Group in the past for its own sponsored reports - but it seems to me that this one is just over the top. Apparently, former Gartner analyst Simon Bramfitt agrees. His pithy assessment of the report: "There are undiscovered tribes lost in the darkest parts of the Amazon jungle that would know exactly what to do if a vendor airdropped a pile of competitive marketing literature authored by the Tolly Group; send it back, and asked [sic] that it be re-printed on more absorbent paper."

What do you think?

Posted in: Citrix, VDI, Virtualization, VMware, XenDesktop ⋅ Tagged: , , , , , ,

Thin Clients vs. Cheap PCs

June 1, 2011 12:09 pm ⋅ 5 Comments ⋅

We have, for a long time, been fans of thin client devices. However, if you run the numbers, it turns out that thin-clients may not necessarily be the most cost-effective client devices for a VDI deployment.

Just before writing this post, I went to the Dell Web site and priced out a low-end Vostro Mini Tower system: 3.2 GHz Intel E5800 dual-core processor, 3 Gb RAM, 320 Gb disk drive, integrated Intel graphics, Windows 7 Professional 64-bit OS, 1 year next-business-day on-site service. Total price: $349.00.

When you buy a new PC with an OEM license of Windows on it, you have 90 days to add Microsoft Software Assurance to that PC. That will cost you $109.00 for two years of coverage. You’re now out of pocket $458.00. However, one of the benefits of Software Assurance is that you don’t need any other Microsoft license component to access a virtual desktop OS. You also have the rights, under SA, to install Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) on the system, which strips out a lot of non-essential stuff and allows you to administratively lock it down - think of WinTPC as Microsoft’s own tool kit for turning a PC into a thin client device.

Now consider the thin client option. A new Wyse Winterm built on Embedded Windows 7 carries an MSRP of $499. There are less expensive thin clients, but this one would be the closest to a Windows 7 PC in terms of the user experience (media redirection to a local Windows Media Player, Windows 7 user interface, etc.). However, having bought the thin client, you must now purchase a Microsoft Virtual Desktop Access (VDA) license to legally access your VDI environment. The VDA license is only available through the Open Value Subscription model, and will cost you $100/year forever. So your total cost over two years is $699 for the Wyse device vs. $458 for the Dell Vostro.

After the initial two year term, you’ll have to renew Software Assurance on the PC for another two years. That will continue to cost you roughly $54.50/year vs. $100/year to keep paying for that VDA license.

Arguably, the Wyse thin client is a better choice for some use cases. It will work better in a hostile environment - like a factory floor - because it has no fan to pull dust and debris into the case. In fact, it has no moving parts at all, and will likely last longer as a result…although PC hardware is pretty darned reliable these days, and at that price point, the low-end PC becomes every bit as disposable as a thin client device.

So, as much as we love our friends at Wyse, the bottom line is…well, it’s the bottom line. And if you’re looking at a significant VDI deployment, it might be worth running the numbers both ways before you decide for sure which way you’re going to go.

Posted in: Licensing, Microsoft, VDI, Virtualization, Windows 7 ⋅ Tagged: , , , ,