Citrix wants to lure away VMware customers with its new Open Door program

It has been reported that approximately 15 percent of the world’s servers are currently virtualized. While that may seem like a lot, it still leaves the lion’s share of the server market open for virtualization vendors to go after.

VMware currently enjoys a comfortable lead in the server virtualization market, but large companies like Microsoft, Citrix, Oracle, Parallels, and Red Hat are all coming after VMware with a vengeance. Because of that, VMware not only needs to continue to enhance its product offerings, but it also needs to keep a watchful eye out from the back of its head. These companies are not only going after new market share, they are also going after each other’s current market share.

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Last September, Microsoft tried to convince VMware users to make the switch over to Hyper-V by explainingg that Hyper-V was cheaper and almost as good as VMware. During VMworld 2008, Microsoft launched the “vmwarecostswaytoomuch.com” campaign. It is unknown whether or not this cheaper-than-VMware-and-good-enough mentality actually worked to convert people. Many people were waiting for Microsoft to add VMware vMotion-like capabilities into Hyper-V before even considering it as a platform. The campaign did become famous, and it was known for many as the shot heard across the Venetian, while for others it was known as the great Microsoft/VMworld debacle. This was one of the reasons cited by VMware for sticking Microsoft into a 10-by-10 booth at VMworld 2009.

Microsoft isn’t alone in these types of campaigns. VMware has also tried its hand at convincing other platform customers to switch recently as well. Last July, VMware went after Virtual Iron’s customer base by trying to convince them to switch from Virtual Iron’s Xen platform to VMware ESX Server and vSphere. At the time, Virtual Iron was being acquired by Oracle, and things were a bit unclear as to what Oracle’s plans and future directions were for Virtual Iron customers. Thus, VMware offered those users a “safe passage” program, giving existing Virtual Iron customers a certain percentage discount on VMware products and support with hopes of luring them away from Oracle.

And now it looks like Citrix is at bat going after VMware. The company announced a new program called Project Open Door, which aims to make it easier for existing enterprise customers to switch from VMware VI3 or vSphere 4 to Citrix XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V. Citrix said the new program offers advanced virtualization management along with free support, training, and conversion tools. One of the interesting components in this program is that Citrix doesn’t care if you switch to XenServer or Hyper-V, as long as you switch from VMware and purchase Citrix Essentials.

The Project Open Door promotion will be in effect from Oct. 1 until March 31, 2010. The promotion states that customers who decommission five or more VMware vSphere 4 or VI3 servers and replace them with XenServer or Hyper-V plus the Citrix Essentials solution receive the following:

• A free five-incident support pack (5 by 8 hours) for every five servers converted
• A voucher for six hours of online training for every five servers converted
• Free migration tools for seamlessly transferring virtual machines from VMware to XenServer or Hyper-V

Remember, the switch to either the free XenServer or Hyper-V virtualization platform also involves purchasing Citrix Essentials. Doing so adds storage integration, automated lab and stage management, and dynamic workload balancing features. A purchase is involved here — things aren’t completely free. So the question becomes, is the program offering enough to make people switch?

Going after new virtualization customers is one thing, but trying to go after an existing VMware customer base may be another. The program as it stands may prove difficult to entice a company that already owns virtualization licenses and support contracts with VMware to make the switch. Asking them to pay for Citrix Essentials may prove difficult. Only time will tell. Some may be less hesitant to switch if it were truly free for at least the first year in the transition period. Giving more away up front might give the program and Citrix more of a foothold and allow them to grow their market share and ultimately make money in subsequent years with additional subscription advantage and support contracts.

To find out more information about the program, visit the Citrix Open Door program Web site.

This story, “Citrix wants to lure away VMware customers with its new Open Door program,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com.