Citrix announced the availability of Citrix XenServer 4.1. With the new release, Citrix also unveiled a new pricing model that allows customers to deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines per server at a single low price. The new pricing applies to all editions of XenServer, including the XenServer Platinum Edition that brings the benefits of the dynamic datacenter to both physical and virtual servers. These enhancements, together with an expanding list of resellers and strategic infrastructure partners are making virtualization easier and more affordable for customers of all sizes.

“Server virtualization technology is tracking to be equally as ubiquitous as the system BIOS (Basic Input/Output System), with embedded hypervisors being an assumed server component in coming years,” said Chris Wolf, senior analyst, Burton Group. “As organizations increasingly virtualize their data centers, they are consistently asking virtualization vendors for simple, predictable pricing and licensing policies. Vendors who work to simplify licensing and pricing in a time of virtualization ubiquity are showing leadership by demonstrating that they are clearly putting their customers’ interests first.”

Most server virtualization solutions on the market charge incremental license fees based on the number of CPU sockets on each server. Not only does this model increase the overall cost of virtualization, it adds complexity for customers who must track the number of deployed CPU sockets across their entire datacenter to ensure licensing compliance. With the new 4.1 release of XenServer, Citrix has removed this roadblock by offering a simple per-server licensing model across the entire XenServer product line. As a result, customers can now deploy an unlimited number of virtual machines or guest operating systems on each physical server for a single low price, regardless of whether it has one, two or four CPU sockets. The new pricing applies to the Standard, Enterprise and Platinum editions of Citrix XenServer. A free Express Edition of XenServer is also available for unlimited use on a single server.

“By introducing this new, streamlined licensing model, we’re taking yet another step toward friction-free deployment and continuing to make Citrix XenServer the easiest virtualization solution to own and deploy,” said Matt Fairbanks, VP of product marketing, Virtualization and Management Division for Citrix. “By combining the robust, high performance, and easy-to-manage XenServer product with this simplified licensing approach, we’re able to bring the benefits and ROI associated with virtualization to more customers across more segments of IT – from the smallest shops to the largest enterprises.”

Rapidly Growing Customer and Partner Communities
Since acquiring XenSource a few months ago, Citrix also continues to expand the XenServer partner community and customer base. The number of reseller partners trained and authorized to sell XenServer has grown over eight-fold from just 300 in October 2007 to more than 2500 today, while the customer installed base has more than doubled. In addition to this rapid expansion in customer and reseller demand, Citrix has announced new strategic OEM agreements with Dell, HP, Lenovo and NEC, resulting in XenServer now shipping embedded on more than 50 percent of all 64-bit x86 servers sold worldwide. Citrix has also unveiled partnerships with storage vendors like NetApp, enabling customers to manage their virtualized server and storage environments in a simpler and more integrated fashion. These enhancements and partnerships have all furthered Citrix’s goal of making end-to-end virtualization far easier and more accessible to customers of all sizes.

Citrix XenServer Platinum – Available Soon
Citrix XenServer Platinum Edition, which will be available in April 2008, includes new capabilities that provision both virtual and physical servers, extending the product’s value to servers running native workload images and assuring server consistency within silos by provisioning simultaneously from a single standard workload image. The result is increased IT responsiveness and agility by enabling capacity on-demand, and the ability to dynamically manage provisioning for disaster recovery and business continuity.