Citrix - XenSource sets the sales strategy
Opening up markets has been VMware's job and their strength. Citrix-XenSource will need to be more than a me-too in server and desktop virtualization if it has any chance of coming in as a winner. One of the ways it might differentiate itself is in the focus it puts on the mid-tier enterprise market and on the SMBs. It makes sense to deliver their product in OEM form and to develop the VAR strategy that targets precisely these sectors. It's not that they'll be left alone to mine those markets. They'll need to differentiate their offer (as well as support their channels with a LOT of muscle). The question in my mind is how they'll best deliver that differentiation. Seems to me that open source technology that supports XenSource would be among the most fruitful.
Citrix recruits OEMs, VARs to fuel open source virtualization growth
Citrix will release "a couple of announcements hopefully before the end of the year" detailing which major vendors will preinstall Citrix's XenExpress OEM Edition hypervisor on their servers, according to Matt Haynes, Citrix's director of sales strategies, channels and field marketing. "That OEM strategy will be part of our go-to-market strategy," he said.
The alliances may not move XenSource -- an open source virtualization developer Citrix acquired in August -- into parity with VMware Inc.'s market-leading software, but they should narrow the competition, Haynes said.
The agreements will be similar to the one VMware announced at last month's VMworld, under which VMware's ESX Server 3i hypervisor will be integrated with server hardware from Dell Inc., Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM, NEC and others.
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Citrix is also crafting a channel strategy to complement its technology and OEM push, Haynes said. Its goal over the next 18 months is to add 1,600 channel partners globally to sell the XenSource XenEnterprise version 4 open source virtualization software.
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