Item: Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer)
Rating: 10
Author: Jean Franco

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Citrix Hypervisor to host several of our virtual environments. We use it on several departments reducing costs, providing easy backups, motion (moving virtual hosts from one physical hardware to another) and reducing electrical usage by reducing the number of physical servers required to run all the services we need.

Pros and Cons

Manage all the resources of the hosting server really well.
Provides the ability to move virtual server from one physical server to another.

A better web interface to manage all the services.
Provide client platform to Linux and MacOS to manage the platform.

Return on Investment

Up to two years to return on investment related to energy savings.
Immediate savings on hardware savings.

Alternatives Considered

VMware ESXi, VMware vCenter Server, VMware Workstation and Proxmox VE

I would say that Citrix Hypervisor is the precursor to all the other players. It's mature, and along with other Citrix services, provides services unique to this vendor. Citrix revolutionized these services making the XenServer available for free to everyone. I have chosen the Citrix Hypervisor based on previous experiences with all these other products.

Support Rating

Anytime I had to request support from the Citrix Hypervisor website I had an instant answer and it was straight to the point. I also used the forums available to everyone and always had success from both the technical staff and from the community.

Key Insights

Do you think Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Sophos Intercept X for Server, Ubiquiti Networks UniFi

Likelihood to Recommend

Citrix Hypervisor handles filesystems really well, better than any other system on the market today. The interface of the application is really easy to use and provides easy ways to handle all the guest OS's (including FreeBSD, which are hard to handle by other virtual services). The Citrix Hypervisor can be implemented in any scenario, small to enterprise.

The Enterprise Hypervisor: Citrix Hypervisor

Overall Satisfaction with Citrix Hypervisor (formerly XenServer)