Citrix opens door to VMware customers

Vendor targets rival with virtualisation migration programme

The programme offers free training, support and conversion tools to VMware customers

Citrix Systems is gunning for virtualisation rival VMware with a new migration programme.

Project Open Door will see the vendor offer free support, training and conversion tools to customers switching servers from VMware ESX or vSphere to its XenServer or Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V platforms.

In the past 30 days, the number of large enterprise customers that have activated XenServer for production use has doubled, Citrix claimed. This means it is used by 20 per cent of the Global Fortune 500.

Until March 2010, customers who switch existing VMware servers to XenServer or Hyper-V, and add Citrix Essentials for advanced virtualisation management, will receive a free five-incident support pack for every five servers converted. They will also net a voucher for six hours’ online training for every five servers converted, as well as free migration tools.

Louis Shipley, group vice president of Citrix’s XenServer product group, said: "With the price of virtualisation continuing to rise from other vendors, more and more enterprise customers are switching a portion of their production servers to the Citrix and Microsoft virtualisation platforms.

"Project Open Door helps these customers achieve more agile data centres by offering them advanced virtualisation management through our Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V solution, as well as assistance in making the transition smooth, easy and cost-effective.

"With more virtualisation choices than ever, we encourage customers to shop around and make the right choice for their environment," Shipley said.