Today’s accepted definition of a “Trojan Horse” is a person or thing intended to secretly undermine or bring about the downfall of an enemy or opponent. As we all know, this originated from the tale of the Trojan War.

In this tale, the Greek attack strategy was to use their “Trojan Horse” in an attempt to infiltrate the formidable walls surrounding the City of Troy.  The key to their strategy was that their soldiers were hidden in the wooden horse “gift.” They waited for nightfall to exit the horse, then opened the gates of Troy from the inside letting the rest of the Greek army in to decimate the City of Troy and ultimately end the war.

Let’s compare that to VMware’s strategy of apparently creating their own version of a “Trojan Horse” – The Horizon Application Management Bundle. This bundle is designed for Citrix customers with the expectation that they will win over the client with this bundle and eventually replace Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop with the full Horizon Suite.

trojanhorse

Interesting concept but let’s look deeper and look at a more logical choice …

Recently VMware’s EUC group has made some acquisitions to, not only attempt to increase the value and functionality of their own Enterprise stack, but also create a bundle claiming to do the same for all Citrix customers as well. While VMware’s additions on paper certainly make sense — the somewhat puzzling fact still remains that VMware is focusing on using this new bundle to get a foothold in Citrix environments.

This bundle includes full User Environment Management, Application Layering and End User Monitoring.  Liquidware Labs agrees 100% with this new bundle concept by VMware because we have had this same strategy and solutions set available in the market for over 3 years, and it is deployed at thousands of happy VMware and Citrix accounts.

In fact, why don’t we look closer at each of our bundles targeting the Citrix market.

ComparisonGridCTXSB (2)

Citrix and Liquidware Labs NEW Joint Solution Brief featuring our Essentials bundle :

  • http://www.liquidwarelabs.com/content/pdf/documents/solutions/Liquidware-Labs-Citrix-Ready-Solution-Brief.pdf

VMware’s Horizon Application Management bundle :

  • http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/products/horizon-application-management-bundle/vmware-horizon-application-management-bundle-solution-brief.pdf

If you looked at both links, at first glance, it looks like almost identical messaging.  However, I would like to bring your attention to a few key differences :

  • Liquidware Labs is not a competing platform vendor to Citrix looking to gain an advantage – we are an eco-system partner looking to extend value and functionality for an already happy Citrix customer.
  • We have (at the very least) “apples to apples” technology when comparing all three pillars and can prove it – contact us to learn how and why at  sales@liquidwarelabs.com
  • We are also much more cost effective and flexible – we can provide all three pillars together for $59/user or depending on the customer’s need we can provide just UEM / App Layering for $39/user.  Compare that cost with  VMware’s bundle is $120 to $180/user.
  • We also work well with the Citrix channel utilizing our robust partner program and can help give Citrix partners a great option for UEM, App Layering and End User Monitoring when they are asked about VMware’s bundle by their customers.

In closing, I would like to reiterate we understand and agree with VMware’ s concept of UEM, Application Layering and Visibility being keys to success in the next phase of workspace evolution – However, ultimately we believe our solutions technically, economically and strategically are CLEARLY a better fit for Citrix, their partners and their customers.

For more information please visit http://www.liquidwarelabs.com/solutions/solutions-platform/citrix

Thank you for your time and I welcome your feedback.

Best Regards,

Chris Akerberg

President and COO