Citrix has launched a program to lure VMware ESX and vSphere customers to switch to either XenServer or Microsoft Hyper-V by offering free support, training and conversion tools.
The program, called project open door, allegedly helped "ensure customers looking to expand their data centres with XenServer or Hyper-V had a smooth transition.
"Through March 2010, customers who switch existing VMware servers to XenServer or Hyper-V, and add Citrix Essentials for advanced virtualisation management, will receive additional technical support, training, and conversion tools from Citrix at no cost," the vendor said.
According to the terms and conditions, customers who decommissioned five or more VMware vSphere 4 or VI3 servers and replaced them with XenServer or Hyper-V plus the Citrix Essentials solution, would receive "a free five incident support pack (5 by 8 hours) for every five servers converted".
They would also receive "a voucher for six hours of online training for every five servers converted" and "free migration tools for seamlessly transferring virtual machines from VMware to XenServer or Hyper-V."
Citrix claimed demand for the Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer virtualisation platforms "continued to grow".
"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," said N. Louis Shipley, group vice president and general manager, XenServer Product Group at Citrix.
Issue: 277 | March, 2010