Citrix starts to reveal its XenSource strategy

Quoting from SearchITChannel:

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.

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.

And, while executives say they want to see large customers adopt the product, Haynes said Citrix is looking for channel partners focusing on midsized companies — a market that is largely untapped by VMware, and in which XenSource’s open source virtualization prices might be more attractive than they would to larger customers, he said.

“You must have a strong channel program and that’s something VMware doesn’t have,” said Jim Steinlage, president of Overland Park, Kan.-based Choice Solutions LLC, a VMware partner that will also be selling XenSource.

Steinlage said he sat on VMware’s channel advisory council for two years, and believes if Citrix builds a loyal channel the effects can hurt VMware…

Read the whole article at the source.

It’s evident that both Citrix and Microsoft will try to take over VMware using their powerful sales channels. This is why VMware is taking drastic measures to extend its channel as fast as possible (with questionable results).