XEN CBT Backup / Licensing

[JUERGEN BLESSING]

Hi,

 

Citrix introduced the CBT a while ago, but its only available in the XenServer Enterprise Edition.  Now, we do have small business customers, some of them use the free / opensource edition, some of the the paid Standard server license. Most of them have in common that their VMs run on only one XENserver host.

 

I think Citrix did not have the small and medium business customers in sight, when they defined the new license model. To small business customers, most of the features in the Enterprise Edition are just not needed, but the CBT would make totally sense. Why is this feature not included in the Standard edition? To get a backup in a timely manner, nearly every customer would be interested in, especially, if the use SEP sesam already as the backup software.

 

Most of our customers are not willing to pay for the Enterprise Edition, but might be willing to pay for the Standard Edition to get the CBT Backup Feature.

 

Maybe Citrix can take this into consideration?

 

 

 

[Alan Lantz]

Good luck on that. I am just a customer, but I don't see them changing the licensing model. 

 

--Alan--

 

[David McIntosh]

Hi there,

 

Just came across this posting.  I am in the same boat and although I totally understand where you're coming from I agree with Alan, of course it makes sense to us for our needs.  Would you as a commercial profit making company put a useful feature like CBT in a version of your software that wasn't going to yield you as much potential profit as dangling the carrot in one of your more expensive products, I think we all know the answer to that.  Yes it sucks but what can we do?!

[JUERGEN BLESSING]

Hi,

just to make it clear - I never mentioned to give such features for free!

 

Its was mentioned to think about if you put a very needed feature only in the enterprise / premium edition, which also has tons of functions this specific group of customers never need and therefore wont pay for. But maybe some customers would be willing to pay for the Standard version, if this feature is included in there..!

 

So the question is, how big is the market / number of customers using the free version, who would be willing to pay just to get the CBT.

And, on the other hand, one could compare, how many customers would switch back from Enterprise to Standard, because this CBT Feature is now in the Standard Version available? I gues, the numbers would be small ?! Why? Because there are so many other features in the Enterprise Edition, which huge / Enterprise environment just need.. And, there might be some moves of customers to XCP-ng becuase of it.

 

But, again, this was just to start a discussion maybe inside the company, and its just my point of view.