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XenDesktop 4 – Licensing Change Rant

So I made a comment recently on twitter and thought I would take a moment to explain further without the 140 character limit.

What I said was: "Justification for license change in #XD4 is bullcrap in my opinion."

I read one post from one CTP in which the author goes on to state that Citrix says the reason they changed the licensing is because everyone using VDI (read XD) will be using it 24/7 anyway so it makes since to get away from a CCU model.  This is where I say bullcrap.

I speak not from having experience in actually implementing a VDI environment but from my opinion of where I feel VDI is best fit at the moment.  I see VDI as a fantastic fit for task workers whom all do the same basic role.  This is a role that requires little personal modification of each machine and has basic applications that would work either installed, streamed or delivered via XenApp.   To me this role sits in service/call centers in what is typically a 24/7 environment.   This could also be a use case for a locked down desktop running on TS but I see the needs of even these workers growing to be able to handle more multimedia rich applications and training.  This, in my opinion, limits what you can perform on the server desktop.

In the situation detailed above say I have 1000 unique users and each of these people will need a desktop session to perform their work.  They all use the same basic set of apps and work in a 24/7 call center environment.   The 1000 users are split between 3 overlapping shifts but never have more than 400 people working at the same time.  In this scenario does it ever make sense to pay for 1000 licenses when they will never be used at the same time?  Why not pay for 500 concurrent licenses and be done with it?  There are a few other scenarios where this fits but the thought that all users will be using/accessing their virtual desktop 24/7 is insane to me.

Now, I am still waiting for an official press release from Citrix (a little birdie tells me to expect it soon) and until then I don't know what the feature matrix/pricing of the various versions will be (many have noted 75, 225, and 350 but I will wait to see #'s from Citrix first).  The per named user model may very well be cheaper in all scenarios depending on what you currently pay but I have a hard time believing it at the moment.  I hate the per user model of Microsoft TS CALS so I would be remiss if I didn't say something about going from a CCU model to a PU model.

I will concede that I may have made my comments without any 'official' information.   I am fully aware I may eat crow later.

Update: So I am taking a look at some additional information and I see that there is an option to 'trade up' one XenApp license for a XD4 license (with an additional cost of course) which includes XA as well.  For some this could be very beneficial if they aren't really taking full advantage of their CCU licenses.  This does not play well for organizations where the CCU licenses are used to their full potential (many different unique users accessing XA at different times).

I would love to see 'FlexLicense' accompany FlexCast [ ] so you could maybe have the option of picking from a CCU or Per user license at time of purchase. Maybe you continue to pay a bit more for the CCU license but you get the flexibility to decide how to operate your environment as opposed to always being constrained by the license.