Licensing question - Citrix vs VMware Horizons vs MS VDI

The same license requirements for virtual machines exists for all three products.

e.g. Windows 7 or 8 OS License, Microsoft Office 2013 license.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/5/1/65138E5D-EA4A-4322-9480-44B5DB6F1AC8/Licensing%20Microsoft%20VDI%20whitepaper%20v3%200.pdf

Do you have Software Assurance ?

We don't have SA at the moment so this would be part of the cost.  So aside from the actual OS license and Office license (going with SA) what other types of licenses are required for each vendor?

You want to have a shopping list for each vendor? e.g. Windows 2012 OS etc

Yes, so that I can take the list to software resellers knowing exactly what licenses I'll need and can then do an apples to apples comparison.  For instance, with Citrix I know I'll need the following:

XenDesktop user licenses
Win8 OS license (with SA)
Office 2013 Pro License (with SA)

But I've also read that I may need some kind of virtualization license for the Windows OS, not too sure.  Perhaps others as well for the management software I'll need to run the system?

What Hypervisor are you going to run Xendesktop on?

Hyper-V, VMware ESXi or XenServer ?

It will be on VMware ESX 5.1

what licensed version of VMware vSphere will you be using?

We're using vSphere Enterprise though an upgrade to Enterprise Plus could be in the cards if its needed for critical features.

So you already have VMware vSphere? so it does not need to be on the shopping list?

So if you already have VMware vSphere, it makes View the cheaper option?

I'm just getting a little confused on the requriements for your shopping list?

Correct, we are already running vSphere for server virtualization and that's a huge advantage for View but there are some other considerations so I have to look at all the options.  For instance, View does not play nice with serial port redirection, Citrix does.  However I would need to know what it'll cost me to go with Citrix vs View in order to get that feature as well as the cost to make other changes for the devices using serial ports.

Sorry if I haven't been very clear for the list.  Basically I want to total up all the required software and license purchases I would need to make for each of the three vendors to have a complete desktop virtualization solution.  As an example, View requires at least some of these components to operate:

VMware Horizon View
1) Win 8 Pro with SA
2) Office 2013 with SA
3) vSphere Desktop
4) vCenter Server Standard Desktop
5) View Manager 5
6) Persona Management
7) View Composer
8) View client with local mode
9) VMware Vshield Endpoint
10) VMware ThinApp
11) Horizon Mirage
12) Horizon Workspace - mobile devices
13) Horizon Suite - includes View, Workspace, and Mirage
14) Vcenter operations manager for View - used to monitor view environments

I'm not certain which of those components I actually need but it represents most if not all of what makes up View.  I'd need the same list for XenDesktop and Microsoft's VDI so I can compare them directly.

USB does work better with View that Citrix...

and you can use USB to Serial devices.

True, I've experimented with a bunch.  So what do you think about the list of components for each vendor?

What components you need is based on your requirements, budget, functionality

Ok, lets assume a simple scenario.  No budget yet (that is the point of this exercise), 100 users across a 6 site MPLS WAN (1.5mb T1s).  Win 8 Pro and Office 2013 on the desktop.  Users will run mostly web based applications and also some older internal programs that should not have any compatibility issues.  Printing is a must using mostly large networked HP and Xerox printers.  I need to be able to manage desktops easily, run reporting on performance and activity, and have the ability to easily make changes for both individual users and departments as needed.  The user experience should be quick and work well over a small 1.5mb connection with up to 10 people on the other side of a WAN connected back to the main office.  Storage will be the same Netapp for any of the three possible solutions so we won't factor that in here.

Based on that description could a list of components needed for each product be put together for comparison?  I'm happy to provide more data if needed.

?

I missed, this last post, let me read....and catch-up.

Thanks Hanccocka!  I've done a ton of reading over the last week and have a much better understanding of the options now but always appreciate your opinion.  :)