I am pleased to announce the availability first View Client for iPad with PCoIP.  It is not big secret we have been building a View Client for the iPad with PCoIP. Initially we started  demoing the client at VMworld and today it is now available for download from the app store. Best of all it is FREE.

We are happy to make this available to all the cusomters who have been eagerly waiting for it's arrival. The team also is looking forward to working with you to collect feedback  as they rapdily work to get the next version available incorporating your feedback.

What can you expect?

VMware View 4.6 and higher suport - The View Client for iPad supports View 4.6 and higher

PCoIP support - The View Client for iPad uses PCoIP for connectivity and communucation with virtural desktops

Tap and Connect ( Just what I call it ) - The View Client for iPad works with the View Security Server including the PCoIP Secure Gateway. Users connectly remotely can where their organization can seamlessly and securely connect to their remote desktop though the PCoIP Secure Gateway with a simple tap of their desktop. No messing with VPN setups or logins. Of course, if yoour organization uses VPNs for remote connecivity they will still work as well.

RSA Support - Supports two factor authentication when using RSA

Support for 3G and WiFI - Supported using both 3G and WiFi connectivity

Custom Gestures - A lot of work was put into custom gestures to provide the best experaince for interacting with Windows from and iPad

Session Bar - Provides quick access to Help, Keyboard, Touch Pad, Configuration Options, Session Disconnect, Control Keys

Virtual TouchPad - A virtual touch pad for traditional mouse input

iPad Docking - Supports iPad docking accessories

iPad display output - Supports connecting to an external display

The View Client for iPad is avalable on the Appstore for free at the following location: Have Fun!!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vmware-view-for-ipad/id417993697?mt=8&ls=1

I am pleased to highlight that VMware has completed the acquisition of RTOsoft. RTOsoft is a leading solution provider that has been providing scalability and management tools in both the Server Based Computing and Virtual Desktop space for years now.

Equally exciting is the RTOsoft team joining the VMware desktop team. RTOsoft was started by Kevin Goodman and I have  had the privilege of working with Kevin on several projects over the years going back to 2001 not long after RTOsoft started ( Who remembers KevSoft? ). I also have been lucky enough to engage with several members of his engineering team.

Kevin and his team bring a tremendous amount of talent and experiance to VMware. So it  will be great to get busy working with Kevin and the rest of the RTO team on some great new ideas.

As you know we have been working to integrate Virtual Profiles into VMware View and that will be the first order of business. Virtual Profiles will deliver tremendous value to cusotmers and we also have a lot of other cool things cooking in this area so there is a lot more to come. 

If you are an existing RTO customer or have additional questions regarding the specifics of the aquired components please see the following FAQ

In the first release of VMware View with PCoIP, one of the key features we wanted to focus on was true mutli-monitor support. For years studies have shown muti-monitor significantly increases user productivity. Recent studies from NEC and the University of Utah show muti-monitor can help make users 29 percent more effective at doing  tasks, multi-monitor is 24 percent more comfortable to use doing tasks and users found it 39 percent easier to move

around sources of information. In addition, users can be at least 10 percent more productive. I  have used multi-monitor for years and personally cannot stand it when traveling away from my multi-monitor setup. 

Despite the popularity and growing demand for multi-monitor support. This key feature seems to have eluded vendors in the server based computing and VDI markets for years now. It really was not until recently vendors started taking this seriously and going beyond  basic solutions such as spanning or basic boundary detection.

Spanning allows you to span multiple displays often up to a maximum total resolution. The problem with spanning is applications often open up full screen crossing all the monitor boundaries requiring the user to manually re-size the app to fit a given display. Typically spanning is coupled with a third party  or add-on software solution that adds the ability for apps to maximize but stay within the monitor boundary. The problem here is even this still has the challenge with other tasks such as the Windows logon still displaying in the middle of the screen rather than on only the primary display. This is unnatural to end users and changes the experience they are use to with a PC. It is however, better than nothing.

We wanted to get off to a better  start  with VMware View and PCoIP. In the first release, we are able to support true muti-monitor. In addition to properly detecting monitor boundaries we also support non-matching resolutions so each monitor can run at a different resolutions from others. We also support rotate or pivot so displays can be mixed. Displaying  in landscape and or a portrait view. In addition, we also support a feature we call fit to client. Fit to client, detects the monitor configuration at connection time automatically configuring the layout so no user configuration is required. In addition, a user can exit full screen mode and the View Client will dynamically adjust the display to the window size. Fit to client is great for environments where users roam from desktop to desktop especially when there are a lot of display's that vary in size. 

Preparing to deploy virtual desktops for multi-monitor is fairly straight forward and easy with a little planning.  Depending on your familiarity with View and virtual desktops it might be a little different than what you expect. When developing and integrating PCoIP, we closely integrated using our SVGA display drivers and the virtual machine itself. In the long run, this opens the opportunity for us to deliver some exciting features we have planned for the future.

Because we integrate with the virtual machine hardware, some users get confused by the video settings now found with the virtual machine hardware v7 when running on ESX 4. These hardware settings currently do not affect anything and should not be used when preparing to use multi-monitor with View and PCoIP. People more familiar with ESX can get  tripped up by this at first.

Another area that can trip up users familiar with View is upgrading existing VM's from View 3 to View 4. Those VMs are configured as single display VMs and need to  be reconfigured to support multi-monitor if you intend to use multi-monitor. VMware View Manager can help take care of this for you.

As you can see below, VMware View Manager has new controls for configuring pools and can be used to configure or change the virtual machine hardware of an individual desktop or pools of desktops too use multi-monitor.

There are two basic settings.  The max number of displays; which configures the total number of possible displays and the desired resolution of each display. In an environment where you might have several possible configurations the best thing to do is configure for the highest possible resolution. In a mixed resolution environment, fit to client will handle properly setting the resolution for the user. One important note is after changing these settings or migrating existing virtual machines the VMs must be powered  off completely at least one time for the settings to take affect.  

Tips for avoiding common gotchas:

Preparing templates or a View Composer parent image - When building a template or linked clone parent that will be used to deploy several victual machines. That image is often not under the management of View Manger. Although you can add the necessary settings for multi-monitor support by directly editing the .vmx of that VM this is often error prone. I recommend adding the VM to View Manager as an individual desktop and configuring it as desired. Setting the multi-monitor settings, installing necessary software and testing  the image before using it as a template. Once completed, simply remove it from View Manager, convert it to a template or finish it's preparation for use with View Composer as a parent image. 

Upgrading from View 3 to View 4 -  When upgrading, it might and changing a pool to use PCoIP and starting to use multi-monitor. You need to change the muti-monitor settings and trigger a configuration change of the virtual machines. Remember, these virtual machines started as single display virtual machines and we need to reconfigure their virtual hardware settings for muti-monitor. Once this is done, the virtual machines will need to be powered off at least one time. Also note: the current default setting is 2 displays. If the default settings are desired you will need to make the change twice in view manager to trigger the change. We will change this in the next release to change  the default to one so this is not necessary.

Once a template or View Composer parent is setup these settings will apply to all VMs deployed from that image so no extra configuration steps are needed. 

Adding existing virtual machines to View Manager -  This is really no different  than our upgrade scenario. In this case, the virtual machine hardware is setup for one monitor and we need to trigger a change. Following the same steps as upgrading applies in this case.

Single monitor pools -  Although the default pool setting is currently set for two display's. There is no affect if the target pool will only ever use one display and there is no reason to change the default settings. The default setting will be changed in the future to 1.  

You might also notice once connected to a virtual desktop we disable the display settings tab in Windows. This is because fit to client takes care of properly setting the resolutions for the user. In some cases, it might be desirable to over ride this. This can be done by changing the standard Windows registry setting for controlling the display settings.

See http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/virtualdesktop/2009/12/05/vmware-view-4-with-pcoip-multimonitor/HKEY_CURRENT_USER or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System\  and the  NoDispSettingsPage value.

Recently we announced VMware View 4. One of the most exciting and fulfilling things for the RDE team and myself was the collaboration with our partner Teradici to bring a software implementation of a next generation display protocol ( PCoIP ) to market. It has been a lot of work, on a really compressed schedule.  In addition to Teradici. I also want to extend a special thanks as well to the entire View partner community. Everyone of our partners have stepped  up to rally behind View with PCoIP and in many cases have gone above and beyond to work with us adjusting their own schedules and investing their own R&D efforts to help make this a success.

In addition to the existing VMware View partners I also want to thank and welcome the existing Teradici OEM partners who have come on-board as VMware partners.

These efforts further extend VMware Views ability to offer the most broad range of soft client, thin client, zero client and integrated display options in the market.

For anyone who is still wondering what works with what. I hope the following will clarify any quesions you might have. The goal for us is pretty simple. Deliver a solution that enables IT organizations to adress their users from the task worker to the designer. For anyone who does not know. Teradici has been OEMing technology to main stream hardware leaders such as Dell, IBM, ClearCube and others who build solutions that address the highend demanding needs of designers needing remotely delivered 3D for several years now. Starting out with their hardware to hardware based solutions. Working together, we have broght that same technology in a software implementation to Virtual Desktops with  VMware View.

A common goal we have is to provide compatibility between both the hardware and software  implantations to ensure cusotmers have the most broad choice and seamless experiance when using both. By unifying support for both using VMware View. Customers instantly have the most simple integrated solution for addressing users from the task worker to the designer.

The most common question we get is how does that work? VMware and Teradici are working closely together to ensure interoperability betwen both hardware and software based components. Some time back, we did the bulk of the work in VMware View so it could handle brokering PCoIP hardware based solutions. In the end, customers have the option to choose from any of the following combinations of client and backend options when planning their deployments and addressing specific user needs.

VMware View software client <----

> Virtual Desktops

VMware View software client <----

>  PCoIP enabled Blade PCs

PCoIP zero clients <-------> Virtual Desktops

PCoIP zero clients <-------> PCoIP enabled Blade PCs

PCoIP zero clients from all the leading manufactures such as WYSE, DevonIT, Dell, ClearCube, EVGA, ELSA, Samsung etc. will all be VMware View compatible.

In addition to PCoIP zero clients. Traditional thin clients using the VMware View client for Windows and Linux will be available from VMware thin client partners. We are also working closely with thin client partners who offer unique differentiating custom and embedded OS solutions as well. 

It's only the begining and our first step toward more exciting things to come in short order. 

VMworld Europe 2009 is a wrap and despite the economic challenges everyone is facing across the world the turnout was amazing. One of the most exciting parts of the show for me was being able to demonstrate an early preview of the software to software implementation of PCoIP that we have been working on through our co-development agreement with Teradici.

This really is no secret, we announced our strategic partnership with Teradici last September at VMworld 2008 in Las Vegas Nevada. Since, we have been working hard to bring the best remote display solution to market based on Teradici's next generation display protocol PCoIP.  A combined VMware, Teradidici solution leveraging VMware View Manager will allows us to deliver an enhanced solution to desktop organizations that enables them to target users from task worker to the designer, remotely accessing their virtual desktop both from the LAN or the WAN using a single display protocol with an uncompromising user experiance. Combined with VMware View Managers support for multiple protocols, we can offer cusomters a solution with the broadest array of choice in display protocols and client access devices.

For everyone that was not able to attend VMworld 2009. On day two, Steve Herrod and Jerry Chen provided an update on our progress to dated wrapping up with a live demo of a Teradici hardware to hardware based solution. The full Keynote and demo can be seen here VMworld 2009 Day 2 Keynote 

In addition to the Keynote, there was quite a bit of coverage from the blogging and analyst community around our PCoIP efforts. Below I have pulled together several bits of commentary I have been able to find.

Totally unplanned and pulled together on the fly, I was able to sit down with Brian Madden and give him the first sneak peak of a PCoIP software to software demo. This can be found on Brian Madden TV along with interviews from Microsoft, Redhat and Citrix. 

I also was able to find an[ interview with Peter Ghostine, CTO of Quest Software|http://www.vmworldunderground.com/video/interview-with-peter-ghostine]. Interestingly, in this interview with Eric Sloof, Peter tries to explain what the VMware remote display strategy is? He shares his skepticism regarding what can be acheived with PCoIP. Peter primarily focuses on attempting to cast a shroud of doubt regarding the WAN capabilities of PCoIP.  Quest has been betting on RDP and has been building RDP enhancements for some time now. Features such as MMR, similar to the technology we OEMed from WYSE. In addition, to psudo multimonitor and more needed features such as latency reduction etc..

On that note, I was also able to sit down with Chris Wolf. Chris Wolf is a Sr. Analyst with the Burton Group covering the virtualization space, focusing on the Desktop to the Datacenter. I had a little more time with Chris and was able to demonstrate the current progress we have made with software to software PCoIP under a variety of network conditions including both the LAN and the WAN. Chris shares his thoughts and observations here - VMware's Software PCoIP - A Sighting!

Last but not least, Gerben Kloosterman attended a presentation I gave on the future of the VMware View Remote Display Experiance.  Gerben did an excellent job capturing the Q&A at the end sharing that information on his blog for anyone not able to attend. For more information visit Gerben's Blog on Virtualization. 

I  am well past do for a post and some might think we have fallen off the face of the planet. For the last six months I have been heads down planning, coordinating, validating and writing the first VMware View Reference Architecture.

This has been a lengthy project that had some very  well defined scope from the beginning. Honestly, I allowed the scope  to creep, as I  felt the effort and output would go much further to benefit cusotmers and partners.

First, I would like to thank everyone who helped ensure the project was successful. I would like to especially like to thank our partners at EMC whom allowed us to  leverage their Validation Facility in Santa Clara allowing us to  build and  validate the RA itself. In addition to providing us a place to validate future  efforts. They have a world class facility where we can validate customer solutions as well.

Second, this effort is only one of many to come. The  foundation we have laid allows us to rapidly change and add components or used cases based on the core architecture we have already validated. This first reference architecture effort primarily focuses on desktop replacement in the enterprise and other use cases will follow.

The first release of the reference architecture is availalbe from the following location - http://www.vmware.com/resources/techresources/1084

One of the documents that we intended to include but, were not able to finalize, was a document around the networking aspects of our efforts. We have received numerous requests for information on the networking specifically the load balancing and layer 2/3 configs and VLANs. Although we do not have a specific recomended design yet, we have been doing quite a bit of work in the labs in this area and have some information that might be useful to some. Later I plan to post  some of the configs from some of our lab work here so check back.

Lastly,  there are two other documents that I am working on and I hope to release those in the next  few weeks.

For anyone that was not able to attend VMworld this year; I want to take a second and share with you some exciting news that came out though several announcements.

We are entering the second phase of a long term strategy as VMware continues to add value and evolve the way we use desktop and personal computing as we know it today.

The vClient initiative continues to build on the VMware VDI efforts that were pioneered by VMware several years ago to help solve desktop challenges faced by all IT organizations with distributed PC and traditional server based computing solutions. As Enterprises have rapidly moved toward adopting VMware VDI as their standard for server side hosted desktop deployments, cusotmers are now ready to expand the same value and benifits they have received from VMware VDI to client virtual desktops.

VMware View is a suite of products that deliver users a single consistent personalized view of all their applications and data called "myview". 

As part of the vClient initiative, VMware View will include new technologies such as client virtualization, image management using VMware View Composer and offline desktop.

Client Virtualization runs on laptop and desktop

computers and provides a robust layer that tightly manages user devices

cost-effectively while providing a PC-like end-user experience.  Client

virtualization will also provide a centralized management solution to

administer, deploy and update applications and operating system images

across desktops and laptops.

VMware View™ Composer, an advanced desktop image

management solution, allows customers to reduce storage requirements by

up to 90 percent while reducing desktop provisioning time from hours to

just minutes.  VMware View Composer will make updating and patching

seamless to desktop users and efficient for IT administrators while

retaining individual user data and settings. Now IT staff can

streamline management and manage thousands of desktops while

guaranteeing that all use systems are up to date.

Offline Desktop provides an innovative new way for

organizations to operate in a virtual desktop environment by enabling

users to access their server hosted desktops offline. Offline Desktop

will let users run their virtual desktops locally for the best user

experience, while simplifying life for IT staff by enabling desktops,

whether run locally or centrally, to be managed through the same

administration framework.

For more information visit VMware View

I am pleased to announce the availability of the VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide. I had the honor of working with Doug Brown, founder of DABCC, well known expert and long time contributor to the Server Based Computing, Application Delivery and Virtualization communities.  Many of you might be familiar with Doug Brown's Methodology in Box (MIAB) deployment and install guides. Doug's MIAB takes a step-by-step approach to deploying and installing server based computing and virtualization products.

By taking a simple step-by-step real world approach MIAB can ensure audiences from all levels of technical aptitude and background are ensured a successful deployment.

Partnering with Doug for the creation of the VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide just made sense. Who better to help create this guide. The VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewers Guide is a subset of a typical DABCC (MIAB), with the goal to provide a step-by-step guide for people interested in evaluating VMware VDI for their VMware based VDI deployments. By using the the VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide new comer to VMware VDI and VDM 2.0 can quickly and easily get a full VMware VDI environment up and running for evaluation.

At a later date Doug will follow-up this work with a more extensive MIAB available from DABCC.

For more information about DABCC please visit - www.dabcc.com

The VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide can be found here - VMware VDM 2.1 Reviewer's Guide