Blog Posts

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. 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 just stepped out of Mark Templeton's keynote speech where he talked about five key topics. The fifth was Xen Desktop and was trumped up as the most exciting thing since the launch of WinFrame. The message was Xen Desktop offers a "High Definition user experience" and on demand, new PC, every day. Mark was really excited to demonstrate the Xen Desktop solution and what they call Desktop 2.0.

Mark claimed Xen Desktop was built and designed for 400 million office workers @ Home, @ The Office @ The Virtual Office and Off Shore

They were using what they call a Xen Desktop Appliance. A purpose built device which is not a thin client, Ok sure.

Off to the demo of a Citrix Desktop 2.0 solution designed to support 400 million office workers.

Mark had the demo guy join him on stage, where a Xen Desktop login was being presented from the Xen Desktop Appliance. The demo guy Aaron logged in, an then demonstrated Power Point. After that, it was off to show the "High Definition user experience" and a demo of MultiMedia.

Doh! Not sure what the multimedia was there but all the audience got was a an error and they could not demo the multimedia

The demo guy said maybe if I log out and back in I can get it to work? The demo guy logged out, and tried to log back in. He was then presented with a spinning wheel and no desktop access. I figured it was dynamically building him a new one?

I guess that on-demand desktop is a one time thing?

After a short diversion discussion form Mark, the demo guy tried again as he seemed eager to redeem himself and get it to work, more so than getting off stage and reducing the damage that had already been done. Unfortunately, there was nothing but a spinning wheel again, resulting in a desktop dead on arrival.

Across a silent, stunned audience Mark closed with a statement along the lines of, I guess that is what happens when you fly without a net.

VMware VDI is here today, shipping today and has been deployed to 1000s and 1000s of desktop users across some of the largest enterprises. We are only at the beginning of delivering the next generation desktop delivery and management with a strong ecosystem of VDI alliance partners. Stick with the creators of VDI and do not get caught flying with out a net!!!!