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.

Complexity is one the most important factors and considerations as people move more of their physical desktops toward virtual desktops. Complexity inherently introduces risk and increases the chance for failure and additional cost. One thing I have always said, is we are building and designing a solution from the ground up to enable a new way do doing things in a virtual world. We are not trying to retro fit legacy products to work in a virtual world.

One of the things that impresses me the most about the engineering talent at VMware is the level of effort and willingness to listen to customer needs and requirements and wring out the complexity ultimately simplifying things for the customer. This comes at price to us, it takes time, effort, willingness to listen, and a desire to provide customer focused service. All well worth the price.

Recently we worked with an "independent performance consultancy The Tolly Group" to compare the differences of what it takes to get a mission critical solution such as a Virtual Desktop solution up and running using VMware View or Citrix XenDesktop in a timely, efficient, cost effective manner.

The independent Tolly Group invited both VMware and Citrix to support them as they built VMware View 3 Premier and Citrix XenDesktop Enterprise 2.1 side by side to understand the level of effort required to get each solution deployed and up and running. Initially accepting the invitation, Citrix later decided not to participate. To help ensure the highest level of success we pointed Tolly to the Getting Started with Citrix XenDesktop 2.1 guide and other documentation publicly available on the Citrix web site.

Attached is the findings report and results from Tolly, which can also be obtained from the Tolly Group web site.

Citrix XenDesktop 3 was recently announced and mostly is comprised of adding more of the SpeedScreen technologies to PortICA as it lags in comparison to the feature functionality available from XenApp ICA. It also encompasses enhancements of other technologies such as MMR, called HDX MediaStream and USB enhancements, things we have been shipping with VMware View for some time now. Nothing in the announcement or the XenDesktop 3.0 documentation currently availalbe indicates any improvement of the complexity detailed in this Toll report.

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