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marknashe
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pcoip vs rdp

Hello everyone,

In regards to thin clients, what are the benefits of using pcoip vs rdp? I'm not using a security server. I'm trying to get my company to buy some wyse p20's but my boss said the rdp ones are cheaper

thank you

- Mark Nashe

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mittim12
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I'm afraid I wouldn't do a great job of explaining in detail how it makes for a much better user experience.  I'm hoping this blog post can help you out with that, http://blogs.vmware.com/view-point/2009/10/why-pcoip-is-the-best-protocol-for-virtual-desktops.html.   I will say that document scrolling, video, and over all interaction in the desktop is a lot better with PCOIP.

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mittim12
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PCOIP offers a much better user experience over RDP.

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marknashe
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mittim,

would you mind being a little more specific, how exactly does it make the user experience better, in what ways?

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mittim12
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I'm afraid I wouldn't do a great job of explaining in detail how it makes for a much better user experience.  I'm hoping this blog post can help you out with that, http://blogs.vmware.com/view-point/2009/10/why-pcoip-is-the-best-protocol-for-virtual-desktops.html.   I will say that document scrolling, video, and over all interaction in the desktop is a lot better with PCOIP.

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marknashe
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that blog post is a great start for me. thank you

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AdamG53
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I would add that PCoIP certainly provides a better user experience than RDP in a LAN and even fast WAN environment.  However, there are sometimes issues with using PCoIP over WANs, especially with high latency/low bandwidth remote connections.  In those scenarios, you may need to complement the VMware View deployment with Ericom Blaze, a software-based RDP acceleration and compression product that provides improved performance over WANs and other slow networks. Blaze significantly accelerates RDP performance and delivers higher frame rates and reduces screen freezes and choppiness.

You can use VMware View with PCoIP for your LAN and fast WAN users, and at the same time use VMware View with Blaze over RDP for your slow WAN users.  This combined solution can provide enhanced performance in both types of environments.

Read more about Blaze and download a free evaluation at:

http://www.ericom.com/Blaze4VMwareView

Adam (from Ericom)

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admin
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Adam,

Perhaps you could share some specific data that supports these posts and specifics on the value Blaze has to offer? I think that would be the most helpful to the community don't you? I am sure the community would also love to see some concrete information as well?

What do you consider a slow WAN link?

What data do you have to share supporting your claim that PCoIP is not equally as good on low bandwidth high latency links? There are thousands and thousands of users using PCoIP across WAN links of all kinds. I use it every day, all day. This is not a claim  customers do not hit challenges. There are lots of challenges, most that result in configuration problems, sizing problems or other issues. Some easy to fix, some not as easy to fix, but in every case VMware and Teradici is always there to help cusotmers understand them and support them.

Does Ericom certify their Blaze clients with View? The View Client HCL ( Which includes vendor supplied clients) has nothing about Blaze?

Maybe you could share with everyone how Blaze accelerates RDP? Perhaps clarify why there is so little benefit when coupled with RDP 7 and higher?

Maybe you could share a comparison of why you would want to use Blaze rather than just use standard network level optimization? Possibly compare it with other solutions such a WYSE Virtual Desktop Accelerator? All their clients are certified with View and their solution seamlessly integrates with the whole solution.

Perhaps some points on the added complexity of managing multiple protoocls on their network, the complexity of specilized clients and infrastructure running in parralel with View and why it is worth adding that extra complexity? Maybe some details of how it integrates with the View Security Server for Remote Access and WAN connections?

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AdamG53
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Warren,

Thanks for your comments and questions. You can find many of the answers to your questions at the Ericom website: http://www.ericom.com/ericom_blaze.asp. See also information about how Blaze works on the Blaze FAQ page: http://www.ericom.com/blaze_faqs.asp#howWorks.

For the record, we do not claim, nor do we think that PCoIP isn’t a good protocol or that it can’t be used over WAN. In fact, it’s Ericom corporate policy not to position Ericom Blaze as an alternative to PCoIP.  All sales and tech people are instructed to confirm with the customer that they have fully tested PCoIP and have found the performance to be insufficient for their specific network configuration and needs before they engage in an evaluation of Ericom Blaze.

We have tested Blaze with network connections that had 350ms latency and it worked well. Even when we increased latency to 500ms Blaze still delivered an acceptable performance. We also tested Blaze with network connections that were limited to 50Kbit bandwidth and Blaze worked well. In general we recommend to potential customers to simply try out Blaze in their scenarios and see if it provides the needed performance improvements.  It is illustrative to discuss some real life scenarios, for example, a corporation with dozens of remote offices (banking, retail, outsourcing, call centers, etc.), each with 40 users working via a T1 1Mbit connection with low latency whereby there is an average of 25Kbit per user, where Blaze performs at an acceptable levels.

Yes, Blaze is not listed in the View client Hardware Compatibility List (HCL), we did implement it in accordance to the VMware View API documentation, which VMware has made public. We have also verified that it works properly with View 4.0, View 4.5 and View 4.6. In addition, Ericom is fully committed to VMware View, and we will address any future compatibility issues.

It is important to note that we publicly and openly acknowledge that Blaze acceleration for RDP 7 is less dramatic than for previous versions of RDP. This is because Microsoft themselves have improved the performance of RDP in version 7. Still, I wouldn’t categorize the 3x to 5x performance improvement we typically see over RDP 7 as “little benefit”. Besides, not all customers can immediately upgrade all their RDP hosts to versions of Windows that support RDP 7. For those “stuck” with older versions and a mixed environment, the x10 to x25 performance improvement we can provide can be a life-saver.

The main advantage of Blaze over standard network level optimization and WYSE Virtual Desktop Accelerator is that Blaze performs introspection of the RDP protocol and optimizes it from the inside. The other solutions you mentioned treat RDP as a “black box”, and perform generic optimizations from the outside. Some solutions even require that you disable RDP encryption in order to work, which is a non-starter for many organizations. Blaze OTOH is fully compatible with RDP encryption.  When RDP security is disabled, the RDP traffic over the LAN from the virtual desktop to the WAN acceleration appliance is not encrypted, and this exposes sensitive data to all users on the network and may be in violation of security policies. With Blaze the entire communication from the virtual desktop to the user’s device is encrypted like with PCoIP.

Ericom Blaze is incredibly easy to install and configure. It’s essentially a one-click, 5 minute installation on the clients and the VMs (or you can install just once on the Gold Image). Ericom Blaze does not integrate with the View Security Server. Ericom has developed a high performance secure gateway which provides the same performance as Blaze over VPN. So yes, it does add a bit of complexity. But many customers gladly accept this added complexity for the end-user experience and productivity that Blaze provides.

Adam (from Ericom)

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