VMware demos RDP killer

By Munir Kotadia on Oct 28, 2009 5:06 PM
Filed under Software

Smarter than the average protocol.


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Virtualisation specialist VMware today demonstrated PC over IP (pcoip), a protocol designed in partnership with Canadian firm Teradici, which intelligently compresses and prioritises data over slower connections to reduce any lag experienced by the user.

The second day of VMWorld's Virtualisation Forum 2009 in Sydney today kicked off with a keynote by the company's chief technical officer Stephen Herrod, who demonstrated how pcoip could remove lag when using a virtual machine, even when working with complex files over a relatively slow WAN.

"The key thing about this protocol is that it is aware of the amount of network bandwidth available to it, so it very much knows, 'I am on a high speed LAN' or 'I'm on a poor WAN'," he said.

According to Herrod, pcoip is far superior to the traditional Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) because of its intelligence.

"Specifically almost all these protocols work by looking at the screen and deciding how to compress things in a smart way.

"This one is extremely smart compared to RDP, it tracks how the screen has changed over time ... it tries to bring the most important pieces to you first and then the stuff that might not be in your direct focal view will come later," said Herrod.

Herrod compared it to a digital television that recognises parts of the screen containing fast moving images, which are given priority while static areas are held back.

The pcoip protocol is software-based and Herrod claimed that without any dedicated hardware acceleration, it could "scale from taskworkers - who are working in a call centre - all the way to the high-end designers working with interesting CAD designs."

However, he admitted that some companies had opted to deploy an accelerator chip.

"Teradichi also offer a chip which is optional but we have seen this in use by companies such as BMW, who do very intensive design over a network.

"If you haven't worked on [a virtual machine] for a while, it is probably not what you remember," he added.

5 comments in this discussion

"Thanks for the interest in the demo everyone; it was a huge week in Sydney at vForum last week! The reason I used RDP as the baseline is that in the current VMware View product RDP has been ..."

By davidwakeman

Tags

pcoip, vmware, stephen, herrod, rdp, virtual, virtualisation, virtualization, teradici

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Comments: 5

techydude Oct 29, 2009 3:01 AM	this's all very cool, though it's hard not to notice VMware aggressively targeting Microsoft's RDP, and not VNC. the comparatively 'dumb' characterstics they assign to RDP is actually more like VNC. RDP is somewhat smarter than they're making out & operates most of the time at a level much lower than the graphics level. but hey, why let facts get in the way of taking pot-shots at Microsoft for giving away HyperV for free ;)
bengrubb Oct 29, 2009 3:13 AM	It's interesting you should note HyperV and Microsoft giving it away for free. I have a story on that coming soon. VMware have a valid argument to make on that.
techydude Oct 29, 2009 10:34 AM	hope i'm not the troll you're burning? :) it is an impressive tech demo, & they look like they're solving a problem that's been common to all 'remote desktop' technologies of the last decade - graphical screen content (and perhaps doing it - conceptually at least - as an MP4-like encoding of inter-frame differences). i 'ban' use of highly graphical apps on my client's Windows TermServers despite their requests - the impact on everyone else sharing the broadband is just too great. just thought it was interesting how they're focussing on MS, instead of "all the others" who share the same problem ;). if i were VMware i'd be doing all i can to distinguish myself from MS devaluing cutting edge virtualisation tech across the board by giving it away!
deejay50 Oct 30, 2009 10:31 AM	Interesting that VMWare compares themselves against the easy target. If we're talking protocol performance across the WAN then ICA, with its HDX enhancements, is the high bar.....not RDP. The Citrix protocol is still significantly ahead in terms of performance and bandwidth utilisation.
davidwakeman Oct 31, 2009 9:15 PM	Thanks for the interest in the demo everyone; it was a huge week in Sydney at vForum last week! The reason I used RDP as the baseline is that in the current VMware View product RDP has been extended significantly by VMware and out of the five protocols View supports this is the default. (It was a comparison of View today v. tomorrow) Hopefully the demo provides a glimpse of how PCoIP will provide some new options (regardless of which protocol you use today) as it is purpose built to handle more complex desktop display on LAN or WAN.