VMware plans high-speed PC over IP service

VMware is planning to release a new virtual desktop service later this year which it is calling PC over IP.

The company already has a virtual PC offering with its View system that Dell bundles on certain products. But VMware is developing the PC-over-IP concept because some users need higher performance.

Steve Herrod, chief technical officer at VMware, outlined the plans behind the new service in his keynote at VMworld 2009 in San Francisco.

Herrod said that a problem with virtual desktops was that they were too slow to handle high-performance graphics applications, and that the company is working to develop faster links between the user and the data centre hosting the virtual PC.

he said even mobile phones could be used as thin client systems using virtualisation,which would free time for IT administrators.