VMware launches View 4.0 private beta with Teradici PCoIP software implementation

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After Site Recovery Manager (SRM) 4.0, VMware launched yesterday another private beta, this time for its VDI solution View.

The new View 4.0 finally introduces the software-only implementation of the Teradici PC over IP (PCoIP) remoting protocol.

VMware is working on a way to replace Microsoft Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) since late 2007, when it joined the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) to work on a new standard called Net2Display that never came out.

Once clear that Net2Display couldn’t replace RDP anytime soon, VMware developed a two-phases plan to deliver a more efficient protocol for its VDI platform.
In phase one, the company signed an OEM agreement with the thin client vendor WYSE Technology, to use its TCX-MMR (for multimedia) and TCX-MDS (for multi-display) technologies.
In phase two, VMware started a co-development program with Teradici, to create a software-only version of its high-performance PCoIP protocol.

At the moment the Teradici technology only works with the help of dedicated graphic adapters that must be installed on the machine serving the virtual desktops.
VMware demonstrated this technology in action during the VMworld Europe 2009 and had positive feedbacks.

After months of work it seems that the two companies have something ready to show because this first private beta of View 4.0 is completely dedicated to PCoIP.
Subsequent beta builds will focus more on the connection broker itself and may be open to a wider audience.

It’s safe to assume that VMware will demonstrate this software-only implementation at the upcoming VMworld 2009 in San Francisco.
We’ll see if what the two companies are building is fast enough to replace RDP (which is becoming more VDI-focused thanks to the Calista technologies that Microsoft acquired in January 2008).