VMware View: A True End-to-End Solution

• By Patrick Harr
• 01/01/2010

Desktop virtualization is quickly changing how businesses are delivering desktops to end users. Desktop virtualization should deliver a seamless experience for all applications and media to a range of end users, while enabling IT to easily secure and manage desktops. To achieve these benefits while meeting the expectations of end users requires a tightly integrated solution that can also provide a superior user experience. VMware View, with the PC over IP (PCoIP) protocol, robust feature set, platform integration, broad ecosystem and best ROI, provides a true end-to-end solution and the best user experience for the widest range of end users.

In a typical enterprise, users vary from simple task workers with a fixed set of applications and limited graphics requirements, to knowledge workers and power users who demand an uncompromised computing experience. Power users utilize a range of applications and access to content, including rich media and graphics. All end users demand an uninhibited, rich experience from their desktop environments, and in many cases they demand this from a range of devices and locations.

Foundation for Virtual Desktop Delivery
VMware View with PCoIP technology is purpose-built for delivering an uncompromised desktop experience across the widest range of users, tasks and locations, ensuring the best user experience regardless of network conditions. It is an innovative display protocol that compresses, encrypts and encodes the entire computing experience at the data center and transmits it across a standard network to end points, which can be running PCoIP hardware, or using VMware View's software-based client. The compression algorithm adapts dynamically with existing conditions to enable the best user experience for a given network connection.

When network parameters change, the adaptive nature of the protocol helps by progressively refining the desktop in an efficient manner to maintain the optimal user experience; the protocol actually senses the content being rendered, and prioritizes based on what's most important to the end user. As a result, it addresses the demanding requirements of even the highest-end power users.

Seamless User Experience
VMware View includes a range of technologies to ensure a seamless, natural user experience, even exceeding that of the traditional desktop. USB redirection simplifies support for locally attached peripherals, so when plugged in to the local client, the input is automatically mapped to the virtual desktop without user intervention. Multimedia redirection ensures top performance for the delivery of rich media by eliminating concerns related to network conditions and leveraging local computing power for the best user experience.

Platform Matters
Tight integration with VMware vSphere means VMware View users benefit from the rich and robust feature set of the industry-leading virtualization platform, delivering high availability, fault tolerance and scalability. These capabilities, traditionally reserved for server infrastructures, are now extended to the desktop.

The Ecosystem of Partners
VMware's broad partner ecosystem ensures that customers can deploy VMware View with their choice of components to build the best solution. Working with vendors who provide components ranging from PCoIP hardware end points and other thin clients, to security, storage and network infrastructures, means customers can implement an end-to-end solution that delivers the right level of service to meet end-user demands.

Highest ROI
VMware View has been shown to reduce the annual cost of PC ownership by 50 percent, resulting in savings of $600 or more per end user. Savings result from significant reduction in IT staff support costs and reduced downtime. According to research firm IDC, on average, customers can realize a payback period as short as 5.6 months. At $250 per seat, VMware View is also less expensive than other solutions.

Complete Package
VMware View 4 provides a comprehensive solution for delivering virtualized desktops and the best user experience for the widest range of end users. Together these components-the rich PCoIP protocol, robust feature set, platform integration and high ROI-are changing they way people deploy and interact with desktops.