At VMworld Europe I was present for a software PCoIP protocol sighting, and have a picture to prove it.

OK. Well maybe I don’t have the picture you’re looking for, but I was given the chance to see first hand an alpha code install of the VMware-Teradici software PCoIP protocol. Seeing the software up close was welcome following the Tuesday morning keynote and Jerry Chen’s VMware View 3D graphics rendering demonstration on stage. During the demonstration, Jerry referenced a remote connection to a “workstation back stage.” Immediately I thought “He said workstation… not VM?” And so it was. The 3D graphics demonstration wowed many in the audience, but left me thirsting for the real deal. Brian Madden quickly picked up on this as well, and noted the technical details of the on-stage VMworld demo on his blog.

Later in the day, Jerry Chen set me up with Warren Ponder, Senior Technical Marketing Engineer at VMware. In case you’re wondering, Warren proved to me that having “Marketing” and “Engineer” in the same job title is not always an oxymoron. The guy knows his stuff. I know… get to the details!

So here’s what I saw. The Teradici/VMware software PCoIP protocol delivered. The PCoIP software implementation requires no GPU on the server, but added CPU overhead should be expected. I asked about physical host CPU overhead requirements, but the VMware PCoIP team had not yet conducted sufficient scalability testing in order to benchmark overhead. Naturally, I’d like to see the PCoIP impact on CPU performance with a virtual desktop consolitation density ranging from 30-60 VMs (densities commonly found by our clients piloting or running VDI today). PCoIP uses what Teradici has coined Progressive Image Management. Progressive image management smooths images on the client endpoint and maintains graphics rendering performance over low-latency, low-bandwidth connections. With the default install, PCoIP delivered smooth rendering of flash, streaming video, PDF viewing, PowerPoint editing and presentation viewing, and editing a heavily commented Word document. Warren stated that the goal for the software PCoIP implementation is to maintain quality and user experience at connections with bandwidth as low as 125 Kbps and latency as high as 250 ms. In our test, Warren used a WANem virtual appliance to simulate low bandwidth and high latency. Warren ratcheted up the latency to 250 ms. No problem. I then asked if he would bump down the bandwidth to under 200 Kbps. He took bandwidth down to 150 Kbps and performance remained strong.

The VMware/Teradici software PCoIP protocol is real. Yes, it’s only alpha code at this point, but I was assured that they are progressing quickly and a beta will be out soon. I’m guessing within a few months. The software PCoIP protocol is critical to VMware in its battle with Citrix for virtual desktop supremacy. Unlike the Loch Ness Monster, I expect software PCoIP protocol sightings to intensify in the coming months.