VMware announced a licensing agreement with Wyse Technology to use its remote display software to enhance RDP for VMware View. Bolstering its vClient Initiative and its commitment to support broad customer choice for the use of multiple protocol technologies, VMware plans to integrate two components of Wyse's software suite into a future release of VMware View.

VMware View will include a portfolio of products that will give end users a single view of all their applications and data in a familiar, personalized environment – dubbed “myview” – that will be available from almost any device and location. With VMware View, enterprises will be able to replace traditional PCs with virtual desktops that follow users instead of devices. These virtual desktops will be centrally managed in the datacenter, but they will be able to run locally on a laptop or remotely from a server. VMware View will help enterprises achieve streamlined desktop and application management while reducing desktop TCO, improving security of data and enhancing user experience, flexibility and productivity.

“Today’s announcement is great news for virtual desktop users sitting in front of any thin client, notebook or personal computer,” said Curt Schwebke, chief technology officer, Wyse Technology. “Once the integration of Wyse components with VMware View becomes available, end users running VMware View will be able to use multimedia applications in their virtual desktop on multiple clients with greater richness and impact, yet with lower overhead on the server.”

“As more customers begin to deploy VMware View into production they are replacing conventional PCs with virtualized desktops. The improved user experience with Wyse’s software will help expand the use cases for virtualized desktops to those that require a richer user experience, such as traders in banks, doctors and nurses in hospitals, and students and teachers in educational institutions,” said Jeff Jennings, vice president of desktop products and solutions, VMware. “Wyse’s investment in delivering multimedia to a thin client or PC is recognized with today's announcement.”

In addition to supporting Wyse thin clients, the licensing agreement is designed to enable VMware to use Wyse's enhancements with personal computers and third-party thin client devices. VMware View with Wyse’s TCX-MMR (multimedia) and TCX-MDS (multi-display) solutions will enhance virtual desktop solutions in the following ways:

• User Experience: The Wyse virtualization software will deliver a rich user experience across a wide variety of media types over RDP on both Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista in a virtual machine.
• Scalability: The Wyse software utilizes the processing power of the client, not the server, to deliver a multi-media experience. This results in a rich end-user experience with minimal impact to server and network.

As part of VMware’s vClient initiative, VMware View will provide customers the flexibility to choose the protocol for its users through multi-protocol support. VMware also plans to license Teradici’s PC-over-IP protocol as previously announced. In addition, VMware View is expected to support protocols from HP and Sun.