Teradici
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 2004 in British Columbia, Canada |
| Founder | Dan Cordingley, Dave Hobbs, Ken Unger, Maher Fahmi |
| Fate | Acquired by HP Inc. |
| Successor | HP Inc. |
| Headquarters | British Columbia , Canada |
| Products | PCoIP Protocol, PCoIP Zero Client SOC, PCoIP Workstation 1:1 Host SOC, APEX 2800 Server Offload, PCoIP Management Console |
| Parent | HP Inc. (since 2021) |
Teradici Corporation was a privately owned software firm established in 2004 in British Columbia, Canada, and later purchased by HP Inc. in October 2021. The company created the PCoIP protocol, designed to compress and decompress audio-visual data during remote interactions with blade servers, initially realized through hardware solutions. This innovation subsequently extended to thin clients and zero client platforms within the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment.
Several leading technology enterprises, such as HP, Dell subsidiary Wyse, Amulet Hotkey, Samsung, Amazon Web Services, Fujitsu, and VMware, have incorporated Teradici’s protocol and hardware into their offerings. Teradici’s product suite featured the PCoIP Protocol, PCoIP Zero Client SOC, PCoIP Workstation 1:1 Host SOC, APEX 2800 Server Offload, and the PCoIP Management Console.
On 27 July 2021, HP Inc. declared a formal agreement to acquire Teradici, with the acquisition finalized in the fourth quarter of 2021.
History
Teradici was founded in 2004 by Dan Cordingley, Dave Hobbs, Ken Unger, and Maher Fahmi. The company remained in stealth mode until 2007 when it introduced its inaugural products: a proprietary blade server card and a compact client device featuring a custom chip implementing the PCoIP protocol. In 2008, VMware licensed Teradici’s PCoIP technology and integrated a software-based version into VMware View 4.
The name "Teradici" was derived from an earlier venture by the founders related to a 100-gigabit data center networking product. The choice of "Teradici" was motivated by its distinctiveness, appealing phonetics, and availability as a domain name.
PCoIP Protocol
PC-over-IP (PCoIP) represents Teradici’s proprietary remote display protocol offered in both hardware and software variants. VMware secured licensing for PCoIP in 2008 and incorporated it into VMware Horizon View. In 2013, Amazon licensed PCoIP to enhance AWS Amazon Workspaces, broadening its cloud desktop services.
The protocol operates over UDP, employing host-rendered content with multiple codecs that adjust dynamically based on network performance. Images rendered on servers are compressed through codecs tailored for either video or textual data before transmission to clients for decompression. PCoIP modulates its encoding strategy depending on available bandwidth: utilizing lossy compression with progressive refinement under constrained bandwidth conditions ("build to perceptually lossless") or applying lossless compression when higher bandwidth or image precision is accessible, such as for medical imaging applications.
Comparing PCoIP vs RDP
- VPN Alternatives: Both PCoIP and RDP can function as substitutes for a corporate VPN when firewall access is restricted or disabled.
- Security and Encryption Standards: Through a corporate DMZ (demilitarized zone), users establish encrypted and secure connections to Access Points or servers using either PCoIP or RDP.
- AES Encryption Support: Both protocols default to Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) with 128-bit keys; however, PCoIP offers an upgrade path to AES-256 for stronger protection.
- Bandwidth Efficiency: PCoIP incorporates features aimed at reducing bandwidth consumption to optimize performance over WAN and LAN networks. Bandwidth usage can be tracked by tools like Remote Desktop Commander based on RDP configurations such as color depth settings.
OEM Offerings
- PCoIP Zero Client SoC: System on a chip solutions designed for OEMs to develop Zero Clients utilizing Teradici’s Tera1 or Tera2 processors, which implement the PCoIP protocol.
- PCoIP Workstation 1:1 Host SoC: Allows OEMs to manufacture PCIe cards tailored for workstations, commonly blade servers, that can be remotely accessed via PCoIP Zero or Software Clients. This direct 1:1 connection supports full HD and 2K resolution remote sessions, capturing GPU output and enabling audio and USB peripheral redirection.
- PCoIP Software Clients: Software-based clients compatible with x86 and ARM thin client platforms. These form the foundation for VMware and AWS Amazon WorkSpaces clients across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, and Android by leveraging Teradici’s core PCoIP protocol and decoding capabilities.
Direct Offerings
- Teradici APEX 2800 Server Offload Card: A PCIe coprocessor designed for VMware Horizon environments that offloads graphics and audio compression and encryption tasks to Horizon Software or PCoIP Zero Clients, improving server consolidation efficiency in VDI setups.
- PCoIP Management Console: A centralized web interface for managing PCoIP Zero Client devices efficiently.
- Workstation Access Software: Enables remote connectivity to physical Windows workstations or cloud-hosted virtual machines through either PCoIP Software Clients or Zero Clients.
- Host Card.