If latency becomes a non-issue (ever tried using remote desktop or even SSH over a high-latency connection?), I think this stands a very good chance of succeeding and making IT's job much easier.
Completely off topic, but regarding SSH over a high latency connection - it's actually remarkably good as long you don't have loss on your link.
I'm currently working with a client in Singapore that requires that I connect to their data center through a B2B L2L IPSec tunnel that is sourced in California. So, From Singapore, I connect to the VPN concentrator in California, and then from there, connect to the clients site in Singapore.
So, every keystroke that goes to a server approximately 100 meters from me, Starts off in Singapore, crosses the ocean to California, comes back to Singapore, returns back to California, Comes back to Singapore again.
I do this for about 8-10 hours a day - completely workable.
Oh, and the Connection to the internet that my VPN connection rides on is a 3G modem, no less.
I've done this before too (even down to it being a SG -> CA link!).
I think the best practise is to automate. Waiting on individual key presses to be echoed back when there is latency is incredibly frustrating, a slight delay while a shell script runs is completely unnoticeable.
I think a lot depends on how good of a typist you are. If you can confidently type fast, it's no problem. If you're prone to typos, latency can be unbelievably aggravating.
Latency would be my biggest concern with the service, sometimes even an X11-over-ssh session on a local network can be incredibly slow to use, putting it across the internet doesn't do much to help.
X11 over ssh is really slow. Windows RDP, VNC or Teamviewer are generally pretty fast to the point where it makes almost no difference to the normal Desktop user.
This solution is utilizing PCoIP[1] which is a very mature protocol that can support things like video streaming, adaptive compression, and remote USB device passthrough. It's nothing like VNC or X11, and I have a number of customers running thousands of users with it. VMware also licensed this protocol for their View product and it's been very successful in that space. While I generally prefer the ICA/HDX stack for VDI use, PCoIP is pretty damn nice and it's a great choice for this kind of offering.
I second this. The protocol is incredibly fast, even over a cellular connection when zipping down the rail line on Amtrak. On a LAN I can use VMware PCoIP on an Apple Cinema Display and there is zero lag (hard to test the Cinema Display on Amtrak!). I don't know what black magic they use under the hood, but it's the only remote protocol I've ever used that didn't make me want to throw my computer out the window.
Sounds interesting, i wonder if something like this will replace home computing in the future. How is the performance when watching videos or playing some casual game, does that still work ?
I haven't done any gaming with it, but web video played in the browser works the same as locally. I haven't tried any full screen stuff like movies though. For regular application usage there is no perceptible lag for things like scrolling, editing, highlighting, etc...
In my experience on a Gbit LAN, RDP is really fast, VNC and TeamViewer, not so much. I'm connected to a Windows 7 machine via RDP and to a Mac via VNC (even though I used to use TeamViewer) with Remmina on Ubuntu.
