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Teradici Cloud Access Software Deployment Quickstart

For access to the full Teradici product documentation visit Teradici Support.

Introduction

Teradici Cloud Access Software (CAS) enables enterprises to easily deliver Windows and Linux desktops and applications from public or private clouds, with the highest user experience and security, and total cloud independence.

Who Should Read This Guide?

This guide provides information for system administrators who are looking to implement, install, and develop Teradici Cloud Access Software. This guide provides you with information you can use to better understand:

  • The PCoIP protocol and technology.
  • The information needed to get a POC deployment up and running:
    • Documentation relating to the Cloud Access Software architecture.
    • Documentation on the main components that comprise Cloud Access Software.
    • System requirements for preparing your system depending on your environment and platform.
    • Information on how to install both a PCoIP Agent, PCoIP Client and Cloud Access Connector.
    • Deployment checklist and troubleshooting knowledge base articles relating to Cloud Access Manager.
  • How to get support from Teradici experts.

What is PCoIP® Technology?

PCoIP is a display protocol that encodes a complete desktop or workload, which is then displayed through a PCoIP client device over a standard IP network. PCoIP technology uses advanced display compression to provide remote computing solutions such as remote physical workstations, GPU-enabled virtual workstations, or standard virtual desktops as a progressive alternative to a local deployment model. It also supports many of the devices available to physical machines, including keyboard, mouse, USB devices, tablets, multiple monitors, printers, audio devices, as well as custom options.

The PCoIP protocol ensures ultra-secure remote connectivity between a remote computer and a broad range of client devices including stateless Zero Clients, software clients and mobile clients. Display images are compressed and transmitted as a stream of encrypted pixels, ensuring corporate IP remains secured within the enterprise data center.

The PCoIP protocol offers unrivaled performance in terms of user interactivity, frame rate and image quality, especially when used in conjunction with Zero Clients which virtually eliminate client-related latency. PCoIP also features a 'build-to-lossless' capability which ensures lossless reproduction of the original display image at the PCoIP client endpoint. Lossless reproduction is critical particularly in instances such as medical diagnostics, geospatial analysis, and media production, where the image itself contains important visual information. PCoIP protocol uses the User Datagram Protocol (UDP) which is much better suited for streaming media and real time display situations than TCP-based alternatives, especially over high latency networks.

Key Benefits of PCoIP Technology

The following features and benefits are key aspects of PCoIP technology:

  • Host Rendering: Pixel-level processing means corporate intellectual property remains secured within the cloud or enterprise data center.
  • Image Decomposition and Optimized Multi-codec: Highest image quality with efficient build-to-lossless and optimized bandwidth.
  • Dynamic Network Adaptation: Automatically delivers the best possible user experience under changing network conditions.
  • Encrypted Pixel Transmission: AES-256 Encrypted pixels ensures ultra-secure connections to PCoIP endpoints.
  • True Multicloud Solutions - End to End: Deploy Windows or Linux on public, private or hybrid cloud infrastructure, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, VMware ESXi or Red Hat KVM. Additionally PCoIP is integrated in Amazon Workspaces and VMware Horizon.

Who Uses PCoIP Technology?

Teradici PCoIP technology is used in a wide range of industries, including government, education, financial services, healthcare, oil and gas, automotive, media and entertainment, architecture, engineering and construction, manufacturing, and design. For information on specific industry applications, check out the case studies featured on the Teradici website.

PCoIP Ultra

PCoIP Ultra offers the latest protocol enhancements from Teradici. PCoIP Ultra is optimized for truly lossless support with bit-exact color accuracy and preservation of content detail at the highest frame rates.

PCoIP Ultra is disabled by default. To enable it, see Enabling PCoIP Ultra.

CPU and GPU Optimizations

PCoIP Ultra protocol enhancements propels our industry-recognized performance into the future of remote computing, with faster, more interactive experience for users of remote workstations working with high-resolution content.

The CPU and GPU optimizations offered by PCoIP Ultra protocol enhancements are targeted at desktops and workflows where high performance and interactivity are required. This section provides video playback benchmarks to help you plan your PCoIP Ultra deployment.

PCoIP Ultra offers the choice between CPU and GPU optimizations. The CPU optimization mode targets up to dual 4K/UHD display resolutions, leveraging the CPU's AVX2 instruction set to provide efficient content encoding at very high color accuracy, including the option for Build-to-Lossless image quality. The GPU optimization modes targets up to dual 2560x1600 display resolutions, leveraging the NVIDIA NVENC hardware encoder if present, which provides CPU relief for applications such as interactive rendering where CPU clock cycles may be premium. PCoIP Policies can be used to configure NVENC for either YUV 4:4:4 or YUV 4:2:0 chroma sub-sampling schemes.

PCoIP Ultra Options

The following table outlines the CPU and GPU optimizations that work with specific system requirements:

Requirement CPU Optimizations - AVX2 RGB 4:4:4 GPU Optimizations - NVENC YUV 4:4:4 GPU Optimizations - NVENC YUV 4:2:0
Highest Image Quality Desktop (Up to 25x16 at 60 fps or 4K/UHD @ 30 fps) X
CPU Relief e.g. VFX Render Applications (Up to 25x16 at 60 fps, 4K/UHD not recommended) X
Bandwidth Preservation (e.g. constrained WAN) X
Higest frame rate from a low-cost thin client X

Requirements

To take advantage of PCoIP Ultra, you need to meet these requirments:

  • A PCoIP Agent (any type) 19.05.0 or later.
  • A PCoIP Software Client for Windows, macOS or Linux, 19.05.0 or later.
  • The CPUs on both the agent and the client machines must support the AVX2 instruction set.

Enabling PCoIP Ultra

To enable PCoIP Ultra features on Windows, see here.

To enable PCoIP Ultra features on Linux, see here.