There is a lot of confusion about the future usability of zero clients and PCoIP, particularly in a VMWare environment. The confusion comes from an unclear understanding of which future VMWare Horizon versions will not have integrated PCoIP and a lack of understanding of the latest generation of zero clients, Trusted Zero Clients, and their planned compatibility with VMWare Horizon, both now and future versions.
First, let’s understand that traditional zero clients using PCoIP, connecting to a host computer with either a physical host card (“Remote Workstation Card”, RWC) or using HP Anyware software (that replaced what was formerly known as Cloud Access Software) will remain an ongoing, viable zero client solution. Because traditional zero clients are known to have such an extended, service-free lifespan, this zero client solution has a continuing future.
“We will include PCoIP as a protocol option in the Horizon Client and Horizon Agent through the end of 2025. At that point in three years, we will remove the PCoIP protocol option from all new Horizon releases. Note that all Horizon releases are supported for three years from ship date. This means that the client and agent that will ship in 2025 will be supported until the end of 2028…The PCoIP protocol is owned by HP Teradici (Teradici was acquired by HP in 2021), and together we have been working on some exciting initiatives, including with HP Anyware Zero Clients and high-end graphics support.”
For more information, here is a link to the VMWare blog containing their full statement: Announcing end of support for PCoIP in VMware Horizon – VMware End-User Computing Blog
This indicates that updates to version 8.x (and prior versions) through 2025 will continue support for PCoIP. After that, PCoIP will continue to work on those versions with security updates through 2028. The next major release of VMWare Horizon, Version 9.x, is not expected to include built-in PCoIP support. Therefore, upgrades to Version 9.x would end support for the built-in version of PCoIP from VMWare. That said, the new Trusted Zero Clients, when used in combination with the HP Anyware software, are compatible with new Horizon 8 and future releases and updates. In addition, TZC firmware has support for VMWare Blast to continue with the built-in Horizon protocol option, mitigating the need for the additional HP Anyware software.
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