Calista Technologies is a company that has rightfully seen one of the biggest limitations in VDI, the lack of "rich content" support in the Presentation protocols. By rich content I mean multimedia content like audio, video, windows Aero, 3D graphics etc. What Calista Technologies does is enhance the RDP protocol in that they enable it to deliver rich content! This might sound simple but this is really important. The lack of support for rich content in VDI environments is even more damaging than in SBC environments. The D for Desktops in VDI is very much associated with the "desktop feeling" of rich content. With the current implementation of the RDP protocol this is not something RDP can deliver. Citrix ICA, at present, does a better job but still does not deliver enough.  The different technologies that make up "Citrix' Multimedia Virtualization initiative" will probably improve the capabilities of the ICA protocol to deliver rich content but these technologies are not available today. They are expected to be released in the Presentation Server Delaware timeframe. 

So it seems like the RDP protocol has taken a big step and has overtaken the ICA protocol. Of course it al depends on what Calista Technologies can actually deliver. About a year ago I was contacted by the current CEO of Calista technolgies, Neal Margulis, and we talked about their product and how it could benefit our SBC / VDI industry. I ended up trying out an early beta of their product with Vista support. I only got to have a short look at it and it was limited because of the beta code. What I did see (and remember this was a year ago) was that they did offer Aero support and pretty decent video playback (not entirely desktop quality but close). The version I took a look at was kind of an KVM type of product in that when you moved the mouse on the RDP client, you also saw the mouse moving on the server (a physical Vista box in my case, which would account for the "blade server option"). At that time Calista Technologies was still working on a version for Terminal Services. As per their website, they now have three options.

One of the cool things about Calista Technologies is that is has no client component. It does use a server component. It just works by utilizing the existing RDP protocol which also makes it an option for Thin Client. Recently I received a new version of Calista Technologies product and will be evaluating it soon. Check back for my findings.

All-in-all I think it is a very good thing for our industry that Microsoft acquired Calista Technologies because this is truly addressing one of the major limitations in VDI and SBC. it would seem that this acquisition would put Microsoft (RDP) ahead of Citrix (ICA), thus disturbing the traditional balance of power. I indeed think that this only seems this way. In the light of all the elbow rubbing that Microsoft and Citrix have been doing lately, it seems unlikely to me that Microsoft would want to take away Citrix' ICA firepower.

Read more in the press release about Microsoft acquiring Calista Technologies and in Neal Margulis' statement.