Loudplay — высокопроизводительный протокол для VDI

Today's event is dedicated to the Loudplay desktop virtualization protocol. The protocol allows transmitting high-quality images over low-speed data channels and ensuring a fast response.

The solution has an open API that allows it to be integrated into existing VDI products from Russian manufacturers. The quality of the protocol has been tested by millions of cloud gaming users over the years of Loudplay's operation in the B2C market.

Today, Loudplay's task is to provide corporate customers with a high-quality and functional protocol in partnership with various Russian developers of VDI and terminal services, to become competitive with internationally known protocols ICA (Citrix) and Blast (VMware).

Today's program:

• What is Loudplay.
• Why offer Loudplay together with Russian VDI solutions.
• Loudplay Partner Program.
• How to register a deal?

The event is led by Elena Denisenko, Commercial Director of Loudplay.

Today we want to talk about Loudplay, why it should be offered as a commercial product in addition to VDI, how to become partners, and what the basic rules are in our partner program. To date, there are already quite a few VDI solutions on the Russian market that aim to close the import substitution task for our Russian customers. Nevertheless, many customers still remain on previously purchased solutions from Citrix and VMware. They cautiously test and try VDI solutions, not yet moving towards a full-scale replacement, because the requirements and functionality they are used to, the requirements they place on VDI solutions, are quite high. Most of these solutions use Open Source protocols, so by offering the Loudplay delivery protocol, a commercial protocol, on the market, we aim to help quickly close the topic of VDI performance for the import substitution task for our Russian customers.

Loudplay is, first of all, high performance, because the protocol was developed specifically for delivering video content and high-graphics content over long distances, given that the access channels to the cells where the servers were located had delays, and the devices were of very different quality. Therefore, the task that was set when building this solution was aimed at closing all these shortcomings. The protocol is proprietary. Whether this is good or bad is debatable, we believe it is good. The choice was made specifically in this direction, because at the start, when Loudplay was forming its cloud gaming solution, options were considered to use Open Source protocols, and it became clear that this was impossible, because a higher quality was required than what publicly available solutions provide. Therefore, the protocol is indeed proprietary, written from scratch, since 2018. Several technologies have been implemented, and patents have been obtained. We can transmit high-quality images with fairly high losses, up to 30%. We believe that the products have a high degree of readiness for commercial use in the corporate market. I would also like to note that Loudplay is a cross-platform product. It works on both Windows and Linux, both on the server and on the client. All this is implemented in a single edition. The customer does not need to switch from one protocol to another when using Loudplay. It consistently provides good quality when working with both CPU and GPU. It has built-in support for NVIDIA cards and can work with both virtualization systems, because it is point-to-point, and with bare metal. But also important is that the entire development and support team is locally available. And we continue to optimize our protocol. We are ready to consider any special requests from your customers and revise or optimize priorities in the formation of our roadmap. It must be said that over the previous, probably, year and a half, we have come a long way in order to enter the B2B market with this protocol. If anyone knows, previously the protocol only worked with GPU on the server. This was necessary to maximize the task of cloud gaming. A year ago, a version was released with the ability to work on CPU. We still work well with the image, as much as is necessary for the corporate market. By the end of the year, cross-platform compatibility was implemented, that is, we were able to write code for working with Linux. And in April, we released a release that allows USB devices to be tunneled. So there is the possibility of working with peripherals.

These are the three main large tasks that we set for ourselves and with which we coped quite successfully. At the beginning of June, we are releasing the next release immediately, which allows working with terminal services. So far, this is Linux-Linux, but considering that in the roadmap we had planned the story with terminal services for the end of 2024, we are ahead of schedule for Windows. Probably, it will be a little later, but we are definitely meeting the deadlines.

The principle of operation of the Loudplay protocol. Here, in fact, the picture is not deeply technical, but what I would like to draw your attention to is that the protocol is quite flexible, it allows you to work with different channel widths. In particular, it can be adapted to work at both 100 kbps and 30 Mbps, when high-quality video content is required and channels allow. And, as I already said, in our past life, where the protocol is used for cloud gaming, the realities are such that when the server is, for example, located in a data center in Moscow, customers can work with it from different parts of the globe.

I can't help but share a recent story that one of our major customers told. He compared the operation of our protocol with the Citrix protocol. And he evaluated how the protocols work when delivering video content from Vladivostok. We were pleased to hear that, in fact, Citrix with fine-tuning and Loudplay work with comparable channel utilizations.

Now a little about the technical characteristics of Loudplay. Today we support the operating systems Windows, Debian, Ubuntu, Astra Linux and RedOS.

We have not yet reached RAS and ALT, but we have some understanding that this will not cause us much difficulty, because in essence they are very similar to other OSs. Why haven't we reached these OSs? Simply because there was no commercial task. But of course, we have this task. In terms of client operating systems, in addition to the listed ones, there are also macOS and Android. They are historical for us, because these operating systems are used in client devices, in our B2C branch. Let me remind you, the operating mode is point-to-point. That is, we can work with any virtualization systems and bare metal. That is, it can be VMware, and any KVM, any hypervisors. I want to separately emphasize the possibility of working with GPU hardware accelerators. We can support any graphics cards, both NVIDIA and AMD, but AMD is not so widespread among our customers. Mostly it's NVIDIA. Here we have the opportunity, together with OCS, to offer the market licenses at special prices that support the functionality and work with cards without the need to reboot with new drivers, so if your customers have such a task, contact OCS, they will draw up a specification for you and issue a commercial offer. This functionality is of such an enterprise level, so it is supported for several years. So such an import-substituted alternative is available with our protocol and through the OCS channel. According to the supported compression protocol, as you can see, this is H264. In priority, we used the UDP protocol, but for the commercial, for the corporate market, there is also the possibility of working with TCP. Our "B2C" customers work with unstable Wi-Fi, but nevertheless, they still have the opportunity to play with the requirements for high graphics.

As I have already noted, there are several patented technologies, including technologies for automatic adaptation of the bit rate to the state of the data transmission network and redundant coding technologies.

We have an open API, so we easily integrate into the solutions of our colleagues in the market. If this has not happened, if we do not officially announce any integration in any way, then most likely it is simply either we have not gotten around to it, or there was no commercial task. Because, in principle, if any commercial project arises, in order to integrate into any VDI solution in our market, there will be no difficulties.

Therefore, the list of technological partners that we have is easily expanded if the customer has some special vision for additional functionality to the protocol. As I noted, the channel width varies from 100 kbps to 30 Mbps. At the same time, we provide the transmission of dynamic images in 4K at 60 FPS. For one of the customers of one of the projects, we were able to optimize the operation of the mouse cursor for AUTOCAD. This is a well-known problem, but thanks to Loudplay, we were able to solve this problem. This once again confirms our flexibility and the possibility of optimizing the operation of the protocol. I have already talked about the built-in support for NVIDIA graphics cards in the current licensing restrictions. I will highlight once again the possibility of hardware acceleration on the server and client. And it is clear that we can work with office applications and from mobile devices and tablets, not only from computers. In the fall, we conducted comparative tests with RDP, with one of our partners. In January, we conducted a comparison with Citrix at the stand of one of the distributors. I can say right away that Citrix was without pre-settings, but in these conditions Citrix looked a little better than Loudplay in inactivity and when working with a text editor.

Starting with the presentation and further, Loudplay showed a significant advantage in channel utilization. We only show our values here, because we have not yet conducted the second test with Citrix. But as I told you about the test that was recently confirmed to us, Loudplay looks very competitive with Citrix settings already.

So if customers who "sit" on Citrix and expect the same functionality from Loudplay as from Citrix, then we can provide it. I emphasize that Loudplay has such a label that Loudplay is a protocol only for 3D graphics and for high-loaded video content. In fact, this is not the case.

In this situation, we go down from top to bottom from tasks with high graphics to optimization for working with office applications, so the capabilities of Loudplay can be used in any solutions, therefore, taking into account the latest tasks that we are solving, including with terminal services, which will be available in the next release in June, Loudplay can already be offered with any VDI solution or terminal services, apparently, in the near future, when you want to make an offer to your customer.

But nevertheless, I want to emphasize once again that, of course, we have no competitors in the Russian market now in working with 3D graphics. Live cases with excellent feedback, with an "access story" that we have not yet published, shows that the customer who purchased the solution with Loudplay is very satisfied with this solution and actively uses it in their work.

To date, we have signed contracts with the five specified technology partners. We actively interact with everyone. Wuveon will be releasing version 5.0 in the near future. Loudplay is integrated there, we checked it several months ago, but we are just waiting for the official announcement, solutions so that everything is available for you and for customers.

Integration with Space was seamless, we actively interact with them, any changes are tested on an ongoing basis. Integration with HOSTVM is also available. Everything works the same with ROSA and there are successful implemented projects. There is also active interaction with RUSTEK, even taking into account the fact that they announced their merger with Basis. We see this only as an expansion of opportunities.

Why you should offer Loudplay. If you look at the history of VDI creation, Citrix was the undisputed leader in the market for a long time. But the technological breakthrough occurred when Citrix introduced ICA, when they adapted it, VMware lagged behind Citrix. But with the advent of the Blast protocol, VMware began to overtake Citrix in some markets. Therefore, the protocol, although it is a basic functionality, is nevertheless very critical to implementing the requirements that customers have for the functionality of VDI solutions. Definitely everything that concerns design bureaus and not only educational institutions, everyone who uses NVIDIA cards in their current life, there is a solution. I have already said this. Licensed by concurrent users. Loudplay has its own licensing server. Available part numbers in two types. This is a perpetual license with mandatory purchase of support and term licenses that include the possibility of updates and support for the period for which they are valid. Demo licenses are available through distributors, or directly from us, if you have a partner status of the appropriate level. The maximum term is three months, but we do not recommend taking more than 30 days, because we are developing quite actively now and we release new releases quite often. Therefore, we prefer to give no more than 30 days.

What do you need to become a partner? First, you need to get acquainted, so we expect a request either through distributors or directly to sales@loadplay.io, so that we can understand that we are dealing with a partner, and not just a customer or an interested individual. Next, you need to familiarize yourself with the terms of the partner program and sign the offer. It is available from the distributor, he will send it to you upon request. We have two statuses - Registered and Premier. As we assume, the premier pays more attention to the partnership and allocates more resources to sell our solutions.

The partner status is valid until the end of the calendar year and is subject to revision in one direction or the other. Discounts for authorized partners also have two levels. It depends on the fact of registration, or on the pre-sale work or pilots that the partner implemented during the preparation of the project. Therefore, the earlier you register the project, the more we understand what is happening with it, the greater the discount you receive. Unauthorized partners do not receive discounts. The deal registration is requested through the approved registration form. It is also available from the distributor. You will receive an answer in any case when confirming the registration or when refusing. The refusal to register is not explained, but it should be noted that some deals may be open, despite the fact that there are different political moments not related to the partner that force us to indicate this point. Therefore, the deal may be open, we may also refuse to protect the deal if there are any facts of incorrect behavior in the market or customer policies.

Requirements for partners. All partners need to make sure that there is a sublicensing agreement. It can be a general plan, a general agreement with the distributor. It is important that the partner familiarizes himself with and complies with the rules of the partner program, as well as the rules for registering the project, places information on the vendor's website and places information about the vendor on his own website. Well, then there are differences. The requirements for the premier are slightly higher. We expect that the premier partner will organize some events or include information about our solution when conducting their own events with other solutions, in particular with our technology partners. There are responsible, maybe not dedicated employees, but responsible for our direction. There are technical possibilities for demonstrating the product, for conducting a pilot. We plan to communicate, make sales forecasts, either quarterly or on an annual basis, depending on the situation on the market and the success of promotion. In terms of the number of successfully completed partner projects, we expect that if a partner has registered and has a minimum partner status, then it is clear that he expects to conduct at least one deal per year, from a premier partner we expect two or more.

At the start, when launching the partner program, we understand that the partner may not yet have any implementing projects, so we count projects that are in a sufficiently developed stage and close to implementation.

What advantages does partnership with Loudplay give? The very fact of the right to distribute products, the right to register a project, to receive a discount depending on the status, the possibility of receiving leads. We have a feedback form and when we receive requests from customers, we have the opportunity to transfer leads to our partners, and that we can transfer them only to those who have the appropriate competence. If necessary, if such a task is set by the customer or by one of the partners, we can give some recommendations, again, if there is competence, for performing work on implementation, maintenance or technical support.

Both statuses involve placement in the partner section on our website. We can provide detailed technical advice on setting up directly with premier partners. We conduct joint marketing activities with premier partners, so our participation as speakers is also possible for such partners. But the formal part of receiving official letters for participation in the competition with the indication of the corresponding status is available for registered partners and for premier partners.