Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Reviews

To provide applications to Macs and standalone Windows machines, also Linux and Android devices from appsanywhere.

Allows our Cloudpaging applications to be delivered to non-Windows machines all via our standard portal which is appsanywhere.

Its integration with Cloudpaigng and AppsAnywhere. We use Cloudpaging to package and deploy the vast majority of our applications to our standard Windows 10 desktops. With the use of Parallels integration into Software2 AppsAnywhere hub, this means we can use the same packages to deliver Windows applications to almost any device - Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Xbox One, PS4 - just by ticking a box. 

It needs Windows scaling on Android/iOS devices. At present, the concept of delivering apps to Android and iOS devices is appealing, but the reality is that the screen size on these devices is so small that, unless there is some scaling option, it is not really usable. 

No stability issues yet.

No scalability issues yet.

Technical support is very good..

The setup was done by the vendor and seemed straigtforward.

Run a trial and see if it meets your requirements.

We needed to access multiple programs, for multiple users, and it's like a virtual session that does that.

We would not be able to function without it.

It is robust. We have some 75 users using it and it doesn't lag. It's very speedy.

One area which I would say needs a lot of improvement: Since I've been here less than a year, I have had to upgrade the system three times. The first time was the major upgrade but they have upgraded twice since, and I think that's too many times in that time span. I'm the only one doing IT, so I have over 75 users that I actually have to touch every time they upgrade, which is a lot of work.

I would roll up the updates in a group, rather than as they come out.

I encountered an issue with stability once, with licensing. For some odd reason, after I upgraded to the current version, the 15.2, it lost its license, so I had to get a temporary license to get my users up and running. They had to figure out why I couldn't hold on to my current license that I had just bought.

When it's stable, it's stable. I would say 90 to close to 100 percent of the time it's stable, it's right on the mark. When it goes down, since my whole user community uses it, every user in my company is down. When it's working, it's working great and I don't get any phone calls. When it's down, everyone in the company, as I said, is down, they only have email. Every other software package goes through the Parallel, so it's a big impact.

Scalability is pretty good. There's a small delay, but that could be the server, the amount that we're pushing through it. But it's pretty good in scalability.

Tech support seems good, and they seem very accommodating in time. Whatever time I want to work on it, they are there.

Tech support helped me upgrade it to the current version. It was pretty much straightforward.

Pricing is a little steep, but I really couldn't go to anyone else because it is so integrated into our system.

Do your homework. Call, see if you can speak to three customers who use it and get their opinion. Also get three different quotes, or three similar products, and see how they work.

I would rate it an eight out of 10. As I said, when it's stable it's stable, it's very good. I find in the last year there were just too many upgrades. I still have an upgrade facing me now, and I haven't upgraded the main server because that means I have to go around to all the workstations.

Providing load balancing to our RDS infrastructure, publishing RDS applications and desktops.

Accelerates deployment of thin clients and remote desktop servers in the farm.

• Thin client management (Windows 10 client) provides an easy way to lock down client connection to the remote infrastructure.
• Policies are very helpful for preconfiguring client behavior.
• Client management is easy.

HALB is not stable in our environment. When running two HALBs we have stability problems, so we use an active one and a passive for backup.

Also, it would be nice to implement an upgrade of the environment without having to stop the servers. As it is, this must be done during off-hours.

There have been a few stability issues, mainly around configuration.

I use GPO preferences to push configuration of Windows 10 thin client parameters for Parallels. Each device can have status “managed” in Parallels, meaning that the client is managed by the administration console and policies are applied. But these thin clients were not able to be managed because we discovered that we had already installed the RAS client on the SysPrep-ed machine, and a registry setting was used by Parallels to know the client’s MAC address. This MAC address was the same for all clients and the SysPrep-ed machine, so communication between newly installed clients and the administration server was not possible.

I had to create a script to collect the client’s MAC address during login and replace the registry value with it.

No issues with scalability.

Technical support is an eight out of 10.

Native remote desktop.

The initial setup was of medium complexity. We initially purchased a RAS server to provide more advanced load balancing capabilities between our remote desktop servers. This configuration was quite simple. We added another gateway server later and that was straightforward too.

Pricing is good.

Read the manual.

It provides flexible access to Windows applications from many types of devices.

Students need to access many Windows applications. We provide hundreds of PCs across the campus for them to do so. Using Parallels means they can now use their own devices (Macs, tablets, etc.) from any location instead of having to go to a specific room or queue to use a PC.

• Ease of set up
• Transparent end user experience

Our main target for this product is the student body, who may not be using a Windows PC/laptop, and require access to applications which they are required to undertake during their studies or when they need to carry out research activities. Parallels allows us to provide easy access to applications on multiple devices from any location.

A web-based management interface for administration and reporting would be nice, instead of needing to log into a remote server.

We have not yet encountered any issues with stability.

We have not yet encountered any issues with scalability.

Their technical support is okay.

We did not previously use another solution.

The initial setup was straightforward.

It was performed by Parallels.

Everyone's circumstances are different. Therefore, I cannot provide advice.

We evaluated Citrix VMware.

Try it in a pilot first.

Cloud-hosted desktop.

We use RAS for customer solutions.

We use RAS to publish cloud desktops to our clients. The ability to easily publish resources to a subset of users is what we find most valuable. 

The management capability from the RAS portal provides greater control than using pure MS inbuilt into RDS capabilities.

We have had significant, ongoing issues with printing. It would be great to have a best practice for dealing with printing that we can offer to our customers. 

It would be great if there were more sophisticated GPO templates/options.

From time to time, we have had issues with stability. However, this could be related to connectivity at client sites. 

We also have regular issues with printers disappearing from sessions.

We currently use Parallels side-by-side with an Azure cloud-hosted solution. This may be from a lack of product knowledge on my part, but we still need to work out the most effective way to shut down servers outside of hours, thereby reduce hosting costs. I am not entirely convinced Parallels does this well yet.

In my limited dealings with support, they have been responsive, respectful, and helpful.

We were previously using Citrix. We changed for a number of reasons: 

1. We acquired a cloud company which was already using Parallels. 
2. Cost.

The initial setup was straightforward.

Parallels is a cost effective alternative to Citrix.

We evaluated Citrix and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (MS RDS).

Understand what you want to get out of the product.

It is our primary remote access solution for remote desktop.

It permits us to control the applications that our users are able to get to, in a seamless manner. We're able to distribute applications to users' desktops, just like those applications are on each user's computer, but they're not.

• Easy to install
• Super stable
• Easy to manage

It's a really good product. There's not a lot that needs improving, and we're on an older version. I imagine the newer versions are better but we have not had a single need to improve anything.

No issues with stability.

No issues with scalability.

We have asked for help from tech support and their service was good.

Citrix. We switched because Citrix is complicated and expensive.

We had them assist us with the setup and I think that's important. When rolling out a product like this, the vendor should want to help implement, so it's implemented correctly. We used them to implement it, and that's the way it's been running since we started.

I think the new pricing is a little bit high. If the price was lower, we could use it for many more customers. If there was one improvement to be made to this product, it would be a small-business version, at a much lower price point.

Licensing should always, in my opinion, be on a per-user, per-month basis. I would like to be able to add one user, take one user off. That would be the ideal, to be able to supply this as a service.

Citrix and the native Microsoft Remote Desktop. The latter is very hard it is to install, and makes us mad.

Everything can be improved, so I give it an eight out of 10. It does everything we need it to do, it's stable; with the caveat that there is no perfect solution.

If you're doing a thin-client environment, where you want to publish applications, then of all the products on the market right now, this is the product to use.

It works. It is easy to install and easy to use. 

You have the opportunity to virtualize applications in different locations. Everything is in one pane or one window, which is quite good.

Too much Active Directory dependent

We've been working with this solution for about five years.

It is scalable, and you also get high availability included.

Technical support has worked any time we needed it. We always got it.

Positive

We worked mostly with remote control. For support reasons, we remote control solutions. We also used RDP, but back then, it was quite rudimental. It is an improvement over Microsoft RDP. Actually, it uses RDP in the background, but it is sleeker to use.

We are also working with Virtuozzo and Jelastic, and we are actually looking at combining them at the moment.

It is quite easy. It is not complex.

Good!

It is not that high. It is in the medium range. Of course, it could be lower, but the price is not the issue.

If you don't want to install it yourself, it is also available as a service from many providers. We're a reseller and an MSP, and we tell smaller customers that they can have it as a service as well.

I would rate Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) an eight out of 10. It works, and it is fulfilling the function.

Alternative to Windows RDS (terminal services) supporting internal staff and remote access.

Simplifies external connections with community-based organizations by allowing us to publish applications to them, accessible by current-generation HTML5 browser or OS-specific client (Windows, Android, iOS), and supporting popular single sign-on and multi-factor authentication protocols.

Comparable performance to Citrix for our use case at a significantly lower cost. Straightforward installation and capable management front-end.

Improvement is needed in performance monitoring of the client's endpoint, and automatic re-connection of the client in the event of circuit disruptions (this works well generally but can present challenges).

No issues with stability.

None so far, but we plan a major expansion toward the end of 2018.

We have not needed much technical support. We generally find what we need in the provided documentation or the user forums. When we have requested help, the response has been consistent with other vendors of this type (we are not on an expedited service plan).

I have used Citrix in previous organizations with good results but I lacked the budget to acquire Citrix for this implementation.

Setup was straightforward. Our particular use case involved an Active Directory forest involving two data centers and three domains. User authentication against Active Directory was the easiest to set up and validate of any application installed in the last three years.

Pricing is clear and there are relatively few options or other pricing considerations when compared to similar products. Just be sure not to forget the Microsoft licensing that goes along with a Parallels deployment.

Citrix, Windows RDS.

Take advantage of the trial version so that you can check out its feature set first-hand, get a sense of its performance on your hardware and over your network.