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IBM Power vs. Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    IBM Power

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe IBM Power product line is a family of servers.N/A

    Parallels RAS

    Score9.6 out of 10
    N/AParallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS, formerly 2X RAS), is application virtualization technology, billed as a solution to extend the life of legacy OS (like Windows XP) with its virtual desktop for any device. Maltese company 2X Software developed the technology, but was acquired by Parallels (in Seattle, WA) in February, 2015 to extend their cross-platform support solutions.

    $120

    per year per user

    Pricing
    IBM PowerParallels RAS
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    IBM PowerParallels RAS
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Best Alternatives
    IBM PowerParallels RAS
    Small Businesses
    Dell PowerEdge
    Score7.6 out of 10
    VMware Fusion
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Dell PowerEdge
    Score7.6 out of 10
    VMware Fusion
    Score7.3 out of 10
    Enterprises
    IBM Z
    Score9.4 out of 10
    VMware Workstation Player
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    IBM PowerParallels RAS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.9
    (208 ratings)
    9.7
    (154 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.1
    (7 ratings)
    8.5
    (24 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (4 ratings)
    8.4
    (32 ratings)
    Availability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    4.5
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.2
    (8 ratings)
    7.0
    (131 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    7.6
    (13 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (4 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    IBM PowerParallels RAS
    Likelihood to Recommend
    IBM
    I'd strongly recommend IBM Power servers to anyone who has the budget for it. A Power Virtual Machine, what is generally called FlexTB VM, can support as many small VM of 256GB, and scale up to 32TB on the fly. If IBM recommended architecture is combined with your organizational reference architecture, then forget about running into unplanned downtimes.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Scenarios where time is a factor in having a solution in place and up and running safely and securely. Where there are older devices that ordinarily wouldn't be up to the task of running modern apps and services. Where users need to work away from the network, and security is a concern.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    IBM
    • I love how it supports a mix of operating systems
    • protection of our sensitive energy data and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
    • It provides a flexibility that ensures that we can accommodate increased workloads without a complete overhaul of our infrastructure.
    Incentivized
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    Parallels
    • The printing driver is quite excellent, both in the Parallels Client and on the HTML5 client.
    • Setup is incredibly easy; the default setup is very functional, and adding features is a breeze.
    • Speed is very acceptable in general for end-users, the clients adapt quite well to the amount of bandwidth available, and features are available to adjust further.
    • Automation through PowerShell is great.
    • Support is usually quite fast and efficient.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    IBM
    • A solid IDE for editing programs. SEU was simple and solid. Then it became outdated and support for it ended as the language continued to evolve. That's fine. But RDi is expensive and shaky at best, and VS Code, while free, is severely lacking even the modicum of features RDi has.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    • Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) continually improves the product but has broken some features recently. For example the web management portal lost the ability to manage user sessions after a major update. That issue was fixed in a later release
    • Multi-monitor support beyond 4 monitors (It does handle up to 4 -1080 monitors well)
    • More options around connection security and MFA. current options are sufficient but limited
    • We've noticed some performance issues with Windows Server 2019 and 2022. I'd like to see more robust support for remote applications running from those platforms.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    IBM
    This is one of the best systems on the market. You can have Flash/Copy which created another LPAR to look like the system you are copying. This takes seconds and not minutes. Then you can use BRNS to do full system backups nightly with no downtime. I am ready for us to upgrade to a Power 10.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    We have been using Parallels since it was called 2X - it is a major part of how we do business. It is fairly simple to use and maintain - staff like it, we like it. It is a product that makes a promise - and it keeps it. As Parallels evolves, and clean bandwidth becomes more readily available everywhere - it just makes sense to continue to use Parallels in our environment
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    IBM
    They are very easy to set up and use once you re knowledgeable enough to deal with it. They are continuously enhance the user experience on the HMC and operations on the systems. Once setup it's like a beast, going on and on. I have experience with servers that are not being rebooted for more than 1000 days
    Incentivized
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    Parallels
    Parallels RAS was easy to setup, with great admin guides and resources. We especially liked the included Visio templates which made diagramming much easier. The reference deployment diagrams also simplified our deployment process. Our end users love Parallels RAS. Apps launch faster than Citrix, and the Parallels RAS client is far more reliable than Workspace.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    IBM
    In all of the years I have used various Power System, I have never had any problems at all. Even when hackers were attacking our email servers and many users PCs, the IBM Power System came out completely unscathed. I haven't even had any application errors that were able to take the system down. Nor have I ever experienced an unplanned outage
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    If there are any issues with Parallels - they are usually more about the server operating systems than Parallels itself. It would be rare for us to have any reason to take Parallels offline - we schedule a reboot on the servers at 3am to keep the O/S itself fresh, but again - it is not a Parallels issue. If individual users have any issues we ask them to completely log out of parallels - which ends their session - and then back in - and that typically resolves the issue right away.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    IBM
    The IBM Power System is built for integration. It supports multiple operating systems and you can run multiple OS's on the same box with no problems at all. It also supports a number of open source languages such as PHP, Java, Python, and Perl which helps you continue to grow and integrate with lots of other systems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    I am giving Parallels 9/10 on this one because the only application that sometimes seems slow or has issues - is Microsoft Outlook. It is sometimes the result of a pop-up that may not show up in the published application (vs full desktop). Other than that - pages load very quickly - and it does not seem to slow down other applications that are running at the same time. Most of our users run Outlook, softphone and Teams locally - and published applications for everything else. When they do that - it is very solid.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    IBM
    On large-scale systems, the rating would have been 10. However, I have seen some cases in more rural areas where the IBM onsite support is not as available or of the highest quality as in the past. For software support, there are sometimes instances of language barriers.
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Good support in place if required, very helpful when it comes to upgrades or any issues faced. The support team is knowledgeable, friendly, and quick to respond to issues The company also provides a range of online resources, including a
    knowledge base, documentation, and forums, which can be helpful before raising a ticket
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    IBM
    No answers on this topic
    Parallels
    Documentation is fair but sometimes a little difficult to follow
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    IBM
    Systems are robust and you need to know exactly what your are going to do with them. There are multiple configurations possible and you need to gather your requirements first, before going on with the implementation. Tuning is a must before migrating production systems
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Overall, it was pretty simple compared to most other projects. Again, we had a strong familarity with the product so there was not much of a learning curve. Our 'biggest' issue is the end-user understanding of a 'local' application and a published application. For example - Online meetings need to run locally for camera/video to work smoothly so opening a link to a meeting from a published application continues to be an occasional issue.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    IBM
    Power server do not need a stack of software for viruses, spam and others... Power server do not need to have release often power server are much more strong then other manufacturer Power server do not need to restart offen
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) provides the finest end user experience while being cost-effective and reducing administrative and support man hours.
    Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) is platform agnostic; it works with various kinds of devices (computers, phones, tablets) and several operating systems (Windows, Linux, Apple, etc.), allowing users to access it on gadgets of their choice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    IBM
    This system can work in a small factory with a few users and easily scale out to thousands of users. It is truly amazing on how much you can throw at this box and it will just keep humming. It is great for use across multiple departments and even across multiple corporations. I worked at one company where we were hosting multiple corporations on just one large Power System and had ZERO problems.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    We added our Integrated Services Staff to parallels, with filtered, published applications - in a single afternoon. We added licensing and installed the desktop client software on multiple platforms both in the office and at remote sites all on the same day - and got remote users that had never used the product up and running - very quickly.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    IBM
    • In the event of a crash, IBM Power servers offer a variety of simple options to recover the operating system.
    • With the flexibility offered by IBM Power servers, the production business can be improved by making the most of its physical servers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Parallels
    • Our customers have had dramatic cost decreases due to no longer needing IT departments to work with our software.
    • We've been able to charge more for our hosting services due to our customers saving money in the long run. Parallels Remote Application Server has more than paid for itself, and the increased income has gone right back into the business.
    • Both our customers and our company have benefited from this transition.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    IBM Power Screenshots

    Screenshot of IBM Power E1180Screenshot of IBM Power E1150Screenshot of IBM Power S1124Screenshot of IBM Power S1122

    Parallels RAS Screenshots

    Screenshot of the console interface, showing Parallels RAS' support for on-premises, private and public cloud providers, including Azure and AWS.Screenshot of the Parallels Web Client, which is accessible from any HTML5 browser or choose one of the many local clients.Screenshot of Parallels RAS' integration with MSIX app attach for modern, dynamic app delivery.Screenshot of Parallels RAS' support for multiple MFAs for security and flexibility.Screenshot of the integrated Let's Encrypt security certificates, to issue and manage certificates in Parallels RAS.Screenshot of expression-based filtering which makes it easier to set policies in the Parallels RAS.