ManageEngine Remote Access Plus vs. Remote Desktop Services

ManageEngine Remote Access Plus is very well suited in environments which consist hybrid operating system. It supports all types of OS like windows, Mac, and Linux. It helps in taking the remote of system and troubleshoot the m if any problem occurs hence engineers do not need to be physically present on the location for the purpose of solving it. It helps to keep a complete track of endpoints that what application, process is being used. It is not well suited in environment where there is no Active directory or SCCM server because ManageEngine Remote Access Plus need agent to work and deploying agent the environment where Active directory does not exist is a big task. Manually deploying agent on every system is very time taking and need so much of effort.

Incentivized

Remote Desktop Services provides access to work environments from any device. This allows us to ensure business continuity in case of disaster. It provides admins more control over access and security. Remote Desktop Services simplifies software updates and compliance management by reducing the need to act on end users devices.

• easy to use and set up
• It allows tasks to be performed in the background, without the user noticing.
• allow on-premise installation
• the way in which teams can be organized

Incentivized

• Remote Desktop Services does an excellent job in providing a way for our staff to be working outside the office as if they're actually sitting inside the office. As long as the staff has an internet connection and a computer, he can use Remote Desktop Services to access files on our network.
• Remote Desktop Services also eliminates a need to have a very fast internet connection to access files on the company network. Once a Remote Desktop Service session is established, the only bandwidth it takes up is the transfer of images you see on the display. It's like surfing on the web because you are using the company server as the resource to run the applications.
• Remote Desktop Services provides a way for users to transfer files back & forth to/from staff's offsite laptop to/from the company network . There would be times when staff forget to copy a particular file onto the laptop for a presentation. So the way to retrieve the data from the network is to establish a Remote Desktop Session and then using Windows standar copy & paste feature to transfer the file from the network onto their laptop for use.

Incentivized

• It is an agent based solution which is a major disadvantage. We can not control the system which do not have agent installed on them. Hence this is a disadvantage. Even installing agent is a big task in a large organization.
• Till the agent are not installed on every system we can not have full control over the organization network. Agent deployment takes time hence we can utilize the product with its full efficiency.
• The pricing is very high, and it goes on increasing as we add more technician and endpoints.
• The connection gets drop sometime while controlling in new release because it contains some bugs. We also need to have proper bandwidth for using it smoothly.
• The implementation and deployment takes time and needs proper support from vendor. Sufficient documentation are also not available.

Incentivized

• No centralized management: unlike other products on the market, Remote Desktop Services in 2008r2 provides no single management console. Users are managed through a console on the connection broker, web apps are managed on a per server basis (even when those servers belong to a farm).
• Image Management: because no use of an agent like PNTools is made, bringing up servers and adding them to the farm is inconvenient. Static IPs are a must and round-robin load balancing is really your only option with the connection broker. Updating a farm of 5+ servers becomes a chore, but still easier than updating 2000+ machines.
• Still a very green product: while Microsoft offers a lot of the same features as the big guys, it's obvious that Remote Desktop Services is still in it's infancy and has a lot of room for growth. I have discovered and requested fixes for a number of bugs in the mobile app alone - something about the QA process for these apps seems to be lacking.

Incentivized

My rating is due to the fact that there are still many things to improve, and things that could be opened up a little more to allow the administrator to have greater control, such as being able to have one more endpoint in a custom group, which is essential and cannot be done.

Incentivized

The initial setup for Remote Desktop Services is complex, and licensing is costly. Each user connects to their virtual desktop hosted by a single server or group of servers, so a change or issue with servers quickly impacts every single user at the same time. Aside from that, users appreciate seeing their same personal desktop from any device or geographical location.

Incentivized

There are some third party tools available that allow you to manage multiple connections.

Incentivized

As with any Microsoft Server product, support for Remote Desktop Services requires a paid support package. These are license-based and very costly, on top of the already costly product licensing. Microsoft's licensing is complicated to begin with, so setting up licensing alone essentially requires a licensing expert's counsel. There is community documentation and support available on Microsoft websites, as well as community websites.

Incentivized

There aren't many others we evaluated on the list, but we actually tested several very good and comprehensive ones, quite flexible, but they either didn't offer on-premises installation or their cost-benefit ratio didn't suit our needs. There were some that had everything, but their pricing plans weren't suitable because they weren't flexible, and our company was in a very high price range for what we required.

Incentivized

Overall, remote desktop is so much easier to use if you are OK with the limited tools that it offers. If you're just looking to simply connect to another computer and make some quick changes, it is the way to go and the fastest way to do it. It is very simple and no frills!

Incentivized

• Faster recovery of issues from screen sharing
• managing patches without manual intervention
• deploying software to multiple workstations at the same time

Incentivized

• Overall RDS has helped us provide services and programs to our users with relative ease.
• The only "negative" impact is that users can have a bit of difficulty understanding how RDS works and what it means to access a remote desktop, but that isn't any fault of the program, it just takes a little extra training for users.

Incentivized