Remote Desktop Services vs. Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)

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.

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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• Licensing, our perpetual license was forcefully removed from us after 8 years without warning, causing a doubling of the price, after providing a signed sales quote for renewal through our VAR. Parallels sales team did not seem to care, and was willing to throw away a customer who used their services for nearly a decade, and throw our VAR under the bus.
• continued addition of new features for existing platforms, not just a focus on the hot new cloud offerings.

Incentivized

The product is very useful and fairly easy to maintain. We enjoy the multiple additonal platforms we can now run our Windows only Client Server applications on, such as Macs, iPads, phones, etc. We also find that speed is improved for using this applications over a WAN, while it still FEELS like running the application locally.

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

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.

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

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

Incentivized

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

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

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

Documentation is fair but sometimes a little difficult to follow

Incentivized

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

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

Citrix has more bells and whistles within their product line, but we've actually been pleasantly surprised with the performance of Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) vs our Citrix implementation. Citrix Netscaler has way more functionality than the Parallels Halb, but for the most part, we used none of that extra functionality and the Halb simplicity is refreshing. very little upkeep needed

Incentivized

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

• 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

• 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