Nexthink Workplace Experience is a cloud-native platform allowing IT teams to manage the Digital Employee Experience (DEX) by providing insights across devices, applications, users, operating systems, locations and organizational units.
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Parallels RAS
Score9.6 out of 10
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Parallels 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.
I've been managing desktops for 20+ years and Nexthink was the missing tool out of my toolbox. Just to give some perspective, if you were building and maintaining a house, Nexthink would be comparable to switching up from a hammer and nails and to full blown using a nailgun. Nexthink is a solution accelerator and a well thought out toolset to give you the customer experience at a glance. It allows for so much more visibility just with the default set of data points the Collector (agent) gathers, which is A LOT, and grants you the ability to gather even more data with remote actions. All of this evidence cuts how the "it could possibly be this" and "maybe it's that" discussions when you're troubleshooting an issue. It may not provide the exact answer all the time, but it gives you a "compass point" on where you need to start looking to resolve the issue. Also the service monitoring, activity monitoring, and critical event thresholds really empower the teams to know when a problem is happening and they can get ahead of it before the first call even reaches the Help Desk. Nexthink is a cornerstone tool in our environment for end user experience and I'm excited to see where the go next.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
The on-premise solution can be slow at times and resource-demanding even on newer laptops. (This isn't the case with the cloud offering.)
Some useful features are only available to cloud customers.
Library pack configuration could be made easier, often these packs require some customization and it's not always clear how to get them up and running after importing.
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
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
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
Nexthink had better integration and a better user interface. 1E did not have the engagement capability which is so critical to many of the actions we complete using Nexthink. Nexthink had better trending data capabilities. 1E did not capture and hold data the way Nexthink does so all data assumes you are able to pull information from all systems at any time. with remote systems it is unlikely you will capture all systems at the same time so it makes any actions less effective. this review was performed 4 years ago so 1E may have addressed some of these limitations but Nexthink has also grown and continues to add and improve on their industry-leading capabilities.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. TR verified that a representative sample of customers was invited. More Info
SCCM proactive remediation: Automatically resolving hundreds of SCCM issues per month
Hardware: Identification of over $5m cost avoidance by seeing a lack of usage for 128GB SSDs - no need to upgrade to 256GB... coupled with OneDrive migration packs in the Nexthink library this is valuable.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
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.
A de minimis incentive was given to thank the reviewer for their time. The incentive was not used to bias or drive a particular response, nor was the incentive contingent on a positive endorsement. More Info
