Likelihood to Recommend Parallels RAS can be used in many scenarios, It can be a VDI platform for desktop replacement and a move to a more central virtualized infrastructure. It can allow you to publish a cloud app that can be accessed from anywhere on nearly any device avoiding the need to install anything on device. I can see its value in Retail, Remote services, Manufacturing, schools, etc. anywhere with an internet connection. It adds a secure layer in front of RDP services. It can be used to allow secure access to desktops or laptops from outside the office if this is something you need to do
Read full review RHEV is well suited for organizations that need a cost-effective and flexible solution for their environment. As its vendor-independent software, easily install on any type of hardware. RHEV provides a GUI interface to manage the software, which makes the management of the software easier for the end-user. RHEV is best for non-production or less critical applications. RHEV can be easily integrated with other REDHAT software.
Read full review Pros 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. Read full review RHV issues/bugs can be reported via Bugzilla to RH support. The service is great and typically responds soon. Red Hat distribution integration is seamless as it is integrated into the kernel. OpenStack support enables more customized VM templates and network configuration control. Read full review Cons Enable users' access to their personal computer drives when accessing the cloud services through Parallels RAS. Limiting and controlling the access to server resources for the users. Need improvement in managing the resolution of service accessed via RAS Client (works well via RAS Browser, though). Improve access to personal and organizational print and scanning devices from the cloud service. Read full review 1- RHVM API is pretty slow, especially after creating a VM it is not possible to retrieve the VM details (i.e VM's MAC Address) fast enough, where we need to place a pause in our Ansible Playbook, make the automation process slow. 2- RHV is still using collected to monitor the hypervisors which is deviating from Red Hat policy for other RHEL based applications to use PCP to monitor, which is richer in features. 3- It will be great if it is possible to patch the hypervisors using other tools such as satellite and not only via RHVM. 4- In the past Red Hat used to present patches in the z release (i.e. 4.3.z), and features in the y release (i.e 4. y), but starting from 4.4 that is mixed together wherein the Z release you get both patches and features, that is not good because that requires a lot of time to test when we patch as it includes features as well. 5- Engineering team has to be more reactive when new feature is requested. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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
Read full review Usability You do not need to be an expert in IT to configure, manage or train anyone to use RAS. Everything about deployment was simple and straightforward although I do wish the integration with okta and SAML was there and it didn't require the use of Active Directory for certain parts of the deployment. We eliminated AD and use Okta exclusively but without the integration we are forced to setup local users and use WORKGROUP on the server. Not terrible, just not as streamlined or secure
Read full review Reliability and Availability 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.
Read full review Performance 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.
Read full review Support Rating 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
Read full review Online Training Documentation is fair but sometimes a little difficult to follow
Read full review Implementation Rating 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.
Read full review Alternatives Considered Compared to other offerings, including Citrix and MS plain RDS - this product provides a different level of experience. Its load balancing capabilities are simple to roll out, and an entire farm can be up and running in hours, NOT days. Its OS independence and minimum resource usage, along with its RDS server optimization policies, make it very resource efficient.
Read full review RHEV is an excellent product, includes more features, is less expensive, and has rock solid reliability and is backed with the best Red Hat Support in the industry. RHEV uses KVM under the hood which is used by all the big players in the industry (AWS, Rackspace, etc) to lower their overall costs and improve efficiency and profits and that's why RHEV is an excellent solution!
Read full review Scalability 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.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review RHEV has provided a positive ROI as our customers are not experiencing as many outages during maintenances. We have not experienced any catastrophic failures as a result of vsphere losing connection to the ntp. There has been a level of stability in our environment that was not previously experienced with our previous vendor. Read full review ScreenShots Parallels RAS Screenshots