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Parallels RAS

Parallels RAS

Overview

What is Parallels RAS?

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,…

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Recent Reviews
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Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

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Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 1-10 employees
Verified User
Director in Information Technology
Transportation/Trucking/Railroad Company, 1001-5000 employees
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Pricing

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Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://www.parallels.com/products/ras/…

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $120 per year per user
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Product Details

What is Parallels RAS?

Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) is a remote work solution that provides secure virtual access to business applications and desktops on any device or OS—from anywhere. The platform offers an agile, cloud-ready foundation and end-to-end security fueled by a centralized management console with granular policies. Companies can leverage on-premises, hybrid, or public cloud deployments and integrate with existing technology like Microsoft Azure and AWS. Parallels RAS aims to give organizations the flexibility, scalability, and IT agility to adapt to changing business needs. Parallels RAS offers a single, full-featured licensing model that includes 24/7 support and access to product training. The vendor states its key benefits include:

  • User experience—work from anywhere, on any device.
  • Enhanced data security and compliance—centralized management console with granular policies.
  • IT agility and business readiness—flexible hosting solutions to scale and adapt.
  • Total cost of ownership—supports BYOD and includes a simple licensing model.
  • Always-on support—access to 24/7 support and training at no additional cost.

Parallels RAS Features

  • Supported: Advanced access controls: Secures corporate data with a client group policy in the Parallels RAS Console. Centrally manages and controls access by user, group, or device.
  • Supported: Multifactor authentication: Requires users to authentication access via two-factor or smart card authentication. Parallels RAS also integrates with third-party security solutions.
  • Supported: Encryption protocols: Parallels RAS Secure Gateway supports SSL and FIPS 140-2 encryption, helping organizations adhere to data compliance policies such as PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR.
  • Supported: Centralized monitoring: Transforms raw data into custom visual reports to show traffic and resource usage from network infrastructure. Centrally monitors day-to-day user activities.

Parallels RAS Screenshots

Screenshot of Parallels RAS supports on-premises, private and public cloud providers, including Azure and AWS, from a single console.Screenshot of The Parallels Web Client is accessible from any HTML5 browser or choose one of the many local clients.Screenshot of Parallels RAS integrates MSIX app attach for modern, dynamic app delivery.Screenshot of Parallels RAS supports multiple MFAs for security and flexibility.Screenshot of Integrated Let's Encrypt security certificates, to issue and manage certificates in Parallels RAS.Screenshot of Expression-based filtering makes it easier to set policies in the Parallels RAS.Screenshot of Visual reporting in the Parallels RAS Management Console is used to monitor and troubleshoot issues.

Parallels RAS Videos

This video shows how to deploy virtual apps and desktops via Parallels RAS in Azure by using Parallels RAS in the Azure Marketplace. This is a fast way to create a proof of concept (POC) or test environment.
This video demonstrates the steps an administrator takes within the Parallels RAS Console to successfully deliver services to end users via Amazon EC2.
Parallels RAS themes allow an organization to transform what the user sees when they access resources delivered via Parallels RAS. For example, custom branding (white labeling) can be applied, a custom URL can be set for the end user, and access can be locked down to specific ...
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MSIX app attach is an Azure Virtual Desktop feature. It provides application modernization, improves application lifecycle management, and reduces hardware footprint and IT management overhead by using fewer templates. Parallels RAS brings MSIX app attach technology to RDSH,...
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Automated certificate management with Let's Encrypt integration.
Parallels RAS includes cloud cost-reduction capabilities, including autoscaling, power management, and automated image optimization. Parallels RAS adds more cost-reduction measures by extending cost-saving capabilities to storage. When the virtual machine (VM) is not running...
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Parallels RAS Integrations

Parallels RAS Competitors

Parallels RAS Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, Linux, Mac, Windows Server 2008R2, 2012/R2, 2016, 2022, Windows 7, 8/8.1, 10, 11
Mobile ApplicationAndroid, Mobile Web, iPadOS
Supported LanguagesEnglish, German, Japanese, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean

Parallels RAS Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

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.

Parallels RAS starts at $120.

Citrix DaaS, VMware Horizon, and VMware Horizon Cloud Service on Microsoft Azure are common alternatives for Parallels RAS.

Reviewers rate Availability highest, with a score of 9.6.

The most common users of Parallels RAS are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(240)

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(51-75 of 139)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
April 04, 2022

Controllers may love this.

Verified User
Employee in Engineering
Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
As of now and for the way I use it, the application has been excellent and worked very well without any scenarios with issues. Part of my duties is to export files from our software to my personal computer, which is great be cause my local drives are MAP in the system and I can bring those easily.
April 01, 2022

Parallels takes your users' Remote Desktop Server experience to the next level

Craig Cormier | TrustRadius Reviewer
Craig Cormier
IT Manager
Anderson Power Products (Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing, 51-200 employees)
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
If you have users that require remote access to applications, it's a great alternative to requiring VPN and standard remote desktop application. You can control the users' experience far better, and a user who has a better experience is a happier and more productive user. I also feel a little more secure opening this to the web than I do just a straight remote desktop portal.
March 30, 2022

Simple setup, intuitive app virtualization product with an amazing ROI.

CG
Chris Grogan
Systems Analyst
Peppersource (Food Production, 201-500 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Standing up a Parallels environment is so incredibly simple compared to other remote desktop solutions I have used over the years. The fact that the gateway is so easy to configure and deploy is a great selling point. Also, love the fact that the licensing model is per concurrent user which makes it very competitive with the other players in the space. In a few years when the rest of my Citrix licensing expires, I will likely migrate the rest of our environment to Parallels and not look back!
March 29, 2022

Parallels is a great application that works as it says

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Hospital & Health Care Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels is good for when you need to have a one-stop place for your people to remote into company resources no matter the platform they are using. It's not so good if you have special use cases as it doesn't usually fit in those particular instances. Application publishing is where parallels really shines. Being able to integrate it with Active Directory so all you need to do is assign the user to an application security group and it shows up in their Parallels dashboard.
March 26, 2022

Simple, secure, reliable

Alexander Ivanov | TrustRadius Reviewer
Alexander Ivanov
CEO (Chief Executive Officer)
HOS LLC (Information Services, 11-50 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
We often add new software for our company's work and share access to it. This program allows us to do it quickly thanks to flexible configuration and intuitive simple logic of work. And the farm scaling function gives us the opportunity to unload resources
March 26, 2022

Falling behind the competition

Verified User
Director in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 51-200 employees
Score 5 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
This product would be better suited for medium to large size organizations with the infrastructure and I.T. staff needed to properly install and maintain it. It is also better suited to organizations wishing to offer more than just a couple of applications. Smaller organizations with limited cloud operations and staffing should seek out other solutions.
March 21, 2022

Parallels Remote Application Access

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Allowing access to different windows Applications and software via individual devices from a shared server. And provide secure access to labs outside the campus for the students’ use. Through the pandemic, the students in our University were able to access all the needed software without the need to come on Campus. Also, some dedicated Desktops were used for Researches to complete their thesis.
March 11, 2022

The Straight and Narrow of Parallels Remote Application Server

BR
Ben Rutherford
Senior Help Desk Technician
Ditco Business Services (Information Technology & Services, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Likelihood to Recommend
This package is well suited for anywhere where a remote desktop is required for multiple users. It offers a great alternative to the bigger, more used Citrix while all being a well-contained package of services. It is vastly scalable with ease; all you have to do is install the services on a server and join it to the server farm. If you only need RDP for one or two users, it is not worth installing. Or if you are just trying to offer a gateway.
March 11, 2022

Parallels Remote Application Server review

Verified User
Engineer in Information Technology
Information Technology & Services Company, 11-50 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
If you are looking for RemoteApp, RDSH, VDI replacement with an all-in-one solution, this is a great option. Cloud, hybrid, or just on premise-based, it is all possible.

I don't have a less appropriate scenario.
March 02, 2022

Good to Go Software for Quick Conversion During Pandamic

Verified User
Team Lead in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 5001-10,000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Great Product to use for centrally hosted applications to serve multiple platforms we greatly used it during Pandemic and this gave us greater flexibility to go on online mode at the start of the pandemic. and still using even after Face 2 Face conversion to access the lab computers remotely to maintain the social distancing.
February 28, 2022

Want your Remote Access to be available Anytime, Anywhere on Any Device ... Try Parallels Remote Application Server

Herbert Burt | TrustRadius Reviewer
Herbert Burt
Vice President of Customer Developement
TSG Networks (Information Technology & Services, 1-10 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Some of our clients have staff nationwide that work full time from home. With Parallels Remote Application Server, they can securely and efficiently all collaborate on projects. Even clients that have offices worldwide express their satisfaction with how well they work remotely. Whether it's 9:00 am in California or 9:00 am in New York or 9:00 am in Cambodia, the staff is conducting business and being profitable.
February 26, 2022

An excellent product to deliver office working from home.

Rob Booth | TrustRadius Reviewer
Rob Booth
IT Technical Support Engineer
Danbro (Financial Services, 51-200 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels are the ideal product for a flexible workplace where users can come into the office or log on from home. It's useful in an environment where users use both their own machines and terminal server due to the ability to publish both terminal servers and user remote machines. It works great for us in the financial sector where security is paramount.
February 22, 2022

Parallels RAS - once you've used it you won't want anything else!

Verified User
Manager in Information Technology
Logistics & Supply Chain Company, 201-500 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels Remote Application Server makes publishing almost any LAN-based app to almost any device very easy. We've used it since it was "2X" and I can't think of any scenario in recent years that we've not been able to use it for any of our remote access requirements.
September 27, 2021

Remote working application server for agile teams

Nabin Poudel | TrustRadius Reviewer
Nabin Poudel
CEO
Curl Labs (Computer Software, 51-200 employees)
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels Remote Application Server is best suited for organizations to cut expenses on applications by allowing multiple users to work on the same virtual desktop remotely. This also allows any organization to keep its application and data secure while leveraging the power of a scalable cloud environment. It is not a suitable remote working solution for developers and designers.
September 22, 2021

Parallels Remote Application Server - Secure access for engineers from Anytime/Anywhere

NK
Nitish Kapoor
Senior Application Developer
IBM (Information Technology & Services, 10,001+ employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels Remote Application Server is well suited for teams and projects where you need a secure and reliable solution for your engineers to easily connect and work on the cloud servers. It has the ability to manage access and privileges to different resources very efficiently.
July 09, 2021

100% Cloud Based in healthcare!

Verified User
Administrator in Information Technology
Health, Wellness and Fitness Company, 501-1000 employees
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
[Parallels Remote Application Server is] well suited for cloud based companies. With the HTML5 interface, users don't have any software to install and works across all current browsers. If you have a small deployment, you can actually install the entire system on a single server to reduce infrastructure costs. Has built in support for load balancing and redundancy. Parallels [Remote Application Server] acts like a lightweight overlay to the build in terminal services on the windows servers.
May 04, 2021

Parallels Remote Applications and Desktops

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
[Parallels Remote Application Server is] suitable for integration with AppsAnywhere application streaming, especially using existing workstations, when users are using their own devices to connect to any workstation in a pool.
Not suitable for booking the same specific workstation each time[.]
August 24, 2020

Parallels RAS addressing epidemic challenges of Covid-19

Waqas Anjum Akram Javid | TrustRadius Reviewer
Waqas Anjum Akram Javid
Sales Account Manager
EchoServe (Information Technology & Services, 11-50 employees)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
Medical field: Access medical and Windows applications on-demand from any device and location.
Education: Enable teachers and students to access educational resources in any format from any device, and provide staff and students with secure access to their applications and desktops from any location.
April 06, 2020

Parallels Remote Application Server Review

Verified User
Professional in Information Technology
Electrical & Electronic Manufacturing Company, 1001-5000 employees
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Likelihood to Recommend
In a scenario in which you need to provide access to your business applications to remote users and you need a solution that can be deployed very quickly with easy maintenance and low cost, Parallels Remote Application Server is a perfect fit.

However, for remote access of computing resources such as CAD or CAM application, PRA may be not a good choice.
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