I love Parallels Remote Application Server & here's why
April 04, 2020
I love Parallels Remote Application Server & here's why
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Parallels Remote Application Server
Our organization uses Parallels Remote Application Server across our whole organization. Instead of installing certain programs on each person's computer, we direct our employees to a website where they can just log in and all their business applications are right there. This simplifies things. For one, our I.T. Dept doesn't have to ensure our programs are installed on each person's computer. Furthermore, they don't have to worry each application has the latest updates. Security is greatly enhanced. The greatest business problem it addresses is that it allows us to control our employee experience from a single place reducing time, effort and expense.
- Easy for end users to use.
- Will eliminate the need for more I.T. employees.
- Support is great.
- I have noticed that for no apparent reason some employees notice some slowness when using Remote Apps.
- Installing the server can be difficult.
- Although support is great in the sense that you always get someone that knows their product well, sometimes you must wait hours to hear something back.
- We noticed a 35% reduction in operational expenses compared to other solutions.
- At times when issues come up, our I.T. team does have to spend all day resolving issues.
- 90% of Issues that do come up are either resolved within a couple hours or 24 hrs.
- Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Manager (RDCMan)
Parallels compared to just using Microsoft's straight built-in functionally to their Windows Server is simply a cost vs reward scenario. In other words, you can save a bunch of money not using Parallels and just using MS built-in functionally. However, it likely won't work as well if you have multiple devices that your remote apps need to work perfectly on. That's where PRAS shines.
Setting things up can be difficult and time-intensive but well worth the effort because there's next to nothing that the end-user has to do and they just have a simple but effective method of accessing their apps that just plain works. There's little to no set up for the end-user. Tons of set up for your I.T. Dept, however, so keep that in mind.
Our organization has benefited in the sense that employees can access what they need from really any device out there. Windows computer, Windows laptop, Macbook, iPhone, Android or tablet. The experience is always the same and just works. There's not much if anything the end-user needs to do other than just going to a website and logging in. Simple.
We use Vmware and AWS. We leveraged AWS to launch our PRAS in the cloud. The main reason was to keep this server out of our IAN and DMZ zone. You don't have to tie PRAS in with Active Directory if you don't want to. We had no issues running PRAS in AWS.
PRAS can be set where end-users need to use 2-factor authentication in order to log into their accounts. Part of our security policy states this as a requirement. Having this set is essential to ensuring that even if someone were to gain an employee's password and attempted to log in, they would be halted at the prompt for 2-factor authentication. So many apps don't support 2-factor authentication, so it's a blessing that Parallels Remote Application Server does.
Do you think Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)'s feature set?
Yes
Did Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) again?
Yes