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Desktop virtualization with power and ease.
Updated February 22, 2024

Desktop virtualization with power and ease.

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Parallels Desktop

We are an all Apple environment, but still, we have plenty of applications that require us to run Windows. In some cases, we have entire departments that have this need, and in other instances, it’s a single user. Prior to implementing Parallels Desktop, we had some people who were lugging around an old Dell laptop in addition to a MacBook Pro for a single application. The IT department also uses to easily spin up virtual machines for testing and training on our machines.
  • Quickly share resources between the host machine and guest. Great for when we process data in MacOS and then need it in a virtual machine.
  • Coherence mode is great for a lot of users. They don’t even realize the app isn’t running natively on the host operating system.
  • The user interface for managing virtual machines isn’t my favorite.
  • Supported administrations moved to an all Apple environment.
  • Reduced the need to run the application servers for low use applications.
At the end of the day, it seemed like Parallels Desktop has the fastest product with a feature set that was most important to our users. Additionally, it seemed to hit a mark where it was easy enough for our less tech-savvy users, but powerful enough for our users that really wanted to stretch the software and its capabilities.

Do you think Parallels Desktop delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Parallels Desktop's feature set?

Yes

Did Parallels Desktop live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Parallels Desktop go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Parallels Desktop again?

Yes

The Raisers Edge, Blackbaud Education Management Solutions (formerly Blackbaud K–12 ON Solutions), Financial Edge NXT
Parallels Desktop is great for when you need to run resource-hungry applications in a guest's operating system. If you’re simply looking to test drive other operating systems, there are certainly free ways to do that. However, I have found that once it came time to actually put the guest operating system to use Parallels Desktop offered a much better, more seamless solution.

Parallels Desktop Feature Ratings

Remote Administration
7.0
Screen sharing
Not Rated
File transfer
9
Instant message
Not Rated
Secure remote access with Smart Card authentication
Not Rated
Access to sleeping/powered-off computers
Not Rated
Over-the-Internet remote session
Not Rated
Initiate remote control from mobile
Not Rated
Remote management of servers & workstations
Not Rated
Remote Active Directory® management
Not Rated
Centralized management dashboard
5
Session record
Not Rated
Annotations
Not Rated
Monitoring and Alerts
Not Rated
Multi-platform remote control
Not Rated

Using Parallels Desktop

6 - Parallels Desktop is used by our Information Technology department and our Advancement department. The advancement department is in charge of establishing and maintaining relationships with donors. We are a Mac environment, and have Windows applications that are needed on our Mac devices. We've also used Parallels Remote Application Server to virtualize some of these pieces of software.
2 - Basic troubleshooting of the application is handled by our Technology Support Specialist who is our first line in support requests. This level of support is able to resolve a majority of the issues we have had with the product. Additionally we have a Network Administrator who is much more familiar with virtualization technologies and has been using Parallels for over a decade. The Network Administrator would be the point of contact for external support if necessary.
  • Application virtualizaiton on laptops that don't run a support OS.
  • OS virtualization for testing
  • Legacy software - we have some applications which have been retired from production, but we still need a historical report from them every so often
  • We are an educational institution and we've used it for cybersecurity and development classes.
  • We are seeing a decline in the use of the software as more of our products are web native.
Users are familiar with the application which will keep us going for a little while. However since we are seeing a decline for a need for the software, I wouldn't be surprised to find that this answer changes dramatically in the near future. We would probably keep it to some extent, but we would probably reduce our licensing count.

Parallels Desktop Support

We have had rare occasions to contact support about the product. Most questions were easily answered from the knowledge base. When we have had to contact support they were able to provide us with a couple of different solutions and enough resources about how to accomplish said solutions that solving the problem was easy enough.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
None
We did not. The budget owner at the time declined the option. Since that time I have become the budget owner and would have opted to purchase premium support. This has been a shift across the board with our institution, employing less people, but purchasing more premium support options to provide employees with better tools and support.
After taking over ownership of the product in our institution, the first time we had to renew I had a laundry list of items that I wanted to see addressed. The sales team was able to connect me with the support that I needed to resolve all of my issues.