Review of Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)

We use Parallels RAS to monitor and administer remotely our IT infrastructure. Information Technology uses the software. We are planning to extend its use along the whole organization. We are replacing Citrix Xen App with Parallels RAS. With this new tool, we are better managing around one hundred physical servers remotely, networking components, virtual machines, containers, in an heterogeneous mix of platforms, such as Citrix Xenserver, Proxmox Virtual Environment, Dell and SuperMicro servers, and switches and storage units (SANs and NASs).

We use it 24 hours for access remotely to our IT infrastructure, with no problems whatsoever, accessing by way of VPNs (we use the open-source OpenVPN). Our specialists and technicians access the server they need, with the roles granted for them authenticating with Active Directory.

We use RAS as a Windows Server virtual machine that runs over the Proxmox Virtual Environment (Debian and KVM), and we enjoy excellent performance with not too many resources assigned to it. We do not use Microsoft Hyper-V nor VMWare ESXi, We use Citrix Xenserver, but we are migrating gradually to Proxmox.

We have Firewalls (pfSense), which provide the first layer of defense, with VPNs (OpenVPN), and access the RAS through SSL. We are very happy with the security record of Parallels RAS and see a lot fewer vulnerabilities from Parallels RAS than from Citrix on the US-CERT bulletins.