Parallels RAS--an unparalleled experience!
February 04, 2020
Parallels RAS--an unparalleled experience!
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Parallels Remote Application Server
The initial booting of a school VDI system stemmed from concerns raised by our finance department. Our accounts people were troubled by thoughts of what to do should adverse weather hamper the ability of staff to access local systems in the event of travel disruption. Following the successful implementation of limited application publishing for mainly admin staff, the new plan is to open the system up to our Chromebook user base and allow Windows apps to run on non-Windows based systems.
- Provides a simple way to access virtual Windows remote desktop securely
- Allows the use of Windows applications on non-Windows systems
- Pricing is expensive
- The addition of connectivity to cloud-based VMs would help (such as Azure, AWS, etc)
- It makes our Chromebook fleet more valuable. You just can't get everyone off Windows applications.
- Working from home is effortless, regardless of the user's personal equipment.
- Wyse vWorkspace (Discontinued)
We had to go with Parallels RAS once Dell killed off vWorkspace. At the time of research, Parallels seemed to tick more boxes than all of its competitors. For sheer cheapness, I would have loved to have gone with Microsoft's own VDI offering, but it didn't support an HTML5 interface, thus ruling out Chromebooks. Parallels offers both a client app and HTML5 interface. It's great!
Parallels RAS does exactly what it says, and the simple nature of both the initial setup and continued maintenance offers great peace of mind. Add to that the superb online help and, failing self-help, email support, I can only report good times. We have a very small support staff, so the ability to make system changes via the simple management console offers a great time savings.
Chromebooks are here to stay, and to have the ability to run Windows applications on them via Parallels RAS is a very powerful tool of persuasion when it come to directing users' purchasing decisions. Time is very much in short supply for our support department, and the simple management of Chromebooks makes them fit perfectly into our setup.
We only use Microsoft Hyper-V for our virtual servers, so the ability for Parallels RAS to fit effortlessly into our existing infrastructure was vital. Our Dell Hyper-V host servers run Windows Server 2019--in fact we've hopped from Server 2012 R2 to 2016 and at no point have we ever considered other hypervisors, given that Hyper-V has offered us all we need and the need for additional training would seem a touch unnecessary.
All I can say about this particular aspect of Parallels RAS is that we as an organisation now use 2FA for most of our systems. The included 2FA functionality is a highly desirable, if a little rudimentary feature, and I believe that any product of this nature simply must include as many barriers to hacking as possible.
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