Almost a decade of Parallels Remote Application Server and still happy

Although we have very rarely needed any form of support for our Parallels Remote Application Servers, we have found the support team to be quick and knowledgeable, with the right answers to figure things out. We get regular email communications for licensing and updates to the software. We have been very pleased with the limited amount of support that we have needed - and more pleased that we don't really need support for this product very often.

It is well suited for providing access to applications behind the firewall, especially legacy ones, while maintaining tight control over access through normal login procedures and protocols. We found it a little more difficult to use on MAC products. However, that may just be a local issue as we are less familiar with them.

We have been using Parallels since it was called 2X - it is a major part of how we do business. It is fairly simple to use and maintain - staff like it, we like it. It is a product that makes a promise - and it keeps it. As Parallels evolves, and clean bandwidth becomes more readily available everywhere - it just makes sense to continue to use Parallels in our environment.

Overall, it was pretty simple compared to most other projects. Again, we had a strong familarity with the product so there was not much of a learning curve. Our 'biggest' issue is the end-user understanding of a 'local' application and a published application. For example - Online meetings need to run locally for camera/video to work smoothly so opening a link to a meeting from a published application continues to be an occasional issue.

I think the configurabilty still has a few more possibilites - for example I would like to 'publish' an application in Parallels that actually is a shortcut to a local application on someone's PC... that way to the end users - they have everything they need right in the Parallels application GUI - and don't know or care whether it is local or remote (like Teams, Outlook, Zoom, Softphone).
I would also like to see a bit more around resolution in the policies.
Having said that - the simple options on how to handle published applications and web links across multiple browsers - well, they are great.

As you may see from other parts of my review - Parallels makes a promise and lives up to it. It is simple and straightforward for staff who use the published applications all day long. They love that fact that if they have a power-blip or Internet blip at home - they do not lose their work - it recovers/reconnects and lets them keep going right where they left off.
The published applications make life simple for both the staff and for those of us who have to support them. Overall, it is the simplest way to give people the option to work remotely - and we have several staff who use it right here at their desk in the office as well.

We added our Integrated Services Staff to parallels, with filtered, published applications - in a single afternoon. We added licensing and installed the desktop client software on multiple platforms both in the office and at remote sites all on the same day - and got remote users that had never used the product up and running - very quickly.

If there are any issues with Parallels - they are usually more about the server operating systems than Parallels itself. It would be rare for us to have any reason to take Parallels offline - we schedule a reboot on the servers at 3am to keep the O/S itself fresh, but again - it is not a Parallels issue. If individual users have any issues we ask them to completely log out of parallels - which ends their session - and then back in - and that typically resolves the issue right away.

I am giving Parallels 9/10 on this one because the only application that sometimes seems slow or has issues - is Microsoft Outlook. It is sometimes the result of a pop-up that may not show up in the published application (vs full desktop). Other than that - pages load very quickly - and it does not seem to slow down other applications that are running at the same time. Most of our users run Outlook, softphone and Teams locally - and published applications for everything else. When they do that - it is very solid.

While we don't specifically integrate using the tools mentioned previously - the options are there if people choose to use them.

We use a third party - Unique Data in Sault Ste. Marie - for sales and implementation of our Parallels environment. They are extremely knowledgeable, reasonably priced and quick to respond when necessary. We call on them for many projects, not just Parallels. I highly recommend them for any size project.

If we need them - they are always just an email or a phone call away. I have never had an issue that they couldn't resolve in a quick and efficient manner. Our organization has been working with Unique Data (SSM) for over 20 years and we plan to keep doing so for many more years.