Our Conversion to Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)
June 27, 2024
Our Conversion to Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS)
We use Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) as the central hub of our business. Our main application resides in our headquarters Datacenter and we have 100+ plants and offices that connect back to headquarters to run the software. The software does not scale out well for multiple users and also has problems working over WAN links. Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) allows us to copy out from a template and easily replicate the servers to handle our worker capacity (fixing a software issue with virtual hardware). It also handles the WAN link problem by just sending the screen changes across the WAN (which it does very well) while allowing all of the processing to remain locally in our datacenter.
Another problem Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) allows us to solve is what to do about remote workers. We do not open up our network to VPN clients, so we allow our users to connect into the office through Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) to remotely access those apps when outside the office. In point of fact, our users are also accessing many of our applications from within the company via Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) as well. The user experience remains consistent and the maintenance for upgrades and patching is greatly simplified as all of the software is maintained on our servers rather than across the breadth of our user PCs and laptops.
Another problem Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) allows us to solve is what to do about remote workers. We do not open up our network to VPN clients, so we allow our users to connect into the office through Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) to remotely access those apps when outside the office. In point of fact, our users are also accessing many of our applications from within the company via Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) as well. The user experience remains consistent and the maintenance for upgrades and patching is greatly simplified as all of the software is maintained on our servers rather than across the breadth of our user PCs and laptops.
Pros
- Remote Access
- Scaling of resources
- Ease of use
- Software is quick and responsive
- Easy to manage
Cons
- Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) continually improves the product but has broken some features recently. For example the web management portal lost the ability to manage user sessions after a major update. That issue was fixed in a later release
- Multi-monitor support beyond 4 monitors (It does handle up to 4 -1080 monitors well)
- More options around connection security and MFA. current options are sufficient but limited
- We've noticed some performance issues with Windows Server 2019 and 2022. I'd like to see more robust support for remote applications running from those platforms.
- Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) is significantly less expensive than our previous product which we used for this purpose. Basically half of what we were paying.
- Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) remote performance was significantly better than our previous software. Users would call in at least weekly claiming that the system was slow. Those calls have been reduced to 1 every 6 months
- Enduser training was minimal during our conversion as it was very straight forward and simple to use. Easier than our previous product.
We got it running in a single day. It did, however, take a coupe of months to implement all of our security and performance testing. Our biggest issue was with Microsoft Office and Server 2019/2022. We ended up going with Server 2016, which fixed all the issues caused by Microsoft's security changes in 2019
Citrix has more bells and whistles within their product line, but we've actually been pleasantly surprised with the performance of Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) vs our Citrix implementation. Citrix Netscaler has way more functionality than the Parallels Halb, but for the most part, we used none of that extra functionality and the Halb simplicity is refreshing. very little upkeep needed
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
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