TrustRadius Insights for Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.
Pros
Flexibility in User Management: Users have appreciated the system's ease of adding and removing users for project assignments, making transitions between projects smooth and efficient. The flexibility allows for seamless adjustments to team compositions and roles as needed.
Security Effectiveness: Customers have commended the system for its effectiveness in protecting organizational information, providing a secure environment for data. This robust security measure instills confidence in users regarding the safety of sensitive company data.
Enhanced Operational Efficiency: Reviewers highlighted the straightforward infrastructure scaling process as user-friendly, improving overall operational efficiency. The simplified scaling procedures contribute to a more streamlined and productive workflow within organizations.
We use Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) for remote access to LOB applications for our customers. We found that it's simple enough to easily deploy/manage, but has enough options to provide for a quick/seamless remote experience for our customers. We manage systems with typically under 50 users each. We moved to Parallels Remote Application Server from Citrix and have never looked back.
Pros
ease of deployment
ease of management
simple client/install for users
responsive
Cons
We had one instance of the Parallels Remote Application Server server corrupting without any clear indication as to why, but a simple restore of the RAS server resolved the issue
Likelihood to Recommend
I think it's well suited to someone smaller environments (sub 100 users). May work well with larger deployments but we have only used it with smaller businesses and it has served us well. In my opinion, it's probably not well suited for a very small environment simply due to the cost.
VU
Verified User
Technician in Information Technology (Information Services company, 11-50 employees)
Easy access to my popular desktop softwares with just one click, all those applications accessible via my tablet and laptop with high security. I use this platform to access the software and files at my workplace, and I spend many hours working remotely on company projects and at the same time continue my higher education. In every way, it has helped me a lot in saving money and time so that I can grow better in the work environment.
Pros
Very high speed and no data transfer lag
Secure and safe platform
It works with any device and all platforms
Cons
Add an internal VPN to connect to networks other than the work environment wifi
Building an easier application to connect clients
Likelihood to Recommend
The remote desktop option is very fast and secure and helps me a lot. Also, sometimes I need some specialized software in the work environment that requires strong hardware to run, which can be done through Parallels Remote Application Server via any devices. It doesn't matter what size your company is, I think it is important for every company to have it.
We have many customers (mostly banks and mortgage companies) who use our software. One of the biggest headaches we have is installing our software on-premises and interacting with different organizations IT departments. Parallels Remote Application Server allows these customers to have access to our Windows applications without needing to install them on their machines, essentially allowing us to host our products and services in the cloud. It reduces our customer's costs and provides our company with another revenue stream.
Pros
Host applications in the cloud
Allow access to applications regardless of platform (Windows/Mac/Linux)
Excellent security & access filtering
Cons
Difficult setup for single sign on
IP filtering for customers using Parallels client has some issues (with workarounds)
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels Remote Application Server is ideal for organizations looking to host their applications in the cloud without the need for installing them on client machines and interacting with different IT departments. It's less suited for web applications that are already in the cloud by their nature.
VU
Verified User
Team Lead in Research & Development (Banking company, 11-50 employees)
The use case is always the same: A simple way to set up application publishing for a company Problems that arise sometimes is good file integration ( like Awingu ), so users can up and download files in a much simpler way than now.
Pros
Html5 gateway.
Simplicity of installing/managing.
Compatibility
Cons
File transfers in the html5 interface.
Clipboard transfers in the html5 interface.
Likelihood to Recommend
Best suited for the management of all RDP applications where they are published through the full parallels client.
We use Parallels to distribute Windows applications to several thousand users worldwide in a cloud-based environment. Users needed to access Windows-based apps from multiple networks over the Internet, on machines where software may or may not be possible to deploy, so a web-based interface was a must. Printing is also a major portion of those custom applications, so printing functions need to be absolutely seamless and fully featured across all sorts of devices for users in very varied environments.
Pros
The printing driver is quite excellent, both in the Parallels Client and on the HTML5 client.
Setup is incredibly easy; the default setup is very functional, and adding features is a breeze.
Speed is very acceptable in general for end-users, the clients adapt quite well to the amount of bandwidth available, and features are available to adjust further.
Automation through PowerShell is great.
Support is usually quite fast and efficient.
Cons
Lots of undocumented error codes, and documentation, in general, is often lacking and often very outdated for RAS specifically.
Upgrades between versions are sometimes flaky; lots of testing is needed to ensure you have a functional gateway after an upgrade.
The Parallels console is generally quite good, but some changes are applied instantly, but others are applied after confirmation with no real feedback to the administrator.
Likelihood to Recommend
If you're a business that needs to distribute line of business or general office-type apps to remote or even local users, RAS is a great alternative compared to its overly complex competitors. Even with a small IT team, anyone can get going and produce a functional application cluster and have users onboarded in no time. Your users will be up and running very quickly for most use cases, but if you require some custom functions or if you're thinking about plug-ins or custom development, you may wish to lock elsewhere. RAS is not very easily extensible beyond automation with PowerShell, which we leverage for automatically scaling instances, but say you wished to implement AzureAD-based MFA, there's no way to do anything except TOTP-based MFA in version 18. Overall for small to large businesses, I think RAS is an excellent solution for VDI and RemoteApps-type use cases; for extremely large businesses, there'd need to be a very strong business case analysis.
VU
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (Information Technology & Services company, 11-50 employees)
NSD Tech offers specialized cloud-based SaaS solutions to external organizations in Canada. The organizations represent a variety of userbases who use a variety of technological devices to access our cloud services. Parallels RAS enables access to the cloud service securely anywhere on any of their registered device in Canada. Parallels RAS also enables licensing management and user authorization.
Pros
Remote access to the cloud service.
Simplified implementation with detailed documentation.
Parallels RAS technical support.
Ease of access and installation to the end-users.
Enable multi-device access, controlling the concurrent access by users.
Cons
Enable users' access to their personal computer drives when accessing the cloud services through Parallels RAS.
Limiting and controlling the access to server resources for the users.
Need improvement in managing the resolution of service accessed via RAS Client (works well via RAS Browser, though).
Improve access to personal and organizational print and scanning devices from the cloud service.
Likelihood to Recommend
Parallels RAS is well suited for: multi-device and anywhere access to the cloud service for medium-large organizations; simplified automated administration in smaller teams; access to windows desktop applications on Linux, Chrome, Android, and iOS devices licensing management for the users delivering multiple cloud applications seamlessly Less appropriate for Enabling access to personal and organizational resources from the cloud service.
VU
Verified User
Program Manager in Information Technology (Information Technology & Services company, 11-50 employees)
We use RAS for delivering our SAAS software in North America. Since our software is developed on Microsoft technologies, we always felt we were missing out on the opportunities for macOS or Linux users. Implementing RAS allowed us to increase our market share.
Pros
Support is Top Notch!
Easy to configure policies
Easy Sync with AD
Cons
UI, could be better. Specially for HTML clients.
Interaction with end-user file system is very combursome and does not allow easy access.
Likelihood to Recommend
Costing is one place, where it might not be very suitable for a startup. Also, there is no monthly model - which sometimes makes it difficult to sell to a dynamic market. It is very well suited for companies who are scaling up.
VU
Verified User
Executive in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 11-50 employees)
We use this application to deploy our software to our customers. We publish the application using an Active Directory where our users are created. So, Only the usergroup with the name [Customer] is allowed to start the application of [Customer] When one of the customers decide to arrange their management to another customer, we easily add the other usergroup [Customer2] to also open the application of [customer]. In this scenario, a user connected to usergroup [Customer2] is having 2 desktop shortcuts. The application of [Customer] and the application of [Customer2].
Pros
Active directory integration.
detailed logging of incoming connections, so you can see what user account is trying to connect from which IP address at what time.
Easy to setup, for example, the HTML5 environment was already created while configuring the basic steps of the farm.
Cons
Announcement of maintenance beforehand.
Remote control of the connected user computer, not the session.
Parallels Remote Application Server Client 19 now is asking for an email address? This is weird.
Likelihood to Recommend
As I said, it is easy to add published application, and the AD integration is really solid.
VU
Verified User
Engineer in Customer Service (Information Services company, 1-10 employees)
