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Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) pros and cons

Vendor: Parallels

4.4 out of 5

25 reviews
96% willing to recommend

2,371 followers

Pros & Cons summary

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) enables efficient application management with centralized distribution, enhanced security features, and straightforward Active Directory integration. It offers broad client compatibility, resource-efficient features like connection compression, and supports cloud desktop publication. Improvement areas include performance monitoring, automatic re-connection, and pricing. Dependency on Microsoft solutions may be reduced. Migration from platforms like Citrix and VMware could benefit from an automated solution.

Buyer's Guide

Get pricing advice, tips, use cases and valuable features from real users of this product.

Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Parallels Remote Application Server permits centralized control over applications, allowing seamless distribution to user desktops.

It offers robust security features, such as the integration with Windows Active Directory and additional support for multi-factor authentication.

Compatibility with various devices, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Xbox One, and PS4, enhances user access flexibility.

Efficient use of resources is achieved through connection compression and cloud desktops that can be published to a subset of users.

Management of the servers, applications, and clients can be done centrally and efficiently, alleviating the need to manage installations on individual devices.

CONS

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) upgrade frequency is too high, causing operational strain.

Performance monitoring of client's endpoint and automatic re-connection need improvement.

Printing issues persist with random disconnections, causing major inconvenience over time.

HALB instability with two instances running simultaneously, requiring time-consuming server upgrades during off-hours.

The lack of strong local support in Mexico presents challenges for user assistance and operations.

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Pros review quotes

JH

-Jeremy Hallock

Datacenter Engineer at Freelancer

Oct 31, 2020

Simplicity of the interface is a valuable feature.

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JC

IT Director at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 30, 2018

It has allowed us to centralize the software location so we don't have to update the software client on 70 computers.

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DD

IT Analyst at a comms service provider with 5,001-10,000 employees

Jun 3, 2018

The connection is compressed so we don't need a lot of resources to run it.

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Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)

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Learn what your peers think about Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.

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Network Administrator

May 31, 2018

It is robust. We have some 75 users using it and it doesn't lag. It's very speedy.

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CEO at Etcetera Networks

Nov 7, 2024

One valuable feature is the ability to securely use a wide range of devices to access the company's infrastructure.

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Founder and CEO at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

May 23, 2018

It permits us to control the applications that our users are able to get to, in a seamless manner. We're able to distribute applications to users' desktops, just like those applications are on each user's computer, but they're not.

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Systems Administrator at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 28, 2018

Ease of use in publishing apps and installing the agent. The Interface is fairly intuitive after some tinkering. Although I inherited the app only two-thirds deployed, I was able to complete the deployment and service it over the last year without referring to any documentation.

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CJ

Christophe Jurdan

System Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 1, 2018

Thin client management (Windows 10 client) provides an easy way to lock down client connection to the remote infrastructure. Policies are very helpful for preconfiguring client behavior. Finally, client management is easy.

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CIO at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 28, 2018

Allows us to publish applications accessible by current-generation HTML5 browser or OS-specific client (Windows, Android, iOS), and it supports popular single sign-on and multi-factor authentication protocols.

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Technical Operations Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Jul 18, 2018

We use RAS to publish cloud desktops to our clients. The ability to easily publish resources to a subset of users is what we find most valuable.

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Show 10 more reviews (out of 21)

Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Cons review quotes

JH

-Jeremy Hallock

Datacenter Engineer at Freelancer

Oct 31, 2020

If the solution crashes, then all the customers connected through that agent, lose their session.

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JC

IT Director at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Jul 30, 2018

The main issue we have with all of our users is printing. Randomly, a printer will disconnect or someone won't connect to it and I will have to reset the print service and then nobody can print. That's the big headache we've had over the course of the five years.

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Network Administrator

May 31, 2018

Since I've been here less than a year, I have had to upgrade the system three times. The first time was the major upgrade but they have upgraded twice since, and I think that's too many times in that time span.

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Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)

Free Report: Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) Reviews and More

Learn what your peers think about Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.

816,406 professionals have used our research since 2012.

CEO at Etcetera Networks

Nov 7, 2024

A potential improvement could be reducing the dependency on Microsoft solutions for Parallels RAS.

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Systems Administrator at a construction company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 28, 2018

Opening a ticket should be available from the actual RAS console. It is cumbersome to go to a portal, hunt around for five minutes for a link to open a ticket, answer questions meant to direct you towards FAQs instead of live support, then fill out information (license #, version #, etc.) which could more easily be supplied by sending a ticket straight from the console with all of that information automatically specified.

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CJ

Christophe Jurdan

System Engineer at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 1, 2018

HALB is not stable in our environment. When running two HALBs we have stability problems, so we use an active one and a passive for backup. Also, it would be nice to implement an upgrade of the environment without having to stop the servers. As it is, this must be done during off-hours.

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CIO at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

May 28, 2018

Improvement is needed in performance monitoring of the client's endpoint, and automatic re-connection of the client in the event of circuit disruptions (this works well generally but can present challenges).

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Technical Operations Manager at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Jul 18, 2018

It would be great if there were more sophisticated GPO templates/options.

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Business Owner at Yada Group Services

Jun 27, 2023

The solution's application virtualization feature needs improvement.

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reviewer1369137

Solution consultant at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Nov 30, 2020

Generally, it is a very good solution. The main thing that I would improve is their presence here in Mexico. They don't have strong local support here in Mexico. They should have a worldwide presence so that we don't have to do everything through the people in the US. The initial setup was a little bit complex because we were migrating from Citrix. For customers who are migrating from another platform like VMware or Citrix, it would be great if they can provide an automated migration solution.

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Show 8 more reviews (out of 18)

Product Categories

Product Categories

Application Virtualization

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

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Product Categories

Product Categories

Application Virtualization

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)

Popular Comparisons

Popular Comparisons

Citrix DaaS (formerly Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops service) vs Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)

Microsoft App-V vs Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)

Inuvika vs Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS)

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