Parallels RAS

Seamless remote software access has become a necessity for organizations striving to empower their workforce and maximize productivity. Discover how manufacturing company CCL Design Electronics leverages Parallels RAS to transform their virtualization infrastructure, simplify remote software access, and achieve significant cost savings while enhancing their employees’ productivity.

The issue

CCL Design Electronics had implemented a virtualization infrastructure using Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) as a standalone solution. However, they encountered difficulties in providing flexible virtualization to their 500 concurrent users who required access to shared applications. Additionally, the company had deployed virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) through VMware but desired a cloud-ready virtualization solution compatible with their cloud services.

The manufacturer needed a more workable framework that would enable instant and reliable access to their crucial Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software on remote devices connected to their hybrid cloud solution. Seeking a solution that would simplify remote software access and improve productivity, CCL Design Electronics conducted extensive testing of various remote applications. Among the competition, Parallels RAS stood out for its unparalleled capabilities and numerous advantages.

The solution

CCL Design Electronics seamlessly deployed Parallels RAS, granting their employees secure access to virtual applications across a diverse range of Windows and mobile devices distributed throughout their industrial space. With Parallels RAS, the company centralized their IT infrastructure and simplified access to manufacturing ERPs. This comprehensive solution not only improved infrastructure security and reduced costs but also empowered employees with enhanced flexibility and productivity-boosting tools.

With Parallels RAS, CCL Design Electronics gained instant access to the solution’s built-in server load balancing, ensuring smooth operations for machinery and manufacturing productivity. Moreover, the deployment of Parallels RAS was completed by the IT team within a few hours, resulting in substantial time and budget savings.

Read the complete case study or trial Parallels RAS today at your organization.

Managing excessive terminal servers and providing cross-platform support for their diverse user base was becoming a challenge for furniture retailer W.S. Badcock.  With more than 370 stores across eight states, the Virginia-based business needed a solution to streamline operations, minimize costs and deliver desktops and applications seamlessly to a range of devices. 

The issue

To help provide their 1,400 users access to corporate resources, Badcock had to leverage many terminal servers that published applications and desktops for remote users. While using Citrix as their virtualization platform, the retailer had to manage different group policies for different user groups. In addition, users were accessing resources from different operating systems, making cross-platform support challenging.

Badcock needed a solution that would provide adequate cross-platform support and minimize the number of terminal servers.  Enter Parallels RAS.

The Solution

Parallels RAS offers an all-in-one remote working solution that enables access to virtual applications and desktops on any device, anytime, anywhere. This centralized approach to managing their IT operations was just what Badcock was looking for.

Badcock was able to successfully transition to Parallels RAS and leverage the application publishing, load balancing and HTML5 gateway features to address their challenges.

By implementing Parallels RAS to deliver desktops and applications to their user base, Badcock was able to consolidate IT operations, and more importantly, provide unparalleled cross-platform support. 

Read the complete case study here or trial Parallels RAS today at your organization.

Scaling up and onboarding new clients was becoming more and more difficult for Texas-based ISV Spindlemedia.  With their tax collection software only accessible on-site, onboarding new clients was a time-consuming process that required purchasing and building new servers, shipping them to the client, and installing them on-site. The ISV needed a solution to help reduce onboarding time and limit the amount of manual labor to manage and install their software. 

The issue

In 2017, Spindlemedia was servicing only 20 of the 240+ counties in Texas. They were looking to quickly scale their business. However, the tax collection software provider was finding it difficult to scale due to cumbersome servers and the need for manual labor. 

These challenges made it clear to Spindlemedia that they needed a way to: 

• Scale their business faster.
• Improve and simplify the client onboarding process.
• Streamline workspace management.

Spindlemedia put Parallels RAS to the test. They used Azure, Microsoft’s public cloud computing platform, to host their data center and Parallels RAS to deploy their desktops and applications to their clientele. 

During the pilot period, Spindlemedia’s original data center was flooded due to the devastating Hurricane Harvey. If the flooding had happened before the Parallels trial, Spindlemedia would have experienced catastrophic effects on their business. However, their desktops and applications were being delivered virtually by Parallels RAS, and so their productivity was unaffected.

The built-in reporting and monitoring tools of RAS allowed Spindlemedia to identify changes within the environment and resource fluctuations easily. 

The solution

Spindlemedia successfully shifted their client base to the cloud using Parallels RAS. This seamless transition improved capacity and production for Spindlemedia.  It was clear—RAS was the tool Spindlemedia needed to shift their full client base from a classic on-premises model to a VDI set-up.

By moving operations to the cloud and using Parallels RAS as a VDI solution, Spindlemedia experienced an exponential increase in opportunity, productivity, and overall growth.

• In just a couple months, they reduced the onboarding process time by 83%, and the company experienced a 37% increase in new clients and business.
  
• Day-to-day tasks and processes were streamlined due to process simplifications.
  
• The ability to operate via the cloud meant that Spindlemedia could reduce dependency external IT expertise and minimize the need for on-the-ground employees to support onsite customers for maintenance and installation, which lowered overhead costs.

Read the complete case study here or trial Parallels RAS today at your organization.   

The mission was clear: simplify medical service booking by offering citizens a user-friendly platform to quickly and easily book services. To do so, the Groupement Hospitalier du Territoire du Loiret (GHT du Loiret) needed to find an affordable VDI solution and eliminate unnecessary technical difficulties on their user-friendly platform.  

Based in France, GHT du Loiret combines the expertise of health professionals with the technical platform of nine public hospitals in the Loiret Department and six nursing homes (EHPADs). GHT du Loiret was using a competitive solution for their medical service booking platform since 2004 but the complexity of the solution, the frequency of policy changes, and common price increases proved overwhelming.  

The issue 

GHT du Loiret was looking for:  

• Simple implementation and workspace management. 
• Elimination of external services. 
• One solution for one price to avoid added costs for added features. 

Following yet another price increase from their previous solution, GHT du Loiret tested out Parallels RAS to see if it could offer them ease of use and provide cost savings. 

The solution 

Right off the bat, the team at GHT du Loiret were “were pleased to see that it took no time at all to put servers into production. The ease of use was undeniable since RAS’ automation enabled us to regenerate our servers in less than 3 minutes” explained David Fretault, Architect System Manager. 

After testing Parallels RAS in the pilot in 2019, GHT du Loiret found that it provides more value and seamless integration than their previous solutions. 

The success of the Parallels RAS pilot enabled them to move forward with the deployment, resulting in 550 concurrent users administering 40 applications. 

The main reasons for their decision to deploy: 

• Simplicity: The ease of use was unquestionable. 
• Device redirection: Universal printing and scanning capabilities were seamless. 
• Cost savings: Parallels RAS licensing was more affordable than the competition and delivered more value with additional features. 
• Performance: Switching to RAS was uninterrupted for the end user as it was perceived to be identical to the competition. 

Read the complete case study here or trial Parallels RAS today at your organization.  

Latest release, just announced, includes exciting new features—especially enhanced integration with Azure Virtual Desktop.

You already knew that Parallels RAS (Remote Application Server) plays well with others. After all, the entire point of Parallels RAS is to enable seamless work on the OS and the device of your choice. Now, we’re taking things to a new level with the just-announcedrelease of Parallels RAS 19.2—including a collaboration with Microsoft to rev up Azure Virtual Desktop integration.  As organizations move to the cloud, we perceive Azure to be a strategic hyperscaler in their digital transformation. Our hybrid cloud setup facilitates easy startup and scaling of Azure Virtual Desktop with hassle-free deployment and management.

Why is hybrid cloud important?

The cloud isn’t one-size-fits-all. Savvy companies are carefully evaluating their specific needs and requirements to determine the best approach for them. Hosting applications in the cloud should be used when it makes sense—think seasonal workloads, or disaster recovery to shore up a second data center for failover. Still, some applications might be better off on-premises, like legacy apps, or large data sets that require a lot of resources that could drive up cloud costs.

The demand for flexibility

The name of the game: flexibility. Flexibility has never been more in demand, and that’s why organizations are flocking toward a hybrid model that enables both public and private cloud options. That demand for flexibility is the same reason so many companies are embracing a remote and hybrid workforce.

Reduced cost and maintenance

Parallels RAS 19.2 allows for an unparalleled (sorry!) level of flexibility at all levels of business. Of course, flexibility is only part of what businesses and workers need right now. With economic uncertainty and a tight labor market, they also need as much streamlining and efficiency as possible. With this new release, Parallels RAS delivers even more of what customers have come to expect: reduced costs, optimized operations, an enhanced user experience, easy implementation, no need for specialized expertise—the list goes on. And the numbers back it up. This new enhanced Azure Virtual Desktop integration translates to up to 79%* Azure cost reduction, with up to 70%** reduction in time spent on maintenance and troubleshooting.

Total cost savings

With Parallels RAS 19.2, adopting a hybrid cloud model has never been easier.

Can’t get enough? Learn more about what’s new in Parallels RAS 19.2.   

*Based on unoptimized AVD native |**Estimate based on reduced time to deploy, no trial-and-error management, driven by intuitive and wizard-driven RAS management console (incl. FSLogix config and MSIX App attach) | More info at https:// https://www.parallels.com/products/ras/capabilities/avd/