Greetings, dear readers. I wanted to share some news with you about the new Version 19 of Parallels RAS, which just launched today and which you can learn more about here.
This is a Pure RDS (Remote Desktop Services) blog! Why are you writing about Parallels RAS, Andy?
Great question! Recently I was asked to become a Parallels VIPP (Very Important Parallels Professional) due to my past contributions in the EUC community. This was very humbling to say the least, as their VIPP program has always been a “who’s who” of major contributors in the EUC industry.
Participating in the VIPP program has been illuminating to say the least. It’s been very clear since my first VIPP meeting that Parallels absolutely loves their customers and loves the feedback provided by their VIPPs. They are fanatical both about creating new product enhancements and supporting their existing offerings.
With Parallels, I see a company aligned with the values of my own company, RDPSoft. Those core values being:
- Providing great support
- Being very receptive to customer feedback, and
- Delivering amazing value for the price paid.
I’ve always maintained that – if engineered correctly – you can do lots of great things with native Remote Desktop Services without breaking your budget. I still stand by that, as RDS is the technology we have improved with our monitoring and management tools. That said, there are organizations that have needs well beyond what RDS by itself can offer. In those scenarios, those organizations should *always* evaluate Parallels first. Not Citrix, not VMWare – evaluate Parallels first. The add-on features and value provided by Parallels starting at $99.99 per concurrent user per year blow Citrix and VMWare out of the water. You just can’t beat the value. And you also get unlimited, global 24/7/365 support with that subscription! Which is a great segue to … the new features offered in Parallels RAS 19…
New Features in Parallels RAS 19
Here are some of my favorite new features that have arrived in Parallels RAS 19:
New Application Packages Based on MSIX App Attach Technology – Previously a technology constructed primarily for Azure Virtual Desktop, MSIX App Attach is another type of application layering that can further reduce the need for “application silos” in your EUC environment, which can lower the number of virtual machines needed to support your user base. Combined with the amazing integration with FSLogix already available in Parallels RAS, this represents a great “one two” application layering punch!
Let’s Encrypt Certificate Management – Let’s Encrypt allows you to get free certificates for your EUC environments, such as what is used by RDWeb and the Remote Desktop Gateway in Remote Desktop Services. The downside is that you have to routinely manage the renewal of these certificates every few months. Parallels RAS 19 now streamlines and completely automates this process for you! Free certificates for life!
Power Management For Cloud Based VMs – If you’ve deployed your Parallels RAS environment on a public cloud provider’s infrastructure (e.g. Microsoft Azure or Amazon EC2), RAS 19 allows you to schedule times when VMs are powered on and off. Given how proud public cloud providers are of their compute – knowing smile – anything that can help you further reduce IaaS costs is fantastic.
Expression Based Filtering of Users and Clients, Plus Login Hours Restrictions – Need to deny or allow access to a user’s specific resources based on their device name, IP range, or other factors? RAS 19 has this covered. The ability to restrict user login hours is also now included, to satisfy work from home and other corporate policies.
Get Involved With the Technical Preview Today
I’ve just barely scratched the surface of the many new features in Parallels RAS 19. So, please go sign up today to participate in the public Technical Preview and check out the amazing capabilities for yourself, most especially if you have specific feature needs beyond what Microsoft RDS itself can offer.
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