Parallels Remote Application Server and Horizon 8 compete in desktop virtualization and application delivery. Parallels RAS is notably user-friendly and cost-effective, while Horizon 8 excels with an extensive feature set, suitable for complex business needs despite a higher cost.
Features: Parallels RAS offers simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and easy management, ensuring seamless integration across multiple platforms. In contrast, Horizon 8 provides enhanced graphics capabilities, scalability, and extensive configuration options, tailored for complex environments.
Room for Improvement: Parallels RAS could enhance its scalability and offer more advanced configurations for larger systems. Improved integration with third-party applications would also be beneficial. Horizon 8 may need to streamline its setup process to reduce complexity, lower its cost for greater accessibility, and enhance basic support options for smaller organizations.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Parallels RAS features a straightforward deployment process and accessible customer support, making it ideal for smaller organizations. Conversely, Horizon 8's setup is more complex but comes with comprehensive support tailored for large enterprises.
Pricing and ROI: Parallels RAS provides a lower initial setup cost and quick ROI, appealing to budget-conscious businesses. Horizon 8, while more costly upfront, promises long-term value with its advanced features and scalability, leading to potentially higher ROI in the future.
The main areas needing improvement are response speed and quality of answers.
The support team is helpful and offers assistance.
Our support from VMware expired last December.
For Parallels RAS, the support is rated eight out of ten.
I can start from fifteen users and scale it to nearly any size.
Especially with the integration of NVIDIA, we experience multiple problems including crashing applications, crashing desktops, spontaneous logoffs, black screens, and systems that no longer respond or cannot reconnect.
We can scale by adding additional servers and connection servers.
I would like to see improvements in Horizon 8, specifically integration with NVIDIA for graphical performance upgrades because it creates many issues such as crashing and black screen systems, causing users to lose access to their current desktop and work.
We have limited capabilities since we are not using a multi-instance solution, just single instances.
For Horizon 8, it would be beneficial to integrate more monitoring capabilities in advanced editions.
A potential improvement could be reducing the dependency on Microsoft solutions for Parallels RAS.
I rate the cost-effectiveness of GenApp of Citrix equal to our CMS; it is quite cost-effective.
After VMware was bought by Broadcom, the pricing was ridiculous, but now that Onmises has VMware Horizon 8, the pricing is back to an acceptable level.
No additional fees for maintenance or support are required.
Centralized management of desktops is one of the main reasons customers choose this solution.
The solution has data leak prevention features that ensure data is not copied from the base machine to VDI.
From a security point of view, security in Horizon 8 is one of the main points in keeping the system resources from the company away from bad actors. You can keep the desktops completely isolated, and you don't need to share your file shares or database with the end-user system.
In terms of Parallels Desktop, the coherence mode that allows Mac and Windows applications to run seamlessly side by side is highly regarded.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Horizon 8 | 7.4% |
| Parallels Remote Application Server (RAS) | 2.8% |
| Other | 89.8% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 61 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 22 |
| Large Enterprise | 44 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 14 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 2 |
| Large Enterprise | 10 |
VMware Horizon is a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution designed to allow users to create secure and scalable virtual desktops and applications that work on any device, from any location. These virtualization capabilities help simplify and speed up application delivery and greatly reduce enterprise costs.
VMware Horizon’s centralized management console provides IT admins with comprehensive control over all of their virtual desktops and applications, making them simple to manage and secure. The solution enables using features such as identity and access management, multi-factor authentication, and encryption, to ensure ultimate data protection.
Some of key the benefits of using VMware Horizon include:
Some of the top features of VMware Horizon include:
Reviews from Real Users
VMware Horizon stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Several major ones are its high performance, flexibility, and powerful virtualization capabilities.
Natnael A., a consultant at IWM Network Solutions, writes, “The app virtualizing is a great feature. The system developers use it to deliver apps to targeted staff. It basically reduces the server infrastructure resource. The solution provides good functionality.”
Rob M., a systems administrator at Saint Tammany Parish Hospital, says, “The solution has provided flexibility by allowing an end user to remote in, log in, and get their VM. VDI session and have all the icons and applications they need to use and retain the same booking view regardless of location.”
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