By Nicolette Carklin

September 24, 2021

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The Technologies Group Uses Parallels RAS for a Secure Remote Office Solution

About The Technologies Group

• The Technologies Group is an award-winning managed IT service provider that delivers IT solutions that make a positive difference for people and organizations.
• 30+ years of experience.
• Offices and data center in West London.

The Challenge

The Technologies Group (TTG) helps entrepreneurs and companies understand, access, maintain and maximize the potential of their IT solutions and communication technologies. As they strive to support customers to run and grow their businesses, TTG hopes to provide a secure solution to deliver applications without compromising efficiency.

The company wanted a solution that would support multiple application types (web, local, desktop, files), and integrate well with their clients’ existing infrastructure. Finally, as a small team with a tight budget, they needed to make sure the solution they chose is cost-effective.

The Solution

TTG previously used both Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly XenApp) and Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS). While they found both products adequate, neither could compare with the ease and cost savings delivered by Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS). TTG chose Parallels RAS due to its simplicity of implementation and its comprehensive set of features.

Deployment is ultra-easy with Parallels RAS, and that applies to both adding it to existing IT infrastructures as well as deploying in a green-field approach for a new solution. Whether TTG clients need to split the Parallels RAS roles across a few servers or many, centralized management from a single console makes it simple. All components are pushed out and managed via the console from a single, quick installation. Once installed, it’s just as straightforward to manage, publish applications, monitor and update all from that same location.

When using Parallels RAS, organizations are not locked into using specific hypervisors. Parallels RAS has enabled TTG to leverage virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) via their preferred hypervisor. TTG found Parallels to be so flexible that they have shifted to use XCP-ng, the open-source version of Citrix Hypervisor, which works just as well, with further cost savings.

“Parallels RAS is incredibly well-suited to organizations that already use Remote Desktop Services (RDS), especially if they use multiple RDS servers or are planning on expanding their RDS farm. We highly recommend anyone with legacy applications to have a look, as Parallels RAS is a wizard at supporting modern client devices – effectively turning “fat client” apps into cloud-ready applications. If you are considering VDI, whatever the hypervisor, it will save you time, money and frustration”

The Results

With the help of Parallels RAS, TTG has seen significant reductions in the total cost of operations. They have found Parallels RAS has reduced travel and commuting within their company, saving an estimated one day a week in lost productivity per user. Similarly, the 200% savings on VPN client software and endpoints is impressive. TTG found that during the COVID-19 pandemic, Parallels RAS enabled them to carry out “business as usual”.

Users appreciate being able to log in once with their Active Directory credentials across any device. The HTML5 browser support is also well-utilized. If employees are using a company device or a personal device, the full client download enhances the experience further, and straightforward automation limits the need for support. This not only enhances user experience by removing frustrations but is also another great cost-saving measure.

Parallels RAS has fit well with TTG’s security-first approach. They can deliver internal resources and data to users from relatively “insecure” applications (e.g., those that use a single password) to the outside world, wrapping them in an encrypted, secure form. Adding multi-factor authentication further bolsters security, limiting direct access to apps and data, instead of directing everything through Parallels RAS.

TTG is now using Parallels RAS organization-wide, connecting users in different ways. The ability to deliver applications and desktop services means that it is not just a single solution, even though it’s only one product. Whether it’s the accounting department using it to run on-premises accounting software in a remote desktop environment or publishing individual applications accessed from tablets, it now forms a single hub for myriad needs at an affordable price. TTG has found Parallels to be an effective and powerful tech solution to help TTG innovate in important ways, operating seamlessly and future-proofing clients’ businesses.