BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Parallels® today launched Parallels Remote Application Server version 15.5 (www.parallels.com/ras), providing organizations of all sizes the easiest solution to securely deliver Windows® desktops and applications to employees on any device. The latest version offers support for Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure to help streamline desktop and application delivery, support for Windows Server 2016, as well as an enhanced mobile experience within iOS and Android clients supporting native touch gestures. Additionally, Parallels launched its upgraded Partner Program to provide its partners an all-inclusive service featuring complementary technical and sales training, certification and, enablement materials to simplify product distribution and drive new customer business conversations.
“New innovations in simplicity and personalization make Parallels Remote Application Server version 15.5 an easy and cost-effective solution for securely delivering virtual desktops and applications to any device,” said Jack Zubarev, Parallels president. “With the growth of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), employees want the flexibility to securely access and complete their work from anywhere on their favorite devices – from PC and Mac to Chromebook, iPad, iPhone, Android tablets and phones, Windows Phone, Linux, Raspberry Pi and HTML5 web browsers. Parallels is committed to helping organizations and their employees be more productive in the simplest way possible.”
Parallels Remote Application Server (Parallels RAS) offers additional cloud ready deployment options for on premise, hybrid and public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, giving IT administrators increased agility with better performance. Parallels RAS also features support for active-active architecture, allowing improved scalability, enhanced system resilience, high availability and improved end-user experience.
In addition to built-in one-click printing already available in Parallels RAS HTML5 client, it now provides seamless auto-configured Parallels Client for a richer experience (including peripheral redirection, scanning, and local file access), plus better performance and customized manageability.
New iOS and Android clients in Parallels RAS v15.5 empower IT administrators and end users to use familiar native touch gestures on their tablets and phones when they access virtual desktops and apps. Thanks to proprietary Applification™ technology first available in Parallels Access, both iOS and Android users experience a home screen that resembles their familiar mobile user interface with app shortcuts that open full-screen with a tap, instead of a miniature computer desktop that’s not designed for touch. They also get new touch features, including a Lock-and-Go Magnifying Glass that dynamically changes its cursor and functionality to provide the right cursor to make resizing photos, dragging and dropping files, images or text a breeze. Watch short video demos the new Parallels RAS 15.5 mobile experience by clicking on these links for Android (http://bit.ly/BestAndroidExperience) and iOS (http://bit.ly/BestiOSExperience).
Parallels RAS offers IT administrators ultimate flexibility in delivering applications through Microsoft Remote Desktop Services — including high availability, two-factor authentication, reporting, and Windows Client Session Management. Parallels RAS solutions includes all components to take advantage of RDS without the need to purchase or install third party solutions.
Customer Testimonial
Healthcare providers today use electronic health record (EHR) solutions via Parallels RAS through partners such as MDS Medical, a managed service provider (MSP) and cloud service provider (CSP) that hosts its customers’ EHR data and makes it securely accessible to them from anywhere through any device.
“Parallels Remote Application Server is revolutionizing the way physicians and nurses deliver care by making it easy for them to use the popular Greenway Health Prime Suite (http://bit.ly/PrimeSuite) application from any device,” said William Schroeder, CEO at MDS Medical. “Now, care providers and clinical staff can be ‘on call’ and have unlimited access to patient charts, including full functionality found in the electronic medical record. This enables providers to efficiently manage patient treatment, prescription requests, and ensures timely and accurate charge capture from anywhere via an internet connection, just as easily as if they were working from within the office.”
Parallels RAS has more than 5,000 customers worldwide. Additional customer testimonials from sectors including healthcare, education, manufacturing, retail, managed service providers, independent software vendors, and banking are provided at the end of this press release.
New Parallels Partner Program
Today, Parallels RAS also upgraded its Parallels Partner Program (www.parallels.com/partners), which features improved margins for the channel, new management resources and tools to help Parallels partners grow their businesses. In addition, it provides customers cost-effective and simplified IT and end-user experiences that empower their organizations to thrive. Details about the new Parallels Partner Program were announced separately today and can be viewed here: http://bit.ly/NewParallelsPartnerProgram.
Parallels RAS hardware and channel partners include: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Hewlett Packard Inc. (HPI), Brocade, Nutanix, 10-Zig, iGel, SHI International, Data-Tech, and Insight.
Parallels RAS v15.5 Key Features:
Improved Scalability and Versatile Optimization
- Active-active architecture support, allowing the capacity to be easily scaled for enhanced system resilience, high availability and better end-user experience.
- Performance Optimizations for heavy workload scenarios across all Parallels RAS components: Publishing gateways, Web Portal, Client device manager, and Reporting Engine.
Windows Server 2016 Ready
- New capabilities for delivering applications and server-based desktops with Windows Server 2016 support.
New and Improved Parallels Client for iOS and Android
- New iOS and Android clients for Parallels RAS feature Applification™ technology, first used in Parallels Access, to enable desktop applications to be used with familiar touch gestures, as if they were native apps for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. See demo videos here for both Android (http://bit.ly/BestAndroidExperience) and iOS (http://bit.ly/BestiOSExperience).
Parallels HTML5 Gateway and Parallels HTML5 Client
- New policy for administrators to control end-user and end-point experience through Parallels Client (desktop) with enhanced features, or use of HTML5 client to launch applications and desktops.
- In addition to the Web Portal, Parallels HTML5 Gateway offers a lightweight and powerful option for application publishing.
Advanced Printing Options
- Adjustable printing and scanning compressions and increasing the number of virtual printers that can be created on a single server for enhanced stability and performance.
Cloud Support
- Cloud support for on premise, hybrid and public clouds, such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, giving IT administrators increased agility with improved performance.
Performance improvements to Parallels Client for iOS, Android, macOS and Linux
- Support for the latest RDP protocol capabilities including RemoteFX Progressive, as well as H.264 and ClearCodec for better client performance on non-Windows clients (iOS, Android, macOS and Linux).
Microphone redirection support on mobile and Mac clients
- Microphone redirection is now supported on Mac, iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets to enable sound recording functionality in applications.
Availability and Pricing
Download a free 30-day trial of Parallels Remote Application Server v15.5, which includes 50 concurrent user licenses, at www.parallels.com/ras.
Parallels RAS v15.5 is $99.99 per year for each concurrent user including all components, such as built-in load balancing. Parallels RAS v15.5 is available now, via online and approved resellers which can be found at www.parallels.com/products/ras/buy.
About Parallels
Parallels, a global leader in cross-platform solutions, makes it simple for customers to use and access the applications and files they need on any device or operating system. We help businesses and individuals to securely and productively use their favorite devices and preferred technology, whether it’s Windows®, Mac®, iOS, AndroidTM, Chromebook or the Cloud. Our solutions enable seamless delivery of virtual desktops and applications to any device, running Windows on a Mac, Mac management with Microsoft SCCM, and remote access to PCs and Macs from any device. Parallels has offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Visit www.parallels.com/about for more information.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Customer testimonials follow, after media contacts info below.
Parallels and the Parallels logo are registered trademarks of Parallels International GmbH in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Parallels RAS Customer Testimonials:
Godiva Chocolate, Tabor College, LUSH Cosmetics, Data-Tech and Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank of Japan, which are among the more than 5,000 Parallels RAS customers worldwide, shared the following comments about their experiences:
Healthcare
Stanislaus County Behavioral Health (California)
“Parallels
Remote Application Server has helped my organization publish our
Electronic Health Record Application to our internal users and
contractors.”
- Hector Ayala, Sr., Systems Engineer, Stanislaus County Behavioral Health
Norwegian American Hospital (Illinois)
“Parallels RAS
is easy to deploy and easy to manage. Our number one benefit is having
the ability to provide access to selected applications based on
user-group needs.”
- Mariusz Mazek, IT Manager at Norwegian American Hospital
Education
Tabor College (Kansas)
“With 4,500 students and 450
employees who mostly use Macs, we looked for a simplified IT management
system to simply and reliably deploy Windows applications to Macs and
iPads. Using Parallels Remote Application Server makes this so easy for
our IT Admins and simple for students and staff to use their devices
with applications they need, that it frees up a lot of time, so now our
IT team can focus on other priorities and be more productive. Now, we
publish Windows apps to PCs, Macs, Chromebooks, Android tablets and any
device with an HTML5 web browser.”
- Raymond Van Den Berg, Head Systems Administrator at Tabor College.
Enterprise South Liverpool Academy (United Kingdom)
“We
have 1,100 students and 150 staff, and needed to provide virtual
desktops and applications for them to use both at school and remotely.
We chose Parallels Remote Application Server, so students can access
applications like Microsoft Office or Adobe Suite (i.e. Photoshop)
software they couldn’t access at home because it is expensive. They may
not have access to a computer, and that´s why they use a tablet or a
small cheap laptop. Additionally, now we can deliver remote desktops and
apps via Microsoft Remote Desktop Services running Windows Server 2008
R2. Staff can now carry on working from home, via any device, as if they
were at school to access student data, records, files, folders for their
planning and work.”
- Chris Little, Trust Head of ICT, Enterprise South Liverpool Academy, Education
Retail, Services & Logistics
Godiva Chocolate (New York)
“Godiva has stores in
more than 80 countries. We used to update applications on each machine
manually which was time-consuming and cumbersome. Now, with Parallels
Remote Application Server, we just do an update once and publish it to
all users. It is an inexpensive solution that simplifies our IT
Management and makes it easy for employees to use the applications and
files they need from any device.”
- Thomas Cauwenberg, Godiva IT Service Delivery and Infrastructure Manager, Godiva
LUSH Cosmetics (United Kingdom)
“Switching to
Parallels Remote Application Server was simple, and significantly
reduced our licensing costs. We were able to easily create a stable
network environment that is easy to deploy and manage.”
- Dale Hobbs, Manager, Network and Security Systems, LUSH Cosmetics
Dr. Martens (Airwair) (United Kingdom)
“Parallels
Remote Application Server offers simple and secure access to core
applications and infrastructure from remote locations. The ability to
define access rights to specific applications at the user level is a
great advantage.”
- Nigel Harris, European Network Manager, Dr. Martens (Airwair).
Badcock Home Furniture & More (Alabama)
“High-quality
cross-platform support is the #1 benefit of the switch from Citrix to
Parallels Remote Application Server. Now we are able to efficiently
deliver desktops and applications to 1,000 users of Linux, Macintosh,
and Windows devices across eight states with ease.”
- Todd Zacharias, Manager IT Network Systems, Badcock Home Furniture & More
Brunel (The Netherlands)
“Our employees access
virtual desktops, applications and files and care deeply about the
computers and devices they use at work and home. Multi-device support
and easy access for employees were the main reasons we chose Parallels
Remote Application Server. Most importantly, its user-friendly portal
and easy to install clients worked well with RADIUS two-factor
authentications. Parallels RAS was simple to implement and had all of
the functionality we needed out-of-the-box, unlike other solutions. It
is a very good fit for our purposes.”
- Tom van Beest, Manager Infra Systems, Brunel Global IT
Banking/Finance
Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank (Japan)
"As a financial institution,
we are extremely sensitive to issues like data leaks from the
perspective of protecting our customers' data. For those of us in the
systems department responsible for the operational maintenance of the
bank's systems, thin clients offer an attractive system configuration.
We chose and implemented Parallels Remote Application Server to secure
our data systems and deploy virtual Windows desktops and applications to
about 400 Windows PCs, which significantly reduced operating costs of
our systems department.”
- Yoshitaka Kokubun, manager, Systems Department, Centralized Business Division, Kawaguchi-Shinkin Bank
Managed Service Providers
Data-Tech (Florida)
“Cost savings and simplicity were
the #1 benefits of the switch to Parallels RAS. Moreover, Parallels RAS
offered better management of infrastructure with an intuitive and
centralized dashboard.”
- Chris Lietz, President / CEO, Data-Tech
Independent Software Vendors
Orchestr8 (United Kingdom)
“Parallels Remote
Application Server has been the most reliable component within the whole
system. It has never failed to do its job. The main driving factor was
the cost of licensing, with parallels Remote Application Server being
considerably cheaper for concurrent users than Citrix.”
- Stuart Watton, Systems Manager, Orchestr8
Global Informatica (Italy)
“With Parallels RAS, we
are able to instantly deliver six different versions of our software to
more than 300 users from 30 customers. The customer experience has
improved significantly, with quick access to applications anywhere,
anytime.”
- Paolo Moleri, Marketing & Sales Director at Global Informatica
