Citrix Replacement? Why Parallels RAS is One of the Best Alternatives

Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops (formerly XenApp and XenDesktop) is a popular choice for many organizations when it comes to a virtualization solution, however, it can be costly for your business and complicated to set up and maintain.

On the other hand, Parallels ® Remote Application Server (RAS) enables seamless access to corporate resources at a fraction of the cost compared to Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktops, and it’s simpler to deploy and manage.

Read more on how Parallels RAS is an ideal Citrix replacement for your organization.

Citrix Limitations

Costly and Complex Licensing

One of the main disadvantages of Citrix is that it has an expensive and multi-edition licensing model. Citrix pricing and licensing are complex due to the different products, editions, on-premises, stand-alone and workspace licenses. Organizations must carefully analyze the matrixes, editions and documentation before choosing the product and edition that best fits their requirements, in order to adjust budgets and avoid overpaying for unneeded features.

Parallels RAS is an all-in-one virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solution that lowers the total cost of ownership (TCO), which makes it a worthwhile Citrix replacement. It simplifies licensing by offering a single, full-featured edition that is licensed by concurrent user. Enterprise features such as Universal Printing and Scanning, gateway high-availability, reporting and smart load-balancing are included and ready to use straight out of the box. Free training is also provided.

Complicated Installation

A complete Citrix virtualization solution requires multiple components to be installed and maintained, increasing management efforts. Not only does Citrix recommend that some of these components be duplicated in order to guarantee high availability, but it is suggested that most of them be installed on dedicated servers; hence, the infrastructure becomes larger and difficult to deploy and manage.

Parallels RAS is known for its ease of use, from the early stages of the installation to scaling up the whole setup. Parallels RAS can be installed by non-specialized team members within a few minutes, using a simple wizard-driven installation. Parallels RAS does not require additional add-ons or components such as a separate license server or a database server, meaning that once the software is installed, everything can be done easily in the central management console. It’s possible to publish applications or virtual desktops and configure permissions with just a few clicks.

Deprecation of Public Cloud Support from On-Premises Current Releases

In March 2020 Citrix announced the deprecation of public cloud support from on-premises Current Releases (CRs). This means that Citrix customers who are running these versions over hybrid or public cloud Virtual Apps and Desktop deployments, need to migrate their workloads to the Citrix Cloud to ensure their setup is supported.

Parallels RAS, supports workloads over both on-premises infrastructure and cloud providers, irrespective of the version release, allowing organizations to choose the workload distribution that best fits their needs. The Parallels RAS built-in automation capabilities include several pre-defined optimizations not only for RDSH but also for VDI and Windows Virtual Desktop resources, such as network performance or visual effects, to ensure efficient and improved delivery of all published applications and desktops.

Testimonials

Don’t just take our word for it that Parallels RAS is a great Citrix replacement. Here are what some of our happy Parallels RAS customers have to say on TrustRadius:

Interested in trying out Parallels RAS for yourself to see how it can benefit your organization? Download a 30-day free trial!