Tabor College Simplifies IT
“Parallels Remote Application Server is a good solution. It has simplified IT management and significantly reduced admin tasks. Now admins get less work.”
Raymond Van Den Berg – Head Systems Administrator
Tabor College chose Parallels Remote Application Server to effectively publish Windows applications on remote Mac devices while easily managing the infrastructure from a centralized location.
Company Overview
Tabor College is a popular educational institute located in Hoorn, Netherlands. The college is named after Mount Tabor, which is located in the northern region of Israel. Tabor is a big school with 4,500 students and 450 employees, including academic, financial, planning, and administration staff. In addition to offering quality education through regular classroom lessons, Tabor provides a broad learning environment with theater, music, excursions, and sports tournaments.
The Challenge
Tabor College has a large network infrastructure with 4,500 students and 450 employees. Most of the systems used in the network are Apple products, including iPad and MacBook devices. The college uses personalized applications, such as a special design software called Zermelo and a financial software, along with regular Microsoft Office applications. The main challenge was to provide access to Windows applications from Mac devices. There was also a great deal of administration work required, as the administrators had to create images and manage upgrades and patches. They managed the network with Active Directory and Microsoft policies, profiles, and RDS. The college needed a system which made it simple and easy to publish resources to remote users.
The Solution
Tabor College chose Parallels Remote Application Server to effectively publish desktops and applications to predominately Mac remote devices. Windows Remote Desktop Services was configured, and Windows 2008 R2 was installed as the server. One virtual machine was running on VMware. A backup server was configured which performed the backup in real time, and NetApp backup was also available. There were 150 connections, including students and finance, planning, and administration staff. In total, there were 80 concurrent connections, although lately, the peak usage has been about 20 concurrent users. Most users received the full desktop. In addition to generic office applications, the college published special design software Zermelo, finance applications, and HR software. Parallels Remote Application Server was also used to publish Windows applications remotely, mostly to Mac devices. Specifically, 95% of devices were Mac-based, and only 5% of devices were Windows-based. The college relied mainly on the application publishing and desktop management features of Parallels Remote Application Server.
Key Benefits
Tabor College realized an immediate benefit with a simplified IT management system. Earlier, IT administrators had to work more on time-consuming administrative tasks, as they were responsible for desktop and IT management. With Parallels Remote Application Server, the college was able to consolidate all of its IT operations across the institution. Users are now responsible for their own devices.
Another important benefit was the ease with which the college was able to remotely publish Windows applications to Mac devices. With 95% of devices running on iOS, Parallels Remote Application Server made it easy for admins to publish Windows applications to remote Mac devices.
By using Parallels Remote Application Server, the college was able to set up a steady and reliable network. The application delivery tool was easy to deploy and use, and all the basic options came auto-configured. Tabor College is very satisfied with Parallels Remote Application Server.
About Tabor College
Tabor College is a leading Catholic educational institution in the Netherlands. The college is named after Mount Tabor in Israel because the institution takes inspiration from the teachings of Jesus, Moses and Elijah on Mount Tabor, where they pointed toward a better society. The college provides quality education in a sound environment. For more information, visit tabor.nl/.
About Parallels
Parallels is a global leader in cross-platform solutions which make it possible and simple for customers to use and access the applications and files they need on any device or operating system. Parallels helps customers take advantage of the best technology out there, whether it’s Windows, Mac, iOS, Android™ or the cloud. Parallels solves complex engineering and user experience problems by making it simple and cost-effective for businesses and individual customers to use applications wherever they may be—local, remote, in the private datacenter or in the cloud. Parallels has offices in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Visit www.parallels.com/about for more information.
