While multiple forms of desktop virtualization have been developed over the years, the simple fact is that none of them have taken the market by storm. Many IT organizations have found desktop virtualization in all its forms cumbersome to deploy and manage. Add on to that the cost of the privilege of acquiring desktop virtualization technologies and it becomes understandable why, despite the management advantages afforded, desktop virtualization has yet to find mainstream adoption.
But starting today Parallels is moving to change all that with the launch of version 15 of the Parallels Remote Application Server. Based on software that Parallels gained when it acquired 2X Software last year, Parallels President Jack Zubarev says, most IT organizations can spin up Parallels Remote Application Server in about 15 minutes. A major reason for that is that the latest version of Parallel Remote Application Server automates Windows Serverconfiguration, application publishing and client configuration using wizards developed by Parallels.
Better still, Zubarev says, the total cost of deploying Parallels Remote Application Server is as much as 70 percent less than comparable platforms from VMware and 57 percent less than Citrix.
Parallels Remote Application Server makes use of the Microsoft RDS/RDSH protocols on an installed hypervisor to deliver Windows applications to any device. The latest version also makes it possible for end users to leverage support for HTML5 to copy and paste data between applications via Parallels Remote Application Server.
Primarily known for making it possible to run Windows applications on Apple systems, Parallels is now clearly extending the scope and reach of its desktop virtualization ambitions. The challenge now is getting IT organizations to take a second look at a class of technologies that many of them have for one reason or another already dismissed.