At the
recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Parallels announced that Parallels
Remote Application Server (RAS) supports Microsoft Azure. This blog post will
show you this new support and what it now enables end users to do in Parallels
RAS. A future post will discuss in some detail how IT admins configure
Parallels RAS (and Azure) to provide this functionality to their end users.
For those of
you unfamiliar with Parallels RAS, it is a solution for virtual application and
desktop delivery. Parallels RAS is cloud ready and scalable, and supports
deployment through Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Parallels RAS
offers a native-like mobile experience on iOS and Android devices.
One of the
main attributes of Parallels RAS is that it is usable on almost any device—Mac
or Windows PC, iPad, iPhone, Android tablet and phone, the newer Surface tablet
from Microsoft, Chromebook, and Raspberry PI device—as well any device with an
HTML5 browser.
On a tablet
or phone, Parallels RAS gives the end user a natural user interface (UI) for
published applications, thanks to Parallels unique ApplificationTM technology.
By “natural user interface,” I mean a user interface that looks like the apps
are running directly on the device the user is holding. On an iPad, the
Parallels RAS user sees the iOS interface elements and uses the familiar iOS
touch gestures that are used with other iPad apps and it also uses an App
Launcher design similar to that of the iPad.
On an
Android tablet, the Android interface elements and familiar gestures are used
in Parallels RAS.
Video 1
shows Parallels RAS on an iPad Pro being used to access Office 2016 for Windows
in an Azure virtual machine. The guest OS in the Azure VM is Windows Server
2016 Datacenter. Even though Word 2016 is running in Windows Server, the UI
presented to the user is the union of the iPad UI and the Windows Server UI,
and this union of UIs gives the user the feeling that Word is running natively
on the iPad.
Video 1:
Using Microsoft Office on Azure via Parallels RAS: https://youtu.be/LwVEkWA9f5U
Video 2
shows Parallels RAS on an iPad Pro being used to access a variety of different
web browsers in an Azure VM running Windows Server 2016 Datacenter. This
capability is especially useful if your job requires website construction or
testing. Just point the browsers at your website’s staging server.
Video 2:
Using different browsers on Azure via Parallels RAS: https://youtu.be/59Ec0NBhM70
Video 3
shows Parallels RAS on an iPad Pro being used to access a Windows Server 2016
desktop. When the IT admin makes this option available, the user has almost all
the abilities they would have if they were sitting in front of the actual
server. “Almost all?” you ask? The user cannot shut down the server, since
other users may also be connected.
Video 3:
Virtual Windows Server desktop on Azure via Parallels RAS: https://youtu.be/cA2axpQ2Q9M
It’s easy
for you (or your IT admin) to experience a free trial of the Parallels Remote
Application Server. Start here.
What is your
experience with Parallels RAS on Azure?