About how many wonderful discoveries
prepare Parallels here
And Citrix, the careless ignorer
will disappear for a moment.
This article is a logical continuation of ""and is dedicated to my deeper acquaintance with Parallels, primarily with their Parallels RAS product. I recommend reading the previous article to fully understand my position. It is possible that some of you who read my article may seem somewhat aggressive towards Parallels. But if we are not surprised by aggressive marketing, then its constructive criticism should not be surprising either.In this introductory article, we will talk about positioning the Parallels RAS product on the market.
Parallels, a bit of history
I believe that Parallels should be considered from the perspective of its historical development. My acquaintance with the company happened more than 10 years ago, due to the forced need at that time to use Windows 7 on MacOS through Parallels Desktop. I have to say that this purchase has made my life easier. How much such a need still exists in 2020, and how many users buy a Mac to use Windows on it, I do not know. Parallels Desktop's competitors in this market segment are VMware Fusion and Oracle's free VirtualBox. In the context of our story, only the fact that Parallels acquired the Maltese company 2X Software in 2015 is interesting. In 2018 the company took over Parallels, which in no way affected its activities. In 2019, the parent company Corel ceased to exist as an independent company, as it was acquired by an investment fund .
If we look only at the Parallels portfolio, we can see that all products except RAS (Remote Application Server) are aimed exclusively at users of computers running macOS, both private and corporate, and in this it is a clear leader. All further narration will be devoted exclusively to the Parallels RAS product.
With the creator of Parallels RAS, at that time the company *, I encountered more than six years ago. At that time, I was interested in MDM (Mobile Device Management) manufacturers. The first line of the About 2X Software* page began with the phrase β2X Software is a global leader in virtual application and mobile device management solutions.β I was somewhat taken aback by the boldness of such a statement, believing that there were two real leaders, AirWatch and MobileIron, I even had to read the Gartner Magic Quadrant - Unified Endpoint Management of that time. But 2X Software was not on the leaderboard, it was not at all in comparison from Gartner. I sincerely understand that if someone calls himself Napoleon, then he does not need to be convinced otherwise, he needs to be shown mercy. Maybe I'm wrong, but even in self-promotion you can't be so out of touch with reality. (*the company offered its customers two products: X2 RAS 2X MDM).
How popular is the product, how is it positioned and what is its real market share?
Perhaps the discussion of market share is the most difficult issue for any IT manufacturer, since there are no real methods for independent assessment. The same goes for popularity. As an independent source, I propose to consider five reports produced by the following organizations:
1.IDC (International Data Corporation). In this case, we will consider and compare two reports:
- IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Virtual Client Computing Software 2016 Vendor Assessment
- IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Virtual Client Computing 2019 β 2020 Vendor Assessment
The graphs clearly show that the position of Parallels over the past four years has undergone, from my point of view, significant changes, and, it seems to me, not in a positive direction.
In 2016, being in the group of major players (Major Players), Parallels came close to the group of leaders, but four years later, Parallels fell behind them, approaching the group of contenders (Contenders). Is it success?
2. VDI like a PRO. In this case, we are talking about a report created by three recognized EUC experts. The report is based on a survey of a fairly significant number of participants (2018 - 750, 2019 - 582, 2020 - 695):
- State of the VDI and SBC union 2017 β Authors: Ruben Spruijt and Mark Plettenberg
- End User Computing State of the Union 2018 β Authors: Ruben Spruijt and Mark Plettenberg
- End User Computing State of the Union 2019 β Authors: Ruben Spruijt, Christiaan Brinkhoff and Mark Plettenberg
- End User Computing State of the Union 2020 β Authors: Ruben Spruijt, Christiaan Brinkhoff and Mark Plettenberg
The following questions were asked during the survey:
- 2018 β 2019 βWhich VDI solution is used in your local infrastructure?β
- 2018 β 2019 βWhich SBC solution is currently deployed on your local infrastructure?β
- 2020 Which SBC and VDI solution is currently deployed on your local infrastructure?
I suppose you are as surprised as I am how such a development was possible? How did Parallels achieve such amazing popularity in 2019 and drop to zero in 2020? Let's start with the fact that in 2019 Parallels was, along with Bitdefender, one of the sponsors of the report. The very fact of sponsorship is not a problem, but let's not confuse sponsorship with charity. Sponsorship implies the preservation of investments and their return in a different form. A small story from life. The wife of a friend of mine opened a beauty salon, I was asked to positively mark it in one of their social networks, which I did, of course, in a friendly way ... After a while, the salon page had more than a significant number of positive responses.
As for the positioning of the product on the market, it is somewhat unusual. If you read the materials on the Parallels RAS page, then you will probably be as surprised as I am by the constant one-sided comparisons of Parallels RAS with Citrix products. By the way, why Citrix and not VMware? Maybe they see Citrix as a real market leader, which they are trying to equal?
If we turn to the above reports, it will be difficult not to notice another product that occupies a leading position, namely VMware Horizon. Or is it that Parallels RAS is only better than Citrix, but worse than VMware Horizon? Why doesn't it explain why a Microsoft RDS client (the basis for CVAD, Horizon, and Parallels RAS) needs an addition to an existing, usually small, budget RDS infrastructure at all? The existing comparison with Microsoft does not look convincing.
To explain what Citrix is, in the past I have used the comparison to car tuning. So, let's start with the fact that all the above products perform the same main task, namely, the transfer of an image of the working screen (HSD / VDI) located in the data center to any user device. At the same time, the distance from the user to the data center should not have a negative impact on the quality of its work. Thus, it is the protocols for providing terminal access that are the key element. If we go back to our comparison with car tuning, then Microsoft RDP is our good base kit (constantly improved with each new version), Citrix HDX or VMware Blast Extreme is our high-quality, serious tuning. If we talk about tuning, then it can be very different. A full-fledged tuning changes the key basic parameters of the engine, chassis, brake system, etc. Serious tuning includes brands such as Brabus, Alpina, Carlsson. And you can contact the workshop around the corner, and thus, for a relatively small amount, embellish the βbasic equipmentβ.
Parallels RAS does not have its own data transfer protocol, but uses the "basic package" RDP. Parallels RAS is (based on my brief and superficial acquaintance with the product) primarily a more convenient and relatively easy-to-use RDS infrastructure management console, with the replacement of some components with our own.
About some bold statements
I believe that this article is not quite suitable for a detailed discussion of the product architecture. Well, if you believe the statements on the official page, then Parallels RAS is so simple and intuitive that it only takes a couple of minutes to deploy it. βInstalling and configuring Parallels RAS is simple and straightforward. The default setup can create a fully functional environment in just a few minutes without requiring any training".
The question arises, what kind of deployment are we talking about? Let's imagine that a potential customer downloaded a test version and decided to take the installation of the product more seriously than "Next, Next, Finish" by selecting the "Custom" installation mode.
Ask yourself one simple question, which components should be installed first? And remember, you have a few minutes? Of course, I understand that all this is advertising, and other Parallels documents already talk about two to three weeks from PoC to Roll-Out. But should advertising be so different from reality?
The following diagram is an example of a 5000 user architecture, impressive isn't it? As they say, there are not many good components.
Conclusion
Parallels RAS is indeed quite an interesting solution, and it does evolve with additional new features added regularly, butβ¦
Dear colleagues, maybe you should evaluate your product more realistically, and not try to unrestrainedly assert about the "undeniable" shortcomings of competitors' products, primarily Citrix, but describe realistic Use Cases?
I would also like to recall one more indisputable fact that for any large system integrator, it is important to offer the client a choice of several of the best solutions on the market, objectively presenting their advantages and disadvantages. Many customers limit their choice to current Magic Qandrant leaders, initially filtering out all niche solutions.
I would be glad to know your experience in integrating the above product, if any.
Always welcome constructive comments.
To be continued ...
PS It is interesting to cooperate with colleagues from Parallels RAS in order to improve the quality of the material.
Source: habr.com