What is Microsoft Azure RemoteApp?
Microsoft Azure RemoteApp allows employees to work remotely, via any internet-based device, while business applications are run on a Windows server in the Azure cloud.
Azure RemoteApp is supported on the RemoteApp client apps for Windows and Windows RT, as well as the Microsoft Remote Desktop apps for Mac, iOS and Android. Your users can use these apps on their mobile or compute devices to access the new Azure RemoteApp programs. See Accessing your apps in Azure RemoteApp for more information about the clients. Access desktops powered by Windows Server Remote Desktop Services desktops and apps at no additional cost if you are an eligible Microsoft Remote Desktop Services (RDS) Client Access License (CAL) customer. You need an Azure account to quickly deploy and manage your virtualization environment. Both are platforms similar to Azure RemoteApp, but built as an overlay to manage Infrastructure-a-a-Service. The main difference between the 2 alternatives is cost. Because Citrix uses their own proprietary protocol and Connection Broker rather than native Microsoft Remote Desktop Services, the cost is about 50% more expensive than MyCloudIT.
End-of-Life announcement of Microsoft Azure RemoteApp
Back in August 2016, Microsoft announced the End-of-Life of Microsoft Azure RemoteApp. Microsoft also announced that Microsoft Azure RemoteApp would no longer be sold to new customers after October 2016, but they continued to support their existing customers until the end of August 2017. From then on, Microsoft Azure RemoteApp hasn’t been available.
Does Microsoft have any plans in the pipeline for a new RemoteApp?
![Remote desktop for azure Remote desktop for azure](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118661280/164466787.png)
Microsoft announced their partnership with Citrix and that they are working together to develop the next generation of the Azure RemoteApp service: the new Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essentials Service (previously XenApp “express”). Citrix will improve upon Microsoft’s vision of Azure RemoteApp by using their Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) technology to provide additional management, user experience, and security features.
What does this mean for Microsoft Azure RemoteApp customers?
Most organizations would be required to move their apps to the cloud, as well as move their supporting infrastructure. While many suggest Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essentials as a preferred replacement service, Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) can offer several advantages—and it is a better alternative already today.
Citrix solutions are quite costly, and users moving to Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essentials would have to deal with all these challenges as well.
Parallels® has already assisted many organizations in the migration from Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) to Parallels RAS. Our solution is cost-effective and simple. Parallels RAS offers the same features as Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp)—and many more—while simplifying the migration process for IT managers.
Three good reasons to choose Parallels RAS over Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essential
Pricing
Parallels RAS is offered by subscription or in SPLA. The subscription list price per concurrent user per year is $99.99, or $8.33 per user per month. This makes Parallels RAS over 30% more cost-effective than Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essentials (when no Citrix add-ons are considered).
Testing and Trial
In general, Citrix does not provide free trials for any of the Essentials services. Customers have to buy the minimum quantity from Azure Marketplace (25 users), which comes to $456.25 (without including Azure compute costs). Citrix only allows trials of Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essentials as an exception and on a limited basis. Citrix will evaluate each request and reach out to customers as the trial is available to them.
With Parallels RAS, access to trials is granted instantly, providing any customer a free 30-day trial period for 50 concurrent users, with access to all features and functions. Trial experience from Azure Marketplace can be accessed from the Azure marketplace.
Licensing
Citrix provides different licenses for different functionalities. Citrix cloud-based deployment options are: Azure Marketplace Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Essentials; Azure Marketplace Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop (formerly Citrix XenDesktop) Essentials; traditional Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) or Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop (formerly Citrix XenDesktop) deployed separately in the cloud; Citrix Cloud Citrix Virtual Apps (formerly Citrix XenApp) Service; and Citrix Virtual Apps and Desktop (formerly Citrix XenDesktop) Service.
![Remote Remote](/uploads/1/1/8/6/118661280/519656796.jpg)
With Parallels RAS, all features are provided with an all-in-one license. This eliminates the complexity of evaluating which license best suits your business needs and provides enterprise features to any company—no matter the size—out of the box.
References
Since Microsoft introduced Terminal Services with Windows Server 2008, it is possible to host multiuser Microsoft Access applications (and other programs) without installing anything on the user's machines. Your users can run the programs from within your corporate network, or even across the Internet when hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud. As a result, PC and Mac users can run your Access solution.
We can help you evaluate the options and tradeoffs, and implement a migration path to ensure a smooth transition to a remote hosted platform.
FMS President Luke Chung is one of the world leading experts on hosting Microsoft Access solutions on remote servers. Leveraging his extensive knowledge of Access application development, he has extensively researched how to configure, license, secure, deploy and maintain such solutions over time.
He has given talks on this subject at several conferences in the US and Europe, and ensures our team delivers such solutions on your internal network and Azure cloud. During the 2020 Virtual Access DevCon, he gave a presentation on RemoteApp and Microsoft Access Database Applications, which is available for everyone to watch!
Let us help you increase the value of your investment in Access applications.
You can provide your users a Remote Desktop or Remote App experience.
- Remote Desktop lets your users connect to the server and launch a Windows desktop environment. They can run File Explorer, and any other programs they have permission to run as if they had their own PC.
- Remote App lets you only run your Access application without the rest of Windows. It appears as if Access is running on their local desktop. Your database appears in a Window but it's actually running on the remote server.
Either configuration makes it easy to support and deploy Microsoft Access solutions to your users since you can install and control the Access version they run, dependencies and your Access application all in one place.
Hosting On-Premise or Internet Cloud with Microsoft Azure
Your Microsoft Access application can be hosted on a server on your internal network or on a virtual machine on the Microsoft Access cloud.
There are advantages and disadvantages of both platforms that need to be considered based on the locations, and security requirements of your users and organization.
Making Sure Your Access Application is Ready to Run Remotely
We can help you design and prepare your application to support a multi-user environment on a remote server. This includes making sure your Access application is a multi-user compatible, split-database architecture that is configured to deploy the front-end to each user's profile folder with the proper permissions.
Remote Desktop For Azure
With our Total Access Analyzer product, internal tools and knowledge of Access application Best Practices, we can asses your application and address any issues that may block a successful deployment.
We can also implement enhancements that make your Access application look and run more professionally.
We can help you configure your server or create a new virtual machine on the Microsoft Azure cloud to host your Access application(s). Issues to consider:
- Windows Server licenses
- Remote Desktop user licenses (CALs)
- Installation of the free Access runtime or Office 365 subscriptions
- Options for handling users running multiple Access applications and launching them at the same time
- Security settings for authorized connections based on users and IP addresses
Once the server is properly configured, we can create a remote desktop or remote app link for your users to launch your Access application.
Once you are hosting your MS Access application in a remote environment, you become responsible for system administration to maintain it over time.
- We can help you implement in your Access application, comprehensive error handling with logging so problems can be tracked and addressed based on priority.
- Migrate your backend database from an Access database to SQL Server, including SQL Azure.
- Monitoring performance and security.
- With our Total Access Startup product, we make it easy to deploy new updates to each user every time they log in.
- With our Total Visual Agent product, we can ensure your backend Access database is properly backed up and compacted on a regular schedule.
We can help you on a project basis, so that our engagement ends upon deployment, or we can host, monitor, and enhance your applications over time through a service level agreement.
Remote Desktop Azure App Service
Contact us to schedule our services or ask any questions.