Transcript
Mike Matchett: Hi my Matchett a Small World Big Data. We are here today talking about new and adventurous ways for you to connect with virtual machines and remote desktops and kind of bring that world back together. How many of you remember using parallels to do development work, or to run multiple VMs on your machines? Way back when? Well guess what? They're not only still going, they've got an alternative to VMware and Citrix as VMware gets acquired. A lot of people are looking for alternatives. Stay tuned and we're going to dig right into it. Hold on. Hey. Welcome, Carmel. Welcome to our show. Kamal Srinivasan: Thank you Mike, thanks for having me. And super excited to be here. Mike Matchett: I know, you know, parallels is something it's definitely a name that has brand recognition and particularly for a lot of us, and we tend to think of the parallels desktop utilities that we've used for a long time want to say decades. But certainly it was a long time where we were able to do this sort of home desktop virtualization and run our own VMs and guest VMs, you know, even before VMware really got popular on that. Tell us a little bit about what's been going on with parallels. If you can just bring us up to speed at a high level since those days, what's been happening with parallels? Kamal Srinivasan: Yeah, I'm. Sure many of you users have been using parallels, as you mentioned, for some time now. And traditionally parallels has been there for running windows on a mac, right? I've had this application, whether it's my Excel from way back with macros and like all these formulas that I've put in and I can't use the office for Mac and I need to use this Excel. I've been using that or I've had this application, which is a tax application or an accounting application, but moved to a mac, and I still have this application which can only be running on windows. Those were the normal typical use cases for which many of our users were traditionally using parallels. But over the years we've slowly evolved and I would say rather a little bit under the covers, evolving to both do two things right. So one is that like we've done the architecture support to go from x86 to ARM. So parallels now supports M-series with the officially supported way to run windows from Microsoft for all of the M-series Apple MacBooks, whether be it the MacBook air, MacBook pros, or even your desktops. And one of the ways this architecture support enhances is that, like if you notice parallels, not just parallels, but the Apple computers are going into the enterprise more and more. You see the MacBook being adopted within an enterprise. I'm seeing enterprise in a very generic way. But any kind of an organization, right, be it a healthcare, retail, manufacturing, um, offices, like knowledge workers in every different environment that they're going in. There are applications that, like prevent MacBooks from being used as a sole computer. So now with parallels, what we've enabled you to do is that like, hey, you can walk around with a MacBook and be fully functional if you're a developer, if you're a knowledge worker, if you happen to have these long tail of applications, or even in some cases, if you're stuck with a windows gaming that you'd like to do, still that you didn't want to give up, you can still do that all with Parallels Desktop. And the second part of what we've done is that, like, we've not just evolved the architecture of how this virtualization has moved, but we've introduced a rather brought this capability of a server virtualization and a cloud virtualization into parallels as a platform. So now a user or an admin trying to say, here is an application, I need the ability to securely provide access to this application, be it remotely, be it locally. I have an ability to come to parallels, pick parallels as a solution, and be able to use one of these products, whether it is Parallels Desktop, Parallels Remote Application Server, or now with our parallel secure Workspaces, which even gives access to SaaS applications or internal web applications. Right. So now you're able to come to parallels and look at this as a portfolio of solutions that helps you to deploy and manage remote access to these applications in a secure fashion. Mike Matchett: Guess I guess, like if I was to make one takeaway out of that, it's that parallels isn't simply Parallels Desktop anymore. It's a full way to deliver desktops applications and as you said, SaaS apps to whoever's got it right. So you know, you're not using the platform word lightly. It has become a full fledged enterprise solution for that. And people are now let's talk about that. People are now looking at VMware and their licenses for VMware and what they're doing with that, and how much that's costing. And with a lot of unknowns and risk there, they're looking for alternatives, not just alternatives cost wise, but alternatives gives them more flexibility, more agility and more ability to to support a hybrid architecture. How does parallels fit into that changing marketplace? Kamal Srinivasan: Yeah. So we do find look, I mean there's definitely market forces like VMware being acquired. And recently Citrix also right got acquired. And these are solutions that have existed in. Customer's premises or customer's deployment for quite some time. Now, when you consider their ability and their their willingness to move from that, there's definitely strong headwinds, be it due to different reasons, right? Channels, margins, cost, um, or shift in focus of roadmaps and evolution. So without having to go into all those, what would be the case? Customers and partners are looking at alternatives. And when they're looking at alternatives, they're looking at solutions that can give this broad portfolio of like, hey, I'm making this switch. I don't want to make a switch, and then eventually make another switch. I want to make a switch that gives an ability to give me access to applications from an endpoint perspective, applications from a server cloud perspective, but also giving applications that are not just about the legacy applications, but the SaaS applications. Right? So that is where we come into picture in the sense that, like, we are coming out and providing that platform for these users so that they can consider as as a strong alternative to whether VMware, whether Citrix from a market perspective, to be able to move to a reliable, scalable performance solution, right. That happens to bring and simplify their total cost of ownership. Because when you're moving, the last thing you want is the cost to be bloated or cost to be excessive. Um, and with parallels, um, many of our customers and partners, as they found out, is that like the TCO of having to migrate from their existing solution to parallels has been not only simple and easy, but also like from a cost, total cost of ownership has been much more efficient from that perspective. Mike Matchett: So so so a real, actual long term, long time solution validated solution to maybe look and say, hey, if I've got a lot of licensing and licensing costs going into VMware right now for desktops and other things in Citrix, as you mentioned, really should take a look at parallels and see what you guys can do in terms of making the environment more simpler and more effective. One of the one of the interesting things that comes to mind here, and I don't quite know how to say this concisely, but, you know, there's a there's a developer kind of mindset out there that says, I like to run guest VMs on my development environment, i.e. my own desktop. Right. Was parallels classic. But now you're saying as a platform, you can also then use parallels to be doing the the VDI and the remote application access and the secure security that goes with that. And the SaaS apps, does that, does that become seamless? Can developers get back to that, that that position where they can run their own guest VMs and be in charge of their own desktop environment and do that and still participate in this remote access environment? Kamal Srinivasan: Yes, yes. So with one of the things that we're trying to bring is this ability to say like, hey, how do I get from an endpoint perspective, I have my MacBook. I need even if it's a managed environment, right, like MacBook, how do I run my guest VMs? Maybe I'm a developer trying to do Linux or like open source Unix development that I have. And how do I enable that developer to be able to run that? Um, that VM itself may or may not be managed by the admin, but like nevertheless, it's an endpoint that is managed right. Uh, the same argument can be taken for the server. The server is managed or the cloud environment is managed, but the guest VM within that may be managed by the admin or may not be, uh, we provide the capability from the image management for the admin to be able to provide certified VMs that like the customer, the user can run because like, of course you don't want to be cognizant of the security and like those capabilities in there. So from that perspective, the VM itself may be an image that the admin has provided. But like, yes, the user can run the guest VMs, be it on the endpoint or on the remote desktops. Mike Matchett: It's image image management was something you've just really improved and enhanced in your latest version. 19.3 could you tell us a little bit about what kinds of improvements you've been doing to image management to make those even more rock solid. Kamal Srinivasan: Right. So absolutely, we just released our parallels 19.3 version, which went out in October of second week. And one of the things that like we had done there is that like when we think about parallels, it's for all these customers who are deploying and automating their environments and their IT within their IT infrastructure. So when you think about automation, then you need like ability to deploy templates. Those templates. Version tag those templates, be able to schedule automatic creation of those templates. So all of those things that like now that like an infrastructure person or an admin is thinking about from an automation perspective is now incorporated within parallels, which means if they are a customer that's moving from a Citrix or Webair and they had these automation scripts, they can bring those capabilities as they are migrating into the parallels environment. Right? So it's really providing that capability to say that like, hey, if I'm thinking of migration into parallels, I can really have all of my infrastructure, all of my scripts and everything being able to easily be ported into balance environment. The second part of what we did was definitely cost is a big thing, whether it is on premise or on Azure Virtual Desktop or or our own cloud infrastructure. Eventually. For any of those things. Being able to schedule and power, manage and scale or to scale these resources is very useful. Right. And that is what we've provided with 19.3 is to be able to schedule power manage for any of these verticals from an admin perspective, based on policies or even from some of the internal capabilities of automating that we've seen based on past patterns, as how does a customer get automatic power management on this thing? So that's what we've done as an enhancement in parallels as part of 19.3. Yeah, of course there are. Oh go ahead. Go ahead. Oh I was. Mike Matchett: Going to say I'm glad you mentioned scaling. I was just going to ask if you had any thoughts on how someone secures that hybrid environment. And, and by the way, you said hybrid before. Can you explain about the hybrid environment, particularly with regards to Azure that you're covering? Because this isn't just desktop. When we talk grass, we're talking cloud. Cloud desktops. Kamal Srinivasan: That's right. So with with Azure we specifically have integrated into Azure virtual desktops. So is the I would say the windows customers or any of the customers coming from Citrix or VMware. When they look at alternatives, they look at Azure Virtual Desktop as a natural extension because they are naturally, in many cases, an Azure customer, or even if they are not an Azure customer, happens to be a very strong alternative to Citrix or VMware. So what parallels has done is that like we've integrated with. So our control plane integrates with control plane. So you can deploy and manage the entire farm, just like an on premise using the same admin console, using the same end user experience from an end user perspective to be able to go have an application have a desktop running on in a cost effective way, right. So we do the cost management. We do like we are 75 to 80% lesser resource consumption over a vanilla AVD. And we are also able to have this unified client experience that like a admin that considers Azure Virtual desktop migration, doesn't have to do all that user's migrated in one go, but they have some of the users on premise, some of them on the environment, and they can do this hybrid management over time and eventually have a complete deployment. Right. So that's what we are enabling with this hybrid. And that's how we see the hybrid world. Right. Which is it is not going to be all or nothing, but rather sometimes it's faced. Sometimes you could have workloads move the other way too, which is from cloud to on premise. And sometimes you will take your own time to have this migration happen for a variety of business reasons, right? Like it's not a singular thing, and it's also different geos that have different needs for this thing. So that's where like we want to give that flexibility and choice to the customer and the right, right, right. Mike Matchett: I mean, because hybrid hybrid is going to mean different things to different people. But over time, you know, you need to control your cloud costs and you need to also ensure security. And you need to really give performance to people when they need it. And I like the fact that you can also still enable developers to still run their own guest VMs like we used to as well. Right? So there's this nested kind of interesting meta level to all this. And I know there's a lot of other good things going on. You know, you had some integration listed here with like Visual Studio and some new work and some other things, but we're sort of running out of time here. If there's is there, is there something you just really like to emphasize? Like if people are looking to really compare what they're doing with VMware today and take stock, what would what would you what would should they look at and how should they consider parallels as a solution? Kamal Srinivasan: Yeah, it's a. Simplicity, I would say. Like when customers are looking at this, they look at the simplicity of the solution as the biggest win. Because when you're coming from VMware or Citrix, the biggest thing is the need for a separate admin, the need for licensing that is not unified versus with parallels. Given a unified licensing where security management, load balancer, the connection brokers, the gateways, everything packaged into a unified licensing means that like it's easy for you to consider this entire package as one thing. And the second thing is that, like when you consider the deployment of the solution or the management of it, it's the ease of use with which you can migrate in days and not months to be able to get going. Awesome, awesome. I'll leave you users with that. Mike Matchett: Well, one last thing. One last thing before you go. If someone's now interested in parallels, and I don't want to say that they've lost interest over time, but some people have lost touch over time with the way this if someone. Wants to dive back in or just really saying, hey, parallels, this is cool. Where would you point them at? What would what would you have them do first? Kamal Srinivasan: Definitely parallels.com and we'll put the link below. Uh so definitely they can go try out Parallels Desktop. They can go try out Parallels or Parallels Secure Workspaces today. And we'll put a link to where you can go try any of these products. Mike Matchett: All right. And there you have it. You can just get to it right after you finish watching this. Thank you so much for being here today. Kamal Srinivasan: Thank you Mike. Thanks for having me. And looking forward. Mike Matchett: All right. Check out that link. Take care everyone. Bye. Thank you.
