SolarWinds Dameware Remote Support (DRS) vs. Remote Desktop Services

I feel like this is a very robust solution that I would recommend to anyone who relies heavily on remote support. Most of the colleagues I work with already use SolarWinds products to one extent or the other. I feel the price for the solution is very fair and a good value for the product.

Incentivized

Remote Desktop Services provides access to work environments from any device. This allows us to ensure business continuity in case of disaster. It provides admins more control over access and security. Remote Desktop Services simplifies software updates and compliance management by reducing the need to act on end users devices.

• DameWare Remote Support allows us to connect to the desktop of a user very easily and quickly. It can be configured to use different levels of security making it both fast and secure.
• DameWare Remote Support can be deployed to all computers in the environment quickly using the built in capabilities of DameWare.
• DameWare provides the ability to get system information as well using the full client not the mini remote control. This is handy in finding running services, events logs, etc and all based on our AD structure.

Incentivized

• Relative ease of setup: in comparison to some of the other solutions on the market (Citrix, etc.), Remote Desktop Services is rather easy to set up and get configured in your environment.
• Feature set: Microsoft offers a good deal of the same features many competitors offer in the same space including a mobile app and the ability to have a "native" app feel for a remote application.
• Inexpensive Licensing: in comparison to other solutions on the market Remote Desktop Services is inexpensive.
• Move LOB applications closer to their server counterparts: this goes for all remote solutions, but if you have a line of business application that makes a great deal of calls across the network to your data center, your remote office users will likely benefit from the performance and stability side by moving those client side applications into the data center.

Incentivized

• Connecting to last session is not always the last session.
• Saving your position in the Personal Host List would be helpful. I have a folder structure 3 levels deep and when I'm going through a list of computers it is frustrating to have to browse down through the same levels each time.
• When connecting to a host, an entry is saved in Saved Host List (even duplicates). I would be nice to have an option to save or not save like a quick connect option.
• DameWare Mobile has separate password than desktop and cannot be linked to Active Directory password like desktop.

Incentivized

• Advanced configuration is required.
• Off-site access from a different network is very insecure unless a VPN can be used.
• It's complicated and relatively costly for multi-user environments, as each user or device requires a CAL on top of the server licensing.
• Incredibly complicated licensing strategy from Microsoft.

Incentivized

We like DRS for remote support and have been using it for several years. It has made it easy to support our on network users when "hands on" support is required. We currently don't use DRS to its fullest simply because there are other tools that are easier to use, for instance we use AD Manager Plus to handle our AD tasks. I've not found DRS to be all that intuitive to use for anything other than remote support with the Mini Remote Control.

Incentivized

It's effective and easy. It'll do what you want it to do as long as you don't expect the world. I expect it would be even better if you were a Solar Wind shop; for us this is the only thing we use from them, mainly due to price point on other components

Incentivized

Once set up it works well and is extremely easy for users. Getting it right can be difficult, it is easy to setup insecurely. Maintenance can be difficult with only a single broker and with manual switchover required for redundant gateways. Troubleshooting access issues can also be difficult

Incentivized

Yes, always available.

Incentivized

The application always seems responsive to me

Incentivized

There are some third party tools available that allow you to manage multiple connections.

Incentivized

I use a Samsung mobile device; DameWare Mobile was working and then after an Android update it started crashing. I reported the issue to DameWare and worked with the technicians and developers to gather data for them to correct the issue. They quickly published a beta release for me to test (which corrected the crashes) and then published an update to the Google Play Store.

Incentivized

As with any Microsoft Server product, support for Remote Desktop Services requires a paid support package. These are license-based and very costly, on top of the already costly product licensing. Microsoft's licensing is complicated to begin with, so setting up licensing alone essentially requires a licensing expert's counsel. There is community documentation and support available on Microsoft websites, as well as community websites.

Incentivized

It was excellent

Incentivized

The videos were more than sufficient to learn the product

Incentivized

It helps greatly if you know someone already using DameWare Remote Support. I was fortunate as my tech support guys were using it at their hospital and assisted me through the purchase, download and implementation of remote support. As well as, knowing how many licenses to purchase at the time. You have to make sure that anyone assisting in IT can have access to the program with their own license.

Incentivized

SCCM is pretty decent as a Remote Support tool, the main difference is that, as SCCM is much more, it takes long time to load and uses u lots of resources that are wasted if you only uses it to Remote. Dameware Remote Support is specialized software, so it is powerful enough for all your needs, while being light enough to barely make a dent on the system resources.

We used RDS on-site primarily because of how easy it is for users to transition from their own desktop to a remote desktop. However, from off-site, there are VPN and other security considerations to take into account, and the process gets a little more complex. In this situation, especially if you're trying to support a user who is outside the local network, it can be easier to use something like Chrome Remote Desktop or TeamViewer. However, the Windows functionality of RDS is totally unmatched.

Incentivized

You get an 8 because of the constant initial freeze on most connections. Takes a reconnect to have it work.

Incentivized

• DameWare has allowed us to maintain our non-traditional approach to IT support. It allows our administrators to work from anywhere and has extended their reach to clients domestic and abroad.
• Return on investment was realized as soon as we purchased the licenses. We don't have to maintain a large office space or overhead costs due to the flexibility it allows our administrators.
• First call resolution has increased drastically since implementing DameWare company-wide. The user no longer has to wait to reproduce an error. We can screen share and view it as it happens and mitigate the issues.

Incentivized

• Remote Desktop Services has had a major positive ROI impact at our firm. There were a number of times when our staff was traveling abroad to business meetings with a laptop that had missing presentations. But once they had internet access, a Remote Desktop Services connection is established, and presentation data can now be shown directly from their laptops as if theyr'e sitting in our office.
• Remote Desktop Services has made it possible for Mac staff users to use their computing devices to access our network system to run Windows applications and access all our network data.
• Remote Desktop Services has made it possible for our staff to successfully work remotely from outside the office. There were many occasions when emergencies came up which prevented staff from coming into the office to work. But as long as they have a computer with an internet connection, they used Remote Desktop Services to connect to our terminal server and successfully ran the programs to modify data files on the network without losing a beat.

Incentivized