Remote Desktop Services vs. Zoho Assist

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.

We were previously using another remote support solution, but when their pricing increased significantly, we began looking for alternatives. That’s when we discovered Zoho Assist. It offers the same level of functionality and reliability as our previous provider—at a much more reasonable cost. I have already recommended Zoho Assist to multiple other IT professionals.

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

• One user's computer screen is black, no task bar and start button, after system crush, Unattended Access help me remote control it and use tools under quick Launch to change system settings and created new account for the user, so she can work few hours later.
• One user computer need help vpn setup but it is not on Unattended Access list, so I create a temporarily Remote Support session, send the link to him by WhatsApp, after he download and install agent, I can connect and remote control it.
• Sometimes user computer has randomly happening issue, I will connect it by Zoho Assist, record the remote screen, then will catch the issue and know it's triggered
• sometimes I use video chat as a meeting tool with users
• The file transfer by web client is useful for me, most of time is to upload files into user computer when it is not able to access our network drive

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

• Improve connection times, especially when I'm on the move and the areas that I go to have low bandwidth, which affect the performance of Zoho Assist in my device.
• Allow Zoho Assist to be integrated to other applications
• Increase file transfer limits

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

The system works. It is well designed and implemented. If the product didn't work, I wouldn't waste my time or my resources on it, but it does. When I connect to a system, it is as if I am at my clients location, sitting at their keyboard. It just works.

Incentivized

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

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

Support is terrible. Quick to initially respond with the boilerplate "The information provided by you should be sufficient for my development team to analyse this further. I shall also write back to you as soon as I get an update from them on this
regard." And then you will hear nothing more from them. Chase further and you'll get stock responses such as "Our development team are still looking into this," etc.

Make it easier to deploy mulitple agents for different departments.

Incentivized

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

We also evaluated Intune remote support offering and TeamViewer. Those two performed worse than Zoho Assist, despite being more expensive, and their multi-platform support didn't match Zoho Assist either. So choosing the latter was a no-brainer for us.

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

• Using Zoho Assist has saved us hundreds of dollars in remote support fees.
• The ability to give remote support has not only saved our IT department time and money, but has impacted every department in our organization.
• Remote support has allowed us to keep our IT staffing costs low. Instead of hiring more people to move around and manage the flow across the organization, less people can manage more and "be in more than one place at a time".

Incentivized