“I worked with Citrix over 15 years, and switching to Parallels RAS was easy. The experience is really good so far. I would recommend Parallels RAS for ease of setup and administration—it’s easy to update the core environment, the price is much cheaper than Citrix, and at the end, it does the same thing for our needs.”
Virtual Systems Administrator, User Systems at EBC
The challengeDeliver updated VDI with the power to run CAD software to teams across Canada
EBC Inc. is a major Canadian construction company based in Quebec, founded in 1968, and specializing in civil engineering, building construction, and mining projects across Canada.
The company is a leading contractor for infrastructure projects like bridges and tunnels, renewable energy projects like wind and power, and institutional buildings. With over 2,300 employees spanning large-scale, complex projects, they need constant, secure access to data across multiple locations.
Their Citrix license was going to expire in September 2025, so they needed to decide if they wanted to continue with that license or look at other options. Cost was a consideration, and they wanted to find an option that might better fit their budget—while still delivering all the features and performance they were familiar with in their existing hybrid environment.
Through Citrix, EBC was running a large number of servers for multi-user sessions. They also had virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) users that needed to access construction software like AutoCAD, Civil 3D, Navisworks, and Revit—all of which can be incredibly demanding on a device’s CPU and RAM and often require GPU acceleration to run efficiently.
If they were going to migrate from Citrix, EBC needed to find a solution that could:
- Support a migration from existing VDI environments to newer platforms
- Maintain performance under the extensive resource demands of CAD software
- Deliver the same (or better) user experience
- And support the levels of security they needed, including integrating with existing multi-factor authentication (MFA)
The testCould Parallels RAS deliver performance, support heavy resource usage, and match user experience?
After meeting the Parallels team at an event hosted by XenTegra Canada, EBC decided to run a proof-of-concept test for Parallels RAS, running it side by side with their existing Citrix environment. They set up the core structure for Parallels RAS in just one day, and then to start the process for a complex migration, they took about a month to set up multiple VDI environments and supporting infrastructure with the appropriate apps and settings.
The proof-of-concept test ran for three months, starting with a group of test users across both session-based and VDI environments. In the test, they ran Microsoft Office products and Autodesk solutions, as well as testing MFA functionality, native client utilization and deployment, Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) performance, and high-availability load balancing performance.
Throughout the test, they also migrated users from Citrix to Parallels RAS in two additional phases per week to monitor performance over time with higher usage.
“During the proof-of-concept, the go/no-go was really about if the VDI we were migrating could run well with Parallels RAS. Having Citrix and Parallels RAS side by side, it was easy to compare,” said Fabrice Paccou, Virtual Systems Administrator, User Systems at EBC. “We put some end users that work heavily with Autodesk solutions on Parallels RAS, and they said the response was good. I was happy about that because Citrix uses HDX protocol, and Parallels RAS doesn’t.”
The solutionParallels RAS connected users with essential construction software through app publishing and remote desktops
EBC uses Parallels RAS daily to connect users with resource-intensive CAD software, running 300 licenses and 250 users every day. Additionally, they’re able to do it all through one single administrator.
“The feature that I use every day is the admin console. It’s easy to understand and work with quickly.”
Virtual Systems Administrator, User Systems at EBC
Additionally, the team at EBC has reported a positive experience with the Parallels team in learning all the features available to them. They want to understand as much as possible about the software so they can get the most out of it, and says the Parallels team has been really helpful in that regard.
The resultEBC Inc. cuts costs—without cutting performance or availability—by switching from Citrix to Parallels RAS
On top of a positive user experience that delivered the same results they were seeing with Citrix, Parallels RAS was able to meet the various criteria the EBC team needed:
- Successfully migrated from VDI environments to newer platforms
- Ensured security through MFA integration
- Supported resource-heavy applications for CAD and engineering
Additionally, the EBC team saw cost savings by switching to Parallels RAS from Citrix.
“One year of Citrix is the cost of three years with Parallels RAS”
Virtual Systems Administrator, User Systems at EBC
By implementing Parallels RAS within their existing hybrid infrastructure, EBC reduced costs, maintained performance, and secured app delivery for distributed teams across Canada.
“In EBC’s case, supporting a construction-focused workforce meant handling graphical workloads, enabling seamless collaboration through tools like Microsoft Teams, and ensuring a stable, reliable user experience—whether users were in the office or in the field. After carefully evaluating their options, we supported EBC in adopting Parallels RAS. What stood out was its ability to provide a streamlined user experience, simplified management, and a more cost-efficient model—without compromising on performance, security, or stability.”
Manager Director, Canada & India at XenTegra
