Parallels for Microsoft ERP Consultants

[Migu3l]

Hi guys,

I'd like to use my Mac in my daily work as a ERP consultant. I work for many companies, always with Microsoft tools.

Is there any other consultant which uses a Mac on this typical Microsoft environment? Is Parallels, from your point of view, a good option? What are the inconveniences?

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience.

Regards.

 

[Panch0]

I haven't done specifically ERP consulting, but have used a VM for other MS product consulting.

If you have to run a full suite of ERP Tools, including a DB Server locally, it will work, but you may see some performance issues as those products tend to be resource hungry. If you are mostly running clients with connectivity to a server for the heavy lifting, then you should be just fine.

I have used Parallels and VMWare Fusion. I prefer fusion because I feel it is more stable and better supported - VMWare is kind of the gold standard for Corporate vitalization. I felt that Parallels was more invasive in the way that it embeds itself into OS X. Parallels usually scores a bit higher in video performance, but that is probably not a big consideration for your use.

 

[Migu3l]

Hi Panch0,

Yes, I've been watching several videos on Parallels and it has an elegant and complete integration with OSX.

The tools I usually use are: Citrix or MS Remote Desktop, local ERP databases which run on Windows 7 or 8, Windows Server 2012 or 2008, .NET Framework, Office, and others MS tools.

I've made some tests on a Macbook Air with 8GB and 250 GB SSD, and it works with Virtualbox, but I don't feel confortable with a free product, I don't know how it will work in practice, in a real scenario.

I'll test VMWare as well.

Just one more question, what about the Bootcamp option? In this case we have 100% the same behavior than in a PC, right? What are the benefits in this case?

Thanks for helping.

Regards.

 

[Panch0]

performance wise, bootcamp wins. If you wanted to game on a Mac, this would be your solution. You have basically turned your MBA into an HP Envy with a goofy keyboard layout.

I haven't used Bootcamp since it's first iteration as I didn't like having to reboot to switch OS. Virtualization (Unity Mode in Fusion) meets my needs and I think it would meet yours as well.

 

[Migu3l]

Ok, thanks, I'll check out both options (Parallel and VM) but I reckon, I'll follow your advice. Parallels updates are too expensive ...

Cheers.

 

[Migu3l]

Panch0,

Last question, please. Did you recommend Fusion 6 or Fusion 6 Professional?

Thanks.

 

[maflynn]

Panch0,

Last question, please. Did you recommend Fusion 6 or Fusion 6 Professional?

Thanks.

I'll jump in on that question. Its all personal preference.
I like Fusion (non professional version) because I found VMware to be more stable and tech support to be better imo.

Parallels is probably better performance wise, and they're generally quicker to release a newer version though that in the past tended to be a bit buggier.

 

[Panch0]

Panch0,

Last question, please. Did you recommend Fusion 6 or Fusion 6 Professional?

Thanks.

Professional edition is really for IT departments. It allows you to create VMs that can be deployed cross platform and I believe has some other management stuff. If you just need a VM on a single laptop, the regular version is fine.

 

[maflynn]

the regular version is fine.

And cheaper too, another reason to get the non-professional version.

 

[dyn]

Professional edition is really for IT departments. It allows you to create VMs that can be deployed cross platform and I believe has some other management stuff. If you just need a VM on a single laptop, the regular version is fine.

I disagree with that. Sometimes you have software licensing that will only allow you to use it for a limited time. Having a vm expire can be useful with this kind of software. There's also some encryption if you need a vm to have contents that are protected (very useful on say a laptop or portable disk).

The biggest advantage of the Professional version in this case is the ability to do some advanced networking. Normally you have NAT mode, bridge mode and host-only mode. With the pro version you can design your own little network that you attach vm's to. Similar to what you can do in Workstation and ESXi. You also have the ability to create linked clones (am not sure about full clones) which is quite useful when you want to test or demo something (have certain base image for a client which you can clone and customise to your liking for a particular setup).

The other stuff is indeed more for IT departments. The full cloning is something that you can get by (copy-paste the vm in Finder), the linked clone is rather difficult if not impossible. For the networking there was a tool called Uber network fuser but I haven't seen any updates to it since then (it may only be compatible with Fusion 4 and may even not be available any longer).