I have a Mac and several graphic heavy programs that are Windows only. Would it be better to host those programs on a Windows box and remotely access that box from my Mac or would I be better off using Parallels to create a virtual machine and load the programs on the virtually loaded Windows.
I have database management software and other software that are Windows only. I have two workstations that could serve as an application server if remotely accessing the Windows machines is the best option. I also have a SBS 2011 Standard server that I could configure as an applications server. The SBS server is currently a file and email server.
My Mac is an Imac, Late 2015, 5K, i5, with 8 gigs of RAM. I will upgrade the RAM this week to 32 gigs or so.
My Windows workstations are i3s and older with 4 gigs of RAM. The programs run fine in those environments.
I tried Teamviewer. It worked fine, but input was a bit slow on my older workstations.
I have already purchased Parallels 12 and have an updated copy of Windows 7 working on my Mac. I allocated 4 gigs of RAM to the virtual machine. It runs very well. I have not yet loaded any of my Windows programs on the vm.
I really don't want to load up my Mac if I don't have to. It is my newest and best computer, however.
Thank you for your help.
Last edited: Dec 29, 2016
