Small Deployment (15–30 Users)
Parallels DaaS – Small Deployment (15–30 Users)
This page outlines a common deployment of Parallels Desktop as a Service (DaaS) for small environments with 15–30 users in a multi-session configuration. It includes licensing and infrastructure requirements. This setup is scalable to larger teams as needed.
You will be invoiced for your Parallels DaaS licenses directly from Parallels or via your preferred partner, your Azure resource consumption will be billed directly to you or your partner from Microsoft.
Licensing Requirements
Parallels DaaS License
Named user
Microsoft Licenses
Named user
Microsoft 365 E3, E5, A3, A5, F3, Business Premium, Student Use Benefit
Windows Enterprise E3, E5
Windows Education A3, A5
Windows VDA per user
Infrastructure Overview
Parallels DaaS creates Virtual Machines that act as session hosts for the users. Virtual machine (VM) sizing impacts cost and performance. Parallels DaaS automatically scales resources based on user demand. Typical VMs run ~200 hours/month using automatic powermanagement.
Common VM types
Below is a list of commonly used Azure Instance types with Parallels DaaS, by default each machine will be equipped with a E10 disk that is 128GiB in size. Prices below include the disk and have hybrid benefits enabled.
D4s_v4 / v5
4 vCPU / 16 GB RAM
~16 users
$52
$159
$98
$66
D8s_v5 (Recommended)
8 vCPU / 32 GB RAM
~32 users
$92
$308
$186
$121
User density depends on workload. Heavy multitasking or conferencing video usage may reduce capacity.
Persistent Desktop experience (optional)
For saving desktop items, user preferences, favorites, and files persistently across sessions, add:
Azure Storage Account + Azure File Share Used to store roaming user profiles.
Shared Infrastructure example for 20 users
Parallels DaaS Gateway VM
Standard B1ms (Linux, always on – 730 hrs)
1
$25
Public IP Address
Static IP for Gateway
1
Flat rate
$5
Azure Storage Account (File Share)
Transaction Optimized (200 GiB total)
1
~$0.06/GiB/month
$12
File Share Transactions
Light usage (in-Azure)
~400K ops
~$0.001 per 10K ops
Virtual Machines
Standard D4s_v4 (4 × VMs, 200 hrs each, with Hybrid Benefit)
4
$52
$208
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