Virtual Machine or Parallels Desktop

[NikBarter]

Hi

I have a M1 MacBook Pro and I'm debating with myself, whether to install Parallels Desktop and run Alteryx Designer there, or to spin up a AWS VM and install Alteryx there.

I guess it comes down to cost - looks like I need a t3.xlarge instance, which if I go to the pricing calculator seems to come in around $150 per month (mainly due to the SSD cost). I never thought it was that much when I did this before! Anyone had any recent experience of these costs? If I do install it virtually, then technically I should be able to connect from any computer as well, which would be a big bonus.

Parallels is £80 per year. There's a cost of windows, this is pretty cheap.

Anything else I'm missing?

[NikBarter]

I guess I can throw Designer Cloud into the equation as well

[MarqueeCrew]

@NikBarter ,

 you will be throwing 1/2 your memory away if you run parallel. If you setup your Mac for a dual boot, you can run either system. I'd prefer that to having slower workflows. By the way, you will need to buy windows too. 

if you run virtually, I wouldn't leave the system up 24x7. If you have local data, I'd stick with the Mac or buy a pc under 1,800.   That's my two pence. 

cheers,

 mark

[TheOC]

Fully agree with @MarqueeCrew,
However to play devil's advocate I have had Parallels Desktop run fine on my MacBook with Designer on, and I like to not have to restart my laptop to access Designer/my mac software. 

As far as I remember, there is a parallels desktop for the mac trial. Could be worth giving the trial a go, and seeing how performance works out. I would of course recommend setting as much ram towards the Windows machine as possible. 

I will say, however, that it's unlikely that any Alteryx Designer testing is done in a scenario similar to this (Mac running Parallels), so you are at risk of running into bugs as a result of running the software this way. I haven't come across any, but YMMV.

 If you value being able to connect from any location - you are also able to set up your machine, as @MarqueeCrew states. You could have this open to RDP, and connect to this from your Mac from anywhere. Bar the cost of electricity and an initial investment of the machine, this would require no monthly payments.

Hope this helps,
TheOC

[NikBarter]

thanks @MarqueeCrew and @TheOC 

I've run Alteryx on Parallels before and on a VM as well. Actually I had them running at the same time (just had to have pay for 2 licences) due to where the data was located - the VM ran in a ring fenced area where all the PI data was being held. I don't have that problem at the moment.

Didn't really have many problems running in Parallels and I've got an even smaller dataset at the moment, so don't expect to have this time around.

[Thableaus]

Just another point to add here...unless things changed recently, a regular Designer license doesn't apply for Virtual Environments.  

[TheOC]

hey @Thableaus 
Great point! Might be worth reaching out to fulfillement@alteryx.com or otherwise to work out your options @NikBarter 

Cheers,
TheOC

[fpinchon]

I'm running Designer on a M1 Mac in Parallel, BUT there is a significant downside: Windows is only running in 32 bits on M1 Macs, as it is the ARM version of Windows, not yet available in 64 bits, but then the Windows  license is free for now. Designer works well, but some ODBC drivers don't like the 32 bits environment...

An alternative, after negotiating with Alteryx procurement, is to run Designer in a AWS Workspace instance, much cheaper than a EC2 t3.xlarge instance...

I hope that helps...

[NikBarter]

Thanks @fpinchon that does seem like a more sensible option.

Yes, my experience with running it in parallels wasn't great

[Sfava]

Hi,

complete newbie to this so apologies. I have googled and YouTube and still can't quite figure out how to install Alteryx after installing both Parallels and windows. Is there a trick to it? It keeps telling me my yxdm files aren't YXDM. Thank you