Interview with Devolutions Power User Thomas Higgins

“I’ve used many tools over the years, and Remote Desktop Manager is the only one that I know of that gives you the flexibility to use it how you want and need.”

– Thomas Higgins, Senior Systems Engineer at Ring.com and Devolutions Power User

Hello Devolutions Nation! One of the best things about my job is that, on occasion, I have the privilege of speaking directly with the people who matter most to us, and inspire us to give our best each day: the amazing members of our global user community.

And so you can imagine my delight when I recently had the opportunity to chat with Thomas Higgins, a longtime Devolutions Power User and a frequent contributor in our forum and blog (especially the poll questions!).

Below you’ll find a transcript of my conversation with Thomas, in which he discussed how he discovered Devolutions, his initial impressions of Remote Desktop Manager, and more. My questions are in bold, followed by Thomas’ responses.

Could you please share a bit about your background and role?

I have been working in the IT field for about 25 years, in various roles including Operational Analyst, ERP Command Center Coordinator, DevOps Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, and more. Currently, I’m a Senior Systems Engineer for Ring.com, which is a subsidiary of Amazon.

When and how did you discover Devolutions?

About a decade ago I was working for a company that used Microsoft’s RDCMan for managing different remote connections. I became very frustrated with having to remember all of the different paths and connection strings. It was highly inefficient and needlessly complicated.

So, I started looking around for something more efficient and convenient. I remember looking at a few different products including Royal TS. It was okay, but didn’t cover everything that I wanted. Eventually, I came across Devolutions and learned about Remote Desktop Manager. It turned out that a colleague of mine at that same company had actually used Remote Desktop Manager in the past, and he said it was great. I started a trial and found that I liked it a lot. It’s funny, but when I showed it to that colleague I mentioned, he commented on how much Remote Desktop Manager had changed and improved over the years!

What was your initial impression of Remote Desktop Manager? Did it meet your expectations?

It was great. Soon after I started using it, my company installed Secret Server on the back end. I was relieved and happy to see that Remote Desktop Manager integrated with that product. It made things very easy and efficient.

Soon after that we upgraded from the free version to the licensed version, because it just made sense given how much time and effort Remote Desktop Manager was saving. I found it to be very intuitive to use. That's one of the things that I really liked and still appreciate about Remote Desktop Manager. The workflow is highly intuitive, which helps keep me focused and productive.

Were there any specific aspects of Remote Desktop Manager that impressed you?

There were a few things that made me go ‘wow, I didn’t know it could do that.’ The big one that comes to mind was discovering that it wasn’t just for Windows machines, but worked for Linux as well. We had a lot of Linux servers, which meant we needed an SSH solution as well, ideally. This was easily addressed using PuTTY, but it meant switching constantly between tools which I found annoying. Remote Desktop Manager solved these and many other issues by being the only package that addressed all of our needs.

I also really liked the connectivity features of Remote Desktop Manager, which allowed not only password storage, but entire connection strings, which made any system a one-click connection process in most cases. And the plugins and scripts scale, which further allowed the development of custom connections and tools without getting in the way.

Please talk a little about your orientation experience with Remote Desktop Manager. Did you contact support or access the documentation much?

Once I got a handle on how the UI was laid out, it wasn’t difficult to figure out what I wanted to do. But in the areas where I wasn’t sure about or got a little confused, the documentation really helped. I don’t recall contacting support, but I’m sure if I needed to, they would have been useful. Over the years, I’ve communicated with different people from Devolutions, including the CEO David, and the VP Maxime. Both of them were great to deal with, and very down-to-earth and helpful.

Have you explored the new Devolutions Academy?

Actually yes, I did check it out a couple of times. It was interesting. But I really haven’t spent a lot of time in there, basically because I have been using Remote Desktop Manager for so many years now that I already know so much about how it works and what to do. But I think it will be a very useful resource for those who are new to it. I’m sure if it was around when I first started then I would have spent a lot of time in there.

What edition of Remote Desktop Manager are you currently using?

Right now I’m using Remote Desktop Manager Free for my home computers. I haven’t had a chance yet to use the Enterprise edition in this job, but I’ve used it in past roles. The Free edition fits my current situation and needs very well, and I was able to start using it right away. Remote Desktop Manager has been a key tool of mine for so many years, and it is now the first tool I install!

Are there any ways that you think we can improve Remote Desktop Manager?

I’m quite happy with how Remote Desktop Manager is always being updated and getting better. But as we all know, anything and everything can be improved even more. I would say that the biggest improvement I would like to see is parity in system capabilities across various systems environments. I realize a lot of it can't be helped because of the system models, but the minor differences have an impact on UX, especially comparing Windows vs others.

Now that you have been using Remote Desktop Manager for several years, do you have any words of advice for IT pros who are thinking of trying it in their organization?

Definitely give it a try, and see for yourself why it’s been around for so long and is so popular. I’ve used many tools over the years, and Remote Desktop Manager is the only one that I know of that gives you the flexibility to use it how you want and need. The other thing I would point out is that the Devolutions product portfolio is flexible. You don’t have to buy products that offer things you don’t need or can’t use. You can buy the specific pieces you need, at the required volume, to address different uses and user types.

I guess I would wrap things up by saying that I’m satisfied and impressed with Devolutions as a company, and Remote Desktop Manager as a product. I’m confident that anyone who gives it a try will be impressed, and when they find out how inexpensive it is compared to other products, and once they see what the support is like, they will be even more pleased!