Headlines

Register for VPS Webinar – September 7, 2011 10 AM PDT (UTC-7)

Join us on Wednesday, September 7, at 10 AM PDT (UTC-7) for the “VPS is dead, long live VPS” webinar. With many of the initial benefits from virtualization already being reaped, the growth of basic VPS as a service offering is slowing. The ever-evolving service and workload needs that SMBs now demand include elasticity, security, programmatic API-level access, and scalable virtual data centers. Cloud Infrastructure is quickly becoming the new standard and growth engine for delivering Infrastructure services to SMBs replacing traditional VPS.

Join us as we discuss how Cloud Infrastructure enables:

• New customer scenarios empowered with elastic, connected, load balanced virtual infrastructure
• How you can move from offering a single container VPS to providing a full Cloud virtual datacenter to your customers
• How today’s VPS business, with new Cloud Infrastructure features will help you drive future virtualization growth

Register here.

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Next monthly APS and Cloud Services Webinar is right around the corner

The next in our monthly Cloud Services Webinar Series for Service Providers will be on September 13, 2011 at 8 AM PDT (UTC-7). This has been an extremely popular set of webinars bringing in top ISVs to discuss their latest Application Packaging Standard (APS) solutions available for you to resell to your SMB customers. Mark your calendars for the second Tuesday of every month.

You can register for this next webinar here.

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Parallels Announces Alliance with Global Internet Services Leader Tucows

Parallels recently announced an alliance with Tucows Inc., whose wholesale Internet services group OpenSRS will offer domain names and SSL certificates to end-users through direct integration with Parallels Business Automation, Parallels Business Automation Standard and Parallels Plesk Panel billing platforms. The alliance will result in more ways for Parallels users and OpenSRS resellers to help small and medium business (SMB) customers quickly arm themselves with the Web services and tools they need to effectively compete and grow.

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Cobweb Significantly Expands Its Reseller Channel with Parallels Automation

In this just-published case study, you can read about how Cobweb replaced its previous billing system and control panel with Parallels Automation, which provided all the functionality it needed to grow its reseller channel. The results included a 300% increase in number of resellers which led to an increase of 50% in the number of mailboxes hosted by Cobweb.

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BackupAgent Boosts Reseller Base, Revenues with APS Packaging

One more new case study just published details how packaging BackupAgent in Application Packaging Standard (APS) enabled the company’s resellers to instantly integrate BackupAgent with Parallels Automation, without having to write any custom integration code. Benefits have included an increase in number of resellers which has led to growth in revenues and payback on their investment within just six months. Resellers have enjoyed higher revenues and reduced churn.

Product Announcements

Parallels Plesk SiteBuilder becomes Parallels Web Presence Builder

Announcing a product name change to Parallels Plesk Sitebuilder - the new name is Parallels Web Presence Builder.

The new name reflects the fact that this product does much more than build a site. It now manages the entire web presence for a company, including updating Facebook page content, launching applications such as online stores and image galleries, and providing a way to share social networking content and videos.

This should help limit confusion over the upgrade path from Sitebuilder 4.5. Web Presence Builder is a new product and has no code shared with the previous SiteBuilder product. We will continue to support the SiteBuilder 4.x series pursuant to our Life Cycle Policy.

The new name will be used in all situations where Web Presence Builder is incorporated which now includes Plesk, Parallels Automation and as a fully managed standalone system.

This change will be implemented in phases and first appears in Parallels Plesk Panel 10.3.

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Parallels Plesk Panel 10.3 Released

Building on the popularity of the Parallels Plesk Panel 10 series, we are announcing the public availability of Parallels Plesk Panel 10.3. As a partner, you received access to the RTM code several weeks ago after an extensive beta period. The key new features of this release are:

• Facebook page integration in Web Presence Builder: Reproduces the entire content of a website into Facebook.
• File Sharing: The final feature of our Small Business Panel to appear in Plesk, it allows users to share files or publish them to the public.
• User selectable interface: Toggle between power user mode and hosting mode with a single click.
• Built-in tutorial videos: Your customers will enjoy access to a complete set of video how-tos.
• Online store in Web Presence Builder: Drag and drop online stores and order forms into websites.
• Improved Billing interface: Allow customers to more easily access invoices.
• New Billing Order form: Updated for easier integration.
• And much more.

Learn more about Parallels Plesk Panel 10.3 here.

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Announcing Parallels Automation for Cloud Applications

Service providers can use Parallels Automation to offer from a portfolio of hundreds of profitable Software-as-a-Service applications from independent software vendors. Parallels Automation for Cloud Applications is a new tool that directly addresses service providers’ most critical SaaS challenges for the SMB market, such as selecting applications, negotiating terms and licensing, platform integration, lack of GTM tools and support requirements.

With Parallels Automation for Cloud Applications, service providers can now instantly launch a customized storefront with a set of applications that include pre-negotiated licensing terms and white-label support, which improves both time-to-market and time-to-profitability.

We have certified a number of customer support solutions from white-label help desk providers, such as Global Mentoring Solutions and Bobcares, so service providers won’t burden their existing support teams with the deployment of new SaaS applications. Parallels’ Professional Services is ready to help implement storefronts, design the user interface and complete back office integration.

To learn more, go to http://www.parallels.com/cloudservices.

Events

Parallels is a Platinum Sponsor of WorldHostingDays.local across Europe – attend an event near you

Visit us at WorldhostingDays.local (WHD.local) to get the definitive European outlook for SMB Cloud services with exclusive Parallels research results for countries including Germany, France, UK, Spain, Poland and Netherlands.

In addition to exclusive first access to this valuable research which will help you determine which services to offer and which customer segments to target, you’ll also get an exclusive preview of the Parallels product roadmap. This roadmap combined with a view of what services SMBs want to buy will allow you to plan for your business for the next year and beyond.

You can register here for free with this complimentary code for any of the ten locations and events listed below: 61HET63

• September 14, 2011 – Cologne, Germany
• October 4, 2011 – Warsaw, Poland
• October 6, 2011 – Istanbul, Turkey
• October 13, 2011 – Amsterdam, Netherlands
• October 18, 2011 – Moscow, Russia
• October 20, 2011 – Cluj, Romania
• October 25, 2011 – London, United Kingdom
• October 27, 2011 – Paris, France
• November 3, 2011 – Madrid, Spain
• November 10, 2011 – Zurich, Switzerland

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Have you registered for Parallels APAC Summit yet?

Parallels APAC Summit 2011 is the biggest event in Asia Pacific for the hosting and Cloud community. Get unique insights on the latest trends and shifts in SMBs and Cloud and what they mean to your business, specifically insights that will enable you to take advantage of this changing landscape to grow and protect your business. And there is no conference registration fee!

• Understand what drives your customers. Hear the results of Parallels’ proprietary SMB research results, revealing the SMB buying priorities for the coming year.
• Learn what it takes to be a successful service provider. Gain unique insights into attributes shared by today’s most successful service providers.
• Network with over 300 industry professionals. Share and learn best practices that can help you improve your current execution and get ahead in the coming year.
• Gain real-time access to Parallels developers and executives. Learn about our roadmap and plans for future products, ask questions and get answers, in-person!

This is your chance to learn from experts in the industry:

• Jack Zubarev, President, Marketing and Alliances, Parallels will lead the Panel Discussion on "Profiting from the Cloud Now in Asia". Jack will be on stage with prominent hosters in Asia Pacific and they will be sharing their experience on Cloud & Hosting Strategy.
• SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby will present an update following the successful merger of SoftLayer and The Planet, which has created one of the largest privately held hosting companies in the world, generating $260 million in revenues and delivering EBITDA margins of nearly 40 per cent.
• Darren Pleasance, Partner, McKinsey & Company, will be sharing his perspectives on how the technology landscape will evolve over the next several years and implications and opportunities for building a successful business in a Cloud-driven world.

Click here for the complete agenda, including details on all of our keynote speakers and up-to-date session information.

The Parallels APAC Summit will be held on September 23 – 25, 2011 at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa Resort, Singapore. Register today!

News from the Parallels Support Team

Parallels Product Expert program launched to enhance technical support from community experts. Parallels is pleased to announce the Parallels Product Expert (PPE) program, which will empower the most active and helpful members of the Parallels product forums, with an initial focus on support for Parallels Plesk Panel. Experts from the Parallels community who demonstrate a high level of technical knowledge of Parallels Plesk Panel are eligible to join the program.

Tier Two Support Engineering Team reorganization. Tier Two Support Engineers are being reorganized into sub-teams according to their specialization in certain aspects of products. The initial pilot of the specialization program has improved Engineer productivity by 25%. This translates, of course, into faster resolution times for you.

Did you know? Updates from Parallels Global Support:

• POA 5.2.3 now supports Exchange 2010 SP1 Rollup 4

• Parallels Plesk Control Panel 10.3 administrators can now copy Panel accounts and plans to Business Manager in just a few clicks! Learn more about this new feature in the Parallels Plesk Control Panel 10.3 Administrator's Guide section here: Adding Subscriptions, Plans, and Customer Accounts to Business Manager.

• Parallels Global Support is now on Twitter. Parallels Global Support is now on Twitter—follow us @ParallelsCares. On Twitter, Global Support will keep you in the loop on troubleshooting known issues, resolutions and product updates.

• The Parallels Support Quick-Start Guides have been added to the Parallels Support website. Parallels added three new Quick Start guides that enable you to quickly understand the process and requirements of working with the Parallels Support Team. These guides contain process information and tips on what kind of information to provide to the Parallels Support Team when opening a ticket to ensure the quickest completion of your support requests.

We offer Quick Start Guides for:
1. Panel and Server Virtualization - Parallels Plesk Panel and Parallels Virtuozzo Containers
2. Automation - Parallels Operations Automation and Parallels Business Automation

These guides are available now on http://www.parallels.com/support