LuxCloud Accelerates Resellers Business in the Cloud

 

This post is part of the Parallels Partner Series, featuring the insights of service providers who are growing by leveraging Parallels software, expertise and ecosystem to meet the cloud computing needs of Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs). View other posts here.

 

In 2010, LuxCloud saw the opportunity to create a platform to help IT resellers market cloud-based applications on a white-label basis. We knew two things would make this concept compelling to resellers: very low start-up costs – as a result of zero infrastructure investment – and the ability to sell services under one’s own brand. And this was how LuxCloud was born.

 

We were very clear from the beginning that we wanted to offer a platform which allowed resellers to focus on launching new services and thus growing their business.  Addressing issues of incorporating automated business functions (like billing) was important to us, as was the ability to quickly and easily automate the provisioning of services.  In addition, the platform needed to be able to scale as quickly as our reseller partners were able to grow their own businesses.

 

We found our solution in Parallels Automation, which provides a complete and customizable operational and business support system for delivering SaaS. Every aspect of the solution – from service delivery through management and billing – is automated. This enables us and our resellers to rapidly deploy new services while minimizing operational costs and maximizing revenues and profitability.

 

The scalability aspect of Parallels Automation is another draw. As resellers get comfortable with the business model, they can add new services quickly and easily. They can potentially scale up from a few hundred users to even a million from the same platform and without investing in any infrastructure.

 

After receiving training from Parallels, we set up an on-boarding process for our resellers, which enable us to get them up and running within a few days.  For the reseller, this faster time-to-market means better return-on-investment.

 

Within weeks of our launch, we won ten reseller partners across Western Europe, earning very positive feedback for our new delivery platform. What also makes LuxCloud popular among resellers is the ease of use and speed of integration and deployment. And because we take care of all service maintenance and management using Parallels Automation, resellers can focus on their core business – selling and delivering cloud services to their customers.

 

We are making plans to expand our business and services offerings using the Parallels Automation platform to include Microsoft Windows-based shared hosting and other Microsoft hosted applications.  We are also planning to expand the business globally, adding additional services and applications according to market needs and demands.

 

We are using our ‘first-mover advantage’ based on Parallels Automation to create a market niche. While other service providers may recognize the opportunity, our deep understanding of the motivations of resellers, our long-standing relationships with the stakeholders in our ecosystem, and the proven success of our white-label distribution platform, puts us in a leadership position in a burgeoning cloud services distribution market.

 

Marco Houwen

CEO and Founder

LuxCloud

www.luxcloud.com

 

Non-Function Junction: API Automation for Enterprise Operations

Recently, I’ve been working closely with a number of large enterprise clients who have already gone or will soon go live with Layer 7 solutions at the core of mission-critical infrastructure. I’ve observed that, in the API Management space, proof of concept and initial projects often focus on functional needs but the emphasis shifts to non-functional requirements as environments mature and sharing increases. There’s a clear, three-phase progression for large enterprises.
API Operations AutomationIn Phase 3, it’s all about performance, scalability, operability, security, availability and consumability. The problems are very complex but the goal is to make the resulting solution as usable and simple as possible, given the wide range of users, developers, testers and operators that will be involved in its execution. As technology vendors, we are often guilty of focusing inwardly on bells and whistles, rather than outwardly on interoperability. This works well for phases 1 and 2 but brings a reckoning in the third phase. Fortunately, at Layer 7, we’ve spent the past decade working with enterprise clients and have evolved our products to meet their adaptability, reliability and automation needs.

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Why SaaS Vendors Must Offer Automated Sign-On to All Business Customers

Typically, automated sign-on is regarded to be something troublesome and costly, which slows down rollouts, adds complexity and requires involvement from customer IT organizations, something that SaaS vendors often want to avoid at any cost. However, automated sign-on can be one of the most important tools in meeting some of the most important business objectives for a SaaS business:
Engaging customers and keeping them
Minimizing unit costs

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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Scaling in the Cloud

As your datacenter needs more capacity, you’re thinking about going to the cloud. What are the key considerations to help plan for the needed capacity over time? And how can the cloud best work with your existing applications?
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Brian Jawalka, Principal Solutions Architect, Cloud Strategy at Rackspace Advisory Services, will show how a hybrid approach can add agility, flexibility and speed-to-market for your organization.

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Case Study: Cloud-Based Sales & Operations Planning in the Cloud

Cloud computing has changed the way we work. People and businesses can now access services, applications and infrastructure over the Internet, with lower costs, higher productivity and an enhanced user experience.
While cloud computing has revolutionized many aspects of business, its effects have been quite dramatic across supply and demand management. Cloud-based Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) is particularly powerful, connecting disparate demand, supply and financial data from a wide swath of packaged and home-grown enterprise information systems as well as a forest of spreadsheets, harmonizing everything into a single, meaningful plan. Delivering this supply chain “Big Data,” analytics and reporting in the cloud means that it can be deployed, scaled, and interconnected quickly, enabling truly collaborative supply and demand planning.

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Cloud Expo Silicon Valley: Goldilocks and The Three SSDs

No one disputes cloud computing as a viable resource delivery model. Now the challenge? Deliver the best solution in a world where processor power follows Moore’s Law, storage is bound by the physics of spinning media, and cloud providers need to deliver optimized system level performance at a reasonable cost. Solid State Storage combined with dynamic, intelligent caching software to “learn” data “hot spots” and move them transparently onto flash memory fills the gap.
In his session at the 11th International Cloud Expo, Scott Cleland, Worldwide Product Channel Marketing Manager at LSI, will describe three flash-based application acceleration alternatives for providers looking to move ahead of the crowd.

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Seizing Control of Data Delivery

The “consumerization of IT” is a topic we’ve heard a lot about recently – especially when it comes to “Bring Your Own Device (BYOD).” One area that is less talked about, yet a growing trend under the “consumerization” umbrella, is the use of free, consumer-type file transfer services in the workplace.
A tough economy has forced IT departments to do more with less – especially within small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). Working with limited resources and budget, SMB IT professionals are still expected to manage everything from network infrastructure to cloud services to security and compliance issues, all while keeping the business running smoothly. Sometimes this results in long “wait” times for employees.

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SOASTA Acquires Real User Measurement Company

SOASTA today announced the acquisition of LogNormal, the leading performance measurement company delivering real user measurement and monitoring for mobile and web applications. The acquisition extends SOASTA’s platform to deliver actionable intelligence for both marketing and operations executives on real user behavior.

“SOASTA is focused on constantly improving the user experience on mobile applications,” said Tom Lounibos, SOASTA’s CEO. “SOASTA has been delivering a fast, affordable and scalable performance solution for enterprise customer for years. The acquisition of LogNormal extends our vision of delivering the full life cycle of development, testing and measurement solutions to ensure the optimal user experience for our customers. We are excited to have LogNormal as part of SOASTA, especially Buddy and Philip with their dedication and experience in performance management.”

“SOASTA is the leader in mobile and web performance testing and we are excited to combine our expertise to deliver performance testing, monitoring and measurement in a single platform,” said Buddy Brewer, LogNormal’s CEO. “The combination of LogNormal’s expertise and SOASTA’s real-time analytics engine will provide unprecedented insight into mobile behavior.


AppNeta Launches Global MSP Partner Program

AppNeta today announced the launch of a new partner program for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). The AppNeta MSP Partner Program is designed to offer easy, revenue-generating services for assuring performance of critical applications such as VoIP, video conferencing, virtualization and web-based services. Today, AppNeta’s MSP Partners seamlessly and easily integrate AppNeta services into existing managed service contracts and create enhanced service offerings including network assessments, continuous monitoring, proactive troubleshooting, and scheduled reporting and alerting.

AppNeta’s PathView Cloud network performance service provides channel partners with unmatched breadth of insight and time to value, enabling them to see across multiple customer infrastructures in one view, and then pinpoint exactly where problems are occurring and why. The new MSP Partner Program offers unique pricing terms, centralized dashboards and alerts, white-labeled custom branded interface and a utility-based MRR billing model.

“We understand the demands on customer networks today, especially as business applications become more performance-sensitive. It is absolutely necessary for MSPs to have 24/7 performance visibility,” said Jim Melvin, CEO of AppNeta. “AppNeta is partnering with MSPs to develop an easy-to-implement service assurance program that will not only improve customer satisfaction, but will create new revenue sources at the same time.”

“Bandwidth Management Group is thrilled to be part of the AppNeta MSP Partner Program. We can now measure the performance of our customers’ wide area networks and cloud applications with continuous remote site monitoring,” said Christian Fedor, president, Bandwidth Management Group. “The new billing and training programs have made it easy for us to integrate the AppNeta solution into our existing managed service portfolio.”

While AppNeta has a long-standing partner program with more than 400 partners around the world, the new MSP Program is enhanced with key benefits to partners managing ongoing services and delivering critical applications to their global customer sites. The AppNeta MSP Partner program features:

  • Monthly, consumption-based billing
  • Easy, cloud-delivered implementation and automatic service upgrades
  • Simple, straightforward licensing
  • Regular upsell opportunities to customers


CaptureToCloud Extends Social Workspace to iOS Devices

CaptureToCloud’s  Social Workspace has been extended to all iOS devices. This is the first mobile app that can capture a full copy of Internet content while it’s being viewed on an iPhone or iPad, and immediately make it available for social media sharing and collaboration. This  app is used by professionals and businesses to capture mobile content into their CaptureToCloud workspace where it can be organized, shared and discussed alongside other important content. The new iOS app is included in both the free and premium services – available in the Apple App Store and at www.capturetocloud.com.

According to a recent study by the Pew Research and American Life Project, “some 88% of U.S. adults own a cell phone of some kind as of April 2012, and more than half of these cell owners (55%) use their phone to go online.” Viewing Internet content on an iPhone or iPad is one of the most common uses. With CaptureToCloud, users can be viewing that content and immediately save a copy, share it with colleagues, discuss it and read it offline.

“In today’s world, people expect a seamless transition from their desktops to their mobile devices and to be constantly connected to their apps and important content,” said Ramon Nunez, CEO, CaptureToCloud. “Mobile access is a key component of our anywhere, anytime workspace and capturing mobile content is a natural extension of what we provide on the desktop.”

CaptureToCloud aims to make it easy for professionals and businesses to incorporate Internet content into their daily work. The iOS app not only gives users access to all content in their CaptureToCloud library while they’re away from their desktop, but also allows them to capture and share new content they find with an iOS device, keeping them just as productive and engaged with projects and discussions.