Category Archives: service provider

Cloud Services, Parallels Summit, Parallels Summit 2013, Partner Awards, service provider

Parallels Partner Awards Winners Announced at Parallels Summit 2013

 

 

The winners of the 2012 Parallels Partner Awards have been announced! Each of these winners recognize were able to make the best use of the assets Parallels provides and were able to innovate and differentiate their service in the rapidly-expanding small and medium business (SMB) cloud services market.

 

“On behalf of Parallels and personally, I’d like to congratulate both the finalists and recipients of this year’s Parallels Partner Awards. They are leading and innovative cloud service providers and technology companies, and each one of them has done something outstanding in 2012,” said Birger Steen, CEO of Parallels. “Parallels is proud to be a catalyst to a growing and powerful partner ecosystem designed to help service providers grow and profit from the cloud. We are delighted to acknowledge these partners at Parallels Summit 2013.”

 

The recipients of the 2012 Parallels Partner Awards are:

 

 

Congratulations to all the winners and finalists!

 

Cloud Services, Hosting, IT, Marketing, service provider

Offering Cloud Services, practice what you preach

by, Gerrit-Jan van Wieren, Vice President Business Development

IASO Cloud Backup

As an IT service provider you probably started years ago with the idea you would do a better job than the rest. With a lot of enthusiasm and energy you have built a company of reasonable size and offer all kinds of different services. With the rise of Cloud you have the ideal position to tell your customers not to buy and own things, or have IT staff as a core business. You ask them the question; is this bringing you money? Or can we take it off your back? You used to invest in hardware which looked cheaper long-term, but you end up with IT staff that you don’t want on your payroll.

 

Did you ask that question to yourself? As an IT service provider providing services is in your DNA. But is investing also in your DNA? Or is it about making money? Owning stuff is not your core business. When you choose a solution, whether it is hosted backup or hosted e-mail the question should always be if you could do a better job. Look at all the aspects which come with hosting it yourself. It might look cheaper; buy some disks, forget to calculate the costs for staff, electricity and bring in the money.

 

Is it that easy? There is some risk involved. Disks can break, 24×7 availability is actually costing money and your staff can (accidentally) mismanage the platform into serious downtime. When we take a closer look at the business case we also see the calculation is missing reality. You always start with 0 GB and it takes time to reach the 100% coverage for all invested Terabytes. And when you reach 80% you know you’re up for new cash out. 

 

Will you do a better job than the manufacturer? Will it bring you more money?

 

Always go for pay as you grow, without investments. Add value to the proposition with your knowledge and well educated staff. Start making money from day one. And remember what you tell your end customer about investing in IT. Practice what you preach.

Cloud Services, Domain, Hosting, Parallels Cloud Services, service provider, Small Businesses, TLD, Web Hosting

Massive Change to the Web Culture is Just around the Corner, Offering Exciting Opportunities to Web Hosters

 

http://www.something.com. This string of characters — the domain address for a web site or other internet service — pervades our culture. Today, virtually every organization and individual has confronted the challenge of reducing their professional or personal brand to fit into this namespace. But, after years of planning and debate, a big change is coming that will alter the way organizations and individuals identify themselves online; they will be able to personalize their web addresses in ways never imagined before. Even more compelling, Web Hosters will have a ripe new opportunity to “cash in” on this new sales conduit.  

 

The governing body that manages Top Level Domains (TLD) is set to authorize and release over 1,000 new TLDs starting next year. Some examples of these include: .APP, .HOME, .STORE, .BLOG, .BOOK, .MOVIE and .MUSIC. Businesses and consumers will be able to get descriptive, memorable and relevant domain names for their Web Presence to a degree unprecedented in the history of the Internet. If I owned a bookstore in Manhattan, I probably already have .COM or .NET domain just like every other bookstore in the world. Next year I could have a .NYC domain to make search more relevant and a .BOOK domain to clarify that I am a bookstore and a .BARGAINS domain if I sell used books.  

 

As a Web Hoster, you have a unique opportunity to grow or create your domain business. You will benefit from the increase in registration volume and higher prices that many of the specialized TLDs are expected to achieve. You can tailor offers and packages around specific TLDs that optimize customer acquisition and generate new revenue from existing customers. 

 

At Parallels we want to make taking advantage of this opportunity as easy as possible by attracting customers now and preparing for the coming change. 


  • • Sign-up to resell domains with Parallels’ Domain Name Network .  We waive typical set-up fees and provide you with pre-negotiated volume discounts.
  • • Leverage tools and resources, provided through our close partnership with eNom, to start capturing customer interest now. We give you ready-to-go marketing toolkits and access to the ‘TLD Watchlist” application that can be directly integrated into your Website. When new TLD launch phases roll-out, additional tools and resources will become available allowing you to easily convert interest to orders.

 

This is a huge evolution of the Web and an opportunity not to be missed. Help your customers be successful by being their trusted Web advisor and generate new revenue at the same time… Don’t get left behind!

 

Accedian Networks, Carrier Ethernet, Cell site, Ethernet, IT Management, service provider, Telecommunications Equipment, Tools

Accedian Updates MetroNID and MetroNODE 10GE Solutions

Accedian Networks today announced the release of its Version 5.5 software, which is now available on its MetroNID® and MetroNODE 10GE™ solutions.

This latest release embedded in Accedian’s  MetroNID and MetroNODE 10GE solutions enables operators to perform Y.1564 testing with multiple simultaneous flows from a single device directly from the cell site. By using multiple flows to different destinations, service providers can test different services at the same time and thereby save time, money and OPEX.

The addition of TWAMP-Lite as a second Layer 3 testing option provides further flexibility to the operators and allows Layer 3 performance monitoring with any standards compliant monitoring tools.

“This release validates our leadership position in the market and affirms our commitment to continually be bold and innovative,” said Patrick Ostiguy, CEO of Accedian Networks. “As consumers insatiable demand for all things mobile continues to put pressure on the network, and as carrier Ethernet is the technology of choice for mobile operators and service providers, we are pleased to deliver the most innovative and effective solution to meet, and exceed, the needs of our global customers.”


Cloud Services, Events, Gartner, Marketing, Parallels Automation, service provider, WPC12

Parallels Named a “Cool Vendor” in Cloud Services by Industry Research Firm

 

 

RENTON, WA and TORONTO – July 10, 2012 – Parallels® (www.parallels.com), the hosting and cloud services enablement leader, today announced technology research firm Gartner has recognized Parallels as a Cool Vendor for 2012 in the recent report, “Cool Vendors in Cloud Services Brokerage Enablers, 2012.” The report recognizes those firms with new and innovative technologies for delivering cloud brokerage services. This announcement was made during the 2012 Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference, taking place this week in Toronto through July 12.

 

Recognized for its Parallels Automation software, including Parallels Automation for Cloud Marketplace, Parallels is helping service providers profit from the growing demand in Small and Medium Business (SMB) cloud services. Parallels Automation is a complete operational and business support system that automates all aspects of delivering, managing and billing for service providers, enabling them to offer services ranging from Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) to Platform and Software as a Service (PaaS and SaaS).  Parallels also pre-negotiates wholesale contracts with ISVs and SaaS providers, and arranges relationships with customer support companies, enabling providers to create a Cloud Services Brokerage quickly and efficiently.  Additionally, Parallels Automation for Cloud Marketplace has a flexible architecture that makes it easy for providers to add additional applications enabled by the open Application Packaging Standard (APS). 

 

“We are honored to be recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor in Cloud Services Brokerage Enablement,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Parallels. “With Parallels Automation, including our Cloud Marketplace and our growing list of APS packaged applications, we are making it easy for service providers to quickly and efficiently deliver the full suite of Microsoft hosted applications that meet the diverse needs of SMBs.”

 

Parallels recently announced the general availability of Parallels Automation 5.4, the latest version of the most comprehensive hosting and cloud services delivery system used by hundreds of service providers worldwide — from the world’s largest telecom operators to top hosters and providers of vertical solutions (see the Gartner report for a list of reference partners). Parallels Automation 5.4 now includes support for delivering Microsoft® Lync and other Microsoft® hosted applications, and its built-in Parallels Windows Server® Provisioning Engine helps service providers manage the migration of Microsoft Hosted Exchange® and other applications from Microsoft’s former Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) solution.  

 

The full Gartner report is available courtesy of Parallels here.

 

About Parallels
Parallels is a worldwide leader in hosting and cloud service enablement and desktop virtualization. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

 

For information on Parallels, visit www.parallels.com/spp, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ParallelsCloud and Like Us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ParallelsCloud.

 

Disclaimer: 

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 

 

 

DataCore, Hosting, IT Management, IT service management, Partnerships, service provider, Storage hypervisor, Storage virtualization, VMware

DataCore Software Announces Pay-as-You-Serve Cloud Service Provider Program for Hosted IT Services

DataCore Software today announced that providers of hosted IT services may now rent DataCore’s SANsymphony-V storage hypervisor through the company’s Cloud Service Provider Program. Under the program, Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) pay for the use of the software monthly based on the amount of storage they serve versus having to purchase it outright. This allows participating providers to reduce capital expenditure and better align costs to revenue.

DataCore’s storage hypervisor software manages and protects hosted IT environments, providing a high performance, highly scalable, automatically tiered storage infrastructure upon which providers can confidently build and offer their hosted IT services.

The DataCore Cloud Service Provider Program goes a step further in the direction of “on demand” infrastructure with its “Pay-as-You-Serve” proposition to hosted IT service providers—they pay for the software as they use it, based upon the storage they serve to their subscribers.

“In order to offer the most competitive pricing for their services, CSPs and other hosting companies seek to lower capital expenditures and keep expenses and their timing aligned to revenue-producing activities,” said Carlos M. Carreras, vice president of alliances and business development, DataCore Software. “The DataCore storage hypervisor ‘software advantage’ gives us the unique ability to offer the kind of service provider program that other leading software companies, like VMware, have developed, but apply it to the storage-side of the infrastructure. Ideally tailored for the flexibility, efficiency and predictable expenses they seek.”

New cutting edge technologies will also be of interest to CSPs. These innovations designed to satisfy large scale, Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) requirements crucial to building robust cloud storage infrastructures are packaged in the company’s newest product, SANsymphony-V R9.0, aptly described as “The Storage Hypervisor for the Cloud.”

The storage hypervisor’s powerful storage management capabilities and interchangeable hardware design empowers hosters with great cost-savings flexibility, new levels of automation for increased resource productivity and a storage infrastructure that easily incorporates the industry’s latest innovations.

“The new DataCore CSP pricing model reduces our upfront costs – thereby enhancing our margins,” comments Philippe Merckel, CEO, MERCKEL SAS. “DataCore understands that as data centers move to the cloud in the form of virtual, private data centers, cloud platforms need the storage virtualization functionality that DataCore brings to the table with its storage hypervisor. The key, however, for CSPs lies in making the adoption of this technology cost-effective. That is what this Cloud Service Provider Program does. It makes it far easier for us to standardize on DataCore for storage virtualization because we pay as we go rather than paying for everything upfront. It fundamentally suits our own business model whereby our own clients lease our cloud platform.

The DataCore Cloud Service Provider Program is currently open only to providers of hosted IT services located in Europe; the program will be expanded to include North America and additional geographies over the next 90 days. For more up-to-date information about program eligibility and the program itself, please visit: http://www.datacore.com/Partners/cloud-service-providers/CSP-Program.aspx.


Hosting, Parallels, Parallels Partners, Partnerships, service provider

Parallels Expands Partner Program Benefits to Smaller and Growing Web Hosters and Website Designers Seeking to Expand Their Businesses

Parallels today announced expanded access of its Partner Program specifically for smaller and growing web hosters and website designers. Parallels’ unmatched depth of valuable expertise, best practices, tools and other go-to-market resources are now available to hosters seeking to grow their businesses by delivering cloud services.

“Smaller and growing web hosters and design firms now have access to the best resources available for accelerating their revenue and profitability,” said John Zanni, Vice President, Service Provider Marketing and Alliances, Parallels. “Key benefits of our program include expertise on how to implement proven strategies and tactics for improving customer value through better operations and for delivering a broader set of hosted services and applications.”

New access for Parallels Partners includes:

  • A new Member level, specifically designed for small web hosters who
    are seeking business growth and who aspire to achieve advanced partner
    benefits as their revenue and customer base expands.
  • The introduction of the Bronze Partner program level for Europe and
    North Africa (EUNA).The Bronze Partner program is designed for high
    impact web hosters who typically operate on a local or regional level,
    and who can benefit from tools and resources to help them grow their
    businesses to the next level. Membership in the Bronze Partner Program
    has proved popular with similar-sized hosters in North America, with
    membership tripling over the past year.

All members of the Parallels Partner Program can take advantage of recent enhancements and resources centrally located on the Parallels PartnerNet portal, including:

  • SMB Knowledge Headquarters – tools, whitepapers, research and webinars
    help service providers gain insights on SMB cloud usage and cloud
    services opportunities. Based on its interactions with thousands of
    service providers, and its ongoing series of SMB Cloud Insights™
    research, Parallels is the single best source for information on
    trends and actionable recommendations for targeting, marketing and
    selling cloud services to SMBs.
  • Best Practices – assets, case studies, templates and other
    go-to-market resources provide proven strategies and tactics for
    service plans, pricing, offerings, promotions, bundling and upselling
    cloud services.
  • Parallels Partner Forums –partners can interact with Parallels and
    other service providers to overcome challenges and better realize
    market opportunities. Partners can benefit from sharing and learning
    best practices and techniques to become more proficient in their
    sales, marketing and support activities.

For more information about signing up for the Parallels Service Provider Partner Program, visit http://www.parallels.com/spp/partnerprogram


Marketing, Parallels Automation, Saas, service provider, Small Businesses, Software as a service

Parallels Automation 5.4 Launches, Delivering Enterprise-Grade Hosted PBX, Microsoft® Lync and Microsoft® Hosted Exchange Capabilities

 

Additional features, including the new Parallels Web Presence Builder, are specifically designed for service providers to meet the growing demand for cloud services by small and medium businesses (SMBs)

 

We are excited to announce the general availability of Parallels Automation 5.4, the latest version of the most comprehensive hosting and cloud services delivery system used by hundreds of service providers worldwide, from the world’s largest telecom operators to top hosters and providers of vertical solutions. 

 

Among the new cloud service delivery capabilities in Parallels Automation 5.4 is a suite of communications and collaboration features, including a full-featured virtual PBX enablement solution for delivering hosted BroadSoft BroadWorks PBX and hosted Microsoft® Lync™ services. These features are designed specifically to meet the growing demands of small and medium businesses (SMBs) for hosted PBX and other cloud applications. According to Parallels SMB Cloud Insights™, the market for hosted communications and collaboration services experienced a 75% year-over-year growth in 2012, reaching $2.5B and is expected to carry a 35% CAGR through 2014.

 

The new hosted communications and collaboration capabilities in Parallels Automation 5.4 enables hosters of any size to launch much needed hosted PBX services, bundled with business email, instant messaging and other services.  These services are suited to meet the communications needs of SMBs, whether they are replacing a legacy PBX system or moving to their very first PBX service. Parallels has also simplified the deployment of these services by partnering with best-in-breed providers to add flexibility and enhanced capabilities.  Hosters can choose to integrate these services with their own BroadSoft Broadworks solution, or use wholesale services enabled by preferred partners Apptix, Alteva and Sipcom.  

 

In addition, Parallels Automation 5.4 delivers hosted Microsoft Lync services, appealing to the 178 million employees of SMBs worldwide who seek to leverage cloud-based messaging, collaboration and unified communications across desktops, laptops and mobile devices. Microsoft Lync also includes built-in web and call conferencing support and is a natural upsell to those SMBs already utilizing Microsoft Exchange, either on-premises or in a hosted environment. Parallels Automation 5.4 also provides billing automation and provisioning of this and other hosted Microsoft services, while enabling additional application integration of other hosted third-party applications from leading ISVs.

 

“Parallels Automation continues to be a competitive differentiator for Apptix and a key reason why blue chip channel partners are turning to Apptix to drive their cloud success,” said Joy Nemitz, Chief Marketing Officer, Apptix. “It provides a single platform for provisioning, management, and billing of all of our Cloud services and allows us to beat our competitors to market with new services and capabilities into the market – such as Microsoft Lync.”

 

“Parallels Automation continues to be the platform of choice for service providers seeking to profit from the rapidly-growing opportunity for delivering cloud services to SMBs,” said Jack Zubarev, President of Parallels. “With the addition of hosted PBX, and Microsoft Lync, Parallels Automation is delivering even more opportunities for service providers to meet the diverse needs of SMBs.”

 

In addition to the Hosted PBX and Microsoft Lync capabilities, Parallels Automation 5.4 also delivers number of enhancements, including:

 

  • • Updated Control Panel – Parallels Automation has an entirely refreshed end-user control panel. Many scenarios have been optimized based on customer input and the look and feel has been unified with Parallels Plesk Panel to offer a common interface throughout all Parallels control panels. These and other new self-service features make Parallels Automation more efficient for both the service provider and their end-user customers.

 

  • • New Parallels Web Presence Builder – As the worldwide market for Web presence is expected to grow to $12.6 billion by 20141, hosters continue to seek ways to capitalize on this growing market, to differentiate their offers and grow their service revenue. The new Parallels Web Presence Builder features prebuilt site templates with customized text for more than 75 different industries – enabling SMBs to set up a complete, professional-looking website in record time.  Parallels Web Presence Builder also enables users to easily customize website content, integrate it with Facebook, and let visitors share content on popular social networks such as Twitter and LinkedIn.

 

  • • Parallels Windows Provisioning Engine (WPE) – As Microsoft has wound down its Hosted Messaging and Collaboration (HMC) solution, service providers will have to find a new platform to deliver hosted and syndicated Microsoft Exchange and other tools. Parallels Automation 5.4 is a leading Microsoft-certified solution that allows service providers to migrate their customers from HMC to future hosted e-mail and other applications.  This includes Hosted Exchange 2010 SP2 services via Parallels WPE, which enables the migration from older Exchange versions.

 

 

The market continues to take notice of Parallels momentum. In a recently published report, technology industry research firm IDC states, “Given Parallels’ current base of 5,000 partners/customers in the SMB IT channel (hosting providers, resellers, and integrators) and market penetration of the Parallels Plesk Panel product (50% market share in the control panel segment), IDC believes that the company is well positioned to establish an up-the-stack presence in the service delivery/enablement platforms of SMB cloud IT supply chain participants.”2 The full IDC report is available for download from Parallels Web site at: http://bit.ly/yt6kg7

 

For more information on Parallels Automation, visit: http://www.parallels.com/products/automation/

 

 

1 Parallels SMB Cloud Insights, 2012

2 IDC, Parallels Private Vendor Watchlist Profile: Helping Service Providers Compete in the Cloud, doc #233149, Feb. 2012


APS, APS Partners, Cloud Services, Events, Marketing, Parallels Automation, Saas, service provider, Small Businesses, Software as a service, Webinar

APS and SaaS Webinar for Service Providers featuring Solgari, Ecwid, VMWare and Quest

 

Our recent case study describes how leading Hong Kong hosting service provider, Pacificnet Hosting Limited (PacHosting), used Parallels Application Packaging Standard (APS) to broaden its portfolio and reduce time-to-market for new services. With APS, PacHosting was able to create new revenue opportunities in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) space and rapidly ramp-up services. We have arranged for some leaders in the SaaS field to explain how your business can profit like PacHosting by offering the most in-demand applications to small and medium business customers. This is a great opportunity for service providers to learn how to easily market and sell high-demand commercial applications and services, and how Parallels can help providers of any size be successful in increasing ARPU and reducing customer churn.

 

This month’s scheduled presentations include:

 

Solgari – Discover the fantastic opportunity to provide Solgari Hosted PBX & Voice Services to your business customers

Ecwid – Find out how you can grow your ecommerce base with our 100% AJAX widget shopping cart

VMware – Learn how Zimbra Collaboration Server allows you to offer an advanced enterprise email & calendaring solution at a low TCO

Quest – Discover the many benefits of Quest’s OnDemand Migration for Email

 

Webinar starts Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at 8am PDT. Don’t miss it – Register now!