Category Archives: SMB

Cloud Services, IT, SMB, SMB Cloud Insights

SMB Cloud Services and the Changing Role of IT Professionals Who Service Them

 

Cloud computing is affecting the role of IT professionals who typically manage a business’s technological infrastructure, and depending on who you ask the cloud is either an exciting new development or a serious challenge to job security.

In Parallels SMB Cloud Insights Report, we explore how cloud services have enabled companies large and small to make massive budget cuts and gain efficiency by forgoing expensive equipment and annually-licensed software. “Parallels SMB Cloud Insights research continues to confirm that SMBs are at the forefront of cloud adoption,” says Birger Steen, CEO of Parallels.  “This research is part of our commitment to service providers to give them both the expertise and technology they need to address the quickly-growing market for SMB cloud services.”

 

The rise in cloud services marks a shift in IT responsibilities and Parallels is leading that charge by offering targeted services to for hosters to deliver to SMBs that are either converting to the cloud, switching to the cloud, or expanding the cloud services they already have in place.

In addition to serving SMBs with dedicated IT professionals on staff, Parallels research also identifies the cloud delivery opportunities to serve SMBs with no IT staff as well as SMBs that hire outside IT consultants.

Parallels research shows that 45% of SMBs in the U.S. have no IT staff, leaving “do-it-yourself” owners or senior members of the company to handle purchasing decisions, installation, and maintenance of all IT solutions. For the SMBs that hire outside IT consultants (which 18% of micro SMBs do), Parallels allows the consultants (usually hosting resellers) to offer cloud services to the SMB end customer without having to manage the infrastructure themselves. In both cases, cloud services benefit business and the bottom line.

 

With cloud services in place, IT professionals can focus on what they are often highly undervalued for in business: strategy and innovation. A successful career in IT may mean having a cloud-focused skillset and being able to think strategically on a big-picture level.

 

In the move toward IT as a service, IT professionals will be measured less by how many fires they put out on any given day and more by the value and efficiency they add to internal and client-facing business processes. “Instead of managing infrastructure, tending the help desk, and commissioning server instances to be created,” Brandon Butler of Network World writes, “IT workers of tomorrow are more likely to be managing vendor relationships, working across departments and helping clients and workers integrate into the cloud.”

Learn more about this transition in any of our Parallels SMB Cloud Insights Reports, and stay tuned for a 5-part blog series exploring areas such as hosted infrastructure, web presence, hosted communication and collaboration, business applications, and more.

 

Cloud Services, Control Panels, Hosting, Parallels Summit 2012, Plesk Panel, Shared Hosting, SMB

Summit 2012: Parallels Road Map Track 2

 

There was a plethora of great content at Summit 2012 this year, and it was impossible to attend it all.  Fortunately, we have all of our talks on YouTube!  For this series of posts, we have consolidated the talks by tracks at Parallels Summit.

  

Chart Your Future: Parallels Roadmap – Find out where Parallels innovation is headed for 2012 and beyond.


Parallels Panel Roadmap


Craig Bartholomew, VP, Hosting Control Panels and Shared Hosting, Parallels


Be the first to know what we have planned for the next generation of Parallels Plesk Panel to help your hosting business save money on server costs, reduce labor cost, increase efficiency and sell more servers.

 

 

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

 

Accelerating mobile adoption: Convincing small businesses they need more than a Facebook page


Roy Joseph, President, UNITY Mobile


This session will address the growing need and challenges for SMBs to have an internet presence beyond the browser. This includes a presence on Facebook as well as the ability to deliver a good customer experience across mobile devices. Come find out how SMBs can easily add these capabilities, and how service providers can profit and differentiate offering these services and solutions.

 

 

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

 

The evolution of IT hosting services: What’s next?


Lance Crosby, CEO, SoftLayer Technologies


Understanding how cloud, dedicated and managed web hosting services will evolve and change is crucial to staying competitive. As one of the world’s largest privately owned hosting companies, SoftLayer will speak to industry leading trends which highlight the need for businesses of all sizes to adopt solutions that offer control, security, scalability, and ease-of-management. The presentation will also discuss how SoftLayer is working with Parallels to deliver the next generation of IaaS solutions.

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

 

Differentiate and grow your hosting business with Parallels Business Automation Standard


Alex Goncharov, Sr. Director, PBAS Product Marketing, Parallels

 

Join a PBAS expert for insider tips on how to accelerate your business. Alex will also provide a view into how we’ll be enhancing the capabilities of PBAS in the coming years.

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here.

 

 

Opportunities with Google Apps


Jeff Ragusa, SMB Channel Programs Lead, Google


In this session you will learn how to extend your portfolio with Google Apps – Google’s business suite of messaging and productivity applications. Bring these powerful web applications to your clients allowing them to work efficiently from anywhere on any device. By leveraging Google’s channel program you can deepen and strengthen your customer relationships and grow your cloud services practice without disrupting your existing business.

 

 

 

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

 

Compliance: Understanding the legal and regulatory issues


Christian Dawson, COO, ServInt

David Snead, Attorney at Law


Compliance is becoming an even more important issue because governments are increasing the level of regulation related to intellectual property protection, privacy and protecting children. You need to understand the regulatory framework in order to build a secure cloud. This session will present the existing framework of security laws plus pending and anticipated legislation. Attendees will be given a framework to analyze their current compliance with these laws, and insights into whether certain important proposed legislative initiatives are likely to be adopted and what it will mean if they are.

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

 

Cloud Services, Hosting, Marketing, Parallels Summit 2012, Shared Hosting, Small Businesses, SMB

Summit 2012: Practice Best Practices Track 2

 

There was a plethora of great content at Summit 2012 this year, and it was impossible to attend it all.  Fortunately, we have all of our talks on YouTube!  For this series of posts, we have consolidated the talks by tracks at Parallels Summit. 

 

Practice Best Practices: This track focused Summit Attendees on how to best use Parallels Products to drive business growth, and efficiently provide the Parallels products to customers.  Additionally, this track emphasised how to best capitalize on the growing SMB cloud market.

 

Panel: Building a secure cloud for customers – demystified


Alex Danyluk, Sr. Director SaaS & ISV Alliances, Parallels (moderator)


Panelists:

  • • Rick Norman, Director of Professional Services, CoalFire
  • • Sean Leach, Vice President, Strategy and Technology, Verisign
  • • Brett Matesen, Director of Business Development, Kaspersky
  • • Dreas van Donselaar, CTO, SpamExperts

 

The cloud promise is that all data, applications, and services are accessible from any device over the internet, but this has tremendous security implications at every layer from the network to the servers to the systems and end-point devices. Listen to a panel of experts discuss the trends in keeping the cloud secure, what matters to customers, and what security issues need to be top of mind for you in 2012.

 

 

 

Customer Support: Parallels lessons


Kellie Green, VP, Global Support, Parallels


Support can be a key differentiator in a service provider business. Parallels has made major strides in enhancing its Support capabilities in the last year and this session will provide you with our learnings. Pick up new ideas about optimizing your support experience and hear more about the changes planned in Parallels Support this year.

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

Panel: Best practices for growing a hosting business – being on the right side of the growth curve


Liam Eagle, Editor in Chief, Web Host Industry Review (moderator)

 

Panelists:

  • • Steven Canale, Vice President of Sales, SoftLayer Technologies
  • • Joy Nemitz, CMO, Apptix
  • • Roy Joseph, President, UNITY Mobile
  • • Craig Ball, Director of Sales, Infratel
  • • Jon McCarrick, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Parallels Automation, Parallels
  • • Igor Seletskiy, Founder and CEO, CloudLinux

 

While the hosting industry is experiencing double digit year-over-year growth, leaders in this sector are growing much faster than the industry average. This panel of experts will talk about what is working (and not working) and why.

 

 

 

You’re thinking mobile, but you might not be thinking big enough


Elliot Noss, President and CEO, Tucows


Thinking about how to capitalize on the remarkable growth of mobile this year? Make sure you are thinking big enough. That might require a shift in how you define yourself, from a product focus to a relationship focus. You will likely find that your relationships are your real advantage and that your customers will buy much bigger products from you than you realize.

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here. 

 

Grow your business: Parallels partner resources


Scott Fallon, Sr. Director, Partner Marketing, Parallels


Leverage the resources Parallels offers to support your operational, marketing and sales efforts. We’ll talk about new and enhanced benefits offered through the Parallels Partner Program, technical support resources, working with Parallels Sales and more. And we’ll take your feedback on what partner benefits and tools you’d like to see added in the coming year.

 

 

You can download a PDF copy of this presentation here.