Parallels Continues Its Asia Pacific Growth and Leadership in Cloud Enablement

Company previews innovative products for hosting automation, infrastructure and cloud storage, and releases new SMB cloud research during the Fourth Annual Parallels Summit 2012 APAC

SINGAPORE – September 21, 2012 – Parallels® (www.parallels.com), a hosting and cloud services enablement leader, today announced another successful year of solid growth across Asia Pacific, as the company reported a rapidly expanding list of service providers and hosters who are partnering with Parallels to deliver cloud and hosting services to small and medium businesses (SMB).  Given the importance of the APAC SMB cloud market, which Parallels estimates will grow 38 percent year-over-year to US $19.8 billion by 2015, the company continues to invest in developing innovative software, recruiting executive leadership and adding other resources to enable its APAC partners to better meet the growing SMB demand for cloud services.  The company’s accelerated growth in APAC includes the recent introduction of Parallels Plesk Panel 11, which has been adopted 85 percent faster in Asia than previous versions, thus becoming the fastest growing product in company’s history.  Parallels also announced its latest reports on Asia’s accelerating SMB cloud markets, and launched previews of its newest software for hosting automation, infrastructure and cloud storage, giving service providers more capabilities and opportunities to sell and upsell cloud and hosted services and applications.

These developments were announced today at the fourth annual Parallels Summit 2012 APAC in Singapore, where leading service providers and industry experts gathered to discuss the latest trends and share best practices to further the growth of cloud and hosting services.  “The Asia Pacific region continues to present vast opportunities for delivering cloud and hosting services,” said Birger Steen, CEO of Parallels. “Asian service providers – and their SMB customers – are rapidly realizing the economic and operational benefits of using the cloud.  Parallels stands at the forefront of this ongoing shift by making the investments in platforms and solutions for service providers.  Combined with our expertise and ecosystem, Parallels is uniquely qualified to help our APAC partners meet the needs of SMBs seeking to migrate to cloud services.”

Parallels Software: Latest Success and New Previews 

Partners in Asia and around the world continue to embrace Parallels Plesk Panel 11 in record numbers, citing the combination of powerful new features, ease of use, improved server performance and enhanced security.  Many enhancements originated from APAC partner feedback and are designed to meet the needs of region’s service providers, including:

Support for Microsoft Windows Server, Asia’s Most Popular Operating System – As Microsoft Windows Server is the dominant operating system of choice, Parallels has announced support for the latest versions of Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and the recently-announced Microsoft Windows Server 2012. For Parallels Plesk Panel Linux users, Parallels has also announced the availability of support for both the CentOS and RedHat 6.3 operating systems.

Improved Security - Parallels invested significantly to further fortify Parallels Plesk Panel 11 with security hardening to counter multiple attack vectors, including industrial-grade 256-bit password encryption to protect file transfers (FTP), databases, and e-mail functions.

Improved Server Performance - Parallels Plesk Panel 11 automatically installs and configures an NGINX modern web stack, and leverages its high performance web server design to manage latent connections with far fewer server resources than Apache. This reduces the maximum concurrent website connections, decreases server CPU and memory resource consumption, and improves the efficiency for serving site visitors with slow connection speeds – common across APAC - by up to 40 percent.

Asian partners continue to embrace Parallels Plesk Panel at a record pace.

"Kryptos believes in building business and customer relationships through strong alliances and partnerships,” said Prasanna Ram, CEO of Kryptos. “By leveraging its innovations, such as Parallels Plesk Panel, we have been able to improve our services dramatically and the partnership has enabled us more rapidly offer new hosting and cloud services to our customers.” 

Parallels has also announced the preview release of Parallels Cloud Server 6 Beta.  This exciting new technology combines Parallels Virtuozzo Containers together with world-class hypervisor technology, and dramatically improves server reliability and performance by turning existing unused disk space into scalable, resilient cloud storage.   Also available is the preview of Parallels Business Automation Standard 4.3, the newest version of the most proven billing and automation solution for managing and scaling small and medium web hosting businesses. Parallels Business Automation Standard 4.3 provides even more value to hosters and other service providers, with a variety of advanced features based on customer feedback including centralized e-mail, antivirus, antispam and database management, and support for MySQL 5.x.  In addition, the new version reduces supports costs by enabling the simple re-creation of virtual private servers (VPS), enabling end users to switch to any server operating system a provider offers.  The public preview of Parallels Cloud Server Beta 2 is available for download at www.parallels.com/products/pcs/.  The Parallels Business Automation Standard 4.3 preview is available for download at www.parallels.com/products/pba-standard/whats-new/.

Parallels Automation Growth Continues in APAC 

Parallels Automation, the leading hosting and cloud services delivery system for large service providers, is designed to deliver a vast portfolio of Microsoft services (such as Office 365) and other hosted applications that can generate instant value and drive revenue for service providers.  Many of APAC’s leading service providers have now deployed Parallels Automation, including ASG/Domain Central, Datec, GMO Cloud, KT, iiNet, Ozhosting.com, PacHosting, Shinjiru, Tsukaeru.net, ReadySpace, Ride, Telekom Malaysia and UberGlobal.

“Parallels Automation has tremendously benefitted iiNet with its ability to address mission critical business needs, and taking it a step further by enabling us to quickly offer on-demand software that SMBs need to be successful in today’s competitive environment,” said Kevin Clark, Hosting Manager at iiNet, Australia’s second largest DSL Internet Service provider.  “The new monetization opportunities that have risen for us as a result of our partnership will play a huge role in our expansion program.”  

APAC Partner List Continues to Expand

Over the last twelve months, Parallels has also built relationships with many new service provider partners across APAC, including Vodien, CtrlS, WebVisions, Krypt, ThaiBizHost and Kryptos, who join the list of established Parallels partners including Softbank Korea, Telekom Malaysia, ZNet, Directi, and Net4 India. Further driving Parallels’ business in Asia Pacific is the addition of system integration and reseller partners that enable ISVs, VARs, ISPs and small hosting providers resell cloud services with minimal upfront costs and faster time-to-market. Companies entering the hosting space can now collaborate with Parallels’ new partners including CtrlS in India, and Sunny Vision in Hong Kong, as well as existing partners with a significant APAC footprint including LuxCloud, UberGlobal, and ReadySpace.

New Parallels SMB Cloud Insights™ for APAC, China and India: $19.8 Billion SMB Market by 2015

Parallels continues to invest on expanding its market expertise and intelligence to help service providers success with go-to-market strategies.  These resources include the Parallels Partner Program and PartnerNet, open to hosters and service providers at any level, as well as Parallels SMB Cloud Insights™, the company’s series of 15 proprietary research reports with actionable insights for selling cloud services to SMBs.  This week, Parallels is releasing its latest findings on the SMB cloud markets in China, India, and for the entire APAC region.  The research anticipates a 38 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for SMB cloud services across APAC, with the total market growing to an estimated US $19.8 billion by 2015.  To download the reports, go to www.parallels.com/smbreport/.

New Regional Leadership in APAC

To further drive the company’s success in the region, Parallels has recently appointed David Dzienciol as Regional Vice President and General Manager for Asia Pacific. In this role, Dzienciol is leading sales and marketing for both Parallels Service Provider and Desktop Virtualization business divisions in APAC. He brings a strong track record of successfully driving APAC business growth and increasing market share through the implementation of results-driven strategies.