The re-brand is part of an effort the company is undertaking to create a more consolidated message for its far-reaching - but very complementary - suite of automation and virtualization products.

The single, unified brand, says SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov, could help clear up some possible confusion for potential customers, and better communicate the integration between its products.

"It is not clear how our products fit together," he says, "and they actually fit together very well. They integrate together and in most cases sell together. For example, Virtuozzo is almost always sold with Plesk, and most Plesk customers also buy Virtuozzo. But we do look like a collection of separate companies. And what we want is to look like a single company with a single vision, so we need a single name."

As part of that process, he says, all of the company's individual brands will be re-named to fall under the umbrella of Parallels, which is already the company's best-known brand, if not necessarily in the hosting space. Products such as SWsoft PEM and HSPcomplete will be renamed Parallels System Automation and Parallels Business Automation, for instance. Even well-worn names like Plesk and Virtuozzo may eventually be phased out in favor of more descriptive names like Parallels Control Panel in the long run.

The company has posted a complete list of new product names, along with a preview of its new logo and imagery, here.

Accompanying the new brand is a new vision of "optimized computing," which attempts to communicate the company's focus on providing businesses, consumers and service providers with "the industry's broadest portfolio of multi-platform virtualization and automation software," according to the official announcement.

"Since we're changing the name and integrating the companies," says Beloussov, "we needed to be clear about company vision and assertion, so we have a new tagline, 'optimized computing,' which is broad enough that it fits service providers, and the consumer and business channel. We're heterogeneous, we use virtualization and automation to optimize information technology infrastructure and we do it for service providers and for consumers and business."

The change is not meant to communicate a change in direction for the company, but rather a unifying of the message for a company that had, up to this point, been perhaps more recognizable for the products themselves than for the overarching organization's brand.

"There is no change in the company direction," says Beloussov. "It's still the same company. We just want to look clearer for our various channels and customers. We're not dropping or stopping support for any products. Everything remains the same - just the names and brands are different."

In early 2008, the existing Parallels and SWsoft websites will be consolidated at www.parallels.com.