Last week, application hosting and managed services provider Pointivity began offering its on-demand hosted applications, Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint, with Parallels Automation.

Blacknight will use Parallels Automation to improve its service delivery and save money by automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks such as provisioning, billing and customer maintenance.

As a Parallels Platinum Partner, Blacknight first launched the Parallels virtual private server in May.

This new hosted offerings builds on this relationship, with its Minimus, Medius and Maximus shared hosting plans each designed to provide customers with the tools and disk space that match their needs.

Parallels Automation is a data center automation solution which provides both operational support and business support systems to optimize the use of server resources.

Blacknight says the solution is able to provide consistency and a common ground to automate and manage its service delivery, enabling the hosted solutions provider to add new products and services and scale its business.

With this more efficient way to manage its infrastructure, Blacknight's future plans include the launch of a dedicated server offering and expansion to scale up to several million customers. 

"Parallels Automation gives Blacknight the control and manageability to capitalize on the benefits of virtualization, meet the needs of their customers and reduce operational costs associated with configuring servers," says Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. "We are pleased that Blacknight has selected the Parallels Open Platform and specifically our Parallels Automation solution."

Blacknight Internet Solutions provides hosting and colocation services for businesses, both large and small. The company's servers are based in The Data Electronics Group and the Interxion facilities, both located in Dublin.