(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — With more than 1,100 attendees, Parallels Summit 2010 in Miami provided a venue to discuss how small businesses can move their IT services to the cloud and how web hosts and cloud services providers can innovate, optimize and grow in order to profit from the cloud.
One of the major highlights of the event was the outlining of Parallels’ 2010 roadmap, which included how new offerings will unfold over the course of the year, helping partners plan on how to provide enhanced cloud-based services to their small business customers. In 2010, Parallels will introduce support for Microsoft Exchange 2010 as well as VoIP services for messaging and collaboration in its automation products. Additionally, the company will offer Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition and Parallels Virtuozzo Containers v4.6 for virtualized infrastructure services, and Parallels Small Business Panel and Partner Marketplace v2 for broader SaaS applications.
Following a some analyst sessions and presentations, Parallels Summit officially started off on Monday afternoon with the keynote, “Clouds, with 100% Chance of Profit,” presented by none other than company president and co-founder Jack Zubarev. In his presentation, Zubarev described the challenges facing hosting providers that are making it harder for them to compete, however, using Parallels’ various tools can help them differentiate their services and add value to customers. He also noted that Parallels goes beyond software — it offers dedicated account management, marketing resources, flexible licensing and discounts on products.
Zubarev’s presentation provided an excellent introduction to Parallels and an overview of its various services, leading well into the second day of the conference, which started with Melanie Posey’s examination of cloud trends. The IDC analyst notes that, while the cloud can be thought of simply as an evolution, not a revolution, of previous outsourcing business models, the cloud has tremendous potential because it’s at a stage where it has passed the “early adopter” stage and has not yet reached mainstream acknowledgement. The segment that Posey sees will gain the most from this evolution: the SMBs. Large businesses may use the cloud for some parts of their businesses, but for SMBs with limited IT resources and budgets, they either use a cloud-based service, or go without.
On Wednesday, three major companies came together to offer a very unique offering to the hosting world. In Wednesday’s opening keynote, Go Daddy president and COO Warren Adelman announced that Go Daddy would be adding Cloud-based Mac OS X Web Hosting, a first-of-its-kind virtual dedicated server that provides the power of a dedicated Mac OS X server for a fraction of the cost.. Based on Apple’s enterprise-class Xserve server and Parallels technology, the service provides the usability for which Apple is known, and the customer service for which Go Daddy is highly regarded.
Adelman’s presentation was very much focussed on describing how to differentiate one’s company from other service providers. After all, even with 7,6 million customers worldwide, Go Daddy still has lots of competition. In the session later that day, “Selling Services for Small Business,” Parallels senior product marketing manager Jon McCarrick took on that topic — with smaller businesses in mind. He noted that small businesses are willing to pay (and overpay) for solutions if the company is or appears to be the best at what they do. Of course, Parallels automation and virtualization products can help with delivering those services, but also the PartnerNet website, which provides campaign materials, web content, datasheets and product descriptions, battlesheets, training, and other references.
According to Parallels, this year’s summit was the most successful one in its history. It gave industry leaders and IT pros an opportunity to come together, network and exchange ideas. As much as this summit helped give attendees the knowledge they need to innovate, optimize, and grow their business, this summit sparked some very meaningful conversations about where this industry is headed. And as the year progresses, the conversations will take shape in business practices and the actions of governments and NPOs, and of course they will also unfold in the pages of the Web Host Industry Review, which will be there along the way.
Over the coming days and weeks, the WHIR will be posting features, interviews and videos from the event.
