In the second breakout session of the afternoon, Parallels SVP of automation systems Oleg Melnikov discussed the most recent version of Parallels Automation 5.4 and the upcoming Parallels Automation 5.5 solution.
In the second breakout session of the afternoon, Parallels SVP of automation systems Oleg Melnikov discussed the most recent version of Parallels Automation 5.4 and the upcoming Parallels Automation 5.5 solution.
He kicked off the presentation by giving a rundown on the recent momentum Parallels has experienced within the past year.
These milestones include more than 50 percent of the top 30 telecommunication providers using Parallels Automation, APS catlog growing to over 400 certified apps, SMb adoption of APS-enabled cloud services growing to over 80 percent in 2012, and over 100 ISVs joining the APS ecosystems with new services in 2012.
Additionally, the past year has seen Parallels releasing a new customer control panel, seeing high growth in Linux shared hosting adoption, and achieving a faster time to market.
One of the main Parallels Automation improved customer home screen, including a more simplified layout, easy to manage services and users, and integrated billing and services management.
Parallels Automation features a unified aesthetic and navigation, ensuring that companies will not have to retrain their users on other Parallels products.
Improvements of product and order management include the ability to collect customer data at oder placement, assign SKUs to products, and share order flows with resellers.
In addition, the business and billing components have been improved on, with updates on per plan/resource terms and conditions, billing in arrears, and use of a new API methods for integration.
For enabled services, there are new Linux shared hosting capabilties such as parked domains, phpMyAdmin and phpPgAdmin.
The release of Hosted PBX provides many benefits for small businesses and cloud providers. For small businesses, there are features that without upfront investments, can be easily set up in control panel, and business efficiency with tightly integrated messaging and collaboration apps.
Hosted PBX enables cloud providers to bundle together with other services like email, instant messaging, and web presence, and enables them to use in-house BroadWorks or syndicate from a wholesaler.
He then gave a glimpse at the upcoming release of Parallels Automation 5.5 and its features.
The biggest change is in the user experience, with a new menu and wizards for provider control panels, which has been streamlined to improve the provider CP navigation process, as well as an improved PBA provider CP scenarios.
Parallels Automation 5.5 will use the latest OS and run POA management node on RHEL/CentOS 6 64bit for better security and managebility.
For the billing component, 5.5 will enable users to select a proration algorithm, enable a faster launch of new applications, allow users to optimize their support operations, and will help them to acquire new customers.
Finally, he ended with some of the key features of Parallels APS 2.0, which included an improved user experience, services discovery and integration for composable services, cross-sell and up-sell, and a single sigon-on.
Talk back. Are you currently using Parallels Automation 5.4? Are you planning on upgrading to 5.5 when it is released? Let us know in a comment.
About Justin Lee
Justin Lee has been a staff analyst with theWHIR since 2004. He writes about a range of web hosting and IT-related issues facing the industry on the WHIR website, as well the print version of the WHIR magazine. Follow him on Twitter @Justin_theWHIR.
