(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Cloud technologies provider Parallels (www.parallels.com) has announced the availability of Parallels Small Business Panel 10, which allows web hosts to offer turnkey solutions to small businesses, and help them easily transition to the cloud with simple wizards and productivity tools for collaboration, file sharing and business management.
According to Parallels’ Tuesday announcement, Parallels Small Business Panel features a new control panel designed to offer virtual private server and dedicated server hosts added ease-of-use and more revenue streams, as well as self-service possible for their small and medium-sized business clients. With its Small Business Panel, Parallels has also introduced its Parallels Partner Marketplace, which lets cloud services providers offer commercial applications to their small business customers through an easy-to-use storefront, along with open-source apps such as SpamAssassin, Application Pack, Helpdesk, Tomcat, ColdFusion and MSSQL.
“Parallels is uniquely addressing the needs of small businesses and redefining the way control panels are used with the development of Parallels Small Business Panel,” Parallels service provider division president Jack Zubarev said in a statement. “Over 40 cloud services providers are already launching the solution, so it’s clear that this is striking a chord with Parallels’ partners who are seeing the benefits for their small business customers. Parallels continues to enable cloud services providers to move beyond basic hosting services and offer value-added applications and services.”
Parallels Small Business Panel 10 offers cloud service providers a range of business applications, which can be installed for clients with a single click with no need for special training or technical knowledge. Role-based access enables user organizations to restrict functionality as appropriate for their employees.
“Previously, we’ve found that control panels have not been suitable for our small business customers; however, in participating in the beta trial of Parallels Small Business Panel, we found that the performance, applications and end-user feedback exceeded our expectations,” Softlayer chief strategy officer George Karidis said in a statement. “Parallels’ new panel signifies a new approach to servicing small businesses, enabling us to offer a separate solution that provides one interface for all their IT needs.”
Less than a year ago, Parallels launched Plesk Panel 9, its higher-end control panel for shared, VPS, dedicated hosting and cloud services providers. Small Business Panel 10 offers many of the features of Panel 9 along with added features tailored to the needs of SMB customers. For instance, Small Business Panel incorporates the functionality of additional Parallels solutions for free, including Parallels Sitebuilder and Parallels Power Pack.
A video demo of Small Business Panel 10 is available on the Parallels website.
