WebMail 
Support 
Parallels Website Hosting Review
Parallels Summit 2010 enabled Hosters to get up close to Parallels engineers and learn more about Parallels products. Held at the Fontainebleau Resort in Miami, attendance was strong and included many of the top Web Hosting companies from the United States and Europe. Industry experts provided detailed information on potential growth for Hosting companies to consider. Parallels enabled attendees to get up close and personal with Parallels software engineers to ask questions and also demo current and future releases of software. Hosters could also get certified on Parallels products at the Summit so they can provide better support to their customers. Hundreds of vendors also attended and showcased how their products work cohesively with Parallels software offerings.
Parallels, Inc. is a privately held company based near Seattle, Washington that develops desktop, server virtualization, and web hosting operations software. Over the years, Parallels has acquired some of the most popular control panel platforms available to Web Designers and Web Hosts. SWsoft’s acquisition of Parallels was kept under wraps until January 2004, two years before Parallels desktop software received widespread popular acclaim.
Parallels has turned arguably in to a small monopoly. Consumers in the Web Hosting industry have expressed concerns that mass acquisitions of hosting control panels by one company will drive up pricing and reduce competition thus resulting in less feature rich control panels. Thousands of Web Designers and Web Hosts have staked their businesses on some of the products Parallels has swooped in and purchased.
Quite simply, Parallels has acquired all of the quality control panels that were in the market with exception of cPanel. Only cPanel has the features and polish that Parallels Plesk has. Major hosting companies such as iPower and BlueHost use skinned versions of cPanel for their shared hosting platforms. Other control panels leave a lot to be desired in the feature and reliability departments and are not an option for most Web Hosting companies.
?
One can assume Parallels tried to acquire cPanel. To date, cPanel is still not under the Parallels flag.
Brief history of Parallels acquisitions:
2003 – Yippi-Yeah! E-Business GmbH (makers of Confixx) and Plesk?
2004 – Parallels (SWsoft and Parallels operated independently until 2008).?
2007 – Positive Software (H-Sphere)?2008 – ModernGigabyte, LLC (ModernBill)?
2008 – WebHostAutomation Ltd developers of HELM Control Panel
PARALLELS PLANS FOR ACQUIRED CONTROL PANELS?Control panels such as Helm, H-Sphere, Confixx, and even ModernBill have been brought in to Parallels very recently. Web Hosts who utilize the products acquired by Parallels want to know what Parallels future plans encompass.
Web Hosts still using these platforms are wondering what they can expect from Parallels in the way of support, upgrades, and security patches. Hosts with hundreds or thousands of customers are also wondering about possible migrations if support for their chosen platform is dropped.
Do they need to convert over to Plesk as soon as possible? Can Parallels help in migrating their customers off the old legacy control panels to Plesk?
Most Web Hosts know what a pain and nightmare migrations can be when you are dealing with thousands of accounts. Compatibility issues, billing, automation, and downtime are all concerns.
Hosts who decide migration is too large a product or too expensive may choose to remain on Helm, Confixx, or H-Sphere. In this case, Hosts need to know if they can expect timely security updates and new feature updates.
During a recent trip to Parallels Summit 2010 in Miami, FL, I posed a few questions to Parallels upper management concerning all of these acquisitions, name changes, and future plans in the hopes concerned Web Hosts and Web Designers understand the product life cycle of their respective platforms.
Parallels Q & A?I sat down with Parallels’ Craig Bartholomew, Vice President of Panel Products for a Q&A session.
Q: What is Parallels end goal for legacy products such as Helm, Confixx, and H-Sphere?
?A: Parallels’ end goal is to have satisfied customers. Many hosters have built their Hosting businesses around Helm, Confixx, or H-Sphere and Parallels wants to see these hosters grow, prosper, and offer more services over time.
Q: Will any new development be done on Helm, Confixx, or H-Sphere??
A: There is a dedicated team of developers working on Helm, Confixx, and H-Sphere. They prioritize customer requests and work on meeting the needs of the customer base.
Q: What can current users of legacy software expect in the way of security updates and patches?
?A: The development team does patches and updates – including hotfixes in the environment of the hosters on critical issues.
Q: Does Parallels have an end-of-life date set for any of these legacy platforms? If so, is there a timeframe you can share with us for each??
A: Hosting is a service business, and hosters need confidence that they can keep their service running without stoppage and risk. Parallels has no end-of-life date for any of these hosting systems.
Q: Will Parallels help migrate Web Hosts from Helm, Confixx, or H-Sphere to Plesk? If so, what are the costs associated with this?
?A: Parallels is offering free Transfer Assistance for any customer who wishes to move to the new Plesk 9.5. Parallels has issued new License Keys for Plesk 9.5 to qualify Hosters for this free service – which will only be available for 9.5. This release is hotfix-capable and provides greater security with PCI Compliance.
Q: Does Parallels have any plans on acquiring other control panels or virtualization companies??
A: Parallels is always interested in companies with strong technologies built by intelligent people and used by loyal customer bases.
I also posed similar questions to Serguei Beloussov, CEO and chairman in a one-on-one meeting. Serguei said to expect security updates and patches. However all new development involving new features had been stopped on Helm, Confixx, and H-Sphere. While this is comforting on some levels that security updates will still be released, it is clear that future features will come only on the Plesk platform.
Serguei said Parallels focus was now on improving Plesk, Virtuozzo, Parallels Billing, and Site Builder and not on legacy products. He encouraged consumers to convert over to Parallels new product lines to ensure they would get the latest technology improvements.
As Craig Bartholomew mentioned in the Q & A session, security patches and updates would be released as needed. This is indeed reassuring to Web Hosts who have made the decision to remain on platforms other than Plesk.
Furthermore, those who wish to migrate will receive free assistance from Parallels when moving to the new release of Plesk 9.5. While migration is never an easy task, having a company such as Parallels offering free migration assistance is a good option for large and small web hosts with limited time or budgets.
Every cloud has a silver lining?Some may argue that acquisitions are all about gaining market share and not improving the product. Some may also argue that Parallels is guilty of buying their competition only to force customers in to their product line. The truth is Web Hosts still have alternatives with cPanel, Direct Admin, and other billing control panels on the market.
Good news for Parallels website hosting products is that for the time being, Parallels plans on supporting all acquired panels. Support and security updates will be maintained for the foreseeable future. New features for Helm, H-Sphere, and Confixx are stopped.
There will always be those who are unhappy with choosing a platform only for it to be discontinued, purchased, or phased out. The up side for panels acquired by Parallels is that there is a very strong desire within Parallels to turn out top notch software with features and automation as key components.
Christian Henning?
FindMyHost.com
