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Parallels has buoyed its competitive position as a one-stop cloud enablement source for service providers and other channel partners looking to tap into hosting and cloud delivery software for a growing SMB cloud market.

At its Parallels Summit 2012 this week, the company made a series of announcements including new software, service capabilities and sweeping technology partnerships. IDC notes the approach of enabling various participants in the SMB IT ecosystem – traditional hosting companies, service provider entrants (telcos, VARs and distributors), and ISVs – and offers solutions for companies at each tier of the SMB cloud services supply chain.

As with other emerging technologies, SMBs are driving cloud adoption. Parallels has committed its focus on that market. Research commissioned by the company estimates services enabled by Parallels’ platforms could yield a direct revenue opportunity that will grow from $230 million in 2011 to $2.4 billion by 2020. IDC asserts the pricing model, based on revenue sharing and/or usage, positions Parallels to capture a growing portion of the overall SMB IT cloud opportunity as it flows through the channel.

Among the new products and services announced this week:

• Parallels Automation for Hosted PBX: SMB-Ready Phone Services. Described as a full-featured virtual PBX enablement solution for hosters of any size to launch PBX services. Partners can integrate with BroadSoft Broadworks, or use wholesale services enabled by partners Apptix, Alteva and Sipcom. Parallels Automation partners can also choose to base their hosted PBX services on APS-certified software from Infratel, 4PSA.com and Solgari.
• Parallels Plesk 11: Complete Panel Solution for Web Hosting. Advanced features such as mobile management client for hosters. Integrates with Microsoft Web Matrix, business metrics, WebStat and SEO indicators to help SMBs maximize web presence and social media effectiveness.
• Parallels Plesk Automation (PPA): Multi-server automation solution for hosting companies using Parallels Plesk Panel. Designed to scale hosting and cloud services through centralized management of customers and servers with distributed architecture, opening the door for new services.
• Expansion of Parallels ISV Ecosystem. Application Packaging Standard (APS) creates a new revenue opportunity – for hosting service providers and ISVs – by introducing a “pluggable” approach to hosting and cloud applications and services. For ISVs, APS provides a sales channel through Parallels’ service providers and resellers serving SMBs. In turn, hosters and other cloud service providers have access to APS-certified applications and services described as easy to deploy and maintain.

Parallels has also established or expanded about 300 partnerships across the hosting ecosystem in the past year. They include service providers such as LuxCloud, Outsourcery, PacHosting, TDC Hosting, UberGlobal, and Virtual IT, and more than 100 ISVs through APS certification.

Andy Pflaum, senior director for VMware Zimbra Strategic Alliances, notes that integrating VMware Zimbra Collaboration Server into APS enables service providers to easily sell, provision and manage emerging e-mail and collaboration suites for their customers.

“This collaboration provides the broad array of Parallels’ service providers with access to self-service provisioning of Zimbra for their SMB customers,” said Pflaum. “This is a big win for both service providers and their end customers.”

In terms of competitors, IDC notes large vendors such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco Systems that possess data center solutions stacks that include servers, storage, cloud management software and networking.

IDC also notes virtualization software market competitors such as VMware and Citrix with data center, desktop, enterprise applications solutions and cloud management platforms. Cloud system software and cloud management platform specialists such as Eucalyptus, OpenStack, enStratus and RightScale are also vying for a piece of the market.

Parallels is banking on its edge with a two-sided business model: service providers and their resellers leveraging Parallels’ tools and platforms, and ISVs adopting APS and selling SaaS through Parallels’ service provider partners.

A good example of the APS channel’s strategy is Google integrating with its cloud apps to give solution providers greater control over resold service packs.

To the extent that its two-sided business model develops as planned, IDC predicts Parallels could potentially establish a position as the go-to cloud enabler and cloud broker.