The VAR Guy

At first glance, Parallels is that desktop virtualization company for Macintoshes. But take a closer look, folks. Behind the curtain is a profitable, growing, 700-person company that’s assisting service providers with SaaS (software as a service) application rollouts. Next up: A 2010 partner summit in Miami. Here’s the scoop.

The VAR Guy caught up with Jack Zubarev, president of Parallels’ Service Provider Division, for some perspective. Among the key revelations: Parallels has customers in 125 countries, and the company’s software runs on roughly 300,000 servers and 2 million desktops. “We are profitable,” confirms Zubarev. “We do have investors like Intel Venture Funds” but the majority of the company is owned by its founders, he adds.

Hmmm. So how is Parallels quietly succeeding outside of the Mac desktop virtualization market? The answer involves a range of software solutions for SaaS companies and service providers. Two key examples:

• Parallels Business Automation simplifies service delivery, billing and management, the company asserts.
• Parallels Operations Automation provides end-to-end automation for provisioning, server management, application management, service plan creation and management, end-user self-service, and reseller management, the company adds.

Turning Up the Heat

Where is Parallels heading next? The answer will likely surface Feb. 22-24 in Miami, during the 5th annual Parallels Summit in Miami.

The summit has a familiar theme… “How to Profit From the Cloud.” Here’s the twist: Scores of start-ups are hyping the cloud. But Parallels (and its partners) are apparently profiting from the cloud.

Healthy Competition

Still, Parallels faces plenty of competition — both in the virtualization market and in the platform as a service (PaaS) sector. And The VAR Guy wonders: Will emerging cloud platforms — like Microsoft Windows Azure — compete with Parallels’ ability to automate and speed SaaS application deployments?

The VAR Guy will be watching. And schedule permitting, perhaps he’ll catch a flight to Miami…

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