Parallels Automation Cloud Infrastructure (PACI)

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The resident of Skolkovo Foundation Parallels Research company announced in October, 2011 start of a new solution for service providers – Parallels Automation Cloud Infrastructure (PACI). The applied sense of this solution for service providers consists in higher efficiency rate of use of infrastructure. And clients, in comparison with traditional virtual private servers, receive scalable and flexible service. In one step the client can set loading (number of processors of the server, amount of memory and storages), similar to work of one thousand servers. The company considers that the developed technology will help providers to become analogs of Amazon with its closed solution Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2).

According to the company, the beta of the solution is tested by clients of Parallels in the different countries and received positive recommendations. In particular, the president of the Japanese hosting company Tsukaeru Jason Frisch said that implementation of PACI "provided to the company advantage in the conditions of the growing competition in the market of a traditional hosting and allowed to provide cloud services flush with leaders of the industry".

Within three last years growth rates of the market of lease in a segment of virtual infrastructures exceeded 50% and in 2011 were equal to the market of a VPS hosting. The Tier1Research agency considers that in 2013 the market of cloud infrastructure will overtake a VPS hosting twice. It is obvious that the providers wishing to save the market position will move towards providing cloud services (SaaS, IaaS). The solution PACI of Parallels company allows providers to join in fight for the cloud market already today.

Pavel Yershov, the CEO of Parallels Research company, noted popularity of Amazon Elastic Cloud services. "Many providers in the world would like to repeat this success in some type, - he considers. - For this purpose each of them would need to create own technological solution. The strategy of Parallels - to assist providers in start of these or those web services in their data centers. PACI-this ready-made solution for rendering services of lease of virtual infrastructure (IaaS) by the principle of Amazon EC2".

As told TAdviser in Parallels, the clients setting PACI pay on the revenue sharing model - monthly deducting revenue percent. Solution deployment cost for providers depends on a set of criteria, and the company does not disclose an order of digits. Turnover of the company in 2009 exceeded $100 million. Growth, by estimates of the company - 30-50% a year. One of the main tasks - to reach turnover in $1 billion.

On a question of TAdviser of perspectives of application of a product in Russia, Andrey Garkanov, the expert of Softline said that solutions of Parallels company well proved as in the West, and in Russia. The developed technology allows the companies to resolve an issue from the last component of success of cloud provider without additional investments into own developments and to begin to submit within the minimum terms to customers service.

Garkanov considers that now such solution will be met by the market positively. "Considering forecasts of the analytical agencies for dynamics of growth and distribution of cloud computing and IaaS in particular, it is possible to tell with confidence that to a new solution of Parallels there will be an interest not only on domestic, but also in the world market. And success of PACI will depend on uniqueness of technical characteristics and product capabilities", - he emphasized.

Georgy Gadzhiyev, the expert has Microtest companies, on a similar question of the edition, there is almost opposite opinion. He considers that market perspectives of this solution in Russia are small because of unavailability of customers to transition to external "clouds". At the first stage, within about three years, the expert estimates sales in Russia as single. The technology advantage of own container platform of the solution can become a shortcoming for clients who assume that can refuse it in the future, the expert considers. According to him, "such users will have problems with data transfer from such cloud back in internal infrastructure" as the Parallels format means work with the modified operating system kernels.

About the Product

This solution allows to organize effectively providing service of lease of virtual infrastructure that will help providers to become analogs of Amazon with its closed solution Elastic Compute Cloud (AmazonEC2). The technology was developed by Parallels Research company, being 100% subsidiary of Parallels company, the world leader in the field of software for cloud computing and virtualization of desktop computers. Within cooperation with Skolkovo Foundation carrying out the second phase of works on PACI is expected.

PACI is the ready-made solution for providing cloud infrastructure as service (IaaS), developed on the Parallels Automation platform. It includes tools for virtualization, automation, billing, self-service and also flexibly configured online shop in which clients of service provider can purchase these services of lease of virtual infrastructure. The applied sense of this solution for the service provider, consists in higher extent of utilization of his infrastructure. And really scalable and flexible service in comparison with traditional virtual private servers is provided to his clients. So in one step the client can set loading (number of processors of the server, amount of memory and storages), similar to work of one thousand servers.

PACI – the unique solution on the technical characteristics. Thanks to virtualization the client of provider has an opportunity to create containers in the virtual DPC (differ in the simplicity of management increased by the capacity and performance) or virtual machines. Full automation of all processes as much as possible simplifies work with PACI for personnel of provider, providing a maximum of efficiency and profit. The online shop entering set will allow to create cloud DPC in several clicks and further independently to manage it via the simple and clear interface in use. And the built-in system of billing extremely simplifies the system of calculation of resource consumption that for small business often is a crucial indicator.