Open-Xchange and Parallels are integrating Open-Xchange open source email and collaboration software with Parallels technology to deliver a cost-effective, enterprise-class alternative to commercial email and collaboration products at a competitive price. The products, which will be fully integrated with Parallels Automation solutions, will be offered to end-users via hosting and service providers.

Parallels and Open-Xchange are creating connectors for Open-Xchange Hosting Edition into Parallels Plesk Control Panel and Parallels Business Automation, enabling hosting and service providers to deploy and run Open-Xchange seamlessly in combination with Parallels' automation tools via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

"Our work with Open-Xchange advances Parallels' Open Platform initiative to provide customers with a common platform to manage and automate service delivery," said Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. "The integrated solutions enable service providers to expand their product offerings and include enterprise-proven collaboration technology for the Linux platform, and deliver them to end-users via a profitable, easily accessible SaaS model."

"This partnership extends the reach of our SaaS Messaging and Groupware offering to all hosting and service providers in the world," said Rafael Laguna, CEO of Open-Xchange. "They can now offer hosted groupware and collaboration with zero upfront investment for hardware, software and administration for their customers, thus significantly reducing overall cost of ownership. Customers can get one-stop collaboration solutions including email hosting, disk space, backup, recovery, spam and anti-virus services at an unmatched price point."

Using Parallels Plesk Control Panel and Parallels Business Automation, service providers will be able to manage and deliver Open-Xchange Smart Collaboration through a fully-automated platform. Service providers get the flexibility to bundle and charge separately for individual resources, such as disk space, mailbox storage limits, or shared folders. Additionally, customers will be able to order, maintain, and pay for services online so that the decision to buy or upgrade results in immediate service delivery.

"There is significant and growing enterprise demand for hosted messaging and collaboration. At a time when some of the conventional hosted messaging choices are less appealing to hosting providers, adding new alternatives to the mix is a significant positive to the hosting industry and to enterprise customers," said Dan Golding, Vice President and Research Director at Tier 1 Research.

"This partnership enriches hosters' business options dramatically -- and changes the way small and midsized companies use software," said Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Inc., the world's largest hoster and partner of Open-Xchange and Parallels. "Parallel's management tools for Open-Xchange allow us and our resellers to deliver virtually any automated service in real-time. Additionally, this solution provides customers with the ability to independently configure and manage these automated services 24x7."

Open-Xchange is now certified with the Application Packaging Standard (APS) as well. The APS standard is a packaging format that makes it easier for service providers to deliver hosted applications developed by independent software vendors (ISVs). APS-certified applications can be easily "plugged into" hosting platforms that conform to the standard.

The Parallels Open Platform enables SaaS with Parallels virtualization and automation technology through integration with a wide range of third-party applications and systems. The APS standard is a key element of the Parallels Open Platform and is used by ISVs and service providers to seamlessly integrate applications to offer to the more than 10 million businesses and individuals that use Parallels products.