New Features in Parallels Plesk 9

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submitted by admin on Apr.23, 2009

November 24, 2008 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — Last week, Parallels (www.parallels.com) released version 9 of its Parallels Plesk Panel control panel software to partners, the first major upgrade of the most popular web hosting control panel since the release of Plesk 8 in September of 2006.

Following a public beta release, Parallels will officially release version 9 of the software to customers on December 9.

Parallels product marketing manager from the service provider division Ravi Pimplaskar spoke the WHIR last week on the phone to describe some of the key new features in Parallels Plesk Panel 9.

Parallels’ Pimplaskar at the HostingCon 2008 Conference

APS Catalog Integration

For quite some time, Parallels has been promoting its Application Packaging Standard, a packaging format for applications that enables independent software vendors to package their applications for easy integration into the Plesk control panel environment.

Part of that project has been the development of the APS application catalog, a collection of applications packaged according to APS that numbered more 180 at last count.

Version 9 of the software includes a tight integration of the APS catalog with the control panel itself. A host would previously had to visit the APS catalog site, download applications and install them to the application vault. Now, a service provider can search the application catalog through the control panel system itself, and install applications directly to their clients’ application folders.

“They can browse through this listing of applications,” says Pimplaskar. “They can search by what are the most popular. They can search by certain keywords if, let’s say they want to offer some sort of chat or blog software. Before you had to go to the APS site, download the application from there and put it into the application vault. It was doable, but now it’s completely integrated. You’re doing all your browsing directly from the panel.”

New Reseller Login Level

In previous releases Plesk had four user login levels – admin, client, domain owner and mail user. These, as is fairly evident from their names, represent different modes of interaction with the control panel, and the various associated levels of privilege.

While Plesk has obviously been deployed in reseller environments before, version 9 adds a “reseller” user level to the control panel itself. In this case, a dedicated server customer, for instance, can add reseller-level users on his own account in order to offer shared hosting, and can administer those accounts accordingly.

It is also very easy, says Pimplaskar, to migrate an existing user to the reseller level.

“In conjunction with that, we’ve included an overuse and oversell capability. So a reseller can oversell the amount of resources they’ve allotted,” he says, “It also allows somebody who is using more than their allotted resources to go over and receive a notification, rather than simply be cut off.”

Vista-Like Theme

Along with updating some of the basic functions of the application, version 9 updates the basic presentation of Plesk to adopt an interface that generally adopts the appearance of a Windows Vista desktop application.

The key to the new design, says Pimplaskar, is the company wants users to be able to be up and running with the new software in a matter of a few clicks.

“All the commonly-used actions are right on the front page,” he says. “And it’s customizable, so you can move whatever are your most commonly-used tasks to the front page.”

In addition to that, every task is available from a drop-down menu on the applications front page. And, along with the navigational improvements, the new version offers an improved ability to see stats and information related to the resources of a given plan.

Billing Integration

Earlier this year, Parallels acquired ModernBill, among the most popular billing platforms for hosting providers, and a no-brainer fit for a developer of software for hosting companies.

With the new version of Plesk, the company has integrated that billing package directly into the control panel with an optional bundle it is called the “Parallels Plesk Billing Bundle.”

While the billing application can and does integrate with 15 control panel applications, the company has integrated it with Plesk to deliver a single sign-on operation.

Backup and Restore

The new version also enables users at every access level to order a full or partial backup within the scope of their visibility. The backup can contain just the control panel configuration or can include services content, and can be stored on the local machine or on a machine outside the Plesk server.

Of course, the new version of the software will include other new features in addition to the five major ones discussed here. If you`d like to have a look at the software in advance of its release in just a few weeks, the beta version is still available for download from the Parallels website.

In advancing its applications, says Pimplaskar, the company does seek to attract new users. But more than anything else, upgrades are made with the company’s existing customers in mind.

“We do it with our customers in mind,” he says, “because as they expand their market share, they help us expand our market share.”