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(The Hosting News) – Parallels, the platform provider for cloud service delivery, today launched Parallels Plesk 12, featuring a powerful new security core, a full-featured WordPress Toolkit and four distinct editions of the software designed to deliver targeted functionality to web administrators, application developers, web professionals and hosting service providers.

Each new edition of Plesk 12 simplifies core web management tasks that better align with the way infrastructure is being used for hosting websites and web applications today. A new security core based on ModSecurity rules by Atomicorp provides server-to-site security and the new WordPress Toolkit will help hosters capture the growth in WordPress hosting.

“The hosted and cloud infrastructure industry is in a period of dynamic change, creating new opportunities for our partners,” said Birger Steen, chief executive officer, Parallels. “Plesk 12 gives service providers an easy way to turn commodity infrastructure into compelling solutions that solve real customer problems.”

Four new editions:

•Parallels Plesk Web Admin Edition – Optimized for hosting self-managed sites, this edition enables web administrators to easily manage their own server, websites, domains, email and more.

•Parallels Plesk Web App Edition – Optimized for hosting web applications, this edition enables web application developers to control application access rights with custom view management, manage servers and domains from any mobile device and deliver complete server-to-site security for protection from common scripted attacks against software.

•Parallels Plesk Web Pro Edition – Optimized for web professionals and digital agencies managing and hosting WordPress sites, this edition offers mass-management and security tools for WordPress hosting, server, account and WordPress management from any mobile device, and complete server-to-site security for protection from automated attacks against WordPress.
•Parallels Plesk Web Host Edition – Optimized for service providers who are hosting and reselling unmanaged shared accounts, this edition offers support for multi-tenant, high-density shared hosting, with upgraded reseller, subscription and account management tools, integrated supportability and security tools for WordPress hosting and complete server-to-site security for protection from malicious use.

Key functionality enhancements:

Capture WordPress Hosting Growth with Integrated Tools. The WordPress Toolkit simplifies daily tasks required to manage and secure WordPress sites. With Plesk 12 and the WordPress Toolkit, you will enable customers to:
•Manage multiple WordPress installations, plugins, and themes from a single point of entry
•Easily install, update, and remove WordPress, plus activate and remove plugins and themes
•Securely install WordPress and harden existing WordPress installations, applying the most common recommended security settings with rollback support

Reduce Support Calls with Secure Infrastructure. The new Security Core in Plesk 12 combines ModSecurity, Fail2Ban and Outbound Antispam tools allowing you to deliver server-to-site security out of the box. With the Plesk 12 Security Core on your servers you get:
•Secure servers that protect against persistent attacks targeting known or newly discovered vulnerabilities
•Increased uptime as malicious attacks against your servers are automatically blocked in real time
•Cleaner IP addresses with outgoing spam protection preventing your servers from being blacklisted

With Plesk 12, Parallels global partners such as 1&1 Internet Inc., Conetix, GMO Cloud KK, HostMySite, LeaseWeb, PacHosting, RIDE and STRATO see Plesk 12 delivering a tightly integrated set of mass-management and security tools to help them profit from the growing demand for WordPress hosting.

1&1

“With Parallels, 1&1 has a partner who shares our vision for optimizing performance for key server user groups,” said Hans Nijholt, head of server product management, 1&1 Internet, Inc. “For our customers to realize the full potential of 1&1’s work and investments – such as best-in-class server hardware, CPUs and network infrastructure – a world-class control panel is needed, and Plesk 12 delivers just that. Plesk 12 is the perfect complement to our server line-up and from today we are proud to provide it free with all types of 1&1 servers in all our markets.”

Conetix

“After 10 years of deploying Parallels Plesk, I believe Plesk 12 delivers the ultimate all-round solution for web designers, developers and digital agencies,” said Jamin Andrews, chief executive officer, Conetix. “Our clients are after a solution that is flexible, easy to manage and ahead of the game – Plesk 12 with the new WordPress Toolkit and built-in Security Core offers all this.”

GMO Cloud KK

“With the introduction of four new editions tailored to customer usage patterns, Plesk 12 enables us to offer services which are more valuable and easier to understand for the customers than ever,” said Minoru Karasawa, group chief technology officer and director, GMO Cloud K.K. “At GMO Cloud, we believe that Plesk 12 would allow us to take a strong step forward in actively approaching a new market including web professionals as well as providing secure and useful hosting services.”

HostMySite

“Plesk 12 makes it easier than ever to manage and secure WordPress hosted sites,” said John Enright, president, HostMySite. “It provides our customers with an interface that is optimized for how they use and deploy web applications and it enables us to go beyond basic infrastructure services and allows us to provide complete hosted application solutions.”

LeaseWeb

“As a long-time Parallels partner with over 60,000 physical servers under management, we put Plesk 12 to the test from an early stage and we really fell in love with the innovations added to the latest version,” said Marc Burkels, manager, dedicated hosting, LeaseWeb. “With the new Plesk 12 editions, we are now able to expand our channel by delivering complete solutions to target audiences. The significantly improved security, enhanced functionality and focus on user-friendliness convinced us to make the new version available to all of our bare metal server customers on day one of launch. And within a few weeks, Plesk 12 will be added to our public, private and hybrid cloud offerings as well.”

PacHosting

“We have partnered with Parallels for over 10 years and we are very impressed by the new features in Plesk 12,” said Natalie Kong, business analyst, PacHosting. “The best part of Plesk 12 is the new security core with built-in Fail2Ban, ModSecurity and integrated firewall. This will bring a new level of enhanced security for our clients. In addition, the deep integration with WordPress, which meets the growing demand, will now become one of our strong selling points over our competitors.”

RIDE

“Plesk 12 enables us to provide a complete solution to meet our customers’ needs,” said Hiroya Nakano, chief executive officer, RIDE Co. Limited. “With the help of Plesk 12, we can differentiate our services with features such as the WordPress ToolKit and enhanced server-to-site security built-in. This will give greater satisfaction to our customers.”

STRATO

“After introducing the Haswell processor in the European market, STRATO confirms its leadership position with the latest version of Plesk,” said Christian Böing, chief executive officer, STRATO AG. “Our main goal remains to provide our customers with the latest software and hardware versions. The new Plesk 12 is the perfect complement to our servers and core mass-management and a security tool that can be used to profit from the growing demand for WordPress hosting. That makes us a reliable and professional hosting provider and allows us to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.”

For more information, you can visit www.parallels.com/plesk

About Parallels

Parallels® provides the platform for service providers to sell and deliver great cloud services to businesses worldwide and cross-platform solutions. Parallels began operations in 2000 and has developed into a fast-growing software company with more than 900 employees across offices in North America, Europe, Africa, Australia and Asia.

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