Blacknight, a Parallels Gold Partner, is offering four VPS service plans for the Linux and Windows platforms. Each level – Starter, Basic, Standard and Enterprise – is managed through Parallels System Automation and Parallels Virtuozzo Containers.

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels noted, ”We are pleased that Blacknight chose Parallels solutions to power its new VPS offerings and bring the benefits of virtualization to its customers in Ireland. Parallels software gives Blacknight the flexibility and control to meet the needs of their customers, both large and small, and provides an open platform that will allow Blacknight to add new services and take advantages of emerging opportunities like software as a service.”

The new Blacknight VPS offerings are provisioned and managed through Parallels Virtuozzo Containers operating system (OS) virtualization software and Parallels Automation datacenter solution. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers enables Blacknight to simultaneously run multiple execution environments called ‘containers’ on a single physical server and a single OS. Administrators can install any application, server software or OS component. Parallels Automation allows Blacknight to more efficiently manage the VPS infrastructure and scale to add new services such as shared hosting, SaaS, and Hosted Exchange.

Michele Neylon, Blacknight Solutions remarked, ”By partnering with Parallels, Blacknight is able to bring innovative virtualization technologies to the Irish market. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and Parallels Automation are ‘best-of-breed’ solutions that will give our customers the control and flexibility of a dedicated server at a fraction of the price.”

Blacknight Internet Solutions Ltd is a 100 percent Irish-owned company specializing in serving the hosting and colocation needs of businesses, both large and small. Its servers are based in Ireland’s leading datacenters: The Data Electronics Group in Clondalkin, Dublin and Interxion, also in Dublin. By partnering with innovative companies, like Parallels and Comodo, Blacknight brings best-of-breed technologies to the Irish market, while maintaining an aggressive pricing model. Blacknight Solutions are members of the IIA, ISPAI, RIPE, INEX and Nominet.

Parallels (formerly SWsoft) is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating system, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

For more information about Blackknight, please visit: www.blacknightvps.com.

To learn more about Parallels, please visit: www.parallels.com.

Dr. Stephen Herrod, Chief Technology Officer for VMware noted, ”Passing this rigorous, globally recognized certification process demonstrates our commitment to delivering secure, reliable virtualization products. Earning the EAL4+ rating reinforces that VMware Infrastructure is the among the most proven and trusted ways to run enterprise-class applications. It can be used not just for commercial computing, but for sensitive, government computing environments that demand the strictest security.”

Specifically, the company’s solutions have gained Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 (EAL4+) certification under the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) Common Criteria Evaluation and Certification Scheme (CCS), following an extensive analysis and testing process. The EAL4+ rating is the highest assurance level that is recognized by all signatories under the Common Criteria Certificates (CCRA).

Many government agencies are in fact using VMware software. VMware’s more than 100,000 customers include all 15 cabinet level agencies, all branches of the military, the Department of Defense Joint Commands, numerous independent agencies, as well as customers in the Judicial and Legislative branches in the United States.

Common Criteria is an internationally recognized set of guidelines (ISO 15408) that define a common framework for evaluating security features and capabilities of Information Technology security products. The standard consists of several predetermined evaluation assurance levels, each one more stringent than the last. Common Criteria allows vendors to have their products tested against a chosen level by an independent third-party testing laboratory. Common Criteria certifications are accepted by 25 countries, including the U.S. government, through the Common Criteria Recognition Agreement (CCRA). Common Criteria certification of security products is mandated by the U.S. government for all federal purchases.

To facilitate the prompt completion of the Common Criteria certification, VMware worked with Corsec Security, Inc., a consulting firm with more than 10 years of validation experience.

Matthew Appler, CEO, Corsec Security, Inc. remarked, ”Corsec is very pleased to have worked with VMware on their Common Criteria evaluation. The Common Criteria evaluation process is an extremely rigorous and time consuming investment. VMware’s decision to deliver a product evaluated at an EAL4+ demonstrates their strong dedication and commitment to their customers.”

Erin Connor, director of the EWA-Canada Evaluation Lab commented, ”The Common Criteria certification of VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter technology is a significant accomplishment because VMware has indeed met the rigorous EAL 4+ security standard regarding trust and confidence for their software. VMware has once more set the standard for virtual machine environments, this time for security. I am pleased for VMware’s customers because, in addition to VMware technology having a significant place in the virtualization space, the company has demonstrated a strategic, long-term commitment to the quality of its product development and quality assurance processes. Customers who buy VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter can rely on the products as trusted virtualization solutions that will also provide security to their applications, and can be assured that the company will be there to provide full support.”

VMware completed the first Common Criteria certification for a virtualization product in March 2006 with the certification of VMware ESX Server 2.5 and VirtualCenter 1.2 at EAL2. VMware has also entered VMware ESX 3.5 and VirtualCenter 2.5 into evaluation for certification at EAL4+.

EWA-Canada is a premier provider of advanced security services, having established itself as a vendor-neutral, independent centre of excellence in professional IT Security Services, Critical Infrastructure Protection, and testing of products in its IT Security Evaluation and Test Lab. EWA-Canada’s solutions, experience and expertise is benefiting businesses in over 25 countries world-wide. EWA-Canada’s Lab is recognized as a world leader for its comprehensive experience with Common Criteria (ISO/IEC 15408) evaluations, conformance testing to FIPS 140 and related cryptographic standards, Security Content Automation Protocol (SCAP) validation testing, and certification of point-of-sale devices and PIN Pads to Payment Card Industry and Interac and Association standards. EWA-Canada enables companies to efficiently and cost-effectively manage the evaluation and testing process and to ensure their products meet important certification requirements.

Corsec Security, Inc. specializes in helping companies navigate through the complex process of receiving FIPS 140 and Common Criteria (CC) certifications. Corsec’s consulting, document creation, and project management services deliver unmatched expertise in achieving government validation efforts at a firm, fixed price. Corsec partners with companies around the world to achieve local and international certification and to add security functionality to a wide range of products. Corsec minimizes the time, effort and money a vendor needs to invest in validation while ultimately maximizing the return on that investment.

VMware (NYSE: VMW) a global virtualization solutions provider, from the desktop to the datacentre. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 100,000 customers and nearly 14,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. VMware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and on the web at www.vmware.com. VMware Canada is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario.

To learn more about EWA-Canada, please visit: www.ewa-canada.com.

For further information about Corsec Security, Inc., please visit: www.corsec.com

To learn more about VMware, please visit: www.vmware.com.

Presentations will compare and contrast web application virtualization solutions such as WebSphere Extended Deployment and hardware virtualization solutions. In addition, discussions concerning systems may be combined to provide the most flexible web application hosting environment, will be offered.

The Virtualization Faculty will include such distinguished speakers as: Al Aghili (Managed Methods), Andi Mann (Enterprise Management Associates), Ariel Cohen (Xsigo Systems), Ben Rudolph (Parallels), Bob Lozano (Appistry), Bob Quinn (3Leaf Systems), Brian Martin (IBM), Carlo Innocenti Ph.D. (DataDirect Technologies), Chris Shayan (Ashna Samane), Doc D’Errico (EMC Corporation), Domenic Alcaro (APC), Etay Bogner (Neocleus), George Pradel (Vizioncore), Geva Perry (GigaSpaces), Gordon Hunt (Real-Time Innovations), Gordon Jackson (DataSynapse), Gregory Brail (Sonoa Systems), Harry Petty (Brocade), Hubert Yoshida (Hitachi Data Systems), Ian Thain (Sybase), Jacek Kruszelnicki (Numatica Corporation), Jeremy Geelan (SYS-CON Media), Joe McKendrick (WebServices.org), John Goodson (DataDirect), John Senor (iWay Software), JP Morgenthal (GXS), Keith Swenson (Fujitsu), Ken North (Computing, LLC), Kenon Owens (VMware), Kevin Epstein (Scalent Systems), Koen Aers (Red Hat/JBoss), Kyle Gabhart (Web Age Solutions), Lance Urbas (Certeon), Mario Dal Canto (SIMtone), Mark Davydov Ph.D. (Blue Cross Blue Shield), Mark Hapner (Sun Microsystems), Mark Milligan (VirtualLogix), Matt George (Fidelity Investments), Michael CareyPh.D. (BEA Systems), Michael Gorman (Whitemarsh Information Systems), Mike Pizzo (Microsoft), Miko Matsumura (Software AG), Nikita Ogievetsky (Morgan Stanley), Paul Lipton (CA), Paul Rivot (IBM), Peter Manca (Egenera), Phil Morris (Sun Microsystems), Pierre Fricke (Red Hat / JBoss), Ravi Gururaj (VMLogix), Rich Lechner (IBM), Rich Schreiber (Nastel Technologies), Richard Mark Soley (OMG), Robert Steward (DataDirect), Ron Williams (Tivoli Software), Sean Derrington (Symantec), Shai Fultheim (ScaleMP), Simon Crosby (Citrix), Stephen Herrod (VMware), Stephen Pollack (PlateSpin), Tom Bishop (BMC Software), Tom Woteki (Cisco), Ursula Sinkewicz (Fidelity Investments), Vern Brownell (Egenera), Victoria Livschitz (Grid Dynamics), Yakov Fain (Farata Systems), Zoran Cakeljic (Virtual Iron).

The Conference is sponsored by the following companies:

• DataDirect (Diamond Sponsor)
• Intel (Platinum Sponsor)
• Red Hat (Platinum Sponsor)
• Green Hills Software (Platinum Sponsor)
• Fujitsu (Gold Sponsor)
• Novell / Platespin (Gold Sponsor)
• Ceedo (Gold Sponsor)
• Software AG (Gold Sponsor)
• 3PAR (Silver Sponsor)
• APC (Silver Sponsor)
• Certeon (Silver Sponsor)
• Web Age Solutions (Silver Sponsor)
• WSO2 (Silver Sponsor)
• Stoneware (Silver Sponsor)
• AppStream (Expo Sponsor)
• Astaro (Expo Sponsor)
• Composite Software (Expo Sponsor)
• Grid Dynamics (Expo Sponsor)
• InstallFree (Expo Sponsor)
• Nastel (Expo Sponsor)
• Managed Methods (Expo Sponsor)
• Farata Systems (Expo Sponsor)
• Splunk (Expo Sponsor)
• Xsigo Systems (ExpoSponsor)
• DataSynapse (Expo Sponsor)
• Mellanox Technologies (Expo Sponsor)
• Marathon Technologies (Expo Sponsor)
• MQ Software (Expo Sponsor)
• RingCube (Expo Sponsor)
• Reflex Security (Expo Sponsor)

International Virtualization Conference and Expo faculty alumni include such notable speakers as: Brian Stevens, CTO of Red Hat; Stephen Herrod, CTO of VMware; Vern Brownell, founder and CEO of Egenera; Simon Crosby, founder and CTO of Citrix XenSource; Hubert Yoshida, vice president and CTO of Hitachi Data Systems; Jeffrey Nick, CTO of EMC; David Greschler, director of Virtualization Strategy for Microsoft; Hal Stern, vice president and distinguished engineer for Sun Microsystems; Andrew Hillier, founder and CTO of CiRBA; Alex Vasilevsky, founder and CEO of Virtual Iron; Jack Zubarev, founder and COO of SWsoft; Stephen Pollack, founder and CEO of PlateSpin; Brett Adam, founder and CEO of rPath; Kevin Brown, founder and CEO of Kidaro; Bob Lozano, founder and CEO of Appistry; and Harry Ruda, founder and CEO of Desktone.

To inquire about sponsorship and exhibit opportunities please contact Carmen Gonzalez at 201-802-3021 or by email at events(at)sys-con.com. Currently, a limited number of sponsorship and exhibition packages with multiple sponsorship discounts are available for the following international events:3rd International Virtualization Conference and Expo 2008 – East

Other events include: the 4th International Virtualization Conference and Expo 2008 – West, scheduled for November 20-21, 2008, San Jose, CA, and the 5th International Virtualization Conference and Expo 2009 – Europe, scheduled for January 26-27, 2009, in London, England.

To learn more, please visit: www.VirtualizationConference.com

Stephen Herrod, Chief Technology Officer, VMware noted, ”Most servers and desktops today are still consuming 70-80 per cent of their rated power even when idle. VMware is able to deliver substantial power and cost savings through innovative power management capabilities in our virtualization solutions that safely power down or throttle servers when not in use. By powering down servers and desktops during inactive periods such as evenings or weekends, we can help customers save another 25 per cent or more on power consumption without affecting applications or users.”

The virtualization solution firm for desktops to datacentres, reports that by using its virtualization, customers can consolidate 10 or more physical machines onto a single server and reduce power consumption and cost by 80-90 per cent. VMware customers that have moved from a 1:1 application to server ratio to 60:1 or higher have achieved millions of dollars in capital and operational savings.

For every server virtualized, customers can save about 7,000 kilowatt hours (kWh), or four tons of CO2 emissions, every year. VMware has virtualized more than 6 million server workloads since 1998, resulting in an estimated energy savings of nearly 39 Billion kWh, or roughly US4.4 billion. This is roughly equivalent to the total energy consumption of Denmark for one year. PCs virtualized and hosted on servers in the datacentre can also reduce power consumption and cost by 35 per cent. Hosting desktops in the datacentre also doubles the replacement cycle of PCs or thin clients, reducing the environmental impact associated with manufacturing new equipment.

Since 2006, VMware has been an active pioneer inworking with utility companies to offer incentive programs supporting virtualization projects in datacentres. VMware works with utilities across North America including Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison, SDG and E, BC Hydro and Austin Energy to provide customers incentives based on the amount of energy savings achieved through datacentre consolidation.

Sheffield Hallam, one of the UK’s most innovative and progressive universities with more than 28,000 students and over 5,000 staff, required a number of new IT services to support its user community. This led to the number of servers within the datacentre doubling within twelve months. The building’s electricity grid could not supply enough power to reliably support the required number of servers within the main datacentre, and physical space was also a major issue. Sheffield Hallam is using VMware’s market-leading datacentre virtualization and management platform, VMware Infrastructure 3, to reduce power and cooling requirements in the datacentre and improve the delivery of IT services. VMware Infrastructure 3 provides the capability for automatic load balancing, business continuity and power management and the ability to move a virtual machine across physical machines to minimize service interruption.

Dave Thornley, service support manager, Sheffield Hallam University remarked, ”With the server farm growing towards capacity, we knew a completely new strategy was required. We decided that moving to a virtual infrastructure would be the most effective way to tackle cost management and space issues. Using VMware, we have made a huge impact on our power bills as well as leading to major savings in the deployment of new services to users.”

VMware (NYSE: VMW) is the global leader in virtualization solutions from the desktop to the datacentre. Customers of all sizes rely on VMware to reduce capital and operating expenses, ensure business continuity, strengthen security and go green. With 2007 revenues of $1.3 billion, more than 100,000 customers and nearly 14,000 partners, VMware is one of the fastest growing public software companies. VMware is headquartered in Palo Alto, California and on the web at www.vmware.com. VMware Canada is headquartered in Burlington, Ontario.

To learn more information on the green VMware virtualization, please visit: www.vmware.com/solutions/consolidation/green.

For more information about VMware, please visit: www.vmware.com.

The offering will be delivered from Liquid Web’s two fully owned and operated mid-western datacenters. This represents an expanded partnership with Parallels, who already supplies Liquid Web with Parallels Plesk Control Panel software, which is bundled with all Windows dedicated server offerings.

Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels noted, ”We are pleased that Liquid Web has selected Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and the Parallels Open Platform for this important new offering and that our two companies are deepening our partnership. Parallels Virtuozzo Containers offers the highest levels of density, manageability and scalability, which makes it an ideal solution for datacenter owners who want to offer a wide variety of fully managed services.”

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers includes the Parallels Infrastructure Manager, a robust set of management tools that helps Liquid Web personnel deliver its ”Heroic Support,” which has become a trademark of their services. Using the Parallels Infrastructure Manager and Parallels Plesk control panel software, Liquid Web can offer their customers a control panel for adding software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications as well as the ability to scale the size of their VPS.

Liquid Web takes advantage of the Parallels Virtuozzo Containers’ architecture to offer burstable memory for example, temporarily adding more memory to a container during a short period of high activity, so clients may have access to more server resources than they actually pay for. The architecture provides this capability while guaranteeing minimal levels of service so clients never have less memory than they contract for.

Travis Stoliker, Marketing Director of Liquid Web commented, ”Our VPS offerings give a significant competitive advantage over hypervisor-based solutions. The high density, reliability, power savings, and management tools of Parallels Virtuozzo Containers allow us to provide our customers with more attractive offerings.”

Parallels Virtuozzo Containers is the world’s leading operating system (OS) virtualization solution. On a single physical server and single OS installation, it enables users to run workloads in multiple, simultaneously running execution environments called ”containers.” Compared to other virtualization technologies, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers offers the highest levels of density, performance and manageability.

The Parallels Open Platform enables hosting with Parallels virtualization and automation technology through integration with a wide range of third-party applications and systems. The Application Packaging Standard (APS), a key element of the platform, is used by independent software vendors (ISVs) and service providers to seamlessly integrate applications to offer to the more than 10 million businesses and individuals that use Parallels products.

Liquid Web Inc. is a privately held company founded in 1997, with two wholly owned data center facilities located in Lansing, Michigan. Liquid Web is a leader in the professional web hosting market with an unwavering dedication to providing the best hosting products available. Liquid Web has over 130 employees to service 15,000 clients in over 100 countries. The company has assembled a world class heroic support staff who are professionally educated and available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Parallels (formerly SWsoft) is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

To learn more about Liquid Web Inc., please visit: www.liquidweb.com.

For more information about Parallels, please visit: www.parallels.com.

Joel Dreyfuss, Editor-in-Chief of Red Herring noted, ”We can see the exciting evolution of the technology sector reflected in the quality and variety of exceptional companies that we had to choose from in putting our list together. It was tough to choose just 200 finalists from such a large list of excellent contenders, and we are very happy with the quality of the companies we selected as finalists.”

In preparation for the formal announcement of its Top 100 Award, the Red Herring editorial board diligently surveyed the entrepreneurial scene throughout the North American region and identified the top 200 out of more than 800 closely evaluated companies that are leading the next wave of innovation.

Evaluations were made on both quantitative and qualitative criteria such as financial performance, innovation, management, strategy, and ecosystem integration.

According to Red Herring, Parallels is on the list due to its innovative and entrepreneurial achievements. The 100 winning companies will be announced at the Red Herring North America event, May 12-14, in San Jose, California. The event attracts leading entrepreneurs, financiers and corporate strategists. More information about this event can be found at http://herringevents.com/northamerica08/index.html.

Red Herring is a global media company which combines the world’s best high technology innovators, venture investors and business decision makers in a variety of forums: a leading innovation magazine, an online daily technology news service, technology newsletters and major events for technology leaders around the globe. Red Herring provides an insider’s access to the global innovation economy, featuring unparalleled insights on the emerging technologies driving the economy.

Parallels (formerly SWsoft) is a worldwide leader in virtualization and automation software that optimizes computing for consumers, businesses, and service providers across all major hardware, operating systems, and virtualization platforms. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with 900 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia.

To learn more information about Red Herring, please visit: www.redherring.com.

For more information about Parallels, please visit: www.parallels.com.

BURLINGTON, MA – [Hosting Headlines] – groupSPARK, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and the leading provider of private label hosted software services including Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4.0, today announced its private label SaaS services are now being offered as part of Ingram Micro’s Seismic Virtual Services Warehouse. The new agreement includes groupSPARK’s hosted Exchange Server 2007 and 2003, as well as Windows SharePoint Services 3.0, and Dynamics CRM 4.0.

Ingram Micro Inc. (NYSE: IM) is the world’s leading distributor of technology products and services to the IT industry. Ingram Micro’s Seismic Virtual Services Warehouse is part of the distributor’s North America Services Division which provides VARs with a full range of managed IT services, professional IT labor services, and warranty contract management services and enables VARs to offer customers a variety of hosted software services. This new agreement enables Ingram Micro Seismic to immediately offer industry leading private label hosted messaging and collaboration solutions from groupSPARK to partners in the U.S. and Canada.

groupSPARK’s unique Private Label Application Delivery (PLAD) platform was designed to enable resellers to offer the company’s hosted services completely under their own corporate brand, URL, and look and feel. This private label solution reinforces the resellers’ brand with their customers, deepens their market penetration and enables them to offer their customers’ enterprise-class hosted email and collaboration solutions at a price set solely by the VAR. In addition, groupSPARK’s hosted Exchange, hosted SharePoint and hosted CRM offering fortifies customer retention and provides Ingram Micro Seismic partners with the opportunity to earn additional monthly recurring revenue per user.

As part of Seismic’s hosted solutions portfolio, groupSPARK will maintain, monitor and upgrade all hardware and software allowing Seismic partners to offer these hosted software services to their customers without incurring any upfront expense, delay or risk in attempting to deploy the services on their own. groupSPARK will also enable Seismic partners to offer 2-way wireless synchronization with BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), Windows Mobile and Good Mobile Messaging.

“Ingram Micro is at the forefront of the services market in the IT channel and remains committed to identifying best-in-class solutions for our Seismic partners,” said Justin Crotty, vice president of Ingram Micro Services Division, North America. “We selected groupSPARK’s private label hosted Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Dynamics CRM services because of its focus on the VAR brand and its proven track record for providing VARs with affordable solutions that deliver the email and collaboration services small and mid-size businesses need to increase productivity and stay connected.”

“As the provider of hosted Exchange Server, SharePoint and CRM to Ingram Micro Seismic, we are dramatically increasing our reseller channel and reaching a new group of small and mid-size businesses,” said Ravi Agarwal, senior executive officer, groupSPARK division of mindSHIFT Technologies, Inc. “Ingram Micro’s confidence in our hosted services offering and our best-in-class service and support is the direct result of our commitment to and focus on true private label hosting of enterprise-class services.”

About groupSPARK: Located in Burlington, Massachusetts, groupSPARK, a mindSHIFT company, is a leading provider of SaaS services, such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Windows SharePoint Services v3.0, and Dynamics CRM, which can be completely private labeled and resold by partners as a part of their own product offerings saving hundreds of thousands of dollars in development and support costs.

Its partners utilize groupSPARK’s turnkey private label platform to provide hosted services to their users in minutes. Partners are able to address scalability and uptime concerns by leveraging groupSPARK’s 100% uptime SLA, private label 24×7 U.S.-based support and proactive hardware and software monitoring capabilities. For additional information, visit www.groupSPARK.com.

About Ingram Micro, Inc:  As a vital link in the technology value chain, Ingram Micro creates sales and profitability opportunities for vendors and resellers through unique marketing programs, outsourced logistics services, technical support, financial services, and product aggregation and distribution. The company serves 150 countries and is the only broad-based global IT distributor with operations in Asia. Visit http://www.ingrammicro.com.