Parallels, the hosting and cloud services enablement leader, today announced the finalists for its Fourth Annual Partner Awards. Winners will be officially announced and recognized at Parallels Summit 2013, February 4-6, 2013, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Anticipation for the event continues to build, as more than 1,500 attendees, from leading hosting and cloud services companies, global telecommunications providers, independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs), technology industry analysts and journalists, will converge in Las Vegas for the three-day conference. Parallels Summit 2013 is an unrivaled opportunity to make important and lasting relationships with the leading players in hosting and cloud, to discover the latest market and technology solutions, and gain insight from industry experts.

The Parallels Partner Awards recognize outstanding yearly achievements by partners who utilize and innovate with Parallels products, solutions, services and ecosystem to increase their market share in the rapidly expanding small and medium business (SMB) cloud services market. "Parallels Partner Awards highlights and acknowledges our most successful service provider and technology partners over the past year," said Jack Zubarev, President of Marketing and Alliances at Parallels. "The nominated organizations are very well positioned for continued growth by leveraging Parallels’ unmatched combination of expertise, software and ecosystem.”

The award categories and 2012 finalists are:

New Partner of the Year – A partner whose first year in the Parallels Partner Program is highlighted by strong revenue growth and the usage of Parallels products.

Finalists:

CtrlIS, Reliable Penguin, Telenor Business Internet Services

Technology Partner of the Year – The Technology Partner of the Year award recognizes a company who has demonstrated leadership in the adoption of the Application Packaging Standard (APS) and has driven success for Parallels service provider partners.

Finalists:

Backup Agent, Jelastic, SofCloudIT

Excellence in Innovation – A partner who has demonstrated innovative use of Parallels technologies in the areas of services, marketing and technical creativity.

Finalists:

KPN Wholesale, OzHosting, Reg.ru

Excellence in Web Hosting – The Excellence in Web Hosting award recognizes a partner that has leveraged Parallels products to offer a complete range of web presence services to SMBs. This partner has demonstrated YoY growth in web hosting and has a growing base of satisfied customers.

Finalists:

Cirrus Tech, Leaseweb, Point North Networks

Excellence in Communication and Collaboration Services – The Excellence in Communication & Collaboration Services award recognizes a partner that has leveraged Parallels products to offer a complete range of communication and collaboration services to SMBs. This partner has demonstrated YoY growth for their services and has a growing base of satisfied customers.

Finalists:

iiNet, Sprint, Triple C

Excellence in Infrastructure-as-a-Service – The Excellence in Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) award recognizes a partner that has leveraged Parallels products to offer a complete range of IaaS services. This partner has demonstrated YoY growth for their services and has a growing base of satisfied customers.

Finalists:

Host Europe, Tsukaeru, WiredTree

Regional Partner of the Year – The Regional Partner of the Year award recognizes a partner in every major region – Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, North America, Russia/Middle East/Africa – who has demonstrated the ability to provide easy-to-use cloud services and who also has a growing base of satisfied SMB customers.

North America Finalists:

ActiveHost, Cart32, FinestShops

Europe Finalists:

Acens, LuxCloud, Swisscom

Asia Pacific Finalists:

Datacom, Ride, Uber Global

Latin America Finalists:

GNS Internet, UOLDIVEO, Websolute

Russia / Middle East / Africa Finalists:

ActiveCloud, Anadoluweb, Kazakh Telecom

Excellence in Service – The Excellence in Service award recognizes a partner that has demonstrated outstanding customer service and support. They have distinguished themselves amongst the Parallels Partner community by committing to maximizing first contact resolution for their customers and successfully gaining high customer satisfaction.

Finalists:

Cobweb, Codero Hosting, Media Temple

President’s Award – The Parallels President’s Award recognizes a partner that has demonstrated a strong and longstanding commitment to delivering Parallels products and services to customers. They have distinguished themselves amongst the Parallels Partner community by successfully delivering high levels of sales growth, customer satisfaction, innovation, adding new customers, and creating significant business impact.

Finalists:

GoDaddy.com, Softcom, Softlayer

There’s still time to attend Parallels Summit 2013. To register, and for information about the agenda, training and certification sessions, please visit http://www.parallels.com/summit/2013/.

About Parallels

Parallels is a worldwide leader in hosting and cloud service enablement and desktop virtualization. Founded in 1999, Parallels is a fast-growing company with more than 800 employees in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, please visit www.parallels.com/spp, follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/ParallelsCloud and Like Us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ParallelsCloud.