‘We have to create a space where that partner knows that they can work with us for a long time, that we’re going to continue to innovate, and the end customer believes that they can work with us for a long time,’ Parallels CEO Christa Quarles tells CRN.
Parallels, a provider of virtualization and application security products, is introducing its new Elevate Now Partner Program meant to give new and existing partners more resources, higher profitability and additional support.
The move comes as Christa Quarles (pictured), CEO of the Austin, Texas-based vendor, navigates Parallels through new business opportunities following pricing and business model changes at rival legacy virtualization vendors including Citrix and Omnissa, the spin-out of VMware’s end-user computing business and Parallels’ fellow portfolio company of private equity and investment firm KKR.
“Our sales pipeline last year doubled,” Quarles told CRN in an interview. “Our new deal registrations tripled. We’re seeing hyper growth. And there’s nothing that suggests that that should slow down.”
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Parallels Partner Program
Mark Vincent, president at XenTegra One, whose parent, Charlotte, N.C.-based XenTegra, is a member of CRN’s 2024 MSP 500, told CRN that he has been moving smaller organizations that once used Citrix to Parallels.
“We’re doing just an ungodly amount of these projects at the moment,” Vincent said. “If you’re really looking at a hybrid environment, it’s a super cool play because you can have your traditional on-prem or data center stuff that you can do via Parallels. And then you can easily burst into AVD [Microsoft’s Azure Virtual Desktop] for VDI [virtual desktop infrastructure] as well. So it gives you the best of both worlds with one price tag.”
In September, Gartner said Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) spending will grow from $3 billion in 2024 to $4.4 billion in 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 10 percent.
New Essentials Tier
The new Parallels program is aimed at resellers, MSPs, systems integrators and other partner business models, according to the vendor. Part of the changes is a new Essentials tier for smaller partners not yet hitting the minimum deal size requirements of the existing Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers. Essential partners receive resources and support for growth.
A new partner portal, higher discounts, faster on-boarding, improved support and free enablement and certification across all tiers are also part of the program. Parallels also promises higher margins to resellers through an updated discount model, incentivizing new business generation and renewals.
Parallels has also extended its specialized migration program through to May 31, according to the vendor. The program has tailored migration tools and a free one-year license for customers moving to three-year paid subscriptions and other financial incentives. Gold and Platinum partners have opportunities for additional rebates.
Parallels also offers partners a flexible services provider license agreement concurrent billing model for managing licenses month to month, according to the vendor.
As for migrations from Citrix and legacy vendors to Parallels, Quarles said she is also focused on longer-term business opportunities for the company and its partners. Parallels opened a new opportunity in the secure enterprise browser space last year with its Parallels Browser Isolation offer. And in September, its Parallels Desktop 20 for Mac Pro Edition introduced a Linux-based virtual machine meant for developers and students learning to develop machine learning, large language models and computer vision applications.
“We have to create a space where that partner knows that they can work with us for a long time, that we’re going to continue to innovate, and the end customer believes that they can work with us for a long time,” she said.
