improving customer experience using activeperl and activepython

Improving Customer ExperienceUsing ActivePerl and ActivePython

Presented by:

Blake Tyra, Plesk Panel Product Manager, Parallels Jeff Hobbs, Director of Engineering, ActiveState

Agenda

IntroductionsParallels’ story with ActiveStateOpen source licensing considerationsGrowth and value of dynamic languagesOverview of ActiveState’s solutionsQuestion and answer period

3 Profit from the CloudTM

Blake Tyra, Plesk Panel Product Manager, Parallels

4 Profit from the CloudTM

Parallels Plesk Panel

• Major product audiences:• Cloud service providers (a.k.a “hosters”)• Small Businesses• Individuals (personal use)

• Parallels Plesk Panel is a complete web hosting automation solution that makes it easy for server administrators to create, customize, and manage servers and websites through an intuitive user interface.

• Small businesses and individuals use Parallels Plesk Panel to create a hassle-free point-and-click web presence, manage their email accounts, and control their server configuration.

• Plesk Panel’s offering for service providers makes it easy to define hosting service plans, sell/bill, provision, and host these services for their customers – all while providing a self-service interface for their customers to manage their services.

Extremely mature – Over 10 years in the making

5 Profit from the CloudTM

What is a Control Panel?

• Overlays the server’s core functions• Core Components

o Manage users, domains, and emailo Manage databases, services, and ftpo Add applications

• Creates business models• Web hosting

o Administrative and End-user interfaceso Reseller layer optionso Specific user roles at end user level

• Virtualization and Cloud• Light footprint • Support for many Operating Systems

and Virtualization Solutions• Good replacement for internal IT

Making Difficult Technology Simple

6 Profit from the CloudTM

Benefits for Everyone

AudiencesWeb hosts

Web designers

IT professionals

Small businesses

Wide range of audiences and clients

Targeted FeaturesBilling

Web Presence Builder

Applications

Usage ScenariosHosting automation

Dedicated servers

Virtual private servers

Cloud deployment

Powering over 7 million websites

7 Profit from the CloudTM

Notable CustomersUsed by the most trusted names in hosting

Used by service providers, small businesses, and individualsacross 125 countries!

8 Profit from the CloudTM

Adapting to a Changing Market

• “Hosting” is no longer about simply providing disk space / bandwidth – it is about solutions

• Open source and commercial applications hosted in the cloud are becoming a requirement for small business and personal-use customers

• Blogs• Wikis• CMS• Shopping Carts

• Parallels has created an ecosystem of these applications via our Application Packaging Standard (APS)

• www.apsstandard.org• Constantly expanding selection of open source and commercial

applications – over 260 applications available, and 100’s of thousands of downloads

• Install-able via touchless, one-click install from Plesk Panel into a customer’s webspace

9 Profit from the CloudTM

Application Packaging Standard (APS) Catalog

10 Profit from the CloudTM

Need for ActivePerl / ActivePython• Benefits to our customers

• In addition to included components in Plesk (AWStats, SpamAssassin), we needed a reliable way to provide the needed scripting languages to power these applications – popular applications like MediaWiki.

• ActivePerl/ActivePython installed with Plesk seamlessly• Known to be widely compatible across OS versions and architectures

– allows our product to satisfy a diverse customer base• ActiveState is a known and trusted brand in the hosting industry

• Internal benefits• ActivePerl / ActivePython are complete and deliver all necessary

modules we needed to ship with Plesk Panel• Completely built and ready for deployment “out-of-the-box”• Reduced resources needed for development, compilation, and QA

• End Result: Happier customers running on trusted, stable, and commonly used components--regardless of use case

Jeff Hobbs, Director of Engineering, ActiveState

About ActiveState Founded 19972 million developers, 97% of Fortune 1000Products & services for end-to-end development, management, distribution of applications with dynamic languages – and now Stackato (in Beta) for cloudOpen source projects to mission-critical applicationsDynamic Languages:

• Core: Perl, Python, Tcl• Other: PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, Node.js and

more

Why Dynamic Languages?

Save development time

Get to market faster

Improve your end user experience

Enabling scripting options for your users/customers

Why the Growth?

Dynamic Languages Deliver Value

Faster time to market Increased productivity Quality applications Flexible and extensible to generate clean, reliable

and reusable code Excellent for data processing, and web apps development Large libraries of turnkey modules ready for deployment

Dynamic Languages PopularityFrom “OSS Adoption Patterns in Enterprise IT”, Forrester, March 2011”57% of enterprises are now employing open source languages in their organization

What are OEM Solutions?

Leveraging other technology inside your productsBundling ActiveState’s language distribution(s) with your productsBuying vs building of components

OEM: Save Development Time

Release to Market

Brainstorm

Design

Development

Quality

Assur

ance

Deployment

ActiveState OEM Solutions

Brainstorm

Design

Develo

pmen

t

Release to Market

Deploy

men

t

Qua

lity

Assur

ance

Differentiating Your Products

Advanced scripting options for advanced productsBundle scripting options (instead of self-download) for a seamless installation experienceCommercially backed for confidenceFull indemnification to ensure continued business from large enterprises

OEM for Management

Hassle-free redistribution rightsIndemnification options for risk-free redistributionElimination of legal risk

Buy vs. Build

Faster, best-of-breed software componentsBetter quality softwareCross-platform support “out-of-the-box”Save in-house development time and resourcesReduce risks with hassle-free redistribution rights

Mitigate Risk with Proper Licensing

Turn-key licensing (including third-party modules )Reduce complexities and risksSave time in license review

OEM license required for redistributing ActivePerl/Python/TclAlways use a safe redistribution package (OEM) when embedding open source in marketable productsFor security or enterprise products, always use commercially supported open source to reduce legal risksConsider implications of potential copyright infringement lawsuits - $$$

ActivePerl, ActivePython, ActiveTclActiveState

Language EditionCommunity Business Enterprise

EditionOEM

Market/Use For community

developers or non-production

servers

For production servers, external-facing servers and business-critical

applications

For larger implementations

and mission-critical applications

For software, hardware, aerospace

companies to redistribute

OS: Windows, Linux, Mac ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓

OS: Solaris, HP-UX, AIX ✓ ✓ ✓

Older versions ✓ ✓ ✓Commercial

supportEmail2 days

Email/Phone2 hours

Email/Phone2 hours

Indemnification ✓ ✓Royalty-free

Distribution ✓

Some Other OEM Customers

Contact Us

Blake Tyra, Parallelsblake@parallels.com

Jeff Hobbs, ActiveStatejeffh@activestate.com

ActiveState Business Solutionsbusiness-solutions@activestate.com

1.866.510.2914

Follow @activestate on Twitter