RENTON, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Parallels today announced an impressive speaker line-up at the Parallels Summit 2011, the leading global annual gathering of the Cloud industry. This year’s event will be the largest to date, with more than 1,500 attendees, including hosting companies, communication service providers (CSPs), value-added resellers (VARs), software vendors and web designers from around the world. The Summit will take place February 22-24 at the Gaylord Palms Hotel and Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.

The Parallels Summit 2011 will provide insight into how to take advantage of the changing Cloud services landscape. Attendees will glean valuable in-depth knowledge based on two proprietary research projects conducted by Parallels and by McKinsey & Co. The research will reveal the SMB buying priorities for the coming year — including who’s buying, what they're looking for, and why. The second research project will highlight the economics of Cloud computing, including drivers of profitability for key players in the Cloud ecosystem.

The event will feature eight keynote presentations by industry leaders and innovators, as well as more than 30 in-depth product, strategy and networking sessions where business and technical professionals can learn how to build and launch powerful integrated Cloud services for small and medium size businesses (SMB), and how to do that rapidly and profitably. Keynote speakers will include Warren Adelman, President and Chief Operating Officer, Go Daddy, Mario Leone, CTO, Ingram Micro, Darren Pleasance, Partner, McKinsey & Company, Bill Staples, GM Web Platform and Tools, Microsoft, Lance Crosby, CEO, SoftLayer, and Mark Bregman, CTO, Symantec.

The Parallels Summit attendees are entitled to numerous additional benefits, such as a chance to win a three-day lease of a Lamborghini car and other draw prizes. The Summit offers free registration and discounted Parallels training and certification. Parallels partners can contact their sales representatives to learn about other offers.

"The Parallels Summit 2011 is the best opportunity of the year to network with over 1,500 of your peers, ISVs and other industry influencers in the Cloud hosting space to build relationships, benefit from thought leadership and learn best practices,” says Jack Zubarev, Parallels President of Marketing and Alliances. "This year’s event will build on the momentum of the previous years and offer valuable access to potential business partners, Parallels technical and business resources, and other industry participants."

Keynote presentations start Wednesday, February 23^rd at 8:30 PM Eastern. The Summit program concludes on Thursday, February 24^th at 5:30 PM Eastern. A detailed agenda of planned sessions and activities is available at http://www.parallels.com/summit/global/agenda.