Hi everyone!

I've worked for a couple of large ISPs over the last decade, and have developed a number of in-house control panel systems (some good, some not so good). I now wish to use some of my knowledge to help to wider hosting community.

Whilst I appreciate that it's very hard to get a one-size-fits-all system for large and small web hosting companies alike, it does seem as though the two largest control panel companies (cPanel and Plesk) have left many gaps in their functionality.

So, to my question - if you had the opportunity to shape the development of a whole new control panel system that went out of its way to meet your needs (as a business, as well as a system administrator) - what would you include? What is your biggest frustration with cPanel and/or Plesk (or the control panel you use)? What causes you the most wasted repetitive day-to-day effort that could be avoided with a slicker system? What tasks would you automate that you currently have to perform manually? What would help you sell more?

Comments such as "really, don't bother" also welcomed, but please tell me why you feel that way. Hopefully I can be of help to some of you at least.

Thanks for your time.

I think your first task is to define what is a control-panel; cpanel and plesk are a world apart; where cPanel is heavily depending on some linux builds it also does take a way some server management layers a typical 'control-panel' would not bother about.

I would say more control-panels are always welcomed; it keeps the competition sharp(er).

While cPanel is currently our choice we do find new technology is not implemented fast enough (i.e. still not IPv6 support; being planned for next releases; but when?)

Hope you will get a lot of useful responses on your post.

I think your first task is to define what is a control-panel; cpanel and plesk are a world apart; where cPanel is heavily depending on some linux builds it also does take a way some server management layers a typical 'control-panel' would not bother about.

Thanks for replying. At the moment, I would rather avoid doing too much server-admin (beyond the essentials) as this can make a control panel very distro-centric. That said - how many people here rely on cPanel's sys-admin facilities?

Thanks for replying. At the moment, I would rather avoid doing too much server-admin (beyond the essentials) as this can make a control panel very distro-centric. That said - how many people here rely on cPanel's sys-admin facilities?

My guess 80% of the cPanel users (the famous 80 - 20 rule ;))