Since 1997 CPanel is serving website owners as interface to the hosting server, Linux. CPanel is an GUI to the web hosts and website owners. Earlier before CPanel the web hosts had to use the command prompt or other modes to access their website panel and to manage their websites. CPanel have given a platform to the websites owners not only just manage their websites but also saves their a lot time giving them a piece of mind.

From the business point of view also CPanel is very helpful as in case of web host one wants to provided their respective customers a good interface to the servers. Further to manage their customers also CPanel is a good platform. Even you can mange your server too. If one have to understand CPanel in simple words then it will be " a software designed to interact with the server in order to host your websites." Apart from hosting websites one can also host their web application based on other applications like TOMCAT.

CPanel have gained a million of users worldwide reason being its simplicity and user friendliness. This is how CPanel works for you:

• Host multiple websites: If you own a server or if you have taken a serer on lease then you will be either hosting your application, database or your websites. As mentioned earlier you can host your applications and websites using CPanel, but most applications need to be logged in to the root of the server to install and use them. In case of your website, if you are hosting only one website then you can take the help of a technical person and he can upload and host your website on the server. But that becomes very time consuming if you have to host more than one website(s). In that case CPanel helps you. Within CPanel you can add your 'Domains' and then can upload and host your website.Further you also need to manage your website's databases and email services. That too is manageable from CPanel. 
• Mange your clients: Being a web host and a reseller of hosting space you need a single place to mange all of your clients. CPanel offers you a space to manage multiple 'Accounts' at once. Accounts here means the websites that you have hosted on your server. Remember a Client Management or a Billing panel is a different thing.
• Operate your server: Though you can operate your server from the root access but if you need some simple and graphic enables service then you can opt for CPanel. Setup your basic server settings, get server stats, restart your servers, etc. 

 
CPanel How-to