The use of parallelization in Ruby can help reduce test cycles by utilizing multiple CPU cores, making it an attractive option for web developers. The Parallel Tests gem is a tool that makes it easier to implement parallelization when testing with Ruby, integrating seamlessly with popular testing frameworks like rspec and test:unit. By using the gem, developers can significantly reduce their test suite time, allowing them to run more tests in less time, ultimately leading to faster turnaround times for TDD, BDD, and release testing.