Things certainly have changed since we announced the winners of the first eWEEK Excellence Awards seven years ago.
The challenges and problems facing IT today require new capabilities and greater integration functionality than was the case in 2000.
Back then, companies felt that they had finally grasped the whole business on the Web thing, not knowing that they would, in a few years, have to deal with a 2.0 version of the Web. And while we watched the death of the old ASP (application service provider)-hosted model, few of us realized that it would come back with a vengeance as on-demand and SAAS (software as a service).
But some things never change, such as the constant struggle to keep IT resources secure from external threats or the need to put solid computing tools in the hands of workers.
The seventh eWEEK Excellence Award winners come from longtime titans of technology as well as small upstarts using open-source technologies. But all the winners are the same in that they are providing the ingenuity and features that businesses need to stay on the cutting edge.
The seventh annual Excellence Awards program was open to any enterprise technology product announced in 2006 and released before the end of the first quarter of 2007. The eWEEK editorial staff judged the entries.
Were pleased to offer readers this annual guide to excellence, including the winners and finalists in all categories:
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Analytics
& Reporting”>
CATEGORY: ANALYTICS & REPORTING
WINNER
Skytide
Skytide Analytical Platform 2.0
In a modern business, information tends to be everywhere-perhaps in a product delivered in a SAAS (Software as a Service) model, in Web services or even Web 2.0 applications such as blogs and wikis.
But in an old-school business intelligence model, in which companies rely on clean information in controlled databases, this disparately-located data might as well have been invisible.
Thats why eWEEKs Excellence Awards judges were impressed with the Skytide Analytical Platform 2.0, which solves this exact problem. The Skytide Analytical Platform 2.0 is specifically designed to bring real-time, high-level business analytics capabilities to a modern Enterprise 2.0- type business that doesnt have the luxury of having all its important data in a nice, clean-structured configuration.
FINALISTS
Business Objects
Crystalreports.com 1.0
When it comes to business analytics and reporting, most people instantly think of Crystal Reports, a name synonymous with this product category. But for many analysts, especially in small businesses, data from Crystal Reports tends to live on an isolated island.
With the launch of Crystalreports.com 1.0, Business Objects has made it much easier for businesses to share and collaborate on business reports.
Noetix
Noetix Enterprise Technology Suite 5.5
In the world of business analytics, two common sayings, “information is power” and “time is money” are often at odds with each other. Thats because with traditional tools it can often take a lot of time to get that powerful information.
The focus of the Noetix Enterprise Technology Suite 5.5 is to help businesses quickly build metadata from their core businesses systems and then let users quickly generate reports from that data.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Application Development
CATEGORY: APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT
WINNER
Adobe Systems
Adobe Flex 2
Rich Internet applications have become one of the hottest areas in Web development in recent years, even gaining the notice of Microsoft, which recently threw its hat in the ring with the release of its Windows Presentation Foundation technology.
But unlike these fledgling options, there is a product in this category thats already put its growing pains behind it and has developed into a mature platform for building dynamic, fully Web-aware applications that can side-step the need for a Web browser: Adobes Flex 2.
Flex 2 provides developers with a simple-to-use coding structure, a well-designed, Eclipse-based development environment and a rich programming base for building powerful rich Internet applications. Add in the fact that Flex is based on Adobes ubiquitous Flash technology, which enables applications to run identically on most platforms, and you have yourself an accomplished winner in the Application Development category.
FINALISTS
ActiveState Software
Komodo IDE 4.0
So youre a Web application developer? Developing in Perl, Python, PHP, Ruby, or JavaScript? Are you a Linux, Mac or Windows user? No matter what your choices are, the answer is ActiveStates Komodo IDE 4.0, an impressive cross-platform and cross-language environment for building Web applications. And, oh yeah, its a really great tool that makes working in all these languages a breeze.
Custom Credit Systems
ThinWire Ajax Platform 1.2
There sits Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition, the buttoned down Java guy who runs many enterprise back-end server applications. And over there is AJAX, the cool new kid who is bringing interactivity to Web interfaces and making them work similar to true GUIs. Wouldnt it be great if these two worked together?
Thats what the open-source ThinWire Ajax platform is doing, providing an object-oriented framework that makes it simple to tie an AJAX client interface to a Java server application.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Business Integration Systems
CATEGORY: BUSINESS INTEGRATION SYSTEMS
WINNER
IBM
IBM Information Server 8.0
Integration can often be a very tough nut to crack, especially nowadays when integration combines classic data system integrations and modern SOAs (service-oriented architectures). A common hassle for businesses in these situations is dealing with multiple products and multiple management interfaces that should work together but dont. Another common integration problem occurs when a large company acquires many vendors but doesnt know how to use and integrate the acquired products.
Enter the IBM Information Server 8.0, which is, to a large extent, a combination of integration products that IBM has acquired over the last few years. Our judges were impressed with the success IBM has had in integrating these disparate components into a single product, but what earned the company this years Business Integration Systems prize was the way in which the server pulls off tough integration tasks for IBMs customers.
Most notably, Information Server 8.0 provides a unified interface for data and application integration chores. With the IBM Information Server 8.0, companies should find it much easier to find, analyze, clean, merge and deliver data wherever and however it is needed within the enterprise.
FINALISTS
Metastorm
Metastorm BPM Suite 7
While BPM (business process management) is clearly a necessary task for many businesses that need to keep a grasp on their activities, BPM tools have tended to live in their own little worlds. Our judges thought the Metastorm BPM Suite 7 has done a very good job of moving BPM tools into a more integrated posture that works better in todays companies. The new suite combines more outward-facing functionality from Metastorms acquisition of CommerceQuest and also does a good job of integrating with SOA tools and Microsofts SharePoint Server.
WebMethods
WebMethods Fabric 7
Traditionally, when one thinks of WebMethods integration tools, high levels of complexity are what immediately jump to mind. But with Fabric 7, WebMethods makes it much easier for business analysts to create and manage business processes and integrations using simple drag-and-drop development tools. We also liked how Fabric 7 embraces the cutting edge of Web and integration technologies, including support for key Semantic Web standards such as RDF and OWL.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Business Relationship Management
CATEGORY: BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT
WINNER
SugarCRM
Sugar Professional 4.5
Over the last few years, eWEEK has watched with interest as small open-source applications have attempted to enter into an enterprise application market typically dominated by expensive and extremely complex products.
During that time, SugarCRMs product has shown much progress, but it was in the last year with the release of Sugar Professional 4.5 that SugarCRM finally provided a customer relationship management product thats fully competitive with major commercial players in terms of functionality and capability.
Among the key new features judges noted in this release were much improved user interfaces boosted by drag-and-drop capabilities that are now much easier for sales workers to use. Also key in this release is Sugar Professionals move toward becoming a very Microsoft-friendly product, with good integration with Microsofts Internet Information Services, Active Directory, and SQL Server database. The product also still maintains its classic support for the Linux and Mac OS X platforms, and, similar to many other products in this space, SugarCRMs solution is also available in an on-demand model.
FINALISTS
Numara Software
Numara FootPrints Hosting Service 7.5
When it comes to relating to their customers, many businesses focus exclusively on sales issues, gaining new customers and getting existing customers to spend more money. But one area that is often left underserved is customer support, which doesnt make much sense as one bad support call can lose a customer forever. Numara FootPrints Hosting Service 7.5 makes it easy for companies to quickly get up and running with a platform to manage help desk and customer support calls.
OpenMFG
OpenMFG ERP Suite 2.0
OpenMFGs ERP Suite 2.0 is a well-designed, shared-source solution for the complex problem of ERP (enterprise resource management). This product has traditionally covered manufacturing, supply chain and accounting, but with the release of 2.0, OpenMFG took the big step of bringing CRM (customer relationship management) functionality to the table.
Our judges think this addition goes a long way towards making this uniquely licensed application an excellent option to traditional commercial ERP solutions.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Desktop
& Mobile Hardware”>
CATEGORY: DESKTOP & MOBILE HARDWARE
WINNER
Lenovo Group
ThinkPad X60
Lenovo storms the Desktop & Mobile Hardware category for the second consecutive year, this time with its ThinkPad X60 tablet. A regular favorite of eWEEK Labs, the X60 series earned an Analysts Choice designation last year.
IT managers want lightweight notebooks that boast top-notch performance, connectivity and battery life with which to outfit their fleet of road warriors, and the X60 series delivers. Our judges found the X60 tablets XGA indoor/outdoor panel with touch screen capability impressive, particularly given the machines Active Rotate function, which allows the tablet screen to immediately orient to the user, no matter which direction it turns.
For network connectivity, the X60 sports an 802.11n draft specification radio, embedded WAN from Verizon Wireless or Cingular, as well as Bluetooth, all built into the system.
The 12″ convertible tablet weighs in at 3.6 lbs, which garnered votes from our backs and shoulders as well. Speaking of backs, our judges noted the X60s capacity for keeping users backs covered with the tablets bi-directional fingerprint reader and its Client Security System.
FINALISTS
Hewlett-Packard
iPaq hw6900 Mobile Messenger
HPs iPaq hw6900 Mobile Messenger was a finalist in this category for its multiple connectivity options and its variety of e-mail and messaging solutions and phone functionality. The first handheld to offer five integrated radios, the mobile workforce is assured that e-mail access will remain as uninterrupted as possible and business/corporate data will be transmitted securely.
Sun Microsystems
Sun Ray 2
This desktop hardware product wooed judges with its capabilities for minimizing the maintenance, upgrading and operational costs that come with most desktop environments. The Excellence Awards judges also liked that users can “Hot Desk” between their office, a conference room and home by simply inserting the smart card from the office Sun Ray 2 into the Sun Ray 2 at home or in a conference room.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
E
-Business Foundations”>
CATEGORY: E-BUSINESS FOUNDATIONS
WINNER
Sun Microsystems
Solaris ZFS
Sun Microsystems next-generation Zettabyte File System had been on our judges radar screens since before the launch of Solaris 10, more than two years ago. However, we had to wait until last years 6/06 update of Solaris 10 for the groundbreaking file system to merit a production-ready label from Sun. Based on our experiences with ZFS, the 128-bit file system was well worth the wait.
Particularly impressive is ZFS knack for abstracting away a good deal of the management minutia to which storage systems are heir. As Sun describes it, ZFS makes storage management on Solaris more like memory management: Administrators add more RAM to their machines and can count on their operating systems to figure out how to use it. In the same way, ZFS enables administrators to add physical disks to storage pools and create file systems that draw storage from these pools-without a requirement for pre-allocating partition or logical volume sizes.
Also impressive is the Web management interface that Sun has built for ZFS, which is easy to navigate and helpfully displays the command-line directives that administrators can point-and-click their way through issuing.
FINALISTS
Microsoft
Windows Vista
Microsoft made considerable progress in its ongoing trustworthy computing initiative with the release of Windows Vista. Despite the jibes that Microsoft received in Apples Mac vs. PC commercials, the permit/deny pop-ups of Vistas User Account Control feature-and the permissions framework that underlies them-represent an important step forward for client security.
Alfresco Software
Alfresco 1.4
Alfrescos eponymous enterprise content management suite earned a finalist nod from our judges on the strength of its Intelligent Virtual File System, its solid search functionality and its broad slate of collaboration tools. We also appreciated the flexibility of Alfrescos licensing and support model, in which the fees that customers pay are tied to the services they opt to consume.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
E
-Mail Management & Security “>
CATEGORY: E-MAIL MANAGEMENT & SECURITY
WINNER
MessageLabs
MessageLabs Archiving Service
MessageLabs Archiving Service combines an archiving appliance, which resides within an organizations network and integrates with Active Directory, with a secure archive that stores, manages and maintains all archived e-mail. All e-mail is encrypted by the appliance before leaving an organizations network. Once e-mail arrives, data retrieval requires access to both the encryption key and the secure archive.
The Archiving Policy Engine is accessed via a user interface that can be customized using a Web browser. This enables companies to specify and enforce acceptable use, retention and supervision policies for their archives, as well as print and distribute the policy to educate their employees. The service automatically retains every version of the policy in an unalterable form for reference or auditing purposes, as well as a full audit trail of changes.
The Secure Archive provides an automated capture of all internal and external e-mail communications. Our judges took note of the steps the MessageLabs service takes to ensure the authenticity, security and confidentiality of all archived data by storing multiple copies of messages and indexes in multiple data centers and on spinning disks.
MessageLabs also digitally fingerprints all messages for authenticity, maintains a full audit trail of system and user activities, and stores all data in an encrypted format accessible only by the customer.
FINALISTS
Clearwell Systems
Clearwell Intelligence Platform
The Clearwell Intelligence Platform is a 2U (3.5-inch), rack-mountable appliance that can be installed and used within 30 minutes. The product supports discussion threads, relevance ranking, topic classification, communication flow analysis, advanced cull-down, one-click tagging, comprehensive review work flow and sophisticated analytics.
Sendmail
Sendmail Sentrion
Sendmail Sentrion is an e-mail gateway security appliance that combines three Sendmail software products running on a hardened Linux appliance. Sentrion provides mail routing (Sendmail MTA), SMTP Connection Control (Patented Flow Control); Policy Management and Content Filtering (Mailstream Manager).
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
E
nterprise Collaboration “>
CATEGORY: ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION
WINNER
Zimbra
Zimbra Collaboration Suite
Our top pick in the Enterprise Collaboration category is the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, the open-source enterprise messaging and collaboration suite that bowled us over with the breadth of functionality that Zimbra has managed to fit into a rich, Web-based interface.
Because the Zimbra Collaboration Suite is entirely browser-based, there is no footprint on the desktop and users can access it from anywhere, including from Windows, Mac, and Linux desktops, as well as from mobile devices.
Zimbra impressed us with the options theyve cooked up for enabling workers to “live” inside their e-mail and calendar interfaces by giving companies the tools to build customized mash-ups that roll typically separate application functions such as flight tracking, Skype-based phone dialing and purchase order approvals into Zimbras browser-based interface.
We also took note of Zimbras ALE (AJAX Linking and Embedding) technology, which enables Zimbra users to create shareable, wiki-like documents with support for complex embedded objects such as spreadsheets or images, and an interaction model that resembles that of a traditional office suite in a desktop environment.
Also compelling is Zimbras unique e-mail storage method for reducing storage overhead by implementing an attachment platform that shares rather than replicates common attachments among mailboxes in a given storage group.
FINALISTS
Adobe Systems
Adobe Acrobat Connect
Our judges found Adobe Acrobat Connect a worthy contender in the Enterprise Collaboration category. Acrobat Connect employs Adobes Flash Player to enable up to 15 people to enter a personal meeting room without having to download software. The simple push of a button allows screen, document and application sharing.
eProject
Project and Portfolio Management 6
Even when theyre working toward the same project goals, individual team members bring different viewpoints to the table-thats why our judges appreciated PPM6s user-accessible customization features, which extend to users the option to craft a version of the products interface that matches their needs and preferences.
Whats more, the services OnDemand model means that customers subscribe, use and pay for services as needed, and conveniently bypass software upgrades and licensing obstacles.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
E
nterprise Storage Hardware “>
CATEGORY: ENTERPRISE STORAGE HARDWARE
WINNER
EqualLogic
EqualLogic PS Series
The PS3800XV is an enterprise-class mid-range storage array from EqualLogic that provides medium to large businesses across any industry a high performance storage area network or SAN tier. The PS3800XV storage array extends the PS Series family beyond EqualLogics core SATA-based product line, combining EqualLogics load balancing and storage virtualization with high-speed Serial Attached SCSI disk drives, that judges saw as providing high-performing storage for database and online transaction processing applications.
With 16 146GB SAS drives spinning at 15,000 rpm, the PS3800XV can provide 2.3TB of raw storage. Our judges noted the PS3800XVs fully redundant, hot-swappable system controllers, three Gigabit Ethernet network links per array, dual fans and power supplies, along with a variety of proactive diagnostics, internal disk and system health monitoring, and warning systems in a 3U (5.25-inch) chassis.
The PS3800XV can be optimized to match storage tiers with application demands. For instance, within the same SAN and under the same management interface, the PS3800XV can run Oracle 10g databases and Microsoft Exchange on high-performance SAS drives optimized for maximum I/O per second with RAID 10. Less demanding business applications such as file and print services can then be run on SATA II drives with a mixed RAID set for a balance of performance and capacity.
FINALISTS
Compellent
Storage Center with Thin Replication
Compellent Storage Center with Thin Replication offers midsize organizations a modular enterprise SAN that can scale to hundreds of terabytes of data. Compellents offering won major points with our judges for its point-and-click tools to set up, replicate and recover data over broadband Internet or Fibre Channel connections.
Data Domain Data
Domain DDX Array Series
DDX offers up to 15 petabytes of capacity, up to 6.4TB per hour of throughput and includes management and support for up to 320 remote locations. Our judges liked the fact that the DDX Array Series can scale to up to 16 Data Domain DD560 or DD460 controllers and associated storage in a single managed configuration. The DDX can be implemented with as few as four controllers and then expanded over time as business needs change.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
E
nterprise Storage Software”>
CATEGORY: ENTERPRISE STORAGE SOFTWARE
WINNER
LeftHand Networks
SAN/iQ
Rolling out or extending an enterprise storage system means making large investments in terms of both money and trust. Once the investment has been made, theres nothing like the potential threat of a client jumping ship to do business with a rival vendor to keep most storage hardware providers honest and responsive.
Thats why our judges were impressed by LeftHand Networks SAN/iQ iSCI storage software platform, which insulates companies from vendor lock-in with its amenability for working with multiple hardware systems.
According to SAN/iQ, the software works with a variety of hardware platforms, including the HP ProLiant DL380, IBM x3650, LeftHands own NSM 260 and NSM 160, as well as with SAN solutions from more than 20 other worldwide OEM partners.
Our judges also appreciated the way that the new user interface included with SAN/iQ Version 6.6 simplifies SAN (storage area network) management by presenting administrators with a centralized management console that adheres to familiar Microsoft Windows user interface metaphors and that enables administrators to manage physical storage assets from their main data center, across a campus or spread out in remote locations.
We also took note of SAN/iQs innovative distributed architecture, through which LeftHand Networks promises to deliver storage scalability while maintaining good disk performance and network throughput across additional clustered storage server nodes.
Also compelling are the data protection and high availability virtues that flow from LeftHands synchronous data replication, snapshots and remote copy functionality.
FINALISTS
Brocade
StorageX
Brocade StorageX is an integrated suite of applications that logically aggregates distributed file data across heterogeneous storage environments and across CIFS (Common Internet File Systems) and NFS (Network File System)-based file systems, while providing policies to automate data management functions. Our judges also gave a thumbs up to StorageXs data classification and reporting, its ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) capabilities and its storage optimization options.
EMC
Avamar
EMC Avamar software enables companies to quickly and reliably protect data residing in remote offices, LAN attached server, and VMware environments, while dramatically reducing the required network bandwidth and backup storage.
Avamar software boasts innovative global data de-duplication and single instance storage technology to reduce the size of backup data at the source before it is transferred across the network, something our judges think is a true asset.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
IT Quality Assurance Tools
CATEGORY: IT QUALITY ASSURANCE TOOLS
WINNER
Shunra Software
Shunra VE
Flexibility and ease-of-use are two traits that give any product a strong lead over the competition, which is why our judges gave Shunra VE, a virtual network environment for pre-deployment lab testing, top honors in the Quality Assurance category.
Shunra VEs interface for testing application and network equipment performance under a wide variety of network impairments mirrors the look and feel of running in a real production environment throughout the development lifecycle. Users gain a comprehensive understanding of the impact that the network and applications have on each others performance and on remote users experiences. As a result, production-related problems can be uncovered and resolved before rollout.
Our judges also noted Shunra VEs wide range of graphically rich reports and drill down analysis capabilities. These help users isolate and resolve the root causes of network and application problems early and determine whether any modifications to the application, network or infrastructure are needed. Users get the information they need to make informed decisions and ensure service levels to remote users.
The Shunra VE is a high performance network appliance that functions as a bridge or router. We like that it changes the speed at which network traffic travels across the local area network, exposing data packets to the same impairments-such as latency, jitter, bandwidth, congestion, packet loss – to which they would be subjected to on the wide area network.
FINALISTS
Symantec
Symantec i3
Symantec i3 is an end-to-end application performance management solution that ensures optimum performance and availability of mission-critical applications. Composed of the Inform, Insight, and Indepth modules, Symantec i3 tightly integrates the collection and correlation of tuning advice relevant to the performance of multi-tier applications.
Borland Software
Gauntlet
Borland Gauntlet is a developer test and defect prevention system that builds quality checks into existing development tasks. Working well with others, Gauntlet works with existing software configuration management and version control systems to measure and analyze code as its checked in, isolating problem code before it affects others.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Productivity Applications
CATEGORY: PRODUCTIVITY APPLICATIONS
WINNER
Microsoft
Office 2007
Good looks will only get you so far. For Microsoft Office 2007, the attractive user interface overhaul that the software maker unveiled for its venerable productivity suite helped the product sail straight into the winners circle in our Productivity Applications category.
Office 2007s diligently researched and heavily reworked UI marked a parting of ways with the file menu and toolbar structure that had marked Office from its first days. In its place, Microsofts Office team left “the Ribbon,” a new, intuitive-by-design interface element conceived to keep users most commonly-accessed features close at hand, and to change as office workers shift from task to task.
Microsoft Office 2007 marked the largest single release in Microsofts history, bringing new functionality across its core applications (Microsoft Office Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Access, InfoPath and OneNote). Judges also like the suites focus on collaboration, especially in Outlook, OneNote and Groove, which together make much easier for users to share information and documents.
Our judges appreciated Outlooks new To-Do Bar, which serves up a unified display of appointments, tasks and e-mail flagged for follow-up. Outlooks aggregated RSS feeds and synchronized support for Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services, the softwares collaboration platform, document libraries and lists, also wooed our judges.
FINALISTS
Adobe Systems
Acrobat 8 Professional
We found Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional much improved in the areas of file-sharing and collaboration-particularly when paired with fellow Excellence Awards finalist Acrobat Connect. We also appreciated the products inclusion of interactive form fields within Adobe PDF and Microsoft Office files, as well as Acrobat 8s support for exporting forms into Adobe PDF package or a spreadsheet.
Citrix Online
GoToMyPC
The mobile work force continues to grow, demanding more power, versatility and security out of productivity applications. Our Excellence Awards judges found that GoToMyPCs promise to users to “be productive from anywhere,” held up. Considering the products free software service upgrades, technical support and maintenance provisions, and lack of set-up costs, well GoToMyPC right now.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
- Networking Infrastructure
- System & Application Management
- Authentication & User Management
- Network Data-Stream Protection
- Vulnerability Assessment & Remediation
Server Hardware
CATEGORY: SERVER HARDWARE
WINNER
Intel
Core 2 Quad
No matter how speedy computer processors become, a single chip can take on only one task at a time. For chip vendors to keep operating system and application developers stocked with all the horsepower they can handle, multicore is the way forward.
Leading the way toward this multicore future is this years Server Hardware winner, Intels Core 2 Quad processor family. Intel got the jump on rival AMD by shipping server and desktop chips that boast four independent cores in a single package with 8MB of L2 cache and a 1066MHz front side bus-giving servers the headroom to lend four minds to a given task.
According to Intel, the new processors deliver up to 50 percent faster performance within the same thermal envelope and at the same cost as the previous-generation dual-core Intel Xeon processor 5100 series-an improvement that caught our judges eyes.
What remains to be seen is how well developers adapt to making full use of four-headed beasts such as Intels Core 2 Quad chips. That may well be fodder for a future Excellence Awards win.
FINALISTS
Appro
1U Quad XtremeServer
The Appro 1U Quad XtremeServer is built around AMD Opteron processors and DDR2 (double data rate) memory and was designed to deliver a high power-to-density ratio. Appros thermal management scheme centers around an innovative mechanical and air duct design that efficiently delivers cooling to the servers complement of four closely-packed processors.
Hewlett-Packard
BladeSystem c-Class
With its next-generation BladeSystem c-Class, Hewlett-Packard invites companies to rethink how IT infrastructures are built and maintained. HP BladeSystem c-Class was designed for a future where blades can be servers, storage, PCs or workstations and support fully virtualized environments.
Essentially, the BladeSystem is an IT infra-structure in a 17-inch box that consolidates the basic elements of the modern data center computer-storage, power/cooling, connectivity and security-into a modular design with integrated management to address the areas of cost, administrator productivity, change management and energy efficiency.
- Analytics & Reporting
- Application Development
- Business Integration Systems
- Business Relationship Management
- Desktop & Mobile Hardware
- E-Business Foundations
- E-Mail Management & Security
- Enterprise Collaboration
- Enterprise Storage Hardware
- Enterprise Storage Software
- IT Quality Assurance Tools
- Productivity Applications
- Server Hardware
- Networking & Management Tools
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