Datamation Announces Product of the Year Winners

Our readers have voted and we’ve tabulated the results for this year’s Datamation Product of the Year Awards. Top honors go to companies across key areas of IT infrastructure, from Enterprise Linux to Wireless Software to Network and Systems Management.

In some categories, like Anti-Spam Software and Enterprise Server, voting was close. The winner won by just a handful of votes. In others, like Enterprise Security and Wireless Software, the award was garnered by a hefty margin.

Some of the categories were won by household names like Dell and Google. Other awards were won by smaller firms, such as Optier and AdRem Software. But whether big or small, congratulations go to the winners. Datamation readers comprise a wide array of IT professionals, so earning the respect of this demanding group is indeed an achievement.

Over the next couple weeks Datamation will be running profiles of the winning products. Stay tuned.

And now – drum roll please – the winners are…

Business/IT Alignment

Taking top honors in Business/IT Alignment – a trendy category with plenty of buzz – is CoreFirst by Optier. Optier, which specializes in transaction workload management, designed CoreFirst to enable data extraction from the IT infrastructure with greater granularity, allowing enhanced analysis of business systems.

The other nominees in Business/IT Alignment were SAP/Microsoft’s Duet, Oracle’s Business Intelligence Suite, and SAS’s Model Manager.

Enterprise Email

Winning in the Enterprise Email category is a small start-up called Google – earning this award should help them begin to build brand awareness. Kidding aside, the company’s Google Apps for Your Domain won by a wide margin over IBM’s Lotus Notes on Linux, Novell’s Evolution, Scalix made by the company of the same name, and ColdSpark’s SparkEngine Mail Transport System.

Google Apps for Your Domain, in addition to offering private label email, also offers IM, calendar-scheduling features, and Web design tools. Oh, and it’s free (at this point). That probably helps its popularity, wouldn’t you think?

Handheld Device

In the Handheld Device category, Datamation readers voted Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Pearl their favorite. The Pearl includes a 1.3-megapixel camera, music and video player, expandable memory and – who needs GPS? – a mapping application.

Although RIM’s handheld won the category handily (no pun intended), the voting was relatively close for the other entrants: Sony Ericsson's P990i, Cingular's 8525, and T-Mobile's SDA.

Enterprise Security

Garnering the most votes in the Enterprise Security category was RSA Security’s SecurID Appliance, a scalable authentication solution that allows companies to establish the identity of users accessing critical business information. RSA claims it can be deployed in as few as 15 minutes, enabling two-factor authentication.

The runner-ups were Steganos’s Secure VPN, AirMagnet’s AirMagnet Enterprise, Vontu's Vontu, and ArcSight’s Network Configuration Manager.

Anti-Spam Software

Mozilla’s Firefox just barely topped Norton Internet Security 2007 to win in the Anti-Spam slot. The upgraded Firefox browser – which has a loyal cult following – has built-in phishing protection, which is turned on by default. It checks sites against either a local or online list of known phishing sites, which is automatically updated.

The other entrants in this popular category were Vanquish’s vqME, Bullguard’s Internet Security, and the Apache SpamAssassin Project’s SpamAssassin.

Enterprise Linux

Winning top honors in the coveted Enterprise Linux category is BakBone Software’s NetVault Backup Version. NetVault’s Backup offers comprehensive backup and recovery software for mid-sized companies, distributed enterprises and corporate data centers with heterogeneous environments.

Netvault won by a big margin over some worthy competitors: Oracle’s Unbreakable Linux, Novell’s OpenSUSE, and XenSource’s XenEnterprise.

Enterprise Server

The voting in the Enterprise Server category was close, but when the final tally was in, Dell’s PowerEdge 1900 won. This ninth generation release of the PowerEdge touts Quad-Core Intel Xeon processors. It’s also designed with enhanced virtualization specs to better host the virtualization offerings of Microsoft, VMware and XenSource.

The runner-ups were the usual suspects: IBM’s System z9 Business Class, and its System p5 550Q, and HP’s ProLiant Blade Workstation, and its xw4400 Workstation.

Network and Systems Management

Topping the Network and Systems Management category is AdRem Software’s NetCrunch. This network monitoring software visualizes and reports on TCP/IP networks, and can control systems running Windows, Linux, Unix, Netware, or any device that supports SNMP.

NetCrunch was the clear winner in this slot, besting AlterPoint’s DeviceAuthority, CITTIO’s Watchtower, Emulex’s VMPilot, and Cassatt’s Collage.

Compliance Software

With the headaches of Sarbannes-Oxley, compliance software plays a critical role for many enterprises. The winner: Splunk, developed by Splunk, Inc. Billed as “the search engine for IT,” Splunk indexes and manages data logs, and this newest version offers a Web-based interface for configuring data and server inputs.

The other nominees were Scentric’s Destiny R2, Mathon Systems' Integral, CMO Handheld Software’s Easy Audit, and Abrevity’s FileData Manager.

Wireless Software

Dominating the Wireless Software category was Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which makes it easier to manage large Blackberry deployments. This upgraded version offers a visual development tool for coding Web services apps.

The other entrants were Sybase’s RFID Enterprise, Credant’s Mobile Guardian Enterprise Edition, and Ekahau’s Site Survey.