Windows & .NET Magazine Network (soon to be Windows IT Pro) and SQL Server Magazine announced the winners of the 1st Annual Best of Microsoft TechEd Europe 2004 Awards at an evening ceremony on Thursday, July 1, 2004 in Amsterdam. Kim Paulsen, Group Publisher for Windows & .NET Magazine Network, presented awards to Windows and SQL technology vendors in 9 categories and announced an overall Best of Show winner.
Best of TechEd judges Mike Otey, Senior Technical Editor for Windows & .NET Magazine and SQL Server Magazine and Graham Parker, Chairman of Vbug User Group, evaluated products based on their strategic importance in the market, competitive advantage, and value to the customer. The field included more than 70 entries and the categories included: Developer Tools, Mobile Solutions, Software Components & Middleware, Productivity & Collaboration, Messaging, Hardware Solutions, Security, Data Management Solutions, and Systems Management.
The Overall Best of TechEd Award went to Compuware’s DevPartner Studio. “This product provides integrated unit testing, along with source code and syntax checking. It enforces best practices for coding by using a rules-based development environment.” said Mike Otey. “It allows fine-tuning of code through application profiling before moving to a live environment.”
The winner in the Developer Tools category was Borland’s Delphi v.8. “Borland’s Delphi v.8 provides the only significant competition in IDE (Integrated Developer Environment).” commented Graham Parker. “This product helps developers move their code from an unmanaged environment to the .NET development platform.”
The Mobile Solutions category winner was Psion Teklogix’s Workabout Pro. “Psion Teklogix’s Workabout Pro enables innovation for the mobile workforce. The fantastic thing about this product is that it allows development of a customized solution for whatever mobile problem an IT professional faces,” said Parker. “The device is extensible through various hardware extensions allowing a range of solutions within multiple environments.”
VMWare’s ESX Server took the award for the Software Components and Middleware category. “VMWare’s ESX Server provides a virtual server environment allowing IT professionals to host multiple live operating systems on one device,” said Parker. “This product does not require a host operating system, and interacts directly with the hardware to provide multiple virtual machine environments. It supports nearly all operating systems and allows IT professionals to transfer environments from one machine to another using VMMotion with no down-time.”
The Productivity and Collaboration winner was Oracle’s Collaboration Suite. ”Oracle’s Collaboration Suite is an enterprise-wide collaboration suite which treats the database as the central source for many different file types. It allows the seamless retrieval of data from disparate sources. It helps reduce administrative and email costs across the enterprise, while at the same time increasing productivity and collaboration,” said Parker.
The Messaging category winner was Fenestrae’s Communications Server. “Fenestrae’s Communications Server extends the messaging capability of several of Microsoft’s key server platforms across the enterprise for seamless connectivity of mobile devices,” said Otey. “Fenestrae’s Communications Server extends Exchange, SQL Server, Live Communications Server, and Office Server with SMS, MMS and fax capabilities.”
The Hardware winner was Dell’s PowerVault 745N. “The Dell PowerVault 745N provides a cost effective and highly scalable NAS file and print serving solution for small to medium sized businesses,” said Otey. “Its 4TB total storage capabilities also make it a capable desktop and notebook backup solution for large enterprises and departmental groups.”
The Security winner was Bindview’s Vulnerability Management Suite. “Bindview’s Security Vulnerability Suite helps protect multi-platform organizations from a number of security threats. The product provides vulnerability assessment and reporting for numerous security best practices. In addition, the BindView Patch Deployment component provides patch management for the Windows operating system as well as critical applications like SQL Server, Exchange and Office,” said Otey.
The Data Management winner was FalconStor iSCSI Storage Server. “FalconStor’s iSCSI Storage Server provides industrial strength storage management capabilities to the Windows platform, and integrates fully with Windows Storage Server” said Otey. “FalconStor’s iSCSI Storage Server enables centralized storage management, both VSS and block-base snapshot data recovery, as well as IP-based data replication for protection from site failure.”
Compuware’s Vantage was the winner in the Systems Management category. “The Compuware Vantage system provides end-to-end performance monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities for any IT professional’s networked applications,” said Otey. “Its easy-to-use graphical interface enables the administrator to set and evaluate compliance to SLAs as well as identify performance problems, and drill down to discover the source of client, network, and server performance issues. It offers the ability to work with any application including user-written applications.”
