Picking a favorite product from an impressive crowd of competitive offerings is never an easy task, and such was the case with our Editors' Best and Community Choice awards this year. The former award program highlights products that SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro editors and contributors believe are worthy of recognition, whereas the latter program turns that process over to you, our readers.
Our Community Choice awards allowed readers to decide which products and services were chosen for acclaim and recognition. Rather than presenting a predefined list of products and services that limited your selection to choices our editorial team had already made, this year we decided to open up the process to everyone and let you determine the products and services that were worthy of inclusion in our final voting phase. We also encouraged DBAs, developers, and IT pros to submit comments about why they selected the products they did, so you'll see lots of insightful comments and real-world wisdom from your peers about their favorite products on the pages that follow.
Unlike last year—when we treated both award programs as separate entities—we decided to merge both of the award programs together this year. We've listed the top three Editors' Best products in each category directly adjacent to our Community Choice winners. Sometimes our editors and readers agreed on what products and services were best in a given category, and sometimes they didn't. Yet regardless of whether these winners were picked by editors or readers, one thing is certain: All these awards recognize products and services that are considered the best of the best in their respective categories.
By presenting our Community Choice and Editors' Best award picks next to each other this year, we're hoping we'll encourage some dialogue about the selections that were made. Do you agree with the choices our editors made? Or do the picks that our readers made carry more weight? Please let us know what you think by emailing us your comments, or by visiting our forums and writing a post or two.
Best Backup and Recovery Software Product
Editors' Best
Gold: LiteSpeed for SQL Server • Quest Software • www.quest.com
Silver: SQL safe backup • Idera • www.idera.com
Bronze: SQL Backup Pro • Red Gate Software • www.red-gate.com
"LiteSpeed sets the bar for other SQL Server backup programs. LiteSpeed has always used compression to reduce your backup windows but the new release has also added support for the new FILESTREAM data type, and a new SmartDiff allows you to specify conditions for full or differential backups."—Michael Otey, technical director, Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine
"Few competitive products can match the robust feature set in LiteSpeed for SQL Server. Quest Software’s new SmartDiff technology scrunches down database backups into even smaller file sizes and is one of the reasons why LiteSpeed gets my vote."—Jeff James, editor-in-chief, Windows IT Pro
Community Choice
Gold: Hyperbac for SQL Server • Hyperbac • www.hyperbac.com
Silver: NetVault:Backup • BakBone • www.bakbone.com
Bronze: Simpana • CommVault • www.commvault.com
Quotes from your community about Hyperbac for SQL Server …
"Seamless integration with SQL Server!"
"Refreshing in its simplicity."
Best Business Intelligence and Reporting Tool
Editors' Best
Gold: Tableau • Tableau Software • www.tableausoftware.com
Silver: NovaView • Panorama Software • www.panorama.com
Bronze: Analyzer • Strategy Companion • www.strategycompanion.com
"What I like about Tableau 5.0 is that SQL Server professionals don’t have to spend a lot of time training business users how to use it—anyone can quickly learn to use this product to create active dashboards and reports and analyze data, as long as they have access to the Internet. Tableau 5.0 also lets you tie in to multiple data sources and create interactive visualizations that help you better understand your data, and therefore help you make informed business decisions, faster."—Megan Keller, associate editor, SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro
"Giving stakeholders the information they need in a format they can understand is invaluable, and Tableau 5.0 does that better than just about any other BI tool."—Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro
"Filling the gaping hole left by Microsoft’s absorption of ProClarity, Strategy Companion Analyzer is the best solution to complete the Microsoft BI platform. For analysts, power users, and general report consumers, Analyzer supports the full range of SQL Server Analysis Services features. It has a zero-footprint client interface, making it simple to deploy and manage, with delivery options for SharePoint, Excel, and Internet Explorer. Analyzer offers a powerful and intuitive set of analysis tools and visualizations that let business users make more confident decisions."—Douglas McDowell, contributing editor, SQL Server Magazine
Community Choice
Gold: IT Analytics • Symantec • www.symantec.com
Silver: Business Objects Crystal Reports • Business Objects • www.businessobjects.com
Bronze: XtraReports Suite • DevExpress • www.devexpress.com
Quotes from your community about Symantec's IT Analytics …
"Leverages all the data inside the Altiris platform."
"Default cube schemas and reports, visual quality, ease of use, dynamic tables and graphs, benefits of SQL reporting services."