Best Hardware: Storage
Editors' Best
Gold: Intel SSD drives • Intel • www.intel.com
Silver: nTier Deduplication appliance • SpectraLogic • www.spectralogic.com
Bronze: DroboPro • Data Robotics • www.drobo.com
"As the price of SSD drives continue to plummet, you'll need to seriously consider taking the leap. It's the most worthwhile upgrade you can make to any computer system these days, and the Intel drives are amongst the best SSDs available."—Michael Dragone, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro
"Intel SSDs—along with the rise of virtualization and the boom in iSCSI SAN adoption—are undoubtedly contributing to a revolution of storage in the enterprise."—Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro
"The Drobo is exactly what today's IT pros need—automated, easy-to-use, plug-and-play backup functionality in the form of a cool gadget."—Jason Bovberg, senior editor, Windows IT Pro
Community Choice
Gold: EMC Clariion • EMC • www.emc.com
Silver: Dell EqualLogic PS5000 • Dell • www.dell.com
Bronze: NetApp FAS3100 • NetApp • www.netapp.com
Quotes from your community about EMC Clariion …
"Easy-to-use, affordable networked storage."
"The new virtual-aware EMC Clariion is perfect for my VMware environment."
"Love the expandability."
Best SharePoint Product
Editors' Best
Gold: ControlPoint for SharePoint • Axceler • www.axceler.com
Silver: Software Professional Archive Manager for SharePoint • Metalogix • www.metalogix.net
Bronze: Mimosa NearPoint for SharePoint • Mimosa Systems • www.mimosasystems.com
"Axceler ControlPoint helps IT pros get better control of their SharePoint environment through permissions management, content management, in-depth usage analysis, policy enforcement, and flexible alerts and scheduled analyses."—Jeff James, editor in chief, Windows IT Pro
"ControlPoint provides the tools and intelligence to help you manage and monitor large farms effectively, and it integrates well with the existing SharePoint UI; the ability to manage user permission levels is nicely implemented."—Curt Spanburgh, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro
Community Choice
Gold: Site Administrator for SharePoint • Quest Software • www.quest.com
Silver: Colligo Contributor Pro • Colligo Networks • www.colligo.com
Bronze: CorasWorks Workplace Suite 10 • CorasWorks • www.corasworks.com
Quotes from your community about Quest Software's Site Administrator for SharePoint …
"Has helped me completely understand and manage my entire SharePoint environment."
"For SharePoint management of servers and sites, it's the best and most comprehensive product out there."
Best Training and Certification Product or Service
Editors' Best
Gold: LabSim • TestOut • www.testout.com
Silver: Train Signal Computer Training Videos • Train Signal • www.trainsignal.com
Bronze: PrepLogic eLearning Videos • PrepLogic • www.preplogic.com
"TestOut's LabSim is a true innovator in the IT training and certification space. This online lab technology helps further learning for professionals of all levels. Newcomers to the field can gain a level of hands-on experience on or off campus unlike ever before, and seasoned professionals have easy access to skills-based online training to earn additional certifications or degrees."—Brian Reinholz, training & certification editor, Windows IT Pro
"We feel that between the LabSim materials, the optional textbook TestOut offers, and the online course portal, our students have a very robust online environment that offers a comprehensive and integrated online experience."—Marcus Butler, assistant professor, West Los Angeles College
Community Choice
Gold: Train Signal Premium Computer Training Videos • Train Signal • www.trainsignal.com
Silver: TestOut Professional Training for IT Certification • TestOut • www.testout.com
Bronze: Global Knowledge IT Training Classes • Global Knowledge • www.globalknowledge.com
Quotes from your community about Train Signal's training videos …
"Train Signal videos are definitively the building blocks of creating a solid foundation when learning a technology such as Exchange 2007."
"Very polished, excellent instruction."
Best Virtualization Product
Editors' Best
Gold: VMware vSphere 4 • VMware • www.vmware.com
Silver: NxTop • Virtual Computer • www.virtualcomputer.com
Bronze: Citrix XenServer 5.5 • Citrix • www.citrix.com
"VMware vSphere 4 has a lot of nice new features, but you can justify the upgrade by the increase in performance alone. We’re seeing performance increases of 20 to 30 percent and in some cases even higher depending on the application with the same hardware."—Alan Sugano, contributing editor, Windows IT Pro
"NxTop is a complete end-to-end solution that allows you to create and deploy VMs to systems with a management console that helps you keep track of who has what. It also has a remote swipe option so that if a system gets stolen and boots up and connects, the VM evaporates."—J. Peter Bruzzese, contributor, Windows IT Pro
Community Choice
Gold: VMware ESX Server 3.5 • VMware • www.vmware.com
Silver: Symantec Endpoint Virtualization Suite • Symantec • www.symantec.com
Bronze: Citrix XenServer • Citrix • www.citrix.com
Quotes from your community about VMware ESX Server 3.5 …
"Simply the most important, sophisticated virtualization product on the market."
"It's evolved into such a mature virtualization product!"
Best Vendor Tech Support
Gold: Dell • www.dell.com
Silver: Microsoft • www.microsoft.com
Bronze: Symantec • www.symantec.com