Uninterruptible
Power Supplies Winner: Smart-UPS XL Series
American Power Conversion
www.apc.com
Why it won: APC has been producing uninterruptible
power supplies (UPSs) for longer
than just about anyone, and IT pros have
come to rely on the vendor for some of the
best UPS products currently available. APC
hardware is probably sitting in your data
center as you read this, helping keep vital
servers and appliances up and running.
Some IT products are more
glamorous than others. Virtualization,
smart phones, big-screen
LCDs, and speedy CPUs are the
attention-grabbing supermodels
of the IT product universe, but
the venerable uninterruptible power supply
(UPS) is an underappreciated stalwart of
business IT. Like the clock-punching janitors
and maintenance staff that truly keep
an office building running, the UPS works
tirelessly—365 days a year, 24 × 7—to keep
vital systems up and running.
American Power Conversion (APC) has
been making UPS products for almost 30
years. APC’s dominance in the UPS market
is led by products such as the Smart-UPS
XL Series, a line of products that range in
price from $450 to $1,800. Battery life varies
from 3.5 to almost 9 hours, and you can
add battery packs to push operational times
beyond 24 hours. APC’s built-in PowerChute
UPS software helps you manage your UPS
environment as you see fit, and an internal
accessory slot (dubbed the SmartSlot) allows
for additional expansion.
—Jeff James
Silver: Smart-UPS SC Series
American Power Conversion
www.apc.com
Bronze: Back-UPS RS Series
American Power Conversion
www.apc.com
Laptop
Synchronization
Tools
Winner: PCsync
Laplink Software
www.laplink.com
Why it won: Rock-solid reliability and
an impressive number of file synchronization
features help make PCsync a must
for IT pros tasked with keeping a small
army of desktops and mobile devices in
lockstep.
An increasingly mobile workforce
has multiplied the challenges
that IT pros grapple with
every day. Keeping files synchronized
and updated between a
company desktop and mobile
devices such as laptops, smartphones, and
PDAs is one job that must be done without
fail if end users are to be able to do their
work. Laplink Software’s PCsync makes
synchronization between devices easy.
This helpful tool specializes in simplifying
file synchronization and data transfer
between PCs. Using a USB cable, serial
cable, or a wired or wireless network, you
can synchronize, merge, back up, and copy
files from different PCs. You can also schedule
file synchronization jobs to automatically
synchronize multiple files and folders
at given intervals. Laplink touts its Smart-
XChange synchronization definition and
tracking tool as a way to make PC-to-PC
transfers even more efficient and painless.
Our voters agreed, helping PCsync garner
the most votes to emerge as the winner of
the category.
—Jeff James
Silver: Sync Logic
IPWorx.com
www.ipworx.com
Bronze: Beyond Compare
Scooter Software
www.scootersoftware.com
KVM over IP Switches
Winner: OmniView SMB KVM-over-
IP Switch F1DP116G
Belkin International
www.belkin.com
Why it won: A comprehensive feature set
and a competitive price help make the
OmniView SMB KVM-over-IP switch hard
to beat in this category.
If you have a data center packed with dozens
of servers and appliances, how do you
manage all of them without a tangled mess
of monitors, keyboards, and mouse devices?
Using a KVM switch is a good answer, and
Belkin’s solution to the problem seems better
than most. The Belkin OmniView SMB KVMover-
IP Switch F1DP116G includes native
CAT5 support and can be used to manage
up to 248 servers (via daisy-chaining) from a
single console.
“Our IT department considered several
KVM-over-IP products for our needs, but the
Belkin offered the best performance for the
money,” says Darrell Bradshaw, marketing
manager at Transource, a computer reseller
that specializes in servicing contracts from
the federal government. “The installation
was straightforward, and the browser-based
interface [used to access different servers] is
easy to use. We’ve been using the product
for about eight months and haven’t had any
problems or issues to report.” Bradshaw says
that his company also uses a fair amount of
Avocent KVM hardware, but stressed that
the cost of the OmniView SMB switch was a
key factor in making that purchase.
Combine competitive pricing with
advanced features, such as BIOS-level
access to connected servers, 128-bit SSL
encryption, and support for serial devices,
and the OmniView SMB switch emerges
as the most popular product in this award
category.
—Jeff James
Silver: OmniView Remote IP Device
with Virtual Media F1DE101H
Belkin International
www.belkin.com
Bronze: APC 16-Port IP KVM
American Power Conversion
www.apc.com