The year’s best products
Drawn from the more than 200 products we tested during 2003, these Technology of the Year Award winners represent the most innovative and effective solutions in their category
See correction below
Hardware and Software Platforms
Best Server Hardware
HP ProLiant DL760 G2
Almost unrivaled in terms of reliability, redundancy, and raw processing power.
Best Server Blade System
RLX ServerBlade 2800i and System 600ex
The rest of the industry could learn a lot from RLX’s approach to management.
Best Systems Management Solution
Vieo 1000 v1.1
Easy-to-deploy management appliance learns normal system behavior and responds to changes by dynamically provisioning existing resources.
Best Operating System
Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther)
Sets the bar for simplicity and ease of use, extends support to 64-bit hardware, and it’s secure by default.
Best Application Server
IBM WebSphere Application Server 5.0
Tight integration with tools, smooth application deployment, granular management.
Networking
Best Networking Hardware
Extreme BlackDiamond 10K (see our review online Jan. 16)
An excellent mix of raw 10Gig performance and polished management capabilities.
Best Wireless LAN Solution
Vernier IS-6500p
Provides extensive yet flexible control over who can access what, when, and where from 802.11 networks.
Storage
Best SAN Solution
TotalStorage SAN Integration Server
Edged out competing EMC and HP solutions as the all-around best performer in our midtier SAN roundup.
Best SAN Switch
Maxxan MXV320
Conquers multivendor SANs with useful virtualization, replication, and other application-layer capabilities.
Best NAS Solution
HP StorageWorks NAS b3000
High-performance file server scales to 48TB and can connect to Fibre Channel SANs.
Best Storage Management Software
Fujitsu Softek Automated Storage
Provided the greatest control over mixed SAN hardware among the solutions we tested.
Application Development
Best Development Tool
Eclipse 2.1
An extensible, soup-to-nuts IDE whose Standard Widget Toolkit is breathing new life into client-side Java software.
Databases & Data Management
Best Analytics/Reporting Solution
Iteration Real-time Reporting Suite
Innovative reporting software combines real-time information streams, events-based alerting, and easy-to-create dashboards.
Enterprise Applications
Best Hosted Application
Salesforce.com Winter ’04
An easily customized SFA/CRM application that allows you to bend automated workflow to match the way you do business.
Best Web Services Integration Solution
Grand Central Business Services Network
Provides flexible, reliable, and auditable routing of SOAP messages among business partners.
Collaboration Software
Best Enterprise Collaboration Platform
IBM Lotus Notes/Domino 6.5
Greatly improved interface for both Web and stand-alone clients makes Notes-Domino a win-win.
Best Team Collaboration Solution
Groove Workspace 2.5
A well-integrated, peer-to-peer workspace extensible via an elegant SOAP API.
Security
Best Network Security Product
Niksun NetDetector
A near perfect match of innovation and execution. Not only detects but records and replays intrusions.
Best Application Security Product
KaVaDo InterDo 3.0
Powerful wizard takes the mystery out of setting up a strong and complex Web application firewall.
Correction
In our Technology of the Year Awards, the correct name of the winning Extreme Networks product is BlackDiamond 10K. The product name has been corrected in this article.
