2006 Technology of the Year Awards

SYSTEM ARCHITECTURES

Best Enterprise Server
IBM eServer OpenPower 710 
Multiprocessing powerhouse with excellent fault-tolerance features

Best Industry Standard Server
HP ProLiant DL585 
Outstanding out-of-band management and serviceability

Most Innovative Server
Sun Fire T2000 
Changes the math for threaded performance and power consumption

Best Blade System
ClearCube PC Blade System 
Powerful management software for high-availability workstations

Best Workstation
Apple Power Mac G5 Quad 
Impressive hardware specs, sub-$5,000 price tag, and the magic of OS X

OPERATING SYSTEMS

Best Server Operating System
Mac OS X Server v10.4 
A powerful, extensible Unix server with a uniquely robust set of standard features

Best Client Operating System
Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger 
A rich and friendly desktop OS built with professional users in mind

VIRTUALIZATION

Best Server Virtualization
VMware ESX Server and VirtualCenter 
Dynamic duo points to new possibilities in datacenter management

Best Workstation Virtualization
VMware Workstation 5.5 
Indispensable companion to software developers and testers

NETWORKING

Best Enterprise Switch
Cisco Catalyst 4500 Series Supervisor Engine II-Plus-10GE 
Wire-rate 10-Gig switching and granular QoS support for the edge

Best SMB Switch
Dell PowerConnect 3424P 
Delivers an array of enterprise-class features in a tidy package

Best WAN Traffic Manager
Packeteer PacketShaper 9500 
The Cadillac of QoS for WAN circuits, upholstered with extensive reporting

Best WAN Accelerator
Riverbed Steelhead 3010 
Amazing caching and optimization techniques overcome chatty apps and slow links

Best IP PBX
Siemens HiPath 8000 Real-Time IP System 
Full-featured, scalable phone system that set the standard for SIP support in our test

Best Network Analysis Tool
Niksun NetVCR 2005 
Complete network analysis package that puts complete historical data at your fingertips

STORAGE

Best SAN
Compellent Storage Center QuickStart 
Extensive management, strong performance, great scalability, and superb ease-of-use

Best iSCSI SAN
EqualLogic PS200E 
A well-designed and superbly executed storage array, boasting extremely good performance

Best Director Switch
McData Intrepid i10K Director 
Fabric partitioning and long-haul connectivity take the sting out of distributed SANs

Best NAS
NetApp FAS3020c 
Solid performance, flawless fail-over, exceptional scalability, and a jack of all trades

Best NAS Killer
HP StorageWorks Enterprise File Services Clustered Gateway with PolyServe Matrix Server 
Brings the processing power and high-availability of clustering to Linux and Windows

Best Storage Management Software
HP Storage Essentials 4.0 
Accurate discovery, powerful provisioning, and seamless support for heterogeneous hardware

Best Storage Virtualization
EMC Invista 
Preserves investments in existing hardware without sacrificing manageability or performance

APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT

Best IDE
Visual Studio 2005
A unified, end-to-end, role-based toolset that extends the IDE's reach in all directions

Best Java IDE
IBM Rational Software Architect 6.0 
The most feature-complete Java development environment for architects and coders

Best AJAX Toolkit
Tibco General Interface 3.1 
Friendly, capable toolkit for building sophisticated applications that run in a browser

Best Application Test Tool
Agitar Agitator 3.0 and Parasoft Jtest 7.0 
Two great ways to create unit tests and exercise code forced us to call it a draw

Best Security Analysis Tool
Fortify Source Code Analysis Suite 3.0 
Thorough analysis and detailed recommendations make remedial action quick and effective

Best Rules Management System
ILOG JRules 5.0 
Adds depth and polish to an already rich set of tools, including customizable rule language

APPLICATIONS AND MIDDLEWARE

Best CRM Application
Salesforce.com Winter '05 Enterprise Edition 
The undisputed champ of hosted CRM combines strong features and unparalleled extensibility

Best Enterprise Service Bus
Sonic SOA Suite 6.1 
Complete, flexible, and powerful, delivering the reliability necessary for high-volume transactions

Best Application Performance Manager
Indicative Service Director and SLA Manager 6.5 
Especially strong at linking real-time performance measures with service-level agreements

DATABASES

Best Enterprise Database
Microsoft SQL Server 2005 
Ambitious, enterprise-oriented overhaul creates a new measuring stick for database management

Best XML Database
eXist 1.0
A smooth, even pleasurable introduction to the power of XQuery and XML content management

CONTENT MANAGEMENT

Best Enterprise CMS
EMC Documentum 5 Enterprise Content Management Platform 
Impressively unified approach to managing content creation, reuse, archiving, and disposal

Best Enterprise Search
Vivísimo Velocity 4.2 
Advanced capabilities that can be deployed faster and less expensively than competing solutions

Best Document Manager
Xerox DocuShare 4.0.1 
Strong mix of collaboration, personalization, ease-of-use, and extensibility

Best Web Analytics
Omniture SiteCatalyst 12 
Makes site traffic data easier to analyze and streamlines the process of fixing problematic pages

COLLABORATION

Best Exchange Killer
Gordano Messaging Server 10.05 

Feature-rich messaging server that eases swaps with unique real-time mailbox migration

Best Live Collaboration
WebEx WebOffice 
Shared databases, documents, and discussions, plus seamless integration with real-time meetings

IDENTITY MANAGEMENT

Best Identity Manager
Novell Identity Manager 2 
Powerful graphical workflow and design tools plus intuitive user interface set it apart

SECURITY

Best Anti-Spam
Symantec Mail Security 8200 Series 
Best-in-class accuracy and ease-of-use with great policy-driven filtering and e-mail firewall features

Best Anti-Spyware
F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security 6 
The best real-time protection we've seen, backed by first-rate detection and removal

Best Insider Threat Defense
Vontu 4.0
Exceptional administration combined with the best collection of built-in compliance policies

Best Network Access Controller
Elemental Compliance System 1.1 
Powerful policy engine and deep reporting constitute a major step toward enterprise-wide NAC

Best SSL VPN
Juniper Secure Access 5000 
A beast of a box that provides exceptional remote access capabilities with fine-grained control

Correction:
In this article, the name of EMC's content management product should have been EMC Documentum 5 Enterprise Content Management Platform . InfoWorld regrets the error, which has been corrected.