Find all of our Technology of the Year Award winners here, organized by category See correction at end of article 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. Software DevelopmentDatabasesData ManagementTechnology IndustrySecurityMalwareNetwork SecurityProgramming LanguagesSmall and Medium Business