Categories
Cloud Computing
Thanks to the growth of cloud computing, companies that need big data center capabilities no longer need a big data center budget to match. As the cloud continues to define itself, we see a blossoming opportunity for companies to become less tied to their own hardware and more focused on responsiveness and flexibility.
The cloud presents flexible and evolving sets of resources, features and services. The Cloud Computing category includes hardware, services and cloud-enabling technologies, including those intended for sub-categories such as software as a service (SaaS), managed computing services, platform as a service (PaaS) and other Web-based utility computing products.
Collaboration
The value of collaboration has never been higher within the enterprise, as more and more employees and contractors work outside of corporate offices, and that is bringing the need for real-time, converged applications to the fore. The goal: improve business by helping people team up in today's virtual workplace, quickly and easily, whenever and wherever they need to; ensure that employees can locate and collaborate with the knowledge experts they need to succeed; and cut costs while boosting productivity.
The Collaboration category includes products and technologies that facilitate collaboration, such as multimedia, streaming media and voice-based applications. This category encompasses enterprise 2.0 collaboration and social networking products as well as asynchronous and real-time collaboration offerings such as unified communication software and services. This category also covers Web 2.0 tools and services, such as blogs, wikis, RSS and AJAX; streaming media delivery and videoconferencing technologies; portal software; and messaging applications.
Data Center & Storage
If data is the lifeblood of a business, then the data center is its heart. Implementing appropriate server and storage systems and data management technologies ensures that an organization's data is always available, protected and retrievable, and that practices comply with industry and government regulations regarding retention, security and disposal of data.
The Data Center & Storage category includes blade or racked servers, network-attached storage (NAS), storage area networks (SAN), iSCSI, InfiniBand, Fibre Channel and FCoE-based converged network devices as well as data encryption and other data security tools. Tape drives and libraries, flash drives and optical technologies will also be considered; as well as products and services for long-term data management, archiving and retrieval.
Also included in the Data Center & Storage category are the products that form the core of the data center, like cooling equipment, power conditioning and power backup equipment, equipment racks, cable management systems, and physical security systems.
Infrastructure
From routers to DHCP services, your network infrastructure is the foundation for reliable delivery of connectivity and application throughput for your staff, business partners and customers. Today's network professional must design and manage complex, global IT infrastructures from the data center to remote offices with a constant eye on performance, redundancy and the budget.
The Infrastructure category includes traditional products that make up the core connectivity in the data and communication network, such as LAN and campus switches, hubs, routers, IP phones, PBXs, and voice and video gateway, as well as critical network services such as DNS and DHCP.
Management, Monitoring and Testing
The challenge for IT professionals is to ensure application delivery-not only within the enterprise LAN, but across a heterogeneous network of private leased lines, virtual private networks and the public Internet. To build a resilient, cost-efficient systemwide network and handle greater data payloads brought on by new company initiatives, networking professionals need a robust set of tools that offer the control, visibility and diagnostics to provide 24x7x365 reliability.
The Management, Monitoring & Testing category includes products, technologies and services for managing the health of network devices and applications software, such as policy servers, configuration management, emerging technologies and strategies designed to optimize converged networks, load and capacity monitoring, and user activity tools. This category also includes products that focus on testing and verifying hardware functionality and performance capabilities as well as traditional network test equipment that actively measures local- and wide-area physical and logical network performance.
Performance Optimization
Successful businesses compete in high-volume and high-demand environments where every microsecond and every kilobit counts. Measuring, optimizing and managing networked applications is key to business success, but the "secret sauce" for achieving high performance remains an elusive combination of appropriate technology, process optimization and plain old-fashioned know-how.
The Performance Optimization category encompasses products and technologies that assist in the measurement and performance optimization of the network; these include network analyzers, application load generators and performance enhancement tool as well as process optimization technologies such as accelerators, caching devices, traffic tuners and load balancers that help to optimize network application performance.
Security
For all the benefits the Internet affords us, it's proving to be one tough neighborhood. Spam, spyware, blended threats and viruses undermine consumer confidence and interfere with business applications. Identity theft, information espionage and cyber-terrorism are omnipresent threats. Despite this dismal scenario, innovations in mobile, collaborative and converged applications are accelerating the delivery of Internet applications and services. Security professionals are thus pressed on two fronts: reducing risk and providing defenses and countermeasures to combat known and zero-day attacks, while enabling new applications for an increasingly mobile workforce and consumers.
The Security category includes products that monitor and provide security services. Product examples include firewalls, VPN products, identity management, network access control, policy management and compliance, intrusion detection systems, tools to detect and stop denial of service attacks, and vulnerability assessment tools. (Note: This category excludes data and storage security, including stored data encryption products-please see the Data Center & Storage category, above).
Virtualization
The dream of the virtual enterprise is becoming a reality, and key drivers include security and application compatibility on the desktop through utility computing in the data center. Our panel of judges will examine products, services and tools that enable or leverage this flexible computing environment.
The Virtualization category includes software that address challenges such as desktop and server operating systems, physical to virtual conversion (P2V), high-availability (HA), process automation and resource allocation tools. Hardware products for enabling technologies such as storage virtualization, IO acceleration and specialized compute platforms targeted at virtualization applications are also included in this category.
Wireless & Mobility
Wireless and mobility continues to be an area of tremendous business and consumer interest, especially with the ratification of the 802.11n standard and the current focus on existing 3G availability, as well as coming 4G services like LTE and WiMAX. While new applications will benefit from these innovations, new security and management challenges must also be addressed; and, careful planning and technology selection are critical for successful mobile and wireless deployments.
The Wireless & Mobility category includes both hardware and software wireless products, technologies, devices and services. Products based on personal area networking (PAN), local area networking (LAN), wide area networking (WAN), fixed/mobile and mobile/mobile convergence as well as fixed-access wireless will be examined. On the software side, wireless middleware, security and application technologies will also be considered here.
Special Awards
(Chosen From All Category Entries Above)Best Startup Company
Any hardware, software or service in any of the nine categories above will be evaluated to see whether they meet the criteria for consideration for the Best Startup Company award. To be considered, the vendor cannot have existed as an independent company prior to Jan. 1, 2009, and the product can not have previously been considered for a Best Startup Company award.
Green Award
All products nominated in any of the nine categories will be independently evaluated to determine whether they meet the criteria for consideration for the Green Award. This award is designed to recognize companies and products that embrace environmentally friendly initiatives in their function, design and manufacture and go above and beyond to protect our Earth.
Best of Interop Las Vegas 2010
An overall Grand Prize Winner award will be given to the category winner judged to have the single most significant new product or service at the show.
