InformationWeek Analytics and Interop Announce Finalists for Best of Interop Las Vegas 2009

Leading Technology Brands Team Up to Recognize the Latest Advancements in Technology

SAN FRANCISCO, May 4 -- InformationWeek Analytics, the premium content service for business technology leaders, and Interop, the leading global business technology event series, today announced the finalists for Best of Interop Las Vegas 2009. Best of Interop awards will be held Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. at Interop Las Vegas 2009 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.

Best of Interop recognizes some of the world's most innovative technologies across eight major categories. More than 160 companies submitted products for consideration. The panel of judges was made up of award-winning editors and analysts from InformationWeek Analytics who selected the products they believe will have the greatest potential to impact and advance business technology efficiencies.

"The Best of Interop Awards contribute to Interop's goal of moving business technology forward and driving adoption of the latest technology advancements," said Lenny Heymann, Interop General Manager. "We saw strong competition and innovation from this year's submissions and congratulate our 2009 finalists."

"Every year, Best of Interop highlights important technology that is ready for enterprise use," said Art Wittmann, Managing Director, InformationWeek Analytics. "The Best of Interop continues to showcase the industry's most innovative technologies."

  Finalists for each category are as follows:

  Cloud Computing & Virtualization
  Amazon Web Services - Amazon Elastic MapReduce
  Ixia - IxVM
  VMware - VMware vSphere 4


  Collaboration & Unified Communications
  Cisco - WebEx Node on Cisco ASR 1000 Series Routers
  Polycom, Inc. - Polycom VVX 1500 Business Media Phone
  Siemens Enterprise Communications - OpenScape


  Data Center and Storage
  Cisco - Unified Computing System
  Cleversafe - Dispersed Storage Network (dsNet) 2000
  Fusion-io - ioDrive Duo


  Infrastructure
  Juniper Networks - SRX650 Services Gateway
  Nortel - Network Infrastructure Platform
  Rackwise - Rackwise Data Center Manager v3.4.1


  Network Management
  APCON - TITAN EnterPoint
  ServersCheck - ServersCheck Monitoring Appliance
  ScienceLogic - EM7 G3


  Performance Optimization
  Citrix Systems, Inc. - Citrix NetScaler VPX
  Expand Networks - Expand Network's Virtual Accelerator
  Spirent Communications - Spirent TestCenter(TM) Virtual


  Security
  CHARGE Anywhere - CHARGE Anywhere PCI Security Solution
  Juniper Networks - Juniper Networks SRX3600 Services Gateway
  TippingPoint Technologies - TippingPoint 10 IPS


  Wireless and Mobility
  Aruba - Branch Office Controllers
  Cisco - Cisco 3310 Mobility Services Engine
  Rhomobile - Rhodes

In addition to the eight category winners, there will be three special awards: Grand Prize Winner, Best StartUp, and the Green Award. The Green Award recognizes eco-friendly products. For the Best StartUp category, the vendor must have existed as an independent company for two years or less. The judges will determine the overall Grand Prize Winner from the pool of category winners. For more information on Best of Interop categories and awards, visit www.bestofinterop.com.

About InformationWeek Analytics

Part of the InformationWeek Business Technology Network, InformationWeek Analytics is a premium content service for business technology leaders. InformationWeek Analytics provides in-depth perspective with real-world perspective to empower busy IT professionals to make smarter, better informed IT decisions. InformationWeek Analytics is comprised of a team of experienced analysts and subject matter experts with a wide range of business, technical, organizational and leadership experience. For more information, visit www.informationweekanalytics.com.

About Interop(R)

Interop(R) drives the adoption of technology, providing knowledge and insight to help IT and corporate decision-makers achieve business success. Part of TechWeb's family of global brands, Interop is the leading business technology event series. Through in-depth educational programs, workshops, real-world demonstrations and live technology implementations in its unique InteropNet and InteropLabs programs, Interop provides the forum for the most powerful innovations and solutions the industry has to offer. For more information about these events visit www.interop.com.

About TechWeb

TechWeb, the global leader in business technology media, is an innovative business focused on serving the needs of technology decision-makers and marketers worldwide. TechWeb produces the most respected and consumed media brands in the business technology market. Today, more than 13.3 million* business technology professionals actively engage in our communities created around our global face-to-face events Interop, Web 2.0, Black Hat and VoiceCon; online resources such as the TechWeb Network, Light Reading, Intelligent Enterprise, InformationWeek.com, bMighty.com, and The Financial Technology Network; and the market leading, award-winning InformationWeek, TechNet Magazine, MSDN Magazine, Wall Street & Technology magazines. TechWeb also provides end-to-end services ranging from next-generation performance marketing, integrated media, research, and analyst services. TechWeb is a division of United Business Media, a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $2.5 billion.

*13.3 million business decision-makers: based on # of monthly connections