The SmallBizWindows Products of the Years Award 2008
Wednesday, December 31, 2008 at 10:58PM
2008 was one of those years when there seemed to be innovative products everywhere.
Resultantly, we are compelled to laud those products that moved us.
Announcing the SmallBizWindows Annual Product Awards 2008.
HP xw8600 Personal Workstation
Of all the products we reviewed this year that passed muster, and for which reviews were either posted online at AbsoluteVista.com or published in The Interlocutor, the HP xw8600 Personal Workstation stood out the most, and was duly awarded our first ever Absolute Best Award back in October.
Consequently, it now receives our first ever Product of the Year award.
Honorable Mentions
Sun SunFire X4450 Server
A very affordable 4-socket, hexa-core (6-core) capable rack mount server, the X4450 is very well suited for the data center.
AMD’s ATI RADEON 4000-series GPUs
To say that ATI kicked heiny this past year in computer graphics technology would be the understatement of the year in that space!
When we were privileged to experience the launch at the AMD campus in Austin last June, I wondered if ATI’s movement to a multi-core strategy would enable them to surpass NVIDIA’s seemingly entrenched dominance in GPUs at that time.
In the months since that release, not only has the strategy won out, but it has also allowed AMD to drive up performance steadily, while simultaneously driving down prices relentlessly, something they had not done in a while.
Live Mesh
One of our greatest problems is keeping our data in sync across the myriad number of devices we use in our daily lives.
Attempting to solve this is Live Mesh, which not only tried to do that, but can also be used as a full-fledged remote desktop controller.
Honorable mention
Microsoft Azure Services Platform
BuzzCorps
Chris Aarons l Geoff Nelson l Nick White
By the Community.
A simple concept that seems to escape the mental prowess of others in Social Media.
Not so for BuzzCorps. They have leapt over the pretenders to become the definers in Social Media.
Yeah, they were there!
Honorable Mention
The Windows Live Team
Windows Essential Business Server 2008
Windows Server 2008 EBS is the product that truly redefined modularity in the server space.
Honorable mentions
Norton Internet Security 2009
NIS2009 is the rebirth of a venerable product that had lost its way.
Thankfully, the adults at Symantec listened, and decided to re-architect this product which has regained its place at the pinnacle of the antivirus/anti-malware software field.
LumaPix FotoFusion
When Jason Dunn of Digital Home Thoughts introduced this product to me (and members of the Microsoft Featured Communities), I must confess I was both confused by YAIEP (yet another image editing program), and the unusual interface.
However, FotoFusion is NOT a photo editing program, it is a photo layout program.
One of the things that makes FotoFusion stand out, apart from the gorgeous UI is the fact that it maintains the fidelity of your source images regardless of the size of the canvas you decide to place your layout on. This allows you to scale the output to unprecedented levels.
If you do any layouts, troff over to LumaPix.
HP Color LaserJet CM6040f
The recipient of the SmallBizWindows Superstar Award, the HP Color LaserJet CM 6040f is wicked fast, accurate, networkable, and affordable.
What more can you want?
Honorable mentions
Intel Modular Server
This is a device series that we are seriously looking at to upgrade our datacenter, since one of the benefits it should bring to us is easier installation and configuration, and maintenance.
Epson WorkForce 600 Personal AIO
Lost in the fray sometimes is the fact that most executives needs a quick, laser-class color desktop printer. The Workforce 600 fulfils that need.
Dell PowerEdge 2900 III Tower Server
While rack mount servers are all the rage, if you need a powerful and affordable dual-socket tower server, look no further than the Dell PowerEdge 2900 III.
Windows Live Essentials
From a seeming mish-mash of disparate products to a unified suite of indispensable products, the evolution of Windows Live Essentials has been swift, and filled with innovations, large and small, that simplify and empower computing for the average user.
All this for the low, low price of free!
Honorable mention
HP TouchSmart IQ508
Microsoft Live Labs Photosynth
Windows Hyper-V Server 2008
Hyper-V Server 2008 brings virtualization to all IT pros and enthusiasts.
Virtualization is upon us, virtualization is upon us….
Microsoft Assessment & Planning
Now in version 3.2 and still free, Microsoft Assessment & Planning is the one tool you cannot do without in your census of your computing infrastructure.
Honorable mentions
CoreConfigurator
One of the innovations delivered with Windows Server 2008 was the ability to create a minimum role called Server Core.
However, as defined by Microsoft, Server Core could best be configured by using the command line.
Good, but not for me. Enter CoreConfigurator, a GUI-based config utility for Server Core.
Now, I’m happy.
PowerGUI
Like Server Core, PowerShell is probably the best product to hit developers in a very long time.
PowerGUI takes away the need for me to have to learn the intricacies of PowerShell in order to be productive.
Free, and it works!
Microsoft Hosted Services
How nice is it to have your cloud services actually hosted by Microsoft?
With entry prices that set off 3-alarm fires at the executive suites of potential rivals, and entrenched but complacent competitors, Microsoft Hosted Services will enable the sapient VAR to create a subscription-based revenue stream, while reducing or eliminating support costs.
Honorable mention
Silverlight
Azure Services Platform
Microsoft Windows 7
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