The Top 10 Products of the Year

[sunilpal]

iPhone 2.0 + the AppStore

Forget the new 3G-enabled iPhone hardware (hampered by AT&T’s spotty 3G coverage); Apple truly hit the mark with the iPhone 2.0 software that came preloaded on the new devices and was available as a free upgrade for first-generation units.


The new software made the iPhone palatable for enterprise consumption—adding improved Wi-Fi security, a Cisco VPN client and support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail environments—even though the enterprise management tools for the iPhone are still lacking.


However, the most significant improvement came with the introduction of the AppStore, along with the iPhone’s new support for third-party applications. The iPhone suddenly became much more than a phone and music player—it’s now a gaming platform, a productivity tool, a powerful vehicle for search and a general lifestyle enhancer for whatever a given user’s interests may be.


And with an increasing stable of enterprise applications on the way (look out for a Citrix client next year), an industry-leading mobile browser for Web-based solutions and a wide base of adoption, the iPhone is quickly becoming enterprise-capable.

[sunilpal]

IXIA iSimCity

Network performance test maker IXIA launched its iSimCity lab in Silicon Valley in February. In Phase 1, iSimCity focused on classic switch and router testing. In subsequent phases, iSimCity is expected to host data center performance benchmarks, including VOIP gateways, video servers, firewalls and e-mail.


The test center is expected to host city-scale demonstrations of high-performance triple-play testing. Using 1G and 10G hardware, engineers will use IxLoad software to measure application performance.
During the times that I’ve used the center, it’s been minimally provisioned, as IXIA kept only the equipment needed for specific tests on hand. When iSimCity is fully outfitted, it will house all the IXIA chassis, applications, interfaces, infrastructure components and professional expertise needed to run city-scale service emulations.

[sunilpal]

Nokia E71
Nokia really knocked it out of the park with the E71, packing just about everything a user—or a third-party mobile software developer—could want from a smartphone. Despite its relatively small screen and lack of a touch-screen interface, the E71 was the best overall device eWEEK Labs tested this year.


The smartphone offers revamped support for Microsoft Exchange e-mail via the new Mail for Exchange application. However, the E71 also aims to blend in capabilities to solve next-generation problems.


For example, with its dual Home Screen modes, users can switch the customizations of the device to fit both their personal and work needs. In addition, because the E71 offers the right mix of Wi-Fi performance, codecs, sound performance and open APIs, the device has become the de facto standard for FMC vendors.

[sunilpal]

Ubuntu 8.04
The dizzyingly diverse world of Linux-based operating systems is, for the most part, divided into two separate camps: those of conservative, stable and pay-per-machine "enterprise" distributions, and those of up-to-date, short-lived, free-of-charge "enthusiast" options.


Ubuntu 8.04—specifically in its desktop iteration—has earned a spot on our list of top products of 2008 by bridging the enterprise-vs.-enthusiast divide with a freely available Linux-based OS and a support term of three years, compared with about 18 months for Red Hat's and Novell's enthusiast distributions.


While "free" is an attractive quality in its own right, what's most appealing about Ubuntu is the broad and active community that has rallied around Ubuntu and its unified enterprise/enthusiast release structure. Ubuntu 8.04 features most of the same software components as other distributions, but Ubuntu's popularity results in more ready-to-install software packages, more troubleshooting answers out on the Web and, increasingly, more OEM preload availability than other desktop Linux options.

[sunilpal]

VMware VI3
VMware’s Virtual Infrastructure 3 offers enterprises an impressive, mature framework for making virtualization promises a reality.


The foundation of VI3 is VMware’s ESX Server. The platform supports a wide variety of guest OSes, including Windows, Solaris and Linux. The suite uses VMware’s VirtualCenter management server to control systems.

Companies looking to consolidate single-application servers, squeeze more out of underutilized hardware, extend the availability of their networked services and get a surer handle on the machines in their data centers would do well to evaluate VI3, which can deliver compelling results in any of these scenarios.


VMware’s product line is the clear leader among x86- and x86-64-based server virtualization products, and VI3 is the firm’s flagship product. I do recommend keeping an eye on the emerging Xen-based offerings from Virtual Iron and XenSource, as well as on the Xen-based functionality that’s built into Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and Red Hat’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.