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Tag: votes

  • Restorepoint Winner of Storage-biz.news' Product of the Year Award


    Tadasoft’s RestorePoint integrated hardware and software back-up solution is the winner of storage-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 award.

    With 45 per cent of the nominations, the solution for network administrators was the clear winner in a field that included Fujitsu, Dell, Compellent, Brioo, Akorri and cloud storage specialists Asankya.

    RestorePoint automatically backs-up and stores the configuration of your network devices and restores it when needed.

    The solution has established itself as a vendor-independent appliance and Tadasoft says it is the first product to address this "commonly overlooked" issue.

    Its simplicity is a major selling factor – it is managed from one convenient central location with an easy to use web interface.

    In collecting the most votes RestorePoint also got some strong endorsements from readers.

    One voter described RestorePoint as "unique", stressing the appliance-based solution’s ability to automatically backup configs from multi-vendor devices.

    "It will also alert the admin if any change has been made to the config and detail this change," said the storage-biz.news reader.

    "The admin can then on the fly roll back the config by restoring the master copy template or one of the other back ups from a previous hour/day/week/month."

    Another factor that garnered support was the fact RestorePoint supports numerous devices, including Cisco, Brocade, Juniper, Blue Coat, Proofpoint and HP Procurve.

    While cost and ease of use were highlighted, one voter pointed to RestorePoint’s ability to increase network management productivity.

    "It can also help towards gaining or maintaining the complex PCI DSS compliance standard," said the voter.

    Among the other nominations, Dell-EqualLogic’s PS Series of virtualized iSCSI SAN were singled out for attention.

    They were described as the clear leader in the midrange (1-500TB) iSCSI SAN space – a market that includes EMC, NetApp, IBM and Hitachi.

    Areas where the PS Series impressed included ease of use, flexibility, performance and overall value.

    Compellent’s SAN was also highly recommended, not least for its space reclamtion offer and being the only SAN in the market with Automated ILM.

    Storage-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • Cypress Communication's Frank Grillo Wins voip-biz.news' Person of the Year Award


    Frank Grillo, Cypress Communication’s executive vice president of marketing, is the winner of the voip-biz.news’ Person of the Year award.

    In nominating him for the title, the telecoms professional was described as a "visionary executive" and "innovative thinker" with "technical acumen".

    Grillo joined Cypress Communications in August of 2005 and was responsible for taking C4 IP, Cypress’ hosted VoIP and hosted unified communications solution, from inception to launch.

    Praising Grillo’s handling of the process, a voter said: "C4 IP is a technically challenging configuration and took Frank Grillo’s visionary leadership, technical acumen and foresight to launch.

    "It is the only integration of two traditionally disparate platforms: the carrier class softswitch, Nortel CS 2000, with the powerful multimedia server, MCS 5200.

    "With the successful integration of these platforms, Cypress became the only company in the USA, and only one of three in the world, to accomplish this feat.

    "To date, the C4 IP solution has won 10 awards for product innovation, and under Grillo’s leadership, C4 IP now has over 6,000 installed seats and is credited with the largest hosted VoIP/unified communications installation in the US."

    Prior to joining Cypress, Grillo was senior vice president of business services for Z-Tel and senior vice president of global business markets for MCI WorldCom.

    From 1995 to 2000 he was vice-president of marketing for LDDS.

    Voip-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • MyGlobalTalk and IPsmarx's SIP-based Calling Card Platform Share voip-biz.news Product of the Year Award


    Two innovative products dominated voting to share the honours in voip-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 competition.

    With 33 per cent of the nominations, MyGlobalTalk’s VoIP calling solution earned praise for its sound quality and call rates, as well as features such as no contract being required, no connection fees and no minimums.

    Launched as a BETA version in June 2008, MyGlobalTalk now works on any cell phone, land line or computer.

    The company, which is part of i2Telecom, is preparing a widgets launch which will enable MyGlobalTalk to be used from Outlook, iGoogle or Facebook.

    In the many comments of recommendation, voters also highlighted customer service and ease of use as reasons for their satisfaction with MyGlobalTalk.

    Sharing this year’s award is IPsmarx’s SIP-based calling card platform, which eliminates the need for a VoIP gateway and PSTN lines using DID technology.

    Fully over IP, the calling card solution offers a range of advanced features.

    So much so that the product was described by voters as "the platform of the future", "user friendly" and having a "great technical support team".

    One reader said: "I am extremely impressed with IPsmarx’s ability to think outside the box and eliminate common problems that exist in the calling card space."

    To take this year’s award, the joint winners saw off a large field which included well-known names including Mobivox, Ifbyphone, XConnect, Skype, Fring, ShoreTel, Cypress communications and HelloSoft.

    Voip-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • OnRelay's Ivar Plahte Wins Smartphone-biz.news' Person of the Year Award


    A true visionary, a trend spotter, truly innovative and the driving force behind OnRelay.

    Just some of the plaudits from those that voted OnRelay’s CEO and co-founder Ivar Plahte as smartphone-biz.news’ Person of the Year 2008.

    In second place was Ofer Tziperman, president and co-founder of LocatioNet, the mapping and location applications company.

    As CEO of OnRelay for the past seven years, Plahte has established himself as a key thought leader in the Fixed Mobile Convergence space.

    Prior to OnRelay, Plahte was director of IP telephony at Telenor, where he created and was the general manager of the Telecom over IP business unit.

    Ivar Plahte, CEO OnRelay

    His team produced several world-first launches and was among the first public operators worldwide to establish a voice over IP based revenue stream.

    Before Telenor, Plahte was Ericsson’s global product manager for IP Services.

    He has a BSc in Electrical Engineering and an MSc in Computer Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara.

    Voters who recommended Plahte spoke of his vision and drive.

    "Ivar has been at the forefront of Mobile telephony for his entire career," said one reader.

    "He founded OnRelay to develop cellular FMC and only recently has the market managed to get over the WiFi hype and start to take the cellular option seriously.

    "Ivar has been there all along, and now has his company well positioned to capture the market as it looks for the right solution."

    Others described him as a "telecoms pioneer" whose vision predicted FMC shift back in 2000 and did something about it – "picking the right tech and staying at it".

    The last word must go to one supporter, who simply said "he rocks". Praise indeed.

    The runner-up, Ofer Tziperman, has over a decade of extensive experience in international business and in the marketing of high-tech products.

    LocatioNet provides mapping and location enabled applications to tier one telecom and defense customers around the world.

    Under Tziperman’s guidance the company has become one of the leading technology providers in the LBS and C4I markets, with an international presence in Europe, USA, Latin America and Asia.

    Prior to establishing LocatioNet, he served as VP Marketing for OTI, a public high-tech company listed in the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and NASDAQ that specializes in contactless smart card technology.

    Tziperman played a major role in turning OTI from a young start-up company to an international organization with subsidiaries and front offices around the world.

    An attorney who practiced commercial and business law, he holds an LLB degree from the Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and is a graduate of the Israeli Naval Officers Academy.

  • AmAze Clear Winner of Smartphone-biz.news' Product of the Year Award


    AmAze’s free navigation and local search service is the winner of smartphone-biz.news’ Product of the Year 2008 award.

    With 41 per cent of the nominations, the turn-by-turn GPS program was the clear winner in a field that included Fring, mobile messaging service Nimbuzz and cellular fixed mobile convergence solution OnRelay MBX.

    AmAze has carved out a strong position for itself with its wide coverage of maps, including aerial photo in Europe, North America, Australia and parts of Asia and Africa.

    In collecting the most votes amAze also got some strong endorsements from readers who universally praised the service for its features and usability.

    One user described it as an "amazing free GPS tool – kicks dust into the expensive and cumbersome to update Garmin and other GPS services".

    Another said it was "just as good, if not better, than pricey GPS programs", while someone else said the GPS navigation "looks really great…and is FREE. It doesn’t get any better".

    Runner-up Nimbuzz took 20 per cent of the votes and also earned some enthusiastic admiration from readers who praised its services in the crowded mobile IM client space – "Nimbuzz stands out for it’s stability, well thought out interface and impressive network support," said one voter.

    "Smart connection options certainly don’t hurt the product either".

    Nimbuzz is targeting mobile users and online communities with free calls, chat and more.

    The "more" includes free mobile VoIP calling (excluding data charges), conference calling, instant messaging, chat and group chat, and photo and file sending across multiple IM communities, including Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo, AIM, Jabber and ICQ, plus 23 social networks, including Facebook and Myspace.

    Nimbuzz’s ability to "go beyond Skype" is a major appeal. One reader said: "I have tried many mobile instant messaging solutions, and Nimbuzz does everything I expect it to, does it well, keeps improving, and is free."

    Coming in third in the competition with 12 per cent of the vote was Fring, the mobile internet community and communication service.

    As well as its social appeal, Fring also lets users make affordable local and international calls to landline and regular cellular numbers using a SkypeOut/SkypeIn account or almost any internet voice service (SIP) such as SIPNET, EuteliaVoIP, VoIPVoIP and VoIPTalk, including from non-SIP enabled handsets.

    Among the voters’ praise for Fring was the fact the "wonderful application…keeps me available to my boss, colleagues and friends always".

    Others congratulated Fring for "supporting different VoiP providers in a single tool which can be installed in several mobile platforms", and described it as "the best software enabling you to keep in touch with all IM buddies as well as enabling you to make Voip/Sip calls".

    "It’s simple and easy to use and works well," explained a user. "Unlike similar applications it truly offers choice and freedom and is totally free. There is also free web support, free and interesting add-ons and a thriving online community."

    The fourth placed product with 9 per cent of the vote was OnRelay with its pioneering mobile PBX – the first global private mobile branch exchange, OnRelay MBX.

    It offers enterprises and operators a seamless Cellular Fixed Mobile Convergence solution and has commercial deployments in Tier 1 operators and Fortune 500 companies.

    The groundbreaking architecture has enabled OnRelay to claim to be the only cellular based FMC solution on the market able to completely replace desk phones, creating a "mobile only PBX" to disrupt the hardware intensive VoIP and WiFi markets.

    Readers described it as "the coolest thing ever – one phone does all", "the most innovative and exciting product on the market" and said "the addition of MBX to your professional life is transformative".

    One voter said: "The beauty of the smartphone is that they can save companies money because they can be used for several things.

    "In OnRelay’s case – customers can also replace deskphones with smartphones – a huge opportunity in this bear market.

    "Also a big opportunity for smartphone vendors to sell more smartphones."

    The top four entries saw off competition from a wide-ranging field of companies, including JaJah, Octrotalk, Orblive, Handyshell, Beejive IM, DinnerSpinner, MobiExplore and the N-Gage platform.

    Smartphone-biz.news would like to thank everyone who took the effort to nominate a product and to cast a vote.

  • Final Chance to Nominate Storage Person/Product Of The Year


    The new year is firmly underway and time is running out for you to submit your nominations and votes for storage.biz-news’ 2008 Man and Product of the Year awards.

    But with voting expected to be close in both award categories there’s plenty of opportunity for latecomers to make their mark.

    In the product section, submissions can be made for anything storage-related that has particularily impressed in 2008.

    Among the leading contenders in this category are Compellent (SAN with automated ILM), Akorri (BalancePoint), TADASoft (RestorePoint), Dell (EqualLogic), Texas Memory Systems (RamSan-440) and Brioo (Brioo Live Backup).

    EMC also gets nominated for a couple of its products – the CLARiiON AX4 networked storage solution and its Enterprise Flash Drives.

    The former is described simply as "mind blowing". Heady stuff.

    For Person of the Year, StorageRap’s Marc Farley is among the contenders.

    He is praised for his insightful and witty handling of some of the "hot button issues" facing the industry.

    Also up there is Adam Fox, a senior systems engineer at NetApp.

    But there’s still time for other names to be put forward.

    But please don’t delay – we need your product or person nominations before the end of January.

  • Final Chance to Nominate HDTV Person/Product Of The Year


    The new year may well be firmly underway but there’s still plenty of time to submit your nominations and votes for hdtv.biz-news’ 2008 Man and Product of the Year awards.

    With voting expected to be close in both award categories there’s plenty of opportunity for latecomers to make their mark.

    In the product section, submissions can be made for any hardware launched in 2008 that has particularily impressed.

    Alternatively, nominations can be made for anything else HDTV-related – from content providers to software applications.

    For the Person of the Year, there can be no shortage of likely candidates – whether its an innovative industry leader or a colleague who made waves in 2008.

    But please don’t delay – we need your product or person nominations before the end of January.

  • Final Chance to Nominate Smartphone Person/Product Of The Year


    The new year may well be firmly underway but there’s still plenty of time to submit your nominations and votes for smartphone.biz-news’ 2008 Man and Product of the Year awards.

    We have already received numerous nominations from readers in both award categories.

    On the hardware side, the HTC Touch Pro is a leading contender for product of the year – praised for being "the most versatile device available today for anyone who uses their smartphone as a portable".

    On the application front, various front-runners are emerging, including fring, OnRelay, AmazeGPS and Nimbuzz.

    Fans of OnRelay describe it as "the coolest thing ever", a "new and exciting product" and the "best fixed mobile convergence product on the market by far".

    Comments for fring are equally enthusiastic, with readers labelling it the "most wonderful application" they’d come across and a "simple and easy way to keep in touch".

    AmazeGPS is variously described as the "best free navigation system" and is lauded for "kicking dust" at expensive competitors.

    Finally, Nimbuzz is singled out for its "stability, well thought-out interface and impressive network support".

    For Person of the Year, Ivor Plahte, CEO and co-founder of OnRelay, is the leading nominee.

    Ivor Plahte, CEO, OnRelay

    He is described as being the company’s "driving force" and at the "forefront of mobile telephony".

    Praise indeed but don’t let it stop you putting forward other contenders.

    Please send us your product or person nominations before the end of January.