Teched was quite the trip this year. New Orleans was a fun venue. Shout out to GeekGive and Steve Andrews who put that together a habitat for humanity project, I met up with the Krew for dinner and heard extremely selfless experts across the Microsoft technologies trying to give back. (Here’s a video on the touching project.) I bring this up because I see this as a highlight of the show as well. After the show I saw how the lower 9th ward was trashed and yet how Brad Pitt’s house efforts are really paying off.
Every year there’s a little competition in the vendor hall that goes a little bit behind the scenes. The judges reviewed more than 295 IT and developer products and services submitted for the contest and chose 46 finalists interviewed at the Microsoft Tech-Ed 2010 conference in New Orleans, LA. Penton Media’s “Best of Teched 2010” Winners…
The 13 Best of Tech-Ed 2010 awards category winners, two special recognition award winners, and Attendees' Pick winners are:
- Best Microsoft Product: Visual Studio 2010
- Backup and Recovery: Symantec--Backup Exec 2010
- Business Intelligence: Dundas Data Visualization--Dundas Dashboard 2.0
- Database Administration: Idera--Idera SQL Toolbox 1.0
- Database Development: Quest Software--Toad for SQL Server 4.6
- Developer Tools: AVIcode--Intercept Studio 5.6
- Hardware and Storage: Brocade--Brocade DCX-4S Backbone
- Messaging: Argent Software--Argent for Exchange 2.0
- Networking: A10 Networks--64-bit AX Series
- SharePoint: Quest Software--Quest Site Administrator for SharePoint 4.0
- Systems Management and Operations: ScriptLogic--Active Administrator 5.5
- Security: Symantec--Symantec Endpoint Protection Small Business Edition 12
- Software Components & Middleware: Telerik--Telerik Ultimate Collection for .NET 2010
- Virtualization: VMware--VMware vSphere 4
- Breakthrough Product: Citrix XenDesktop 4
- Attendees Pick: VMware--VMware vSphere 4
Only Microsoft product teams or companies sponsoring or exhibiting at Microsoft Tech·Ed North America 2010 are eligible to nominate their products for consideration. (See list I put together below for more context.)
We on the Quest team were very excited to see a product work it’s way through the finals and winner. I mention Ghazwan because as well I think he did an awesome job on the demo side. Here’s more info on the tool that won the SharePoint Category.
Quest Site Administrator 4.0 for SharePoint
Taking the honors in the “SharePoint” category for both 2007 and 2010, Site Administrator for SharePoint helps IT gain control of SharePoint by giving much-needed visibility into an entire SharePoint environment. It provides powerful auto discovery of SharePoint servers and sites, operational reporting of critical SharePoint information, enterprise-wide policy and permissions management, and access to audit data and reports.
For this product, the judging panel noted that, “In the explosive SharePoint market, Quest Site Administrator for SharePoint 4.0 is a winner because it provides administrators (and “accidental” SharePoint admins) a comprehensive means to take control of their burgeoning SharePoint environments. This fine product offers tools that provide centralized administration, discovery, site and content browsing, data collection and reporting, global policy and permissions management, and audit data collection and reporting.”
You can check it out at http://www.quest.com/site-administrator-for-sharepoint/
Ilia put together more detail on some of the history of Site Administrator in the context of Teched and Best of Teched.
My Teched Sessions
You can get my slides or watch or download the videos.
Help! My Users Are Everywhere: Designing for a Global SharePoint Audience
http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/OSP312
In this session I drill into the service applications and help you better understand the relationships of the new service apps.
Planning Large-Scale Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition Deployments with Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010
http://www.msteched.com/2010/NorthAmerica/DAT313
I’m sure most are still trying to catch up on sleep from Teched. Was definitely not unusual to see the streets still crowded with geeks at 3 and 4am. When someone in planning asked me if having the Quest Tweetup at 9pm would be too late, I did… LOL. Literally. It was one of the best ideas we had. Awesome turn out since it found it’s way after the plethora of parties.
Speaking of parties, it was awesome to see the participation of competitive ISVs laying down their swords to join in the festivities at the AvePoint Red Parade, inclusive with firedancer and at Quest Tweetup at the Bourbon Street Bar and Balcony overlooking Bourbon street. For me it was a big deal to see Axceler, AvePoint, Corasworks, Nintex, and Quest all sharing drinks. I was able to catch up with Idera in the Ozarks and expressed my openness and sharing the ideas that we can be friends and explained that the SharePoint market is big enough for us all. I like healthy competition, but I also think it would be awesome if we could be a little more open with each other so we could add unique value.
SharePoint Related Vendors at Teched
To better understand who was at the show. Here’s a quick list that I put together based on some searches. True some are more SharePoint Focused than others.
Alachisoft
http://www.alachisoft.com | Booth#: 1343
Alachisoft provides NCache and NCachePoint. NCache boosts .NET application performance & scalability through in-memory distributed caching and distributed ASP.NET Session State storage. NCachePoint boosts performance & scalability of SharePoint by externalizing BLOBs and caching list and BLOB data in a web farm.
AvePoint
Silver Sponsor | http://www.avepoint.com |
AvePoint is proud to be a U.S. based technology company and software innovator. Since 2001, AvePoint has been a leader in enterprise-strength infrastructure management solutions for the world’s most popular collaboration platforms. Propelled by one of the world’s largest development teams, AvePoint’s award-winning DocAve and Atlas Software Platforms deliver comprehensive and flexible infrastructure support for SharePoint backup and recovery, replication, migration, administration, archiving, storage optimization, deployment management, compliance, and SharePoint-Salesforce integration.
Axceler
Silver Sponsor | http://www.axceler.com | 400
Specializing in software for Microsoft SharePoint, Axceler has delivered award winning administration products worldwide since 1994. For Microsoft SharePoint, Axceler offers ControlPoint - the best way to get control over a SharePoint environment. ControlPoint gives SharePoint professionals the ability to manage permissions, copy sites, analyze activity and more. Axceler's ControlPoint was recently named the Best SharePoint Product of 2009 by the editors of WindowsITPro. Axceler is based in Woburn, MA with offices in Southern California and London, UK.
BA-Insight
http://www.ba-insight.net?id=technet| 2040
BA-Insight is Microsoft’s go-to partner for advanced search solutions built on top of SharePoint Search and FAST Search for SharePoint platforms. BA-Insight’s software products empower users to find, analyze, and act on relevant content regardless of its format or location. Longitude offers out-of-the-box connectors to more than 30 business systems including ERP (SAP, PeopleSoft, etc.), CRM (Siebel, Microsoft Dynamics, etc), Messaging (Lotus Notes, Exchange Private Mailboxes), ECM (Documentum, Worksite, etc.). Longitude also provides a state of the art user experience via a rich Silverlight document viewer.
Binary Tree
http://www.binarytree.com | 341
Binary Tree offers a complete suite of software for migrating from Lotus Domino to Microsoft Exchange 2010, SharePoint, and the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). Our CMT software includes solutions for analyzing Domino, establishing the high-fidelity interoperability of directory information, email, calendar entries, calendar free/busy availability, and email-enabled applications between Domino and Exchange, migrating mailboxes directly from Domino to Exchange 2010, migrating BlackBerry users, migrating Notes applications to Microsoft SharePoint, and consolidating and retiring Domino.
Brocade
Silver Sponsor | http://www.brocade.com | 501
From enterprise data centers to the service provider core, Brocade® (NASDAQ: BRCD) develops extraordinary networking solutions that connect the world’s most important information. Delivered directly and through global partners, these solutions help today’s data-intensive organizations operate more efficiently and maximize the business value of their data. Stop by the Brocade booth to learn how Brocade and its partners can optimize your network for Hyper-V, System Center, Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Office Communications Server. Or visit www.brocade.com/microsoft.
Citrix Systems
Gold Sponsor | http://www.citrix.com | 1600
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacenters for IT. More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Stop by the Citrix booth #1600 for a hands-on demo of desktop virtualization and see for yourself how Citrix XenDesktop with HDX and Flexcast technology enables all types virtual desktops to a high definition user experience, from any location. While there learn more about site recovery and storage optimization with Citrix Essentials for Hyper-V. Find out how Citrix NetScaler VPX built on Hyper-V provides world class load balancing and accelerates Exchange and SharePoint deployment, while getting the latest info on application virtualization with Citrix XenApp integration with App-V. Visit us today for all this great information and enter for your chance at a HP Mini Netbook!
Colligo Networks Inc.
http://www.colligo.com| 324
Colligo Networks is the global leader in client software that drives SharePoint adoption by enabling users to easily access, capture, and tag content from popular desktop applications, including Outlook and Windows Explorer. Information workers can instantly view, modify, and create SharePoint documents, forms, lists, and metadata - online and offline. Users can drag-and-drop emails and attachments, automatically capturing metadata. Making SharePoint easy and accessible ensures all workers are engaged and all enterprise content is managed.
CommVault
Silver Sponsor | http://www.commvault.com | 1130
CommVault Simpana 8 Windows centric data management solution presents a heterogeneous‚ Single Information Management view of enterprise data. CommVault® Simpana® includes strategic granular‚ “Release Independent” support that includes assisting and accelerating upgrades for Microsoft Exchange Server‚ Microsoft SQL Server (including Microsoft Dynamics and Microsoft Dynamics CRM)‚ Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies‚ Active Directory‚ Microsoft Office Communication Server‚ etc. CommVault’s 64-bit optimization enables improved performance to take advantage of the new Windows Server‚ Exchange‚ SharePoint and SQL Server environments. Use CommVault® and Windows to enable enterprise wide content search and discovery‚ including using Microsoft’s FAST Indexing technologies. Stop by our booth for live demonstrations of granular management of Exchange‚ SharePoint and Active Directory.
ComponentOne
http://www.componentone.com | 1740
As a leading component vendor in the Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner program, ComponentOne provides a wide range of Visual Studio Components, IDE tools and Web Parts for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Windows SharePoint Services. For the past 22 years, ComponentOne has reached designers‚ developers‚ and architects worldwide helping them to deliver rich‚ responsive Windows Forms‚ Web‚ and mobile applications. Visit the ComponentOne booth for a live demonstration and www.componentone.com for a free trial.
CorasWorks
http://www.corasworks.net| 345
CorasWorks is a global leader in applications and application development tools that drive immediate business value on Microsoft SharePoint. More than 1,000 organizations and 1 million users worldwide download and use plug-and-play apps from CorasWorks and our partners, and build their own applications with our comprehensive application development system. CorasWorks is a Microsoft Gold-certified Managed Partner headquartered in Reston, VA. For more information on our plug-and-play apps or our application development system, visit www.corasworks.net.
Critical Path Training
http://www.criticalpathtraining.com| 2140
Critical Path Training is dedicated to educating .NET Developers, Designers, IT Professionals and Information Workers how to become successful with Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies. We pride ourselves in the fact that we conduct extensive research and author the SharePoint industry's most in-depth training. Our mission is to provide an objective viewpoint and key insights about the architecture as well as best practices and essential coding techniques. We offer hands-on, web-based and private onsite training.
deFacto Performance Management
http://www.deFactoGlobal.com | 844
deFacto Performance Management is a completely unified, analysis and planning product that offers the full range of capabilities users need, including modeling, forecasting, drill-down, drill-through, what-if analysis, reporting, and more. It empowers business users who drive planning processes throughout an organization with the ability to perform real-time analysis by enabling Excel and even SharePoint with data submission capability to its centralized data store. deFacto also complements Microsoft SharePoint Monitoring and Analytics components with powerful capabilities such as cube building, user security, advanced logic, data entry and what-if – all of which can be managed by the business user.
Dundas Data Visualization
http://www.dundas.com | 840 & 842
Dundas Data Visualization is a world leader in data visualization and dashboarding solutions. The company's products include Dundas Dashboard, an easy-to-integrate, turnkey dashboard-creation solution, as well as Dundas Chart, Gauge, Map and Calendar products, advanced controls for Microsoft .NET, Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, and Microsoft SharePoint technologies. Dundas's outstanding success is reflected in its numerous industry awards and in the rapid adoption of Dundas technologies by Fortune 500 companies around the world.
Ensim Corporation
http://www.ensim.com | 2242
Ensim Unify Enterprise Edition provides an integrated suite of tools for fine-grain entitlement assignment across the unified communications infrastructure. Ensim Unify automates business processes and IT policy for user provisioning and change management. Designed specifically for Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange, Office Communication Server (OCS), and Group Chat, Ensim Unify enhances security and reduces compliance risk by enforcing corporate policy while it improves IT efficiency by eliminating manual processes.
Fpweb.net
Silver Sponsor | http://www.fpweb.net| 1031
What sets Fpweb.net apart? We know Microsoft SharePoint – and we don’t just support the hardware, we support the application. Increase profitability with our custom Microsoft Office SharePoint Server server farms at 60% less cost than on-premise builds. Go to market faster with Fpweb.net rapid deployment of SharePoint and Microsoft Exchange Hosting, Microsoft Project Server and more. Get back to business and forget about the complexities of SharePoint Servers with our complete SharePoint Lifecycle Management Services.
Idera
http://www.idera.com| 2141 & 2143
Idera provides tools for Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint and PowerShell management and administration. Our products provide solutions for performance monitoring, backup and recovery, security and auditing and PowerShell scripting. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Idera is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has over 5,000 customers worldwide.
KnowledgeLake The SharePoint ECM Company
http://www.knowledgelake.com| 314 & 316
KnowledgeLake, Inc. develops document imaging related products and solutions for Microsoft SharePoint. KnowledgeLake extends the ECM capabilities of SharePoint, enabling businesses to reduce mailing costs, streamline operations, and achieve regulatory compliance using familiar Microsoft products that most businesses already own and use. KnowledgeLake products and solutions are deployed globally in thousands of organizations in many different horizontal and vertical industry sectors including public sector, healthcare, financial services, transportation and more.
MessageSolution, Inc.
http://www.messagesolution.com | 645
MessageSolution, Inc., is the global technology leader in email, file system, and SharePoint archiving solutions for electronic discovery, litigation support, compliance, and storage management. MessageSolution is the first archiving solution to support all three best-selling enterprise email servers in the market.
NetWrix Corporation
http://www.netwrix.com | 1541 & 1543
NetWrix Corporation provides cost-effective solutions to simplify systems management for security, compliance and e-Discovery. NetWrix offers one unified platform for change management and identity management of Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server, file servers, network devices, endpoints and other platforms. Most company products are available in FREEWARE editions that never stop working. NetWrix is a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner with thousands of paying customers and hundred thousand freeware users around the world.
Neverfail
http://www.neverfailgroup.com | 1744 & 1742
Neverfail provides market leading software solutions that combine automation, application aware monitoring and replication to deliver high availability and disaster resilience. Neverfail’s software solutions enable users to remain continuously connected to the live software application irrespective of hardware, software, operating system, or network failures. Neverfail provides continuous availability for mission-critical Windows-based applications including, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft SQL Server, Internet Information Services (IIS), File Server, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, Lotus Domino and RightFax.
Nintex
Silver Sponsor | http://www.nintex.com | 1017
Nintex is a leading global innovator of software products that extend Microsoft SharePoint technology. The company focuses on building software that bridges the gap between that which can be bought from Microsoft today and common functionality requested by customers – with a passionate commitment to innovation and user experience. As a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, Nintex aligns with Microsoft’s strategic and architectural direction to ensure that Nintex and Microsoft products work in harmony, both today and into the future.
OPNET Technologies, Inc.
http://www.opnet.com | 1644
OPNET Technologies, Inc. is a leading provider of solutions for managing applications and networks. OPNET provides the industry’s most integrated solution suite for application performance management (APM) including end user experience monitoring, deep component monitoring, end-to-end transaction tracing, and intelligent root cause analysis. OPNET’s APM solutions have been operationally proven in thousands of customer environments worldwide, and are compatible with numerous business applications, including SharePoint, Exchange, and BizTalk
Polycom
http://www.polycom.com | 343
Polycom is the global leader in telepresence, video, and voice solutions that empower people to connect and collaborate everywhere. Only Polycom offers a comprehensive portfolio of integrated solutions spanning voice, video and application integration for Microsoft Office Communications Server R2, Microsoft Communications Server "14", Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft SharePoint, and Microsoft Active Directory. Polycom’s integration efforts with Microsoft support Polycom’s Open Collaboration Network strategy, providing an interoperable collaboration solution that ensures customer investment
Pragmatic Works
http://www.pragmaticworks.com | 2618
Pragmatic Works is a managed Microsoft Gold Partner focused on the Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform. Founded by SQL Server MVP and author Brian Knight they have enabled more than 600 customers on the Microsoft Business Intelligence Platform including SharePoint and Performance Point 2010 with training, tools, and implementation services. Pragmatic Works makes Microsoft BI Simple.
Quest Notes Migration Center
http://www.quest.com | 443
Quest provides ZeroIMPACT migrations from Lotus Notes, Domino and Sametime to Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, OCS and the Business Productivity Online Suite. Quest, Microsoft’s 2009 Notes Transition Partner of the Year finalist and recommended Enterprise Notes Migration vendor mitigates risks with pre-migration assessments; saves time and budget with faster migrations using fewer resources; maintains productivity with seamless coexistence between Notes and Microsoft technologies; and reduces transition time and costs by rapidly rebuilding complex applications in SharePoint.
Quest Software, Inc.
Silver Sponsor | http://www.quest.com | 1800
Quest Software provides a full spectrum of Windows management solutions for physical and virtual infrastructures. Quest’s solutions for Active Directory, Microsoft Exchange Server, Microsoft Office Communications Server (OCS), Microsoft SharePoint, Windows PowerShell, Microsoft SQL Server and desktop virtualization reduce the risk, cost and complexity of managing both Windows and non-Windows systems. You can trust the experts at Quest, an Advanced Infrastructure Solutions Partner of the Year and two-time Microsoft Global ISV Partner of the Year, to provide and support solutions for: migrations and restructuring; identity and access management; compliance, audits and security; recovery and availability; administration and automation; development and customization; and desktop virtualization management.
STEALTHbits Technologies
http://www.stealthbits.com| 1444
STEALTHbits Technologies is an innovative leader in the Microsoft Infrastructure and Application Management space. The StealthAUDIT Management Platform (SMP) mirrors the Microsoft Computing Platform to provide in-depth data collection, analysis, reporting, and remediation solutions for Enterprise Messaging, Infrastructure Management, and Compliance. With concentrated focus around Systems & Data Governance, Microsoft Exchange, Active Directory, Microsoft SharePoint, and Public Folders, SMP gives organizations the ability to comprehensively manage their environments through a common interface and platform, and light-weight architecture.
Theobald Software
http://www.theobald-software.com| 1643
Theobald Software offers a complete range of products for connecting SAP with the Microsoft world. Business processes and data are integrated securely and efficiently. All SAP modules (including BI) are supported to build powerful BI and transaction oriented applications with SQL Server, Sharepoint, PowerPivot and all .NET based environments.
Tzunami
www.tzunami.com| 2630
Tzunami Inc. is a leading provider of SharePoint Migration solutions. Tzunami Deployer offers a user-friendly solution to real-world business challenges for migrating all of an organization’s content from multiple sources to advanced Microsoft SharePoint systems. Tzunami delivers simple and effective solutions that increases the return on investment and lowers cost of SharePoint ownership. As pioneers in the field of content migration, Tzunami has a strong track record of serving global enterprises, including Fortune 1000 companies.
Virtualization Solutions
XLCubed Ltd
http://www.xlcubed.com| 1645
XLCubed’s product set empowers the business user, leveraging Excel’s strengths but mitigating the risks. Users have a rich and focused Reporting, Analytics and Dashboard environment in Excel, and a straightforward web publication process. Web based reporting is fully interactive, data connected, and can be deployed standalone or within Sharepoint webparts. Our services team and partner channel have a wealth of experience in the design and delivery of BI and Planning applications within major corporates