In-Depth
The 2011 Redmond Readers Choice Awards
Your picks for 2011's best Windows IT products in a wide variety of categories.
If there's one commodity that exists in massive abundance, it's hype. That's as true in the technology industry as it is in any other facet of life. Magazines, blogs, Web sites and social media constantly trumpet the next big product, idea or service.
The Redmond Readers Choice Awards (RCAs) are different. Here, you, the reader, strip away the marketing speak, can the press releases and brush off vendors' well-turned phrases in favor of the bottom line. The RCAs aren't about what's cool or hip or might be big a year or five years from now. They're about what works right now, what makes your job easier and what you use to help you navigate the daily minefield of working in IT. The RCAs are the anti-hype. They're reality, pure and simple.
Again this year, you've chosen your favorite products in a large number of categories. We've brought back our Triple Crown (three-time winners), Grand Slam (four-timers) and Five-Star Award (five-time winners) designations for products that take home honors year after year. And we've introduced new categories that branch the awards out into the popular realms of SharePoint, user-activity monitoring and Exchange hosting.
As always, though, you've done the important work here, choosing the products you like best (take a bow, Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager) and stripping away the gloss to reveal which vendors are serving your needs and the products on which you're relying.
Best Network Management Product
40 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 13.4%, Winner
SolarWinds Network Management Software, 12.4%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), 11.8%, Preferred Product
SolarWinds reclaims the title of ISV Winner in a category it lost to Cisco Systems Inc. last year. SCCM beats 2010 Preferred Product SCOM for the win.
Best Application Management Product
44 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 20.3%, Winner, Triple Crown
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), 14.1%, Preferred Product
Citrix XenApp, 10.8%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
SCCM takes the Triple Crown in a category dominated by Microsoft. XenApp garners the ISV Winner title for the second consecutive year.
Best Performance Management Product
41 products in category
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), 15.3%, Winner
SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor, 13.2%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Grand Slam
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 11.3%, Preferred Product
SolarWinds picks up a Grand Slam by virtue of being either winner or ISV Winner in this crowded category four years in a row. The overall win goes to SCOM.
Best General Network Monitoring Tool
62 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 11%, Winner
Microsoft System Center Operations Manager (SCOM), 10.1%, Preferred Product
HP OpenView Operations for Windows, 9.4%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
The Cisco Systems Inc. Five-Star Award reign in this category with SysLog Analyzer comes to an end, as SCCM and SCOM take the honors with HP OpenView coming in as the ISV Winner.
Best Interoperability Product
10 products in category
Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM), 51.3%, Winner, Triple Crown
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, 16.6%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
MKS Toolkit, 7.8%, Preferred Product
We have two Triple Crowns in one category: Microsoft, decisively, for VMM; and McAfee Inc. with a third consecutive ISV Winner for ePolicy Orchestrator.
Best Bandwidth/Traffic Monitoring Product
13 products in category
Barracuda Web Filter, 17.8%, Winner, Triple Crown
Citrix Branch Repeater, 13.2%, Preferred Product
Netwrix, 11.4%, Preferred Product
It's three in a row for Barracuda Networks Inc. in a tight category.
Best Web Usage Monitor
19 products in category
Websense Enterprise, 23.2%, Winner, Five-Star Award
SpectorSoft Spector 360, 14.9%, Preferred Product
GFIWebMonitor, 12.2%, Preferred Product
Websense Inc., now with six consecutive wins, wins another Five-Star Award as SpectorSoft Corp. makes a strong showing in its first year as a product in this category.
Best Asset Management/Resource Inventory Product
30 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 32.8%, Winner, Triple Crown
Microsoft System Center Essentials, 10.9%, Preferred Product
ScriptLogic Desktop Authority, 8.9%, Preferred Product and ISV Winner
That's three in a row for SCCM in this category. Desktop Authority takes the ISV Winner title after just losing out on it in 2010.
Best License Management Product
14 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 36.2%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft Systems Management Server, 19.5%, Preferred Product
ScriptLogic Desktop Authority, 11.2%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
SCCM, with six consecutive wins, continues its dominance of this category, while ScriptLogic Corp. picks up a Triple Crown for three straight ISV Winner titles.
Best Compliance Tool
49 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 31.4%, Winner, Triple Crown
SpectorSoft 360, 7.9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
NetWrix Regulatory Compliance Suite, 7.0%, Preferred Product
SCCM takes a Triple Crown, and SpectorSoft 360 comes in as the ISV Winner in its first year in the competition.
Best Non-Microsoft Browser
5 products in category
Mozilla Firefox, 50.6%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Google Chrome, 37.9%, Preferred Product
Safari, 5.8%, Preferred Product
Chrome is catching up—it was at 27.8 percent last year—but Firefox, for the sixth year in a row, still rules the roost among non-Internet Explorer browsers.
Best SQL Tool
39 products in category
NetWrix SQL Server Change Reporter, 10.6%, Winner
ScriptLogic Security Explorer for SQL Server, 9.6%, Preferred Product
Quest Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise, 9.4%, Preferred Product
First-time entrant NetWrix Corp. takes a very competitive category with last year's winner, ScriptLogic Corp., just missing out on top honors.
* New Category *
Best SharePoint Product or Service
24 products in category
Quest Notes Migrator for SharePoint, 14%, Winner
Mimosa NearPoint for SharePoint, 12.4%, Preferred Product
NetWrix SharePoint Change Reporter, 12.1%, Preferred Product
Quest Notes Migrator for SharePoint takes the first title in this new and highly competitive category.
Best Software Distribution Product
22 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 32.3%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft Systems Management Server, 13.1%, Preferred Product
Flexera Software InstallShield, 10.9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
It's another win for SCCM—its sixth in a row in this category—and a first-time ISV Winner title for InstallShield.
Best Software Packaging Product
9 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 42.4%, Winner, Triple Crown
Flexera Software InstallShield Admin Studio, 23.1%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
ScriptLogic MSI Studio, 14.2%, Preferred Product
SCCM wins for the third year in a row, and InstallShield becomes a six-time consecutive winner, actually making up a few percentage points on the Microsoft product compared to 2010.
Best Drive Imaging Product
9 products in category
Symantec Ghost Suite, 31.4%, Winner, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 23.2%, Preferred Product
Acronis True Image, 19%, Preferred Product
Ghost once again floats over this category with an impressive win over SCCM and another Five-Star Award, giving the Symantec Corp. product six consecutive wins. SCCM, however, did pass Acronis Inc. this year.
Best Overall Migration Product
27 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 35.2%, Winner, Triple Crown
Acronis Backup & Recover Advanced Server, 7.3%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Acronis Migrate Easy, 6.7%, Preferred Product
Acronis Inc. snags an ISV Winner title and also manages to place a Preferred Product.
Best Server Migration Product
25 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 27.1%, Winner, Triple Crown
VMware vMotion, 11.9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Acronis Backup & Recover Advanced Server, 11.4%, Preferred Product
vMotion knocks Acronis Inc. off of its ISV Winner perch in 2011, but it's SCCM that takes another Triple Crown.
Best Group Policy Manager
23 products in category
ScriptLogic Active Administrator, 13.1%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Citrix Access Gateway, 10.5%, Preferred Product
McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator, 10.2%, Preferred Product (tie)
NetWrix Group Policy Change Reporter, 10.2%, Preferred Product (tie)
ScriptLogic Corp., with six straight wins, continues to dominate this category, although its stranglehold is slipping just a bit.
Best Disk Defragmentation and Drive Monitoring Tool
10 products in category
Diskeeper, 56.6%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Winternals Defrag Manager, 11.4%, Preferred Product
Acronis Disk Director Suite, 9.1%, Preferred Product
Diskeeper Corp., winner six times in a row, is unrelenting in its dominance of this category.
Best Remote Troubleshooting Solution
26 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 40.4%, Winner, Triple Crown
Symantec Client Management Suite, 8.3%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
ScriptLogic Remote Support Center, 6.8%, Preferred Product
SCCM and Symantec Corp. both take home Triple Crowns in this category; the Microsoft product as Winner and Client Management Suite as ISV Winner.
Best Network Automation and Batch Processing Tool
23 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 42.7%, Winner, Triple Crown
ScriptLogic Desktop Authority, 18.4%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
Kaseya IT Center, 6.6%, Preferred Product
Kaseya International Ltd. sneaks in as a Preferred Product for 2011. But ScriptLogic Corp. continues its ISV dominance in trailing only SCCM in this category and takes the ISV Winner for the sixth consecutive year.
Best Scripting Tool
21 products in category
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 19.7%, Winner
ScriptLogic Desktop Authority, 17.1%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Microsoft IIS Windows PowerShell Snap-in, 16.8%, Preferred Product
Desktop Authority will be up for a Triple Crown as ISV Winner in 2012, but SCCM unseats it this year at the top of the standings.
Best Patch Management Product
24 products in category
Microsoft Software Update Services, 28.1%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 24.1 percent, Preferred Product
ScriptLogic Desktop Authority, 7.5%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Nothing can touch Microsoft Software Update Services, which wins for the sixth consecutive year. ScriptLogic Corp. takes the ISV category for the second year in a row.
Best Application-Conflict Testing Tool
5 products in category
ScriptLogic Desktop Authority MSI Studio, 37.4%, Winner
Flexera Software AdminStudio, 27.9%, Preferred Product
Symantec Package Studio, 18.7%, Preferred Product
ScriptLogic Corp. wins for the second year in a row as Flexera Software Inc. and Symantec Corp. swap places.
* New Category *
Best Exchange Hosting Provider
5 products in category
Rackspace, 38.7%, Winner
MessageLabs, 23%, Preferred Product
Verio, 16.9%, Preferred Product
Rackspace Inc. wins the inaugural edition of this category.
Best Hardware-Based Firewall Product
23 products in category
Cisco Systems PIX Series, 34%, Winner, Five-Star Award
SonicWall Pro and TZ Series, 14.5%, Preferred Product
Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall, 8.9%, Preferred Product
PIX continues to dominate a category in which the results were almost exactly the same as they were in 2010. PIX picks up its sixth consecutive win.
Best Software-Based Firewall Product
17 products in category
Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway, 23.5%, Winner
Symantec Enterprise Firewall, 15%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
Kaspersky Laboratories Anti-Hacker, 10.8%, Preferred Product
New entrant Microsoft Forefront takes the category, and three-time ISV Winner Symantec Corp. takes a Triple Crown.
Best Security Auditing Product
53 products in category
NetWrix Change Reporter Suite, 10.3%, Winner
GFI LANguard Security Event Log Monitor, 9.3%, Preferred Product
SpectorSoft Spector 360, 9%, Preferred Product
Newcomers do well in this category, with NetWrix Corp. winning and SpectorSoft Corp. placing third.
Best Intrusion-Detection System
21 products in category
Cisco Systems Secure Intrusion Detection System, 25.4%, Winner, Five-Star Award
GFI, 12%, Preferred Product
McAfee Network Security Platform, 10.9%, Preferred Product
It's another dominating, Five-Star Award performance by Cisco Systems Inc. (which racks up six consecutive wins), but the competition behind the consistent winner is starting to tighten.
Best Intrusion-Prevention System
27 products in category
Cisco Systems Okena Stormwatch, 15.1%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM), 14%, Preferred Product
McAfee Host Intrusion Prevention, 10.1%, Preferred Product
Cisco Systems Inc. once again rules this category with a sixth consecutive victory, but SCCM is catching up.
Best Smart Card/Biometric/Two-Factor Authentication System
15 products in category
RSA SecureID, 35.6%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager, 23.9%, Preferred Product
Quest Defender, 6.1%, Preferred Product
RSA is unassailable in this category, winning another Five-Star Award in 2011 and six category titles in a row.
Best Secure Messaging Tool or Service (Spam and Content Filtering)
67 products in category
Microsoft/Sybari Antigen for Exchange, 11.3%, Winner
Barracuda Spam & Virus Firewall, 10.6%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Symantec Mail Security, 5.6%, Preferred Product
It's two in a row for Microsoft here, but Barracuda Networks Inc. overtook Symantec Corp. for ISV Winner and narrowed the gap on the product from Redmond.
Best Antivirus Tool
24 products in category
Symantec Endpoint Protection, 20.5%, Winner, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft Security Essentials, 14.6%, Preferred Product
McAfee Total Protection, 11%, Preferred Product
A name change from Symantec Antivirus hasn't stopped Endpoint Protection from winning this category again, for this sixth year in a row. Microsoft made a strong showing, though.
Best Anti-Spyware Tool
17 products in category
McAfee Total Protection, 23%, Winner
Trend Micro Antispyware, 16.3%, Preferred Product
Webroot AntiSpyware, 10.9%, Preferred Product
McAfee Inc., winner from 2006 to 2009 in this category, avenges its loss to Webroot Software Inc. in 2010 by coming back to win in 2011. Trend Micro Inc. registers another strong performance.
* New Category *
Best User Activity Monitoring Product
10 products in category
Websense, 25%, Winner
SpectorSoft Spector 360, 20.5%, Preferred Product
Barracuda, 14.7%, Preferred Product
Websense Inc. beats out SpectorSoft Corp. to win the first edition of this category.
Best Exam Preparation Vendor
14 products in category
Microsoft, 29.5%, Winner, Grand Slam
CBT Nuggets, 9.6%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
MeasureUp, 9.3%, Preferred Product
It's four in a row for Microsoft, while CBT Nuggets LLC narrowly knocks out 2010 ISV Winner MeasureUp LLC.
Best Online, Disk-Based or Instructor-Led Training Vendor
21 products in category
Microsoft, 25.2%, Winner, Five-Star Award
Global Knowledge, 17.9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
CBT Nuggets, 7.9%, Preferred Product
Microsoft and Global Knowledge Training LLC are clear winners here, each picking up a second consecutive Five-Star Award and each winning for the sixth year in a row.
Best Windows Certification-Based Boot Camp Vendor
10 products in category
Microsoft, 34.7%, Winner
Global Knowledge, 24.7%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
The Training Camp, 5.8%, Preferred Product
Microsoft wins for the second consecutive year, but Global Knowledge Training LLC picks up a second straight Five-Star Award (and sixth consecutive ISV Winner title) with a strong showing.
Best Backup System
46 products in category
Symantec Backup Exec, 22.5%, Winner, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft System Center Data
Protection Manager (DPM), 15.8%, Preferred Product
Acronis Backup and Recovery Advanced Server, 10.7%, Preferred Product
Symantec Corp. once again rules this category with another Five-Star Award for Backup Exec, giving the product six wins in a row.
Best Storage Management Product
50 products in category
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), 18.2%, Winner
Acronis Backup and Recovery Advanced Server, 8.9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
EMC ControlCenter SRM Software, 6.7%, Preferred Product (tie)
Symantec Storage Central, 6.7%, Preferred Product (tie)
Microsoft DPM is starting to run away with this category, having won two years in a row. Acronis Inc. will be up for a Triple Crown next year after landing as ISV Winner the last two years.
Best Disaster-Recovery Product or Service
60 products in category
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), 13%, Winner
Acronis Backup and Recovery Advanced Server, 9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery, 9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
In a close race, Acronis Inc. set itself up for a run at a Triple Crown in 2012. But Symantec Backup Exec actually tied its competitor this year. DPM continued its strong performance by winning the category overall for the first time.
Best Clustering and Failover Solution
11 products in category
Microsoft Windows Server Clustering Services (WSCS), 42.5%, Winner, Five-Star Award
VMware Fault Tolerance, 23.2%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
Barracuda Load Balancer, 8.6%, Preferred Product
WSCS continues its domination of this category, as does VMware Inc. among ISVs. That's six in a row for WSCS.
Best Load-Balancing Product
16 products in category
Microsoft Windows Server Network Load Balancing, 23.4%, Winner
VMware Distributed Resource Scheduler, 18.2%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
F5 BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager, 15.1%, Preferred Product
Windows Server Network Load Balancing steals the overall category from VMware Inc. this year, but Distributed Resource Scheduler nevertheless nets a Triple Crown with its ISV Winner title.
Best Application-Virtualization Product
8 products in category
VMware ThinApp, 35%, Winner, ISV Winner, Triple Crown
Microsoft Application Virtualization (App-V), 31.1%, Preferred Product
Citrix XenApp, 21.5%, Preferred Product
Microsoft is catching up, but ThinApp has managed three outright wins in a row in this category. It'll be up for a Grand Slam next year as either Winner or ISV Winner (or both).
Best Virtual Automation Product
2 products in category
Reliance Automated VM Provisioning, 63.4%, Winner, Triple Crown
Surgient Virtual Automation Platform, 36.6%, Preferred Product
In a two-product category, Reliance wins for the third year in a row.
Best Virtual Business-Continuity and Disaster-Recovery Product
15 products in category
Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM), 39.1%, Winner, Triple Crown
Veeam Backup, 11.9%, Preferred Product, ISV Winner
Acronis True Image Virtual Edition, 9.5%, Preferred Product
Acronis Inc. misses its chance at a Triple Crown as Veeam Software steals the ISV Winner spot.
Best Desktop Virtualization Product
15 products in category
Citrix XenDesktop, 51.5%, Winner, Triple Crown
Oracle Sun xVM Virtual Box, 13.7%, Preferred Product
Quest vWorkspace, 10.4%, Preferred Product
XenDesktop absolutely obliterates this category once again this year.
Best Virtual Management and Optimization Product
27 products in category
SolarWinds VM Monitor, 15%, Winner
Veeam Management Pack for VMware, 12.8%, Preferred Product
NetIQ AppManager for VMware, 10.1%, Preferred Product
It's two in a row for SolarWinds VM Monitor, but Veeam Software makes a strong showing.
Best Storage Virtualization and Management Product
16 products in category
Citrix Essentials for XenServer and Hyper-V, 36.2%, Winner, Triple Crown
Network Appliance NetApp Data ONTAP 7G, 11.2%, Preferred Product
Network Appliance NetApp V-Series Systems, 10.7%, Preferred Product
Citrix Systems Inc. continues to rule this category and picks up a Triple Crown.
Best Virtualization Training Vendor
5 companies in category
Global Knowledge, 70%, Winner, Triple Crown
NetCom, 12.7%, Preferred Product
LiveAmmo, 8%, Preferred Product
It's an easy Triple Crown for Global Knowledge Training LLC.
Best Virtual Server Product
10 products in category
Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V, 26.1%, Winner
VMware vSphere, 25.1%,
Preferred Product, ISV Winner,
Five-Star Award
VMware ESXi, 15%, Preferred Product
Hyper-V wins for the second year in a row by a tiny margin. VMware Inc. picks up a Five-Star Award with its ISV win.
Best Virtual Server Add-Ons
14 products in category
Acronis Backup & Recovery Advanced Server Virtual Edition, 19.4%, Winner
Veeam Backup & Replication, 12.1%, Preferred Product
Veeam Monitor for VMware, 9.9%, Preferred Product
It's two wins in a row for Acronis Inc., but Veeam Software makes a strong showing.
Best Virtual PC Product
4 products in category
VMware Workstation, 57.7%, Winner, ISV Winner, Five-Star Award
Microsoft Virtual PC for Windows, 37.1%, Preferred Product
SWsoft Virtuozzo, 2.7%, Preferred Product
VMware Inc. devours this category once again, winning for the sixth year in a row.