DEMO Showcases New Tech In The Desert

This year's DEMO conference kicks off Tuesday, with organizers selecting 77 companies to showcase new technology in Palm Desert, Calif. Past debuts have included products from VMware, Google, Apple, salesforce.com, Palm, Intel, HP, Yahoo! And TiVo, making DEMO one of the most closely watched events for industy professionals looking for the next big game-changing tech advance.

As usual, this year's participants are largely made up of start-ups, though a few bigger companies like Citrix will also have a chance to showcase new products for journalists, investors and business professionals. The format is as level a playing field as one could hope for -- each company, regardless of size, gets just six minutes for a live stage demonstration of their product.

Citrix, for its part, will be showcasing XenDesktop, which it calls "the first truly viable solution" for delivering mass-deployment desktop virtualization to market. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Citrix acquired open-source virtualization software developer XenSource last August.

Products from DEMO presenters cover the gamut of technology, from consumer electronics to enterprise software, Web 2.0 widgets to VoIP networking solutions. Here's a breakdown of some of the showcasing companies that might be of particular interest to solution providers and IT professionals, as described by DEMO selectors:

Green Plug, San Ramon, Calif.

This environmentally-oriented company will debut its Green Plug Universal Power Protocol Integrated Circuit, a new electronics component chip that processes a digital protocol for real-time communication between devices that require power and their power sources. The upshot is very green -- overhead savings via technology that allows for the charging of multiple DC powered devices with differing power requirements from a single power supply.

Yoics, Palo Alto, Calif.

Yoics' product of the same name automatically configures network connectivity for broadband connected local area networks, essentially transforming any broadband connected computer into "an Internet accessible and shareable personal server."

Vidyo, Hackensack, N.J.

VidyoConferencing from Vidyo enables HD-quality video conferencing over general-purpose IP networks across a broad range of environments, from the home-office desktop to the dedicated corporate video-conferencing facility. Under Vidyo's protocols, each endpoint receives the highest quality video it is capable of handling. VidyoConferencing also features H.264/SVC, a new video compression technology.

StackSafe, Vienna, Virg.

The StackSafe Test Center was built for IT operations professionals as a staging and testing solution that better helps teams understand the business impact of IT change before it goes live on production systems. Powered by virtualization, the Test Center provides a solid, easy-to-use platform for enhanced software infrastructure testing.

Kaazing, Mountain View, Calif.

Kaazing's Enterprise Edition is a Web solution for the Java enterprise, providing a scalable and high-performance Java environment for browsers. Kanzing EE works with smartphones, too, and it requires no browser plug-ins or installations.

LiquidTalk, Chicago, Ill.

LiquidTalk's eponymous on-demand application converts podcasts across a variety of formats, making it easy for a mobile workforce to create, organize, distribute and find proprietary audio and video business content using disparate devices such as the iPhone, iPod and Blackberry.

LegiTime Technologies, Westport, Conn.

LegiTime's LegiText is another enterprise application aimed at the mobile workforce. LegiText reduces smartphone inbox clutter by allowing users to prioritize and manage messages as they receive them and enabling the creation of on-the-fly messaging groups on those devices. LegiTime calls it's tagging system a "professional SMS client," a phrase that has DEMO selectors intrigued.