10 Must-See Products At XChange Solution Provider '09

This year, XChange Solution Provider, the world's leading IT channel event, is being held in New Orleans. Attendees will be checking out the city's good food and good jazz. But they should also check out the hot technology being shown by the nearly 70 vendors exhibiting on the show floor. The following slides provide a sneak peek at some of the products vendors will be showing off.

Hewlett-Packard ProCurve will be showing off its 6600 Switch Series, the most advanced data center server edge switches in the HP ProCurve Networking product line, according to the company. HP ProCurve said the switches, which debuted March 1, enable the company to compete against Cisco's 4900 Series switch in the data center market. The 6600 switches provide scalable 10/100/1000Base-T and 10-Gbit connectivity, Internet Protocol version 6 support, front-to-back cooling for rack applications, Layer 2 through Layer 4 switching support and redundant power.

Diskeeper will launch Diskeeper 2009, a new release of the vendor's defragmentation utility with new technology for avoiding conflicts between defragmentation chores and other system processes, and tools for eliminating fragmented data on desktop drives with 60 Gbytes of capacity.



The new InvisiTasking technology manages defragmentation to avoid interfering with the use of a computer's resources (CPU, memory, network, etc.) by other applications and the operating system. That allows Diskeeper to operate in real-time, managing fragmentation as it occurs to maintain system performance and reduce data backup times.





The new terabyte volume engine in the Diskeeper Pro Premier edition of the utility can eliminate tens of thousands, even millions, of data fragments on drives with capacity of 60 Gbytes and up. The Diskeeper engine has been enhanced to improve file-write performance. And the new I-FAAST (Intelligent File Access Acceleration Sequencing Technology) 2.0 in the Diskeeper Professional edition increases access speed for a computer's most commonly accessed files.

Kerio Technologies will be demonstrating the Kerio MailServer Virtual Appliance, a new release of the Kerio messaging and collaboration server that's designed to work within VMware virtualized environments. The product has achieved VMware Ready status by passing a detailed testing and evaluation process, which means solution providers and their customers can easily add the mailserver to a VMware server infrastructure environment without having to set up a separate operating system, said James Gudeli, vice president of business development at Kerio.





The appliance includes Kerio MailServer 6.6, the latest release of the software with new resource-scheduling capabilities and tools for migrating off of Microsoft Exchange. Kerio MailServer provides users with access to e-mail, calendars, contact files and other collaboration applications through their mobile devices. The company's products target SMB customers and Gudeli said the VMware certification would help channel partners provide even more value to their customers.

N-able Technologies will be demonstrating three additions to its lineup of remote monitoring and management software for managed service providers. Topping the list is N-central 6.7 (pictured at left), a new release of the systems and network management software with new functionality for remote control of any IP-enabled device and advanced integration with the Intel vPro management and security processor technology built into desktop and laptop PCs.



N-able will also be exhibiting N-compass 3.0, a new release of the company's performance reporting application with drag-and-drop report-building capabilities, time-based reporting for compliance with service level agreements, and asset reports for detailing the performance and life-cycle expectations of systems attached to a network. N-able said N-compass reports help solution providers demonstrate to customers and prospects the value of their services. N-able will also be demonstrating its recently unveiled N-supportPro secure remote control and IT support software.

Unitrends will be showing off its new Recovery-300 desktop storage appliance for data backup and recovery of up to 1.125TB of data. Targeting small business customers, the small-form-factor, disk-to-disk storage appliance allows system administrators to manage, protect and restore data using Unitrends' Web-based Rapid Recovery Console. Unitrends markets the appliance through VARs and distributors in the U.S. and U.K.





The Recovery-300 is Unitrends' first small-form-factor appliance to incorporate software-based data compression and data encryption capabilities. It runs on a quad-core processor, incorporates four gigabytes of memory and uses four 1.5-TB drives arranged in a RAID-10 configuration. Altogether the system supports up to 10 client systems (typically servers, according to the company) and more than 40 operating systems and applications.

Feeling artistic? Corel will be exhibiting Corel Painter 11, the recently unveiled new release of the painting and illustration application (screen shot at left) and its 40-plus new and enhanced features.



The software has new, more responsive artistic tools, such as pressure-sensitive brushes, and offers users the ability to create and customize brushes and media variants. Corel Painter 11 has enhanced links to digital photography programs, such as Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo and Adobe Photoshop, and improved color recognition when importing files from other applications. And release 11 offers more tools for experimenting with color theory and composition.





Corel began shipping the new release Feb. 25.

Verbatim Americas will be showcasing its 1-, 2- and 4-bay RAID desktop hard drive system with USB and eSATA II (external Serial ATA II) interfaces (shown at left). The product will offer three RAID mode settings: "BIG" (default setting for providing maximum storage capacity), RAID-0 (fastest performance) and RAID-1 (writes data to first disk and copies to a second disk for backup). The system will be available in 1-, 2- and 4-TB capacity configurations and includes the Nero BackItUp 2 Essentials software with backup scheduling and file-encryption capabilities.





The company will also be exhibiting its recently introduced 1-TB Quad Interface Desktop Hard Disk Drive. The external hard drive product for PC and Mac users, which has data transfer rates up to 3,000 Mbps, offers four leading interfaces: USB 2.0, FireWire 400, FireWire 800 and eSATA II. The product also includes the Nero BackItUp 2 Essentials software.

Talis Data Systems will be demonstrating the recently unveiled Datagent hardware-based security system. Independent of a PC's operating system, Datagent's SmartCard-based interface controls user access to components and peripherals such as hard drives, USB ports and network connections. When installed on a PC or workstation, the system prevents data migration across multiple secure networks and protects against insider attacks.





Through Synnex, Talis' distributor, Datagent has been integrated into Dell's Precision T3400 Workstation and HP's DC7900 desktop PC products. The Talis product is NSA/NIAP-validated at EAL level 4 and ensures physical separation of up to three networks within a single desktop computer.

Coyote Point Systems will be talking up its revamped channel program designed to support the growing midmarket demand for the company's products. The new program is centered on the vendor's new Equalizer GX line of application-acceleration and load-balancing systems, including the E350GX, E450GX and E650GX (pictured).



With the three-tiered partner program, Coyote Point is promising resellers additional revenue and improved margin opportunities through new pricing models, reduced competition and a new lead-registration system.

Fortinet will be showing off its new FortiOS 4.0 operating system (screen shot at left) that powers the network security technology vendor's UTM (unified threat management) devices. The vendor says FortiOS 4.0 increases the levels of application security control, offers more visibility into application access within a network and provides improved data leakage protection.





The new release also accelerates the rate data can be transmitted across a wide-area network while ensuring multithreat security enforcement. New SSL inspection capabilities boost security and policy control among encrypted traffic streams, provide increased protection for secure Web and application servers and improve visibility into network traffic.