Government IT: 25 Solutions To See At FOSE

This year's FOSE exhibition in Washington, D.C., brings together hundreds of exhibitors, all with solutions specifically geared to federal, state and local government integrations, health care, education and other verticals as well. From application software to networking gear and storage solutions to rugged notebooks, Channelweb.com caught up with a few exhibitors to ask, "What are you bringing to the government IT stage this year?"

Panasonic Computer Solutions recently debuted the Toughbook U1, an ultramobile PC hailed as Panasonic's "most rugged device yet." The U1 sports an Intel Atom processor, Microsoft Windows XP and Vista, integrated bar-code reader, RFID reader, pressure-sensitive touch screen and 6- to 8-hour battery life derived from two hot-swappable batteries. It starts at $2,499 and is targeted to highly mobile government workers such as motorcycle police and building inspectors, Panasonic says.

Dell's new rugged laptop is a FOSE 2009 debut -- the second-generation Dell Latitude XFR featuring Dell's Ballistic Armor Protection System (designed to meet military standards as high as MIL-STD-810F). The "armor" includes PR481 chassis material and PrimoSeal technology, which, according to Dell, has a higher Ingress Protection rating (IP65) than other rugged notebooks. The XFR features Intel Centrino 2 with vPro, Dell ProSupport, a QuadCool Thermal Management System, extended 6-cell field-use batteries, Nvidia Quadro NVS 160 M 256 DDR2 graphics and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, and dual channel DDR2 memory, among other features. At press time, price information was not available.

Kodak's new Scan Station 500 was designed as a multifunction device with broader user operation and file distribution in mind. Scan Station 500 boasts an 8-inch touch screen, a new user interface and -- one of the first of its kind -- a Voice Attachment feature that allows users to send audio comments and instructions along with scanned documents. Interoffice mail trays, your days might be numbered.

American Power Conversion's modular three-phase power distribution unit (PDU) is, according to APC, the first-ever fully modular PDU, sporting hot-swappable modular circuit breakers and the ability to distribute three-phase power at 415 volts. The power vendor is positioning the modular unit as not only a power saver, but also a space saver in the data center. Its auto-transformer technology can be used instead of more cumbersome isolation/step-down transformers.

Laserfiche Rio is the document management vendor's enterprise content management solution, and Laserfiche also brought its Laserfiche-SharePoint Integration and Transparent Records Management to FOSE. With document management software now a crucial piece of the total solution for everything from legal offices to health care, the name of the game is versatility. Laserfiche continues its push for VAR recruitment around making document management as compatible as possible with everything from electronic medical records systems to government networks. The Rio is targeted to enterprise content management, and is Department of Defense-certified, as well as a bolt-on for SharePoint.

Hewlett Packard's enterprise storage push continues. Its new EVA 6400/8400 (left) and supportive SVSP 2.1 (a network-based storage virtualization solution) are FOSE 2009 debuts. The EVA's array's virtualized storage system automatically grows or shrinks with the demands of applications. The SVSP platform is geared to Fibre Channel SAN environments, and, according to HP, doubles the performance and ups the scalability and flexibility of previous versions.

Eyeing the steady and ever-more-popular adoption of wireless LAN networks in government agency settings, Motorola is pushing its Total Enterprise and Access Mobility (TEAM) integrated voice and data portfolio. The TEAM solution includes mobile e-mail, calendar/contact sync, text messaging, Internet/intranet access, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 for business applications and toll-free telephony integrated with PBX and PTT services. The complete solution draws on Motorola's Wireless Services Manager (PTT, text, PBX interoperability and enhanced battery life, mobility and security), Network Services Manager (scalable to 4,500 users and future TEAM developments and capable of extending services to other devices such as mobile PCs and bar-code scanners) and Windows Mobile VoWLAN smartphones.

MSP provider N-able in February said it would partner with NTRglobal's remote desktop support solutions for N-able's new N-supportPro, a remote-control and IT support solution. According to N-able, the solution was designed on the idea that because of security concerns, Software-as-a-Service is slow to be adopted by many government agencies -- whether it has a future in the vertical is a matter of much debate. But a solution that could be hosted behind the customer firewall in "on-demand" deployments would do the job. The N-supportPro software, powered by NTRsupport, uses a secured Internet connection to allow service desk technicians access to remote devices.

Government and health-care settings, as with most high-stress verticals, are printing and paper nightmares. Xerox is bringing three Phaser models to FOSE-- the 8860 MFP, 8560 and 6280 (pictured) -- as well as WorkCentre 7356MFP. The Phaser 6280, a color laser, is specifically geared to busy offices requiring a single-function desktop printer, offering 26 ppm print speeds and a 950-sheet capacity. The 8860 MFP, with a 750MHz processor and Adobe PostScript 3, boasts 30 ppm in color and black and white, whereas the 8560 color printer is built on Xerox's solid ink technology -- cartridge-free and printing up to 30 ppm. The WorkCentre 7356MFP, which starts at $14,445, is the big boy: a workgroup machine enabled with Xerox Extensible Interface Platform to allow for custom apps from ISVs and other software developers.

Hosting automation software vendor Ensim continues to tweak its offerings for single, Web-based administration consoles and the proliferation of hosted automation software in government settings. The company is pushing Unify Enterprise Edition toward government IT departments, touting its support for Active Directory, MS Exchange, BlackBerry Windows Mobile, Office Communications Server and others, and also cloud computing, allowing for management and provisioning both in on-premise Microsoft infrastructure and cloud services such as Google Apps.

Avocent's SwitchView SC desktop switches are targeted to high security risk workstation environments, with the idea that government settings can consolidate multiple workstations of varying classification levels. The SC540 boasts Smart Card/Common Access Card reader support, controlled USB connectivity, dual-head, dual-link DVI video and USB peripherals. All of Avocent's SCs are validated by the National Information Assurance Partnership Common Criteria to EAL 4+.

Fujitsu has several hats in the ring for scanning and document management supremacy, and for FOSE will be bringing its fi-6010N iScanner, a network device tailored for enterprise-level deployments that includes scan to e-mail, scan to folder, scan to network fax, scan to FTP, scan to print, advanced imaging features, predefined sequencing and support for custom application development. The fi-6010N also automatically adjusts for rotation, blank page deletion, color detection, de-skew and page-size detection.

Convert alert! Omnitron's iConverter XG is a 10 Gigabit, protocol-transparent media converter with two pluggable transceiver ports. The XG can be used as a copper-to-fiber converter, a fiber mode converter, a WDM transponder or a fiber repeater, designed for government networking applications. It supports multiple XFP and SFP+ interface configurations, and the XG also is compatible with copper (10GBASE-CX4) transceiver modules.

Getac's family of rugged notebooks and handhelds got a new member this month: the PS535F fully rugged handheld, GPS-enabled PDA. It features a built-in 3-megapixel auto-focus camera, altimeter and e-compass and also pinpoint navigation support. Getac is specifically eyeing the utilities, oil and gas, forest patrol, geology and mineral resources sectors -- sectors where workers need to capture field data and transmit it back to headquarters.

SpectraLogic is debuting at FOSE its Spectra T680, a tape library that allows for storage of a full Petabyte of data in a single rack and a seamless growth path to more than 10,000 storage slots. According to SpectraLogic, the T680 consumes half the power of most other midrange tape libraries, offering 1.08 PB (compressed) maximum capacity, support for up to 690 tape cartridges and "TranScales" to the T950. The vendor is targeting the tape library to federal agencies needing larger capacity and throughput, and said it can do so speedily: no forklift upgrades needed, just a chassis change.

Turning Technologies specializes in audience-response systems, and just released ResponseCard Anywhere, which is an LCD-screen equipped handheld receiver approximately the size of a deck of cards. The play is for education, training or meeting moderator deployments and, according to Turning, doesn't require a projector or computer to operate. A presenter or educator asks a question of an audience group, presses a button on the receiver to open polling and the audience members respond via multiple choice prompts on ResponseCard RF keypads. Whoever's holding the receiver, Turning says, gets the results immediately on the receiver's screen.

Check Point's Power-1 appliances are geared toward security concerns in high-performance environments: data centers, large campuses and the like. According to Check Point, they comprise firewall, IPSec VPN and intrusion prevention and technology from VPN-1, designed to be scalable, able to be updated for more security features and managed by a Check Point SmartCenter management server.

Kore Telematics is a digital wireless services provider focused on machine-to-machine deployments in government agencies and elsewhere. Prism, its digital services platform that it will be demonstrating at FOSE, controls all aspects of GSM and CDMA data services, including provisioning, device activation/deactivation, usage monitoring, trouble ticketing and coverage lookup. Kore's VARs use the solution primarily as part of fleet management, covert tracking for law enforcement, asset tracking, remote monitoring of critical infrastructure such as generators and pump stations, environmental monitoring and automated meeting infrastructure for clients such as the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps.

At FOSE, Black Box, which provides voice communications, data infrastructure and product solutions, is unveiling its AlertWerks II Environmental Monitoring System, which is a family of sensor hubs and plug-and-play intelligent sensors designed to guard network infrastucture from everything from security breaches to water, humidity, fire and smoke. The system also monitors airflow, AC voltage and motion, and at its core has the ServSensor hub -- the "brains" of the environmental monitoring system and available, Black Box says, in four versions depending on setting.

SolarWinds' Orion Network Performance Monitor is a Web-based product designed to provide realtime network monitoring and advanced alerting functions for enterprises. It's scalable to accommodate network growth, and has a customizable Web interface to support different users and departments. At FOSE, SolarWinds also plans to demo its Engineer's Toolset 10, a suite of realtime network-monitoring tools for network discovery, configuration management, fault monitoring, performance monitoring, NetFlow analysis and other networking needs.

Zebra's target is mobile printing -- specifically, mobile RFID printing solutions designed for government, manufacturing, transportation and logistics deployments. The P4T and RP4T (pictured) are both rugged mobile printers, support connectivity for Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11g, include WPA2 security for enhanced data protection and offer dual print methods (direct thermal and thermal transfer).

FalconStor is bringing its enterprise-class SAN solution, Network Storage Server, to FOSE, and with that the server's virtualization capabilities and replication gateway that's enabled for existing storage arrays from any vendor. The server includes MicroScan Thin Storage replication technology to optimize WAN bandwidth utilization, FalconStor said, and thin provisioning of all local and remote storage (pictured in screenshot) means fewer storage acquisition costs and less long-term power consumption.

Emtec Federal recently unveiled a Mobile Clinical Workstation specific to health-care settings, designed to take the place of cumbersome computers-on-wheels (COWS) but also to be a more stable solution, Emtec said, than laptops and small, easily misplaced devices. The workstation combines smart-card technology, thin-client computing, wireless and compatibility with any number of hardware and software products. According to Emtec, the workstation has a battery life of 12 to 14 hours between charges.

WiebeTech, a brand of CRU-Data Port, is bringing several storage solutions to FOSE, including the small, portable RTX400-QR direct-attached storage device. The RTX400-QR features a quad interface supporting up to 100 MBps data transfer rates, a lightweight aluminum case, LCD display, tray-free drive bays, ultraquiet fans, a rugged handle, 1.5-TB hard drives (enabling six TBs of storage) and a RAID controller capable of RAID levels 0, 1, 10, 3 and 5. According to WiebeTech, preconfigured units ship with RAID 5, and are targeted toward forensics professionals. Available through GSA scheduling, with an MSRP of $899.

ScienceLogic's new EM7 Meta-Appliances, dubbed EM7 G3, are FOSE premieres and designed for advanced network monitoring. Capabilities include continuity monitoring operations (for remote and mobile assets), collector resource pools (for automated load balancing), engineered high availability (for different access portals), IPv6 network support (for dual-stack IPv6 networks), an automation engine for event-based notification, advanced multitenancy support, core-to-edge security architecture (designed for government agencies seeking greater and more secure use of cloud computing scenarios), chargeback features and user-experience service-level monitors (for applications hosted in dedicated, private and public clouds alike). According to ScienceLogic, the EM7 G3 will see general availability by June.