20 Midmarket Products We Love Right Now

Midmarket businesses are often neglected in favor of small businesses and enterprises. But midsize companies represent a hot market, one in which solution providers are finding more and more opportunities. Over the space of several weeks, the Channel Group Test Center sifted through products in a variety of categories in search of solutions VARs can help use to drive their midmarket business.

adobe.com, Price: Starts at $40,000 per CPU

altova.com, Price: XMLSpy Enterprise is {$999}, Professional is {$499}

componentone.com, Price: Not available

digipede.net, Price: Professional Edition starts at $4,000 per year

openspan.com, Price: Not available

symantec.com, Price: SVS 2.1 Pro MSRP is $55 per node

symantec.com, Price: $203.50 per node, minimum requirement of 200 nodes

tableausoftware.com, Price: $1,799 Tableau 3.0 is the easiest tool for business intelligence on the desktop. The company is also offering a new Tableau Server product in early November. The Tableau Server competes with products from Business Objects, Cognos and MicroStrategy. Tableau Server is offered with a Web portal, which connects its dashboard views directly from the Tableau engine and its worksheets. The portal has zero footprint on a Web browser, so users do not have to add any special plug-ins.

Tableau 3.0 has the ability to create new dashboards without forcing users to write custom code. The new dashboards are fully configurable and are just as interactive as the desktop views. The dashboards not only enable monitoring of information but also provide complete analytical capabilities, including full drill -owns, filtering, sliding and zooming. Tableau dashboards present live data, so it is highly dynamic.

adtran.com, Price: $5,195

The "network in a box" is an all-in-one converged IP-PBX solution from telephony vendor Adtran. The Adtran NetVanta 7100 is a 24-port LAN Switch with a multitude of features, including Power-over-Ethernet capability, a robust IP router, built-in firewall, support for VPN, DHCP, FTP, 802.1Q VLANs and 802.1p Class of Service, and Gigabit uplinks. The NetVanta 7100 also has built-in IP-PBX functionality, voicemail using a CompactFlash memory card, auto-attendant and an SIP gateway.

NetVanta supports analog, T1, PRI and ADSL interfaces. The box has two analog trunks and two analog extensions for analog devices and emergency backup. Since the Adtran 7100 doesn't convert packets of analog signals into the IP backplane or use Analog Terminal Adaptors, there aren't any complications typically associated with digital-to-analog conversions. The Adtran NetVanta 7100 provides full 15.4W of PoE power to all 24 ports without any budgeting, so any number of devices can be plugged in for power.

extricom.com, Price: $4,320

The WLAN enterprise solution from Extricom helps "cut the cord" -- moving everyone onto a wireless network -- without compromising performance, reliability and security. Extricom's system supports triple-play and other services, such as voice, data, location-based services, and video on a WLAN. The switch puts all the access points on the same channel, using the same frequency, to create a continuous blanket of coverage. This way, there is seamless mobility with no handoff latency, no co-channel interference, and robust connections similar to what is found in a wired network.

Extricom Interference-Free EXWO-404 WLAN Switch works only with the company's own access points. The UltraThin devices contain no software or storage and are managed centrally by the switch. It handles centralized packet-by-packet processing and decides which access point to use based on realtime conditions whenever a packet is sent.

sonicwall.com, Price: $995

Organizations can establish secure 3G wireless broadband networks with SonicWall TZ 190 Wireless. Its small size notwithstanding, this box has some advanced networking and security capabilities. On top of 802.11g WLAN capability, it has dual WAN ports, wireless WAN capability, firewall and unified threat management security functionality, VoIP configuration options and eight LAN ports. The second WAN port can be configured as a LAN or DMZ port. This SonicWall product can be used in kiosks, mobile point-of-sale stations and portable ATM machines.

As a multilayered network security platform, TZ 190 Wireless integrates Type II PC Card-based 3G wireless broadband support, hardware accelerated IPSec VPN, automated failover/failback technologies, and a deep packet inspection firewall. For Internet and internal network security, there are built-in security features such as realtime gateway antivirus, intrusion prevention and antispam capabilities, and antispyware tools. The TZ 190 can also play a role in disaster recovery.

codegreennetworks.com, Price: Depends on the number of users, about $50,000 for 1,000 users

Code Green Networks addresses concerns over data leaks with its CI-1500 appliance. Able to monitor and protect data in more than 390 file formats, including Microsoft Office documents and images, CI-1500 blocks any outgoing traffic that violates corporate policy. The price of the appliance depends on the number of users on the system, with a 1,000-user-setup costing $50,000. The appliance sits at the customer's Internet gateway and analyzes all structured and unstructured outgoing network traffic.

Once a data leak attempt is detected, the antidata-leakage solution implements automated policies to prevent them from succeeding. The resulting action may be as simple as presenting an error message to the user, to notifying the compliance officer of the breach. A policy can also specify that all e-mail messages be encrypted. The system enforces policies in all of the most widely used TCP protocols including SMTP, FTP, HTTP and Web mail.

juniper.com, Price: Infranet Controller 4000 starts at $10,000

Juniper's UAC appliance is a NAC in a box. Under the hood, the UAC appliance is running the Infranet software, which communicates and controls all end points. The UAC appliance uses an 802.1X client to enforce network access and security through switches and wireless access points. The Infranet software provides seamless communication and control of 802.1X client agents. By accessing a network, Infranet verifies policy rights and validates authentication while it assesses the clients for compliance.

If a client does not meet compliance, the UAC appliance will quarantine on a VLAN designed just for assessments, and clean it using virus scanning tools. Wireless access points follow the same procedures. Along with the Juniper UAC appliance, solution providers can create many different VLAN configurations to accommodate various end-user requirements. In addition, the UAC appliance can be used as an authentication portal to accept guest users coming from outside a network.

marshal.com, Price: Starts at $40 per user, $8 for one-year maintenance for a 25-user pack

When it comes to meeting regulatory compliance of external access points and portable storage devices, Marshal's EndPoint Security will exceed solution providers' expectations. The EndPoint Security software provides a multilayered approach to protect network environments from files downloaded and shared from USB and FireWire storage devices.

In addition, EndPoint scans and secures media from other peripherals such as DVD drives, wireless and Bluetooth devices, including legacy devices that use COM and LPT ports. The software does not ignore any point of entry to a network through a workstation or mobile computer. Marshal has done a great job of simplifying the EndPoint administration features. A simple set of wizards help solution providers create a comprehensive auditing process in minutes.

exinda.com, Price: Varies with throughput; $19,040.95 for 20 Mbps

As more and more mission-critical applications, such as voice, move on to IP networks, products like Exinda's 4800 WAN optimization and application acceleration solution become a necessity. Exinda's solution monitors and reports on the network, while optimizing and accelerating applications for best performance. The appliance is optimal for midsize enterprises with 10 to 50 networked sites and approximately 600 employees.

Ideal for branch/head office deployment, it generates reports on key applications, performance statistics and resource utilization. Top URLs and hosts can also be tracked. The historical data can be used for statistical analysis for capacity planning. One way to improve performance is to increase bandwidth. The box increases virtual bandwidth while decreasing latency and stabilizing jitter on existing infrastructure. Exinda's Unified Performance Management integrates network optimization and application acceleration technology on a single platform.

networkphysics.com, Price: $17,495

NetSensory NP-500 network application management appliance from Network Physics identifies and isolates security problems across large and complex networks. There are many reasons for poor performance -- this appliance can help pin down the cause, regardless of whether it's the application, the network, a server, other network devices, or acceleration tools.

The appliance can be installed as a stand-alone device or as part of a larger NetSensory management deployment. Once in place, the NP-500 can monitor two different sources at once and network traffic at speeds of up to 20 Mbps. The software bundled with the NP-500 offers realtime summaries, can drill down into captured data and generate graphs.

acronis.com, Price: $999

No data center should be without the Acronis True Image 9.1 Enterprise Server. The server combines the best imaging software Acronis offers with a backup and group server, a management console and a powerful SDK for ISVs. The Enterprise Server now supports Linux servers and 64-bit Windows. Like Windows, solution providers can use command line parameters to execute Linux agents. Unix and Mac OSes are not supported. Acronis Server can now modify mounted images directly whether they are still in read or write modes.

A new tool called Universal Restore is now part of the Enterprise Server. Restore is an efficient disaster-recovery tool, which can restore images on any computer as well as virtual machines. The Restore tool automatically detects and installs drivers to any hardware, including disk controllers. Acronis's Backup server completes the product. Acronis Server can perform differential backups, exclude files and run regularly through batch scripts. DVD burning is now available. Solution providers can also create PXE packages and bootable ISOs.

mgeups.com, Price: Begins at $11,905

To adequately protect blade servers as they require more power, MGE Office Protection Systems introduced the Pulsar MX Frame, a scalable N+1 to N+3 power protection solution. Like a 3U rack, Pulsar MX Frame can accommodate up to four Pulsar MX 5000 RT power and battery modules. The modules can be added over time to increase the protection capability without shutting down connected equipment.

Since a UPS has a specific capacity, it's important to not overload the unit. As more blade servers are added onto the network, more UPS capacity can be added to the Pulsar MX Frame. The Pulsar MX Frame's modular system connects the 5 kVA submodules in parallel to provide up to 20 kVA with redundancy. UPS modules can start as small as 4 kVA Pulsar MX 5000 RT and go up to 20 KVA. A 5 KVA unit is priced at $3,936. The company offers a one-year guarantee, including batteries.

inmage.net, Price: Varies with configuration, average installation costs $70,000

For medium and large businesses seeking to protect against data loss and eliminate downtime, InMage Systems offers complete disaster recovery and continuous data protection in its DR-Scout software solution. A multiplatform suite, DR-Scout monitors and performs disaster-recovery activities on Windows, Unix, Solaris, and Linux. DR-Scout handles application failover for database servers such as MySQL and Oracle, and reduces backup and recovery windows for Microsoft Exchange, VMware and Linux environments. This continuous data protection (CDP) solution supports multivendor storage arrays and servers, SANs, NAS, direct attached storage, and iSCSI block- and file-level replication.

DR-Scout supports block and file transfers across a network, adjusts bandwidth utilization based on the time of day, and accommodates WAN outages by queuing data changes until the connection is re-established. The product's host-agents offer volume-level continuous data protection, and control servers handle scheduled file-level protection. DR Scout's Control and Media Server provides centralized management and offload of CPU-intensive operations to a different server. The CDP/DR modeler provisions secondary disk storage and bandwidth.

networkinstruments.com, Price: Begins at $19,995 for a 4-Tbyte, one link (two-port) appliance and increases with the amount of storage and number of links

Business survival depends on being able to keep applications running smoothly, and GigaStor from Network Instruments speeds up troubleshooting to minimize downtime. A network analysis solution with onboard storage, GigaStor captures and saves every transaction and packet on the network. When something goes wrong, all activity can be replayed to see what was happening at the time. Problems can be diagnosed without waiting for the problem to recur, or trying to replicate the error.

GigaStor can monitor WAN and LAN environments, even with Gigabit or 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Fibre Channel. With up to 48 Tbytes of on-board storage, GigaStor can be used for data mining and network forensics. The appliance can show communications that occurred and also reconstruct the mined data. It can also identify security breaches by means of a drill-down analysis to determine the source and time of the occurrence.