10 Companies To Watch In 2008

At this point unified threat management appliances are part and parcel of any intelligent security plan. What separates Astaro from the pack is its Linux foundation, which paves the way for the solution provider partners to capture 30 percent margins. Look for Astaro to continue to push the margin and technology envelope in 2008. The company closed the year by coming out with a cool software offering that allows iPhone users to tap into the Astaro Security Gateway VPN. There's even a free home user download.

What can you say about a vendor that plays in two of the hottest market segments (virtualization and security) with a product that has the coolest cutting edge solution providers singing its praises? Let's just say this company is in the catbird seat. The company's V-Agent technology provides a comprehensive security solution for virtual infrastructures. File this one under hot acquisition candidate for EMC or Symantec.

With its $500 million acquisition of XenSource, Citrix has been busy refashioning itself as an end-to-end virtualization provider from desktop to servers including application delivery. The big bang comes in the first half of 2008 when the company plans to combine existing Citrix and XenSource technology to launch XenDesktop, a desktop virtualization software. File this one under software for the Starship Enterprise set.

ConnectWise has consistently won rave reviews for its business automation software that is used by thousands of solution providers, small, large and everyone in between.

What makes 2008 look so bright for these guys is more solution providers than ever before have made the leap to services, managed and otherwise, and are using ConnectWise to make sure that each and every services cylinder is operating efficiently, from technical trouble tickets being routed efficiently to optimization of utilization rates to successful scaling of managed services.

Throw in CEO Arnie Bellini's 20/20 vision on where VARs need to go to make money and you have a software product/workout plan sure to turn even a 98 pound weakling VAR into a champion body builder. If you're tired of getting sand kicked in your face from vendors, then call ConnectWise.

Do you want to soar like a Falcon? All you've got to do is start selling FalconStor's Continuous Data Protection Virtual Appliance for VMware Virtual Infrastructure. It offers advanced disk-based data protection technology, guarding physical and virtual servers simultaneously for continuous data availability.

But what's great technology without channel commitment? The company is helmed by channel savvy Chairman and CEO ReiJane Huai, who scored big time in the channel in the late '80s and early '90s as the CEO of Cheyenne Software.

Juniper is forever nipping at Cisco's heels. And lately those nips are turning into big bites. Look for an even bigger one early in the year. Word is Juniper about to finally answer partner prayers and come out with its own switch line. No matter what happens, Cisco is feeling the heat from Juniper.

How about the networking giant's decision to come clean and open its IOS network operating system just one day after Juniper threw down the gauntlet by announcing its plans to open its JUNOS operating system to third party developers. Throw in changes made by Juniper's Worldwide Channel Chief Frank Vitagliano, a channel legend for working wonders at his old company, IBM, and you have the makings of a Juniper Renaissance in 2008.

Mimosa has burst on to the E-Mail Archiving and Recovery Software scene like a shooting star. Solution providers are raving about the technology, the pricing flexibility (Mimosa offers subscription based pricing and financing) and the fat margins that come with what an elegant solution to a thorny problem for any and all businesses. And guess what: it's not sold on every street corner. It all adds up to a prosperous New Year for Mimosa and its partners.

We've always loved the Hard-Driving, Big Daddy graphics processors thrust into the market by Nvidia. What makes them look so hot in 2008 is the changing market dynamics, specifically the company's tight relationship with Intel and its move to build integrated chip sets for the Intel platform.

All this as long time rival ATI, which was bought by AMD last year, tries to keep its graphics edge under a new parent. Even if ATI keeps its footing, Nvidia is poised to prosper in the wake of a much bigger embrace of graphics processors by all comers to take some processing pressure off core CPUs.

I know what you're thinking: Not another virtualization company. No it's not just another virtualization company. This one has products aimed squarely at Windows unified data storage clusters. Anyway they aren't the first company to make a bundle making up for Microsoft's technology shortcomings (Can you say Citrix?). A super hot technology category and market segment makes this company a red-hot target to be acquired in 2008.

The king of all things digital scored big this year with a beefed up new Power Partner channel program and a spate of cool products, including breakthrough LCDs and plasmas, the chic Q-1 Ultra handheld and even a super crash resistant solid state drive for notebooks. This company is living proof that a first class channel program, great products and great marketing make a difference.

Look for even cooler products and more improvements to its channel program in 2008 courtesy of Old School Channel Veteran and Samsung VP of Marketing Chris Franey and Channel Marketing Manager Richard Hutton.