15 Hot Products From XChange Solution Provider '08

Over 70 vendors and distributors exhibited at Everything Channel's XChange Solution Provider '08 conference. Here are a few of the products that caught the channel's attention.

Bandspeed AirMaestro 3100 AG

Wireless vendor Bandspeed showed off its AirMaestro 3100 AG Virtual Controller Access Point, which offers the benefits of controller-based wireless systems without the extra box. By incorporating a virtual controller via integrated software, the AirMaestro provides central management, load balancing, fast roaming for VoIP and rogue access point detection and mitigation. Aimed at small and midsize business with fewer than 500 employees, the access point supports 802.11a/b/g and includes three radios, one for 2.4 GHz, one for 5 GHz and one that acts as a security scanner. Bandspeed's AirMaestro is priced at $599 and is available through distributor Synnex.

Brother HL-4040CN

Brother's HL-4040CN color laser printer offers super-fast prints at a low price. Selling for a street price of around $399, the printer produces 21 color pages per minute. Comparably priced printers from rivals typically come in closer to 8 pages per minute, the company says.

Panasonic Business-Rugged Toughbooks

Panasonic's Sheila O'Neil, senior director of channel sales, demonstrates the capabilities of the vendor's Toughbook line of notebooks by dumping a bottle of water on one. Pansonic recently launched its line of "business-rugged" notebooks, which are thinner and lighter than the rest of its Toughbook line, and the company plans to introduce rugged handheld devices this summer.

IBM BladeCenter S

IBM is in the midst of a midmarket channel onslaught, putting heavy focus and a $100 million marketing investment into the space. Part of that effort includes the development of products that are specifically tailored to meet midmarket customers' needs. Enter BladeCenter S, where the "S" stands for SMB. "That footprint is the foundation that allows you to add storage, add services," said Rich Michos, vice president of worldwide business partner strategy for IBM. The vendor currently is offering channel partners a 25 percent promotional rate on the BladeCenter S, he added.

Cymphonix Network Composer DC 10

Cymphonix showed off its Network Composer DC 10 bandwidth control appliance, which is aimed at small and mid-size businesses. The device offers Internet content filtering, secure Web traffic filtering, bandwidth shaping and prioritization and application control, among other features. It can handle Internet connections with speeds of up to 2Mbps.

Ricoh Aficio SP 4100-KP

Ricoh showed off its HotSpot technology, which enables wireless, secure printing from notebooks and PDAs. The technology, which comes to Ricoh via a partnership with PrinterOn, is available in products such as Ricoh's Aficio SP 4100-KP, a black-and-white laser printer that produces up to 31 pages per minute.

Highly Reliable Systems RAIDPacs

Highly Reliable Systems showcased its new 3Tbyte RAIDPacs backup devices. The Highly Reliable sales pitch is forget tape or disk-to-disk-to-tape and simply move to a RAID 5 removable backup system.

Ciprico RAIDCore

Ciprico is bringing virtual storage to the channel via its RAIDCore line of virtual RAID adapters. For $100 to $400, a 4-port version of Ciprico's RC5000 series offers functionally that rival hardware-based adapters provide for closer to $800. Ciprico acquired the technology from Broadcom and is now building up a base of channel partners to support it.

Cyberoam CRi Series

Cyberoam's CRi Series of unified threat management appliances integrate secure gateways with stateful inspection firewall, VPN, anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-spam and a host of other security services. Its Cyberoam CR100i, CR250i and CR500i appliances are specifically targeted at small and mid-size enterprises with limited financial and technical resources.

Jetta Jetbook D150S

Jetta International spotlighted its Jetbook D150S semi-rugged notebook, a drop-resistant, spill-resistant laptop that features a magnesium top and bottom case to protect its innards. An anti-shock mounting design protects the 15.4-inch LCD and hard drive from damage. It is built on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and includes Intel's Graphics Media Accelerator X3100. It also comes with built-in support for Gigabit Ethernet as well as the Intel Pro/Wireless 4965AGN network connection.

Fortinet FortiWifi-60B

Fortinet used its rain forest-themed demo room at XChange Solution Provider to tell partners that it's a jungle out there. Fortinet's remedy? Its line SMB-focused security appliances. The FortiWifi-60B, for example, includes firewall, IPSec and SSL VPN, intrusion prevention, Web filtering and anti-spam, along with built-in 802.11a/b/g and 3G wireless.

Juniper EX-series Ethernet Switches

Juniper Networks told attendees of XChange Solution Provider that "the switch is on" and that it's time for solution providers to take a serious look at the networking alternative. The vendor's recent launch of its first line of enterprise Ethernet switches more than doubles the addressable market opportunity that Juniper and its channel partners can chase, the company says, adding the $6.8 billion switch market to the $2.8 billion router and $3.0 billion security market opportunities Juniper is currently addressing. The new EX-series Ethernet Switch portfolio begins shipping in March.

Secnap SpammerTrap



Secnap Network Security's SpammerTrap anti-spam e-mail security devices block spam, viruses and phishing attempts. Its SpammerTrap SME-500, designed for customers with up to 500 users and up to 1,000 mailboxes, integrates with messaging platforms such as Microsoft Exchange, Novell GroupWise and IBM Lotus Notes. It adds white and blacklists, spam score settings and protection against denial of service attacks. The company has rolled out Hosted SpammerTrap, which is based on the same software. The new managed security service provides an option for customers that need anti-spam protection but don't want to purchase hardware or layout upfront capital expense.

Fujitsu Hard Drives

Fujitsu Computer Products of America highlighted its new External 2.5" 300GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD) as well as several other mobile and enterprise hard drives. The Fujitsu External HDD includes an integrated USB 2.0 cable for easy connectivity. The company also displayed its latest 2.5" Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) and Serial ATA (SATA) HDDs.

Belkin N1 VisionM

Along with a bevy of peripherals, Belkin also showed off its N1 Vision wireless router, which supports the 802.11n draft 2.0 high-speed WLAN standard. It includes 3x3 radio design and four wired Gigabit Ethernet ports. It also supports Wi-Fi Protected Setup and Multiple SSID for simplified installation and added security.