In June, SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro hosted the fifth
annual Best of TechEd Awards at Microsoft's annual megashow. These prestigious
awards, which garner enthusiastic participation from the show's vendors, honor
Microsoft partners who stand out in their markets and offer products of quality
that address customers' most pressing needs.
This year,we screened more than 200 contest entries. "The remarkable array
of products featured at this year's TechEd impressed us with their technological
innovation and forward thinking," said Michael Otey,Technical Director for SQL
Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro, who served as one of the Best
of TechEd 2006 judges.The judging panel also included Karen Forster, Editorial
Director for SQL Server Magazine and Windows IT Pro; Amy Eisenberg,
Executive Editor of Windows IT Pro; Diana May, Technical Editor for SQL
Server Magazine; and Jason Bovberg, Senior Editor, and Blake Eno, Products
Editor, for Windows IT Pro and SQL Server Magazine.
This year's SQL Server—related categories were Best Business Intelligence Product, Best Database Development and Administration Tool, Best Developer Tool, Best Hardware Solution, and Best Software Components and Middleware. In addition, a SQL Server—related product was honored with the prestigious Most Innovative Product award.
Most Innovative Product
PolyServe Database Utility for SQL Server
Most Innovative Product
Database Utility for SQL Server PolyServe
877-765-7378
http://www.polyserve.com/sql_server_consolidation.php
PolyServe's Database Utility for SQL Server enables SQL Server system consolidation
as well as providing a high-availability solution. "We selected Database Utility
for SQL Server because it addresses availability and maintenance with a new,
forward-thinking approach," said contest judge Michael Otey. The product can
reduce your SQL Server infrastructure costs and provide increased SQL Server
availability to your end users. In many organizations, a variety of database
needs has resulted in the proliferation of underutilized SQL Server systems
throughout the organization. These systems impose high infrastructure, administration,
and licensing requirements on an organization. The server-consolidation capability
of Database Utility for SQL Server can radically reduce an organization's total
cost of ownership (TCO) by consolidating these server instances, thus simultaneously
increasing the percentage of hardware utilization and freeing underutilized
systems for other tasks. By using a feature called dynamic rehosting, which
employs a shared storage infrastructure, Database Utility for SQL Server lets
you shift SQL Server instances between different host servers within seconds.
Dynamic rehosting provides for high availability of SQL Server services as well
as one-click system maintenance.
See associated figure
Best Business Intelligence Product
Independent Computer Systems RSinteract
Best Business Intelligence Product
RSinteract
Independent Computer Systems
(44) (0) 161-886-8500
http://www.rsinteract.com
Finalists
OfficeWriter for Reporting Services
SoftArtisans
877-763-8278
http://officewriter.softartisans.com
Dundas Chart for .NET
Dundas Software
800-463-1492
http://www.dundas.com/Products/Chart/NET/index.aspx
Independent Computer Systems RSinteract is a zero-footprint,fully Web-based,
interactive tool that gives end users a simple report-design interface to quickly
build new reports or customize existing reports on any data source defined in
SQL Server Reporting Services. The interface lets users instantly see a rendering
of their reports. The report-building window is in the foreground, and a sample
rendering of the report shows in the background to give immediate feedback about
the actual look of the report. This feature fills a gap in Report Builder and
other tools in which the design step is separated from the rendering step. A
user can immediately see the effect of adding, moving, or deleting fields in
a report. The RSinteract framework is presented through a standard Web browser,
requiring no client software downloads or plug-ins. Reports can be built from
a combination of relational and OLAP data sources, including Analysis Services
cubes, SQL statements, and stored procedures. Reports are stored in a folder
structure within Reporting Services and made available only to users with the
correct permissions. Data permissions are inherited from Windows and SQL Server
security administration. Reports can be exported to Microsoft Excel, PDF, TIFF,
CSV, and XML files. All reports built in RSinteract are Reporting Services reports,
so any of the features and functions in Reporting Services can be used with
these reports, including production and distribution.
See associated figure
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