Silver:
InstallShield 2008 Premier
Acresso Software • www.acresso.com
Why it won: All but the simplest applications
need an installation routine, and
most software vendors choose InstallShield as their
tool. The new release supports the latest Microsoft
technologies, including .NET 3.0, Windows Installer
3.0, SQL Server 2005, and Windows Vista.
Bronze:
JBuilder 2008 Enterprise
CodeGear • www.codegear.com
Why it won: Recently acquired by Embarcadero,
JBuilder 2008 Enterprise offers all
the capabilities you’ve come to expect from Microsoft
Visual Studio—except it’s for Java. If you need a Java
development platform, JBuilder is hard to beat.
Development Tools Winners
Gold:
NetAdvantage for .NET
Infragistics
www.infragistics.com
Why it won: NetAdvantage is more
than just a collection of controls; it
provides a framework in which all
the included components share similar object models
and a common architecture.
Building a .NET application can be time-consuming,
particularly if you’re starting from scratch. Predefined
tools and controls can streamline the development
process, but dealing with dozens of different tools
from a plethora of disparate vendors adds another
order of complexity to your development efforts.
That’s where Infragistics’ NetAdvantage for .NET comes in handy. Although it offers several controls
for developers to use, it also provides a
consistent, intuitive way to use them. “Net-
Advantage goes beyond a collection of controls,”
says Michael Otey. “It also provides a
framework where all the components share
similar objects and models and a common
architecture. All these features combine to
make these tools easy to learn and use.”
Other program features that contribute
to the usefulness of that framework include
an export function (for PDF, .xls, and XML
Paper Specification—XPS—formats), a client-
side object model, and Microsoft Share-
Point Portal Server support. Infragistics
has also developed the Akido Framework,
a collection of lightweight Asynchronous
JavaScript and XML controls that integrate
with the existing NetAdvantage control set.
—Jeff James
See associated figure
Silver:
ComponentOne Studio Enterprise
ComponentSource
www.componentone.com
Why it won: For those who need to develop
.NET apps in a hurry, ComponentOne Studio
Enterprise is a good place to start. If you can’t find
the component you need in this product bundle, you
probably didn’t need it in the first place.
Bronze:
Dundas Chart for .NET
Dundas Data Visualization
www.dundas.com
Why it won: Dundas Chart for .NET is not
only one of the easiest to use .NET charting solutions
on the market, but also one of the fastest. Combine
that with a competitive price and stellar product support,
and you have a winner.
Hardware Winners
Gold:
HP ProLiant DL580 G5
HP • www.hp.com
Why it won: HP’s ProLiant servers have always been
performance workhorses, but the HP Proliant DL580
G5’s Quad-Core Xeon processor is an evolutionary
step forward, with particular enticements for SQL
Server admins.
Intel’s Quad-Core processor family has shaken up SQL
Server’s performance potential, as evidenced by the
chip’s Product of the Year designation. The most impressive implementation of the chip that we’ve
seen is HP’s heavyweight ProLiant DL580 G5 server,
an energy-efficient powerhouse that’s ideal for running
data-intensive business applications, such as databases
and business intelligence (BI) applications. In OLTP
testing, the DL580 G5 delivers the world’s fastest industry-
standard server performance, with a record-breaking
TPC-C benchmark. The DL580 G5 also boasts
double the memory capacity of its predecessor.
Of further interest to SQL Server admins is HP’s
partnership with Microsoft to define a SQL Server
2008 data-warehouse reference platform based on
the ProLiant DL580 G5 and HP StorageWorks 50
Modular Smart Arrays. This platform promises to
help you mitigate risk and deploy your SQL Server
2008 data-warehousing solution with confidence and
predictable results.
“Using Intel Xeon Quad-Core processors, HP
ProLiant servers are delivering unprecedented performance
and energy efficiency,” says Tom Kilroy,
vice president and general manager of Intel’s Digital
Enterprise Group. “The new four-socket Quad-Core
Xeon processor systems will provide 16 cores that let
HP provide customers with superior levels of scalability
and virtualization performance and improve
their ability to run mission-critical applications.”
Michael Otey has tested HP ProLiant servers in
our lab and has found their performance and reliability
to be exceptional. “HP’s Integrated Lights-Out 2
technology makes remote management easy,” Otey
said. “Plus, the HP DL580 G5’s new Quad-Core
Xeon processor pushes four-way performance higher
than ever, making this system very well suited to demanding
workloads such as virtualization and application
and database serving.”
—Jason Bovberg
See associated figure
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