Best of the tests

IBM picks up the win in this category because it was thinking outside the box when it built its new xSeries x440 server. This server has eight processors sitting in a 4U (7 inches) rack-mountable chassis that can be linked with a sister box to create a 16-processor server. This ability to scale processors outside the chassis is a novel approach to increasing server horse power that yielded outstanding performance numbers in our tests.

Cisco's Catalyst 3550-24, which ships with 24-port Fast Ethernet and two-port Gigabit Ethernet capacity, tops our list of switches tested this year because of its near-perfect performance in our tests. The box produced wire-speed throughput even while handling access control lists we intentionally applied to try to slow it down. Basic Layer 3 performance was picture-perfect with wire-speed throughput throughout our suite of tests and only a 120-microsec latency measurement with 64-byte packets.

With many dial-up ISPs going under in the past year, it is good to see the continued excellence of AT&T's WorldNet service in our performance rankings. While the scores weren't as powerful as last year (some ISPs are catching AT&T), the service still ranks as the best in terms of speedy connections (quick times to log on and high initial connect speeds), and low call-failure rates (fewer busy signals).

We awarded Vividon's Streaming Delivery Accelerator and its corresponding management software top honors in this category for its high performance and — by virtue of a Web-based management system — high manageability and functionality. And considering its size and resources, we also give kudos to Vividon for exhibiting outstanding pre- and post-sales services in customer facilities.

A crucial tool in your "little black bag" to have when your network gets sick should be a handheld network analyzer. These devices can reveal cable faults, detect chattering network adapters, identify switch malfunctions and diagnose the nature of a router malady. Our winner, Fluke Networks' NetTool, offers essential cabling and network health tests for an excellent price and value.

In our recent test of network management systems/frameworks, we found that four products we tested were mature, well-crafted and thoughtfully designed products. But with its wealth of features, useful reports and consistent user interface, Hewlett-Packard's OpenView edged out the others in our tests. While frameworks have gotten a bad rap, we've found that the vendors have improved their products significantly and might be worth another look.

The GigaFast EZ500-S touts an innovative, fanless (hence noiseless) design, good price, performance and ease of use. While it only has one a single gigabit port, that makes it a good choice for small offices/home offices that need a boost but don't want to pay a ton for pure gigabit throughput. This product really gives this very focused target market what it needs.

Our recent review of remote access VPN offerings shows that Cisco clearly built the VPN 3000 series Concentrator and the Cisco VPN 3002 hardware client with an enterprise deployment in mind, giving it the edge over competitor Check Point Software to win this category. The VPN product combination affords network professionals excellent client-management features, strong policy setting and policy maintenance tools, a built-in client-side firewall and solid reporting. 

EEye Digital Security's network vulnerability scanning tool, Retina, bests this category because of its speed and accuracy in pinpointing security holes in an enterprise network and for its intuitive management interface and its ability to fix some vulnerabilities when they are pinpointed.

Alcatel e-ND's 4980 IP-based soft phone was clearly a cut above the other products tested in this category. This product supports more than 90% of the traditional corporate telephone features, and it topped the ticket in terms of installation, ease of use and configuration.

In a year that has seen 802.11b take off in corporations under intense security pressure, we are happy to honor the Bluesocket WG-1000 wireless gateway in this category. We found it successfully protects your wireless resources.