Read the Original Article at http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208807652

NEW YORK -- Light Reading's Byte and Switch (www.byteandswitch.com), the premier online storage networking publication, today named the finalists in its first annual Big Bytes Awards competition.

The Big Bytes, created to recognize excellence, innovation, and creativity in storage products, services, and implementations, will be awarded during StoragePlus 2006 – Byte and Switch's two-day enterprise storage conference and exhibition, to be held in Burlingame, Calif., September 12-13, 2006.

"The Big Bytes won't just honor the latest and greatest coming out of the vendor labs; we're also looking at interesting new ways that storage technology gets deployed," said Terry Sweeney, editor-in-chief of Byte and Switch. "We're giving Big Bytes to users of different sizes, from medium and small businesses as well as large enterprises. It's time to reward the innovation that comes from the folks in the trenches who actually have to deploy these products."

Three finalists were selected for each of the 12 Big Bytes categories:

Backup and Archiving

• Asigra Televaulting 6.0
• Avamar Axion 3.5
• CommVault QiNetix 6.1

  NAS
  

• Adaptec Snap Server 550
• Bell Microproducts Hammer Z-Series
• BlueArc Titan 2000

  SAN
  

• Brocade Silkworm 4900
• Cisco MDS 9513
• EMC Symmetrix DMX-3 Series

  Services
  

• Aptare StorageConsole
• Arsenal Digital ViaRemote Business Edition
• Incentra Tapeless Disaster Recovery

  Storage Network Security
  

• EMC Documentum Information Rights Management Services
• NeoScale CryptoStor KeyVault
• Spectra Logic BlueScale Encryption

  Storage Management Software
  

• Brocade Tapestry File Lifecycle Manager
• Kazeon Information Server IS1200
• Sun StorageTek Business Analytics software

  WAN Optimization
  

• Blue Coat SG with Mach5
• F5 WANjet
• Riverbed RIOS 3

  Large Enterprise User Excellence
  

• DS Waters of America (Vendor: EMC)
• Kindred Healthcare (Vendor: Cisco)
• Level 3 Communications (Vendor: Avamar)

  Small/Medium Enterprise User Excellence
  

• Argix Direct (Vendor: EMC)
• Saturday Night Live (Vendor: QLogic)
• Troutman Sanders (Vendor: Data Domain)

  Small/Medium Business User Excellence
  

• Fitchburg State College (Vendor: LeftHand Networks)
• Intellidyn (Vendor: Hitachi Data Systems)
• Leapfrog (Vendor: Pillar Data Systems)

  Best Private Company
  

• Data Domain
• EqualLogic
• NeoScale

  Best Public Company
  

• AXS-One
• QLogic
• Symantec

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Contact:
Alix Raine
SVP Communications
CMP Technology
600 Community Drive
Manhasset, NY 11030
516-562-7827
araine@cmp.com

About Byte and Switch
Byte and Switch is the flagship enterprise Web publication of CMP Technology's business unit, Light Reading Inc. As the Web's leading storage networking site, Byte and Switch delivers the latest in news, product reviews, and customer case studies, as well as Insider research reports on storage and data networking technologies.

About Light Reading
Founded in 2000, Light Reading Inc. (www.lightreading.com) is the ultimate source for technology and financial analysis of the communications industry, leading the media sector in terms of traffic, content, and reputation. It reaches an extensive audience of executives and technologists within the telecom and enterprise networking communities, as well as the financial/industry analysts and investors who track these sectors. Light Reading was acquired by United Business Media in August 2005, and operates as a unit of CMP Technology.

About CMP Technology
CMP Technology (www.cmp.com) is a marketing solutions company serving the technology industry. Through its market-leading portfolio of trusted information brands, CMP has earned the confidence of more technology professionals than any other media company. As a result, CMP is the premier provider of access, insight and actionable programs designed to connect sellers and buyers in ways that yield superior return on investment. CMP Technology is a subsidiary of United Business Media (www.unitedbusinessmedia.com), a global provider of news distribution and specialist information services with a market capitalization of more than $3 billion.