Lundquist's Five Demo 2009 Business Awards

TAGS:business applications, DEMO 09
IT TOPICS:Business Intelligence, Emerging Technology, Virtualization

Demo was smaller this year both in terms of exhibitors and attendees. However, there were some interesting business to business companies and products being shown
Here are my choices. Note, this is just my vote and not a group selection.

1. Best Business Application. AppZero. This company is based in Andover, MA which is same town where I live but I had not heard of this company before I went to Demo. The company packages standard server-based applications and easily makes the transfer of those apps to cloud computing platforms such as Amazon's elastic cloud. In the demo the transfer from server to cloud was as simple as drag and drop from server to cloud. Companies that are interested in using the cloud either to replace existing servers, add capacity on demand or use the cloud as your backup and recovery center should take a look at AppZero. Developers and system administrators looking for a new career path should consider learning how ot use AppZero. This application is a good example of where business virtualization is headed.
2. Best consumer product that has good business applications. Vue Personal Video Network. This is a battery-based, easy to network inexpensive video network package. Companies that want to include video for security or customer management or keeping visual track of inventory would find the Vue a really easy network to create.

3. Best new take on an old idea. GoView from Citrix Online. This is a basic screen recording, editing and hosting service. Capturing and distributing screencasts of presentations, product demos and application training has always been too difficult for what should be a simple task. The GoView product is built on doing a simple task, simply.

4. Best boring product that is worth the money. Document Depository Corp. This is a simple, hosted system for document management with the legal segment as the first target. Anyone that has had to deal with lawyers know that lawyers can produce blizzards of documents. Getting lawyers to manage their documents is a good first step to making dealing with the the legal system less of a pain.

5. Best product not really introduced at Demo, but used at Demo. The video streaming provider BitGravity Inc. showed that it can stream the demo presentations in HD. Companies such as BitGravity are going to be instrumental in changing the economics of cable and broadcast television. *Note* BitGravity was first introduced at Demo 08. At Demo 09 they were showing the Live HD version.

Disclaimer: I work for IDG which owns the Demo conference