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The Best Products of 2003: Page 3 of 6

Some companies survived the battering of 2003's Internet ills untouched by deploying the Teros 100-APS security appliance. The unit, whose design is easy to understand, includes a host of security services, from protecting sensitive data to offering enforcement technologies and meeting HIPAA guidelines. The Teros-100 APS is also able to stop worm and denial-of-service attacks dead in their tracks.
The Teros-100 APS examines Internet traffic in both directions at the packet level, while performing realtime analysis for security problems. The unit learns what normal Web traffic looks like and rejects anything outside of it, while examining data packets for attackers on the hunt for personal information.
The Teros-100 APS also protects applications and Web servers from defacement or other attacks. The unit can be trained to prevent attacks that leverage security flaws such as buffer overflows.
Teros uses the HTML Interaction Model process to control traffic that passes from a browser to a Web server and vice versa.
There are five filtering methods used by the Teros-100 APS to control all HTTP/HTTPS traffic: Input validation filtering checks that all incoming data is valid and blocks any inappropriate data; form consistency filtering compares submitted data against acceptable data policies; buffer overflow protection prevents buffer overflow attacks; hyperlink inspection checks for malformed or malicious HTTP requests; and a cookie-tampering filter prevents the acceptance of invalid cookies.
The unit can be implemented in many different fashions, including acting as a gateway between the public Internet and an internal network or as a reverse Internet proxy. The unit's documentation, online help and technical support are second to none.
The Teros 100-APS is backed by an excellent channel program that includes thorough presales and post-sales technical support. The vendor's sales personnel participate in joint calls with solution providers and offer other assistance. Sales and technical training are also available.
These considerations earned the Teros-100 APS the 2003 overall product of the year distinction from the CRN Test Center. Full article>>

DEVELOPMENT TOOL BEA Systems' WebLogic Workshop ($850)

BEA Systems' WebLogic Workshop is by far the most innovative development tool reviewed by CRN Test Center engineers this year. WebLogic Workshop has the quickest learning curve of any Java development tool on the market and is the only one tested this year that makes development of composite applications an easy task.
BEA bundles with WebLogic Workshop some of the most common controls necessary to generate J2EE-compliant applications. The control library also includes most of the basic controls,such as Enterprise JavaBeans, Java Message Service, data transforms and Web services,that are needed to build more functionality into an application.
CRN Test Center engineers found that the amount of code WebLogic Workshop generates allows Java novices to develop with it in a matter of days, even with only little understanding of J2EE architectural principles. When compared with other composite application development tools, WebLogic Workshop blew away the competition in code generation. Developers can create many logical constructs with almost no Java coding. What's more, BEA is drafting a language, called Process Definition for Java (PD4J), that WebLogic Workshop will use to define processes through graphical icons for Java.
BEA provides partners with a wealth of technical training, development assistance and marketing support, along with online sales materials and technical resources. Full article>>

DISPLAYSamsung 192MP ($899)

For display of the year, the CRN Test Center sought out flat-panel displays at least 19 inches in size, with VGA and DVI inputs, S-Video and composite video inputs and built-in speakers. Displays that could do double duty by including a built-in TV tuner were given additional consideration.
Samsung Electronics America has been building excellent displays for years now, and its MP line of multipurpose displays has been particularly exciting. In the SyncMaster 192MP, unveiled toward the end of 2003, Samsung finally has a 19-inch display that offers the same great features contained in the smaller units that came before it. The 192MP is HDTV-ready and includes three brightness modes designed specifically for PC, Internet and entertainment applications. It also has picture-in-picture functionality. A digital zoom allows the magnification of any part of the on-screen image up to 64X. The monitor has attachable speakers and is wall-mountable.
The TV tuner, which can be snapped onto the display if needed, supports worldwide TV and video signals, including NTSC, PAL and SECAM. The display is U.S. closed-captioned-enabled.
Samsung provides a wealth of incentives, special offers, rebates and demo units through its Power Partner program. Reward points and spiffs are available for nearly every Samsung product, and vendor sales representatives work closely with partners.

Full article>>