Innovation Is (Always) In Vogue

Innovation. Much is said about "brain drain" and there is hot and heavy debate about whether offshore operations are depleting our native creativity. After some thought and some investigation, I can happily report that, at least right now, innovation seems alive and well in the server space.

For example, at the end of last month, a number of new, interesting devices debuted. Adaptec introduced its first iSCSI target devices. The product is aimed (pun intended) at small businesses or any other business looking for low-cost SAN options. And that same week, IBM introduced the TotalStorage NAS Gateway 500. The device stores data in a file format like any NAS appliance - but the data is stored on SAN arrays in block format. So data is consolidated on fewer devices, which means easier data management. More on last week's product introductions are in New Ways To Connect To Your Data.

VARBusiness magazine thought there were enough innovative products out there to launch a set of awards around the idea. Readers were asked to nominate products they deemed most innovative. The editors then picked the best from those nominated. Check out all the nominees at Celebrating Technology Innovation.

Remember, these are all the nominations, so some of the products may not, in your humble opinion, seem so innovative. But some, such as Citrix' Metaframe, clearly understand what their clients want. Companies like Citrix are delivering solutions to meet that need. In this case, the Access Suite provides a single point of access to enterprise applications and streamlines the user experience.

Let me know if you have run across a server product that is just stellar.? Citrix' product is an excellent example of a company identifying a challenge faced by customers, developing useful solutions and then delivering them. E-mail me with your suggestions at [email protected].