Silver: DocAve 4.5 Backup and
Recovery for SharePoint
AvePoint
www.avepoint.com
Why it won: A comprehensive backup
system is essential for protecting an organization’s
valuable SharePoint content. DocAve 4.5 Backup and Recovery for
SharePoint offers granular, real-time backup
and on-demand restore capabilities for
your entire SharePoint environment.
Bronze: Colligo Contributor Pro
for SharePoint
Colligo Networks
www.colligo.com
Why it won: As the mobile workforce continues
to grow, the ability to collaborate
both online and offline becomes more
and more important. Colligo Contributor
for SharePoint lets mobile users bring the
SharePoint environment to their desktops,
letting them easily access, modify, and
create SharePoint content through familiar
interfaces.
Systems
Management Winners
Gold: Active Administrator
ScriptLogic
www.scriptlogic.com
Why it won: Managing AD and Group Policy
can be an onerous task, but Scriptlogic’s
Active Administrator steps in to lessen the load. The product includes a host of
features, but the streamlined UI, helpful
support, and overall ease of use make
Active Administrator a clear winner.
AD and Group Policy are joined
at the hip, so to speak, so it’s no
surprise that vendors offer tools
to manage both. What might be
surprising, though, is why one
product in the market, Script-
Logic’s Active Administrator, stands out:
for its usability. As any admin knows, the
gap between acquiring a tool and actually
using it productively is often a bottomless
crevasse—enthusiasm cools if a tool takes
too much effort to use.
In his November 2007 comparative review
of Group Policy management tools (“3 Tools
to Manage Group Policy,” InstantDoc ID 97228), Windows IT Pro contributing editor
Eric Rux tested NetPro, NetIQ, and Script-
Logic solutions. He concluded that “Script-
Logic’s Active Administrator had the best look
and feel, was the most intuitive, and includes
extra features to help manage Group Policy.”
Adds Senior Systems Engineer Tory
Skyers, “You can have this product installed
and truly functional in less than 30 minutes,
no exaggeration.” Ease of use translated to
a quick response when an administrator
deleted a high-level executive’s ad account
by accident. “The Help desk alerted us that
the VIP was having a problem, and within a
few minutes we knew who, when, and from
where it was deleted and had the object
(including passwords) restored,” Skyers
said. “About the only addition I can see a
need for is delegation within the product
itself (i.e., levels of access to make changes
to program settings); other than that, I can’t really think of much I’d change. This
product has paid for itself many times
over in admin time saved alone, not to
mention Group Policy backups, GPO
modeling, and super-detailed permission
delegation and templating. We’ve
gotten so used to having it around that
I honestly have no idea what we would
do without it.”
—Caroline Marwitz
See associated figure
Silver: ActiveRoles Server
Quest Software
www.quest.com
Why it won: ActiveRoles Server offers
role-based management of AD, letting
admins delegate tasks while maintaining
security and control. Especially useful
for overworked IT pros is its Web interface
and automated user provisioning process.
Bronze: AppManager
NetIQ
www.netiq.com
Why it won: Designed for easy deployment, AppManager’s big appeal is its ability
to be customized. Its visual mapping of
IT resources helps when prioritizing admin
responses to system problems.
Training and
Certification Winners
Gold: KSource Online Learning
AppDev
www.appdev.com
Why it won: A high-quality on-demand
training program, combined with a flexible
online delivery method, makes KSource
Online Learning the best online training
and certification program currently available.
Keeping IT skills current is
difficult for many IT pros to
squeeze into their overbooked
schedules, but it’s made easier by
vendors that provide training and
certification courses, DVDs, and
other materials. One of the most innovative
programs we’ve seen is KSource Online
Learning.
You can choose a hosted version of
KSource (accessible over the Internet) or install a local version on your network.
Both options give you 24 × 7 access to educational
content in dozens of content areas,
including such popular topics as Microsoft
Visual Studio 2008, Microsoft Office Share-
Point Server 2007, and Silverlight 2.
IT Manager Dennis Podgorski has used
AppDev products and can attest to the quality
of the training programs. “I checked out
the AppDev Web site and saw that AppDev’s
training products weren’t that expensive, and
I liked that I could sample the products before
purchasing,” says Podgorski. “I considered
attending an offsite training program as an
alternative to AppDev’s training products, but
that just wasn’t an option in our small work
environment. After using both the SQL Server
2005 and Java training programs, I managed
to learn what I needed to—all without having
to be away from office, and it didn’t cost me
my entire training budget to do it.”
—Jeff James
See associated figure
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