Editor's note
It's that time again, when -- for the 15th year running -- Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com proudly announce the finalists for the year's Products of the Year awards.
We've winnowed hundreds of data storage systems entrants down to a select few who will vie for bronze, silver and gold for 2016.
As with past years, we asked technology vendors to nominate their new and upgraded data storage systems products. For the 2016 Products of the Year awards, there are 54 finalists spread across six data storage systems categories that include All-flash storage systems, data backup and disaster recovery software and services, backup hardware, hard disk/hybrid storage systems, SAN management tools, and server-based storage products.
Unlike other end-of-year contests, our Products of the Year competition concentrates exclusively on data storage systems products released or upgraded over the course of the past year, which gives startups and legacy vendors a chance to compete at the same level. Rated on innovation, performance, ease of integration, ease of use, functionality and value, finalists will be judged, like always, by a panel that consists of an array of analysts, consultants, users and Storage magazine and SearchStorage.com editors.
Congratulations to all our finalists! Your place among the cream of the crop of data storage systems technologies is well-deserved.
To learn more about our finalists, click on the 2016 Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com Products of the Year categories listed below. Then stay tuned for the February issue of Storage magazine and online, to see which of our finalists stepped up another level to earn bronze, silver and gold.
12016 POY finalists
The storage and SAN management tools category eligible products include storage resource management and SAN management software, performance monitoring, configuration management, provisioning and data reduction.
22016 POY finalists
The server-based storage category eligible products include hyper-converged and software-defined storage systems that include storage and servers in one chassis; software that pools data to allow storage capacity across servers to work together under common management with storage services. Software can be sold on appliances or stand-alone.
32016 POY finalists
Products eligible in the all-flash systems category include storage platforms that can only be purchased with all-flash storage and no hard disk drives; includes FC and iSCSI SAN, NAS, multi-protocol systems, converged/hyper-converged infrastructure products, DAS, solid-state storage drives, disk controllers, caching appliances, storage virtualization appliances and cloud-integrated storage.
42016 POY finalists
Products eligible for the hybrid storage systems category include hybrid flash arrays, Fibre Channel and iSCSI SAN, NAS, multiprotocol systems, converged/hyper-converged infrastructure products, DAS, hard disk drives, disk controllers, caching appliances, storage virtualization appliances and cloud-integrated storage.