SYS-CON Media, the world's leading i-technology media and events company, has announced the winners of its Virtualization Journal Readers' Choice Awards. SYS-CON's Readers' Choice Awards, also known as the "Oscars of the Software Industry," has been one of the most prestigious industry award programs for over a decade.

Virtualization takes the cost and complexity out of IT, and can even help us reduce the CO2 footprint. IDC has stated that the virtualization services market alone is going to reach $11.7 billion by 2011 and in general this technology, which has been around for a good number of years, seems suddenly to be on everyone's mind.

In short, Virtualization is fast becoming a key requirement for every server in the data center, enabling increased workloads in server consolidation projects, efficient software development and testing, resource management for dynamic data centers, application re-hosting and compatibility, and high-availability partitions.

The Virtualization Journal Readers' Choice Awards recognize the best tools, solutions, and platform offerings in 18 categories. Winners were selected through reader-submitted nominations, followed by online voting at SYS-CON Media's world-leading Virtualization Journal online magazine site (http://virtualization.sys-con.com/).

"This year's results show that the future of Enterprise IT is as bright as ever and reflect an infrastructure industry that is completely committed to product excellence and to providing maximum value for each IT dollar spent. In fact, the winners and finalists were as strong this year as in any year since the Readers' Choice Awards program began thirteen years ago," said Jeremy Geelan, Sr. Vice President of SYS-CON Media.

Following is a list of the 2008 Virtualization Journal Reader's Choice Awards winners and finalists:

Best Application Virtualization
Winner
-Altiris Software Virtualization Solution, Symantec

Finalists
-VMware Application Virtualization (powered by Thinstall), VMware
-Citrix XenApp", Citrix Systems
-Solaris Containers, Sun Microsystems

Best Desktop Virtualization Platforms
Winner
-Virtual Access Suite, Provision Networks, a division of Quest Software

Finalists
-VMware Workstation, VMware
-Altiris Software Virtualization Solution Professional, Symantec
-Citrix XenDesktop, Citrix Systems

Best Device Virtualization
Winner
-Wyse TCX Suite, Wyse Technology Inc.

Finalists
-HP VMware ESX Server 3i for HP ProLiant, Hewlett-Packard
-Cisco Application Control Engine (ACE), Cisco Systems
-PowerVM, IBM

Best Grid Virtualization
Winner
-HP Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager, Hewlett-Packard

Finalists
-Tivoli Dynamic Workload Broker, IBM
-GridServer, DataSynapse
-GigaSpaces eXtreme Application Platform (XAP), GigaSpaces Technologies

Best Network Virtualization
Winner
-VMware ESX Server, VMware

Finalists
-Cisco AXP, Cisco Systems
-HP Virtual Connect and Virtual Connect Enterprise Manager (VCEM), Hewlett-Packard
-Xsigo VP780 I/O Director, Xsigo Systems

Best Open Interfaces
Winner
-IBM Service Management, IBM Service Management

Finalist
-Neocleus Desktop Hypervisor Framework, Neocleus

Best P2V Migration
Winner
-Backup Exec System Recovery 8, Symantec Corp.

Finalists
-VMware Converter, VMware
-PlateSpin PowerConvert, PlateSpin Ltd.
-vConverter, Vizioncore Inc.

Best Server Virtualization Platforms
Winner
-VMware Server 1.0.4, VMware

Finalists
-Citrix XenServer, Citrix Systems
-HP VMware ESX Server 3i for HP ProLiant, Hewlett-Packard
-Virtual Iron 4.2, Virtual Iron Software

Best Storage Virtualization
Winner
-Veritas Storage Foundation 5.0, Symantec Corp.

Finalists
-VMware Storage VMotion, VMware
-F5 Acopia ARX, F5 Networks
-HP StorageWorks Enterprise Virtual Array (EVA), Hewlett-Packard

Best VDI - Virtual Desktop Infrastructure
Winner
-Virtual Access Suite, Provision Networks

Finalists
-VMware VDI, VMware
-Wyse Viance Desktop Appliance, Wyse Technology
-Pano Logic, Pano Logic

Best Virtual Lab Automation
Winner
-VMware Lab Manager, VMware

Finalists
-VMLogix LabManager, VMLogix
-Skytap Virtual Lab, Skytap
-Surgient Lab Management Platform, Surgient

Best Virtual Security
Winner
-VMware ESX Server, VMware

Finalists
-Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server with Universal Restore, Acronis Inc.
-Third Brigade Deep Security, Third Brigade
-Solaris Trusted Extensions, Sun Microsystems
-Reflex VSA, Reflex Security

Best Virtualization Configuration Management
Winner
-Virtual Essentials, Fortisphere, Inc.

Finalists
-VIRTERA, VIRTERA
-Enterprise Virtualization Management (EVM) Suite, ManageIQ

Best Virtualization Management Tools
Winner
-eG Enterprise Suite, eG Innovations, Inc.

Finalists
-VMware VirtualCenter, VMware
-Altiris Server Management Suite, Symantec
-Veritas Virtual Infrastructure, Symantec Corporation

Best Virtualization Platform Capacity Planning
Winner
-VMware Capacity Planner, VMware

Finalists
-CiRBA 4.5, CiRBA
-PlateSpin PowerRecon, PlateSpin Ltd.
-HP Virtual Server Environment, Hewlett-Packard

Best Virtualization Platforms High Availability
Winner
-eG Enterprise Suite, eG Innovations, Inc.

Finalists
-Veritas NetBackup 6.5, Symantec Corp.
-VMware High Availability, VMware
-Veritas Cluster Server for VMware ESX, Symantec Corporation

Best Virtualization Platform Monitoring & Reporting
Winner
-eG Enterprise Suite, eG Innovations, Inc.

Finalists
-VMware VirtualCenter, VMware
-vFoglight, Vizioncore Inc.
-Fortisphere Virtual Insight, Fortisphere, Inc.

Best VM Lifecycle Management
Winner
-V-Commander, Embotics Corporation

Finalists
-VMware Lifecycle Manager, VMware
-HP Virtualization Director, Hewlett-Packard
-PlateSpin PowerRecon Virtual Infrastructure Edition, PlateSpin Ltd.