It’s been a long day of meetings in Redmond with groups like BPOS and I have just returned home to my beloved Bainbridge Island. Before I turn down, I need to write one more very important blog! This is the list of “Best of” winners at the just-completed SMB Nation Fall Conference (Oct 2-4, 2009, Las Vegas). Methodology you ask? I have this answer. The attendees voted with their own free will on the ballot. UN observers insured a fair outcome. The people have spoken and the election has been certified.

So here are the results followed by numerous follow-up comments:

Best of Show : Calyptix & ConnectWise (tie)

Best Hardware Product: Datto

Best Software Product: Reflexion

Best Service Product: Symform

Most Promising New Product: Symform

And now the PR blitz:

Charlotte tech firm Calyptix earns ‘Best of Show’

Calyptix Security, an Internet security firm based in Charlotte, recently won “Best in Show” honors at the seventh annual SMB Nation Fall Conference in Las Vegas.

Charlotte-based Calyptix received the award after voting by the nearly 700 attendees, beating 60 other vendors, including powerhouses Cisco Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT).

Calyptix, founded in Charlotte and based in the University City area, develops Internet security products designed specifically for small businesses. The trade show featured companies from across the nation that offer technology to aid small and midsized businesses.

“This recognition is a tremendous honor for our team,” says Ben Yarbrough, Calyptix chief executive. “For 18 months, we have worked extremely hard to build a security solution specifically for small businesses. This recognition by our target audience validates that our solution hits the mark.”

SMB Nation, the organization that hosted the event, helps educate small and midsized businesses on technology issues. It boasts a following of more than 30,000 information-technology professionals worldwide.

Its fall conference, the organization’s signature event, was held Oct. 2-4 in Las Vegas at the Riviera Hotel & Casino

Reflexion Wins “Best Software Product” at SMB Nation Fall Conference

WOBURN, Mass. –(Business Wire)– Reflexion Networks, Inc. received the award for Best Software Product at the SMB Nation Fall Conference last week in Las Vegas. SMB Nation is one of the leading communities of IT solution providers dedicated to addressing the technology needs of small and mid-size businesses. SMB Nation members serve as the “trusted IT advisors” for their clients, helping them utilize technology to operate more efficiently, compete more effectively, and grow their businesses.

//

This is Reflexion’s second recent award from the IT industry’s top solution provider organizations. In August, Reflexion was recognized as Vendor of the Year by The ASCII Group, the oldest and largest independent community of IT solution providers in the world.
Scott Barlow, Reflexion’s Vice President of Sales and Product Management, accepted the award from Harry Brelsford, Chief of the SMB Nation Tribe, as members are known. “Reflexion is dedicated to helping IT solution providers bring the compelling benefits of hosted services to their clients of all sizes around the world,” said Barlow. “With Reflexion’s services, our partners protect their clients with the same capabilities used by large enterprises, but at an affordable monthly price.” “SMB Nation members are keenly focused on vendor capabilities and business practices,” said Harry Brelsford. “By delivering top quality hosted services exclusively through the reseller channel, Reflexion has earned the trust of solution providers, and hence was independently voted the Best Software Product award by attendees at SMB Nation Fall09.” About Reflexion Networks Reflexion Networks provides a suite of hosted services for email and Web security, email archiving, e-discovery, and recovery, and business continuity. The company’s hosted services are sold exclusively through a worldwide network of IT solution providers, supporting over 5,000 customers in 45 countries. For more information, please visit http://www.reflexion.net.

Symform Honored by SMB Nation

SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Symform, Inc. (www.symform.com), a developer of online storage services for disaster recovery, announced today that it has been honored in two categories by SMB Nation. Symform was named “Best Service Product” and “Most Promising New Product.” The winners of the various awards were chosen by more than 800 representatives from leading IT Service Providers attending the SMB Nation 2009 Fall Conference in Las Vegas.

Founded in 1999, SMB Nation conferences and events bring forward-thinking IT Service Providers, technologies, and vendors together to inspire new opportunities in the SMB space. Being THE information source for SMB technologists and Small Business Specialists worldwide, SMB Nation delivers complete business solutions to help its members better manage their businesses, stay abreast of new technologies, and provide on-going education.

“As pioneers of backup and disaster recovery solutions, we are thrilled to be recognized as a company that exemplifies innovation and success potential,” said Praerit Garg, CEO and co-founder of Symform. “It is especially pleasing to know that this was a ‘People’s Choice’ process with the nominations and votes coming from the members of SMB Nation.”

The Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud^TM enables small businesses to implement a backup and disaster recovery solution that is more secure and ten times cheaper than traditional online backup services. The company was founded on the realization that millions of small businesses have computers with an excess of inexpensive storage capacity, power running 24×7, and unlimited Internet bandwidth – especially nights and weekends. The Symform team has developed software that aggregates this relatively unreliable and untrusted capacity over the Internet and transforms it into a secure and reliable global storage system. The heart of Symform’s software is a proprietary technology called RAID-96.^TM

“The people have spoken and they recognize Symform as a progressive and disruptive technology that warrants serious consideration by the SMB channel,” said Harry Brelsford, President and CEO of SMB Nation. “I’m delighted to see Symform driving success with innovation in a recovering economy. The people clearly applaud that.”

“Winning both prestigious awards at this focused industry event showcases the importance of the Symform solution to small and mid-market MSPs and IT consultants,” said Dana Guppy, CEO of First Mile Services. “Disaster recovery solutions that lower client anxiety and allow them to sleep well are rarely associated with an affordable price. Implement Symform soon before your competition does!”

About Symform

Symform, a privately held company based in Seattle, is developing cost-effective solutions to large-scale distributed data management problems. Symform is dedicated to the belief that technology products built on the cooperative, decentralized principles underlying the Internet are inherently more affordable, dependable, scalable, and sustainable than centralized data-center-based alternatives. www.symform.com.

Symform, Symform Cooperative Storage Cloud, and RAID-96 are trademarks of Symform, Inc. References to other companies and their products acknowledge the trademarks owned by their respective companies and are for reference purposes only.

Datto Awarded ?Best Hardware Product? by SMB Nation

WILTON, Conn – Datto Inc., the leading provider of on and off-site
backup and disaster recovery solutions, was named ?Best Hardware
Product? at the seventh annual SMB Nation Fall Conference in Las
Vegas. The ?Best of? winners were chosen by more than 800 conference
attendees, including Managed Service Providers, IT professionals, and
SMB consultants.

Datto was founded in 2007 and moved to channel-only sales in June
2009. ?This is a tremendous honor, with Datto being new to the
channel,? says Katie Braband, Vice President of Business Development
for Datto. ?It is a direct reflection of our commitment to our
partners and the channel. Thank you to the SMB Nation attendees for
choosing us and to the many Datto Resale Partners who have implemented
our solutions into their businesses.?

About Datto:

Datto Inc. is the leading provider of hardware-based on and off-site
backup and disaster recovery solutions. Founded in 2007, Datto is a
channel-only company changing the way MSPs and VARs deliver complete
business continuity. Datto?s offerings range from small data storage
systems to large, enterprise-class business continuity solutions.
Easy and affordable pricing, no recovery or incidental fees, generous
upgrade plans, and US-based technical support are just a few ways
Datto is changing the Channel.