XTI Demo Rooms: 15 Fun Scenes

There was a lot to do during Everything Channel's XChange Tech Innovators Conference held at the Fairmont Hotel in San Jose. But it wasn't all business. Partners got to see some of the most sophisticated and innovative gadgetry up close and personal -- all while drinking a little wine, networking with their peers and having some fun. What lengths would vendors go to reel partners in? Here are a few scenes from the XTI demo rooms.

At this year's XTI, IBM hammered home that it can innovate. And with a new partnership with VMware, IBM offers an even wider range of services and products in the virtualized environment. During Everything Channel's XChange Conference, held in San Jose, Calif., partners got to see the extent of IBM's new offerings, including its Lotus Foundations Start device, a collaborative tool with unified communications, content management and collaboration tool aimed at helping businesses with "information overload."

The wine might pull in partners to Toshiba's demo room, but the notebooks on the tables keep them hooked. In Toshiba's demo room, partner's got a "hands on" experience as representatives showcased an array of notebook PCs. Of the laptops highlighted, special attention was paid to Toshiba's new lightweight Portege M750 Tablet PC, which includes a 12.1-inch display screen, digital pen and touch-screen capabilities.

Part-ay. Who says innovation has to be just technical? ConnectWise showed off its wares and had a little fun doing so, bringing in guests to their demo room with an Animal House theme, complete with toilet paper, peanuts, pretzels and beer in the bathtubliterally. Woo hoo.

With guests enjoying the jovial atmosphere, ConnectWise representatives talked to them about its portfolios of easy-to-configure collaborative software and managed services tools aimed to "keep everyone on the same page."

Tristan Degenhardt of Digium stands proudly by the company's demo room table, showcasing its featured Switchvox, an easy-to-use and easy-to-install Unified Communications tool, offering linked messaging, VoIP and CRM integration along with Web 2.0 capabilities for things like Google maps and Web app mash-ups. And, as an open source solution, the Switchvox is about half the price of many of its competitors.

It's party time for Digium. Partners had some fun (and who wouldn't amid the orange balloons and leis,) as well as orange cheese puffs and orange packaged Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, as they learned a thing or two about Digium's new Unified Communications tools. Do you detect a theme here?

It was pretty safe to say NetGear had a little of everything for everybody. NetGear showed off products from numerous solution categories that spanned storage, switching, wireless controller and security. Specifically, the company highlighted its new smart switch lineup and wireless firewall featuring SSL VPN and IPSec. All four solutions are sold 100 percent through the channel, targeting the SMB with up to 50 people.

Partners got to choose from storage, switches, wireless controllers and security offerings on NetGear's demo room.

Think you know what's going on in your network? Or what your employees are doing during "work hours?" Probably not, says Cymphonix. Which is why partners sat transfixed as Cymphonix gave a presentation showing how its Network Composer solutions can track the amount of bandwidth an employee is occupying, what type of applications they're using and the amount of time they spend on illicit sites.







Among the statistics revealed during the presentation, Cymphonix says that they've discovered at least 50 percent of any organization's Internet connection is used for browsing, which usually includes social networking and porn viewing when managers are looking the other way. Positioned as an answer to this endless business problem, Cymphonix's Network Composer Version 8 offers real-time URL reporting, real-time application traffic reporting and comprehensive historical reporting, along with its Web content filtering and spyware threat protection and removal.

Tandberg Data proudly displays both its tape-based and disk-based storage and backup solutions designed for the SMB in what they call "revolutionizing entry level tape." While becoming familiar with the products, partners could also enjoy a bountiful cheese, fruit and salami spread, along with assorted wine or cocktails.

Tandberg Data showcases a few of its specialties, including an array of LTO solutions for customers looking for cost effective, reliable and scalable tape storage solutions spanning entry SMB to the SME. In response to the growth of mission critical digital content as well as increasingly stringent regulatory compliance mandates, Tandberg says that the products are geared for a growing market that requires data protection, disaster recovery and backup to solutions at an affordable price.

Citrix is finding ways to innovate in the virtualization space. Their demo room featured a table full of cutting edge virtual desktops, specifically highlighting the Citrix XenDesktop, the XenServer virtualization engine, and the XenApp application delivery. Along with remote access, less bandwidth and greater energy efficiency, the virtual offerings are endpoint agnostic, Citrix exhibitors say, with the ability to run on any PC, Mac or Linux system.

An exhibitor at Autotask gives a presentation on its remote solutions with advanced reporting and auditing capabilties to a group of prospective partners. Autotask's Web-based solutions combine service desk, project management, dispatching and CRM into a single hosted solution.

Partners mingled, learned and got some hands on experience in the demo room of Level Platforms, a remote monitoring and management software company dedicated to the small and medium sized business. Specifically, potential partners got to learn more about the company's extensive list of managed services opportunities.