Top products named for Active Directory, Group Policy

SearchWinIT.com editors announced today their annual Products of the Year Awards. The SearchWinIT.com winners were recognized in two product categories with six updated products that enterprise IT professionals should consider to advance the capabilities of Active Directory, Microsoft's trademarked directory services for managing distributed network resources.

Eighteen entries were evaluated for the SearchWinIT.com awards, which were divided into Active Directory and Group Policy categories.

The products were judged by TechTarget editors in conjunction with teams of users, industry experts, analysts and consultants. Judges evaluated Windows products introduced and shipped between Sept. 30, 2005, and Nov. 1, 2006. Gold, Silver and Bronze Award winners were selected by a panel of judges based on these seven criteria: innovation, performance, ease of integration into existing environments, ease of use and manageability, support, functionality, and value.

In the Active Directory category, NetPro Computing Inc.'s RestoreADmin v2.5 took top honors. For the Group Policy category, NetPro Computing won the gold again, this time for its GPOADmin v1.1 product.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Award winners among the entries for these categories are listed on the SearchWinIT.com site.

The complete listing of award winners is as follows:

Active Directory
Gold: NetPro Computing Inc. -- RestoreADmin 2.5
Silver: NetPro Computing Inc. -- SecurityManager 2.2
Bronze: NetPro Computing Inc. -- ChangeAuditor 3.4

Group Policy Management
Gold: NetPro Computing Inc. -- GPOADmin 1.1
Silver: Quest Software Inc. -- Group Policy Manager 3.0
Bronze: Level Platforms Inc. -- Managed Workplace 5.0