2008 Technology of the Year Awards: Storage

Sun ZFS (Zettabyte File System)

It's not every day that the computer industry delivers the level of innovation found in Sun's ZFS. The fluidity, the malleability, and the scalability of ZFS far surpass any file system available now on any platform. More and more advances in the science of IT are based on simply multiplying the status quo. ZFS breaks all the rules here, and it arrives in an amazingly well-thought-out and nicely implemented solution.

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2008 Technology of the Year Awards: Platforms

Sun Solaris 10

No server operating system satisfies more varied requirements or boasts a wider range of brilliant features. Start with the ZFS file system, which wins its own 2008 Technology of the Year award; add DTrace, the best OS analysis tool available; throw in Solaris Containers' native, built-in virtualization, a feature no other OS currently bundles; and top it off with the ability to run Red Hat Linux binaries. It's simply the most innovative version of a server operating system this decade.

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2008 Technology of the Year Awards: Hardware

Sun Fire X4500 (Thumper)

The Sun Fire X4500 is nicknamed the Thumper for a reason: 48 SATA drives in a single 4U chassis accompanying a dual-Opteron server with two PCI-X slots. There's no hardware RAID, however, and running anything but Solaris with ZFS is going to artificially hamstring the box. It's not going to supplant the SAN anytime soon, but the X4500 will certainly make waves.

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