Shortlists for CNET tech awards unveiled

CNET Networks UK, the publisher of ZDNet UK, has announced the finalists for its 2006 Technology Awards.

The awards, which will be handed out on 26 September in London, recognise innovative use of IT in the UK, leading providers of products and services, and a chief information officer of the year.

Awards will be handed out for excellence in more than 14 categories, including best products, projects, partnerships, marketing and PR campaigns of the year, and the most outstanding contribution to the technology industry.

Tom Bureau, managing director of CNET Networks UK, said the quality of this year's nominations was "outstanding" and that the industry "continues to go from strength to strength".

The full list of categories and candidates is as follows:

Enterprise Hardware Product of the Year
Azul Systems — Azul Compute Appliance
Brocade — SilkWorm 48000 Director
Google Enterprise Division — Google Search Appliance Version 4.6
Pillar Data Systems — Pillar Axiom storage system
Stratus Technologies — Stratus ftServer W Series 5700

Enterprise Software Product of the Year
Netsuite — NetSuite
Softricity — The Softricity Desktop
Thunderhead — Thunderhead Document Generation Platform
Touchpaper — Touchpaper IT Business
Management (ITBM) Suite
VMWare Player — VMware Player

Networking Product of the Year
Aruba Networks — Aruba 200 Mobility Controller
EqualLogic — EqualLogic PS300E iSCSI SAN
Juniper Networks — Juniper Networks WXC WAN Application Acceleration Platform
XenSource — XenEnterprise
Zeus Technology — Zeus Extensible Traffic Manager

Security Product of the Year
Comodo — VerificationEngine
Imprivata — Imprivata OneSign ESSO
Qualys — QualysGuard Enterprise Version 4.0.
SecureWave — Sanctuary
Unilink Systems — NForce/Visits

Mobile Product or Initiative of the Year
Digital Payments — Direct Top-Up
eCourier — eCourier.co.uk
iPass - iPass Corporate Access
Mazingo — Mazingo Voyager WiFi / GSM Fone
RIM — BlackBerry Enterprise Solution v4.1

UK Internet Innovation of the Year
BiBC — Media Master
Midentity — etribes Deskbar
Skype — Skypecasts - Preview version
Texthelp Systems — Browsealoud
Zopa — Zopa

Public Sector Technology Project of the year
Centre of Distance Education — University of London's E-Learning Website
Isle of Man Government — Connect Mann
Liverpool Direct — Comino EDM & workflow solution, utilising Kodak scanning technology
The Royal Hospitals — Integrated W-Fi for Royal Hospitals, Belfast
Wandsworth Council — Pan London Co-ordinated Schools Admissions Scheme

Financial Services Technology Project of the Year
Alliance & Leicester — Alliance & Leicester secures online banking customers with RSA Security
BNP Paribas Securities Services — BNP Paribas Securities Services' Global STP Platform
Commerzbank AG London — Automating the T&E expense management process at Commerzbank AG London
HBOS — HBOS secures online banking with RSA Security
London Stock Exchange — Infolect

Telecoms Sector Technology Project of the Year
AKQA/Orange — Orange Integrated Shop
BT (with support from Corizon) — BT Retail Broadband Services Marx2 project
BT Group — Netcentricity
DataFluxUK — The Number' 118 118 — Data management with the dfPower Studio
Symbian — Symbian's Content Management Solution

Technology Partnership of the Year
BP and Intel — BP-Intel Partnership
Dell and EMC — Dell — EMC partnership
Deptartment for Transport and Atos Origin Consortium — Transport Direct
Lagan Technologies, CAPS Solutions — UNIform Frontline Integration Solution (UFIS)
Microsoft and SurfControl — Microsoft and SurfControl — Together You're Secured

UK Technology Marketing Campaign of the Year
Banner — Sony High Definition: 'What will you make?'
Banner — Siebel CRM Index
DWA Media & Gilroy — Cable & Wireless Rebranding Campaign
Mason Zimbler — The Adobe Acrobat 3D Launch
Morse — Cool, calm & connected
Vodafone Multi-National Corporates — Push Email — Proven Productivity

UK Technology PR Campaign of the Year
Brands2Life and Banner — The Business Software Alliance's 'Software Cluedo'
Carrot Communications Ltd — Kaspersky Lab — Crimeware
Google Enterprise — 'Google your business'
O2 — Launch of i-mode
Salesforce.com — Turning an industry on its head
Toshiba SDD Europe — Toshiba Hard Disk Drive Revolution Competition

UK Chief Information Officer of the Year
David Lester — London Stock Exchange
David Lister — Reuters
Phil Marnock — SpinVox
Phillip Clarke — Tesco
Richard Granger — NHS