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There is a paradigm shift that has started to change the face of IT and the "big guys" have some serious competition coming their way. Startups that are thinking outside the box, outside the chassis, and outside the array - especially those at VMworld.

Below, I've listed the top five products I've seen so far at VMworld. I don't have a scientific methodology to share on how I ranked them - just found them extremely interesting, useful and cool. What have you found?
<h2>5. Puppet</h2>
The product looks a bit complicated and time consuming to implement but the level of automation is astounding. I'm hearing a lot about them through blogs and tweets so I thought I'd check it out. It has the capability to identify objects in the infrastructure and execute automated configs onto them. This can simplify and accelerate switch deployments, patch remediation, server imaging, test/dev environment creation, etc.
<h2>4. Splunk</h2>
Even with the release of vCenter log insight and its ability to parse big data, it's all about presentation. Splunk has a ton of vendor related plug-ins that do a really good job of not just helping to parse your syslogs but it also does a great job helping you visualize that system through the dashboard UI.
<h2>3. Zerto</h2>
Cloud based DR for virtualized infrastructures. Journaling on the target side to provide RecoverPoint like RPOs. Plans can only be executed on a per VM basis at the moment. WAN optimized with customized CBT style dedupe. I see RecoverPoint and SRM rolled into one without the "Failover Button." This has the potential to provide serious value-add to our eCloud customers.
<h2>2. Nutanix</h2>
2U Appliance. 4 Nodes, clustered local storage, highly scalable. No Array, No Chassis, No problem. I really like this product and its potential. I think it is competitively priced and has excellent applications in the VDI and SMB space.
<h2>1. Pernix Data</h2>
Flash based hypervisor. Assign SSD perfomance on a per VM basis. Leverage COTS SSDs for serious cost savings. Clustered solution with awesome performance and resiliency, need I say more?
<h2>[Honorable Mention goes to Neverfail]</h2>
Known for their DR replication software, they had a new app on display - IT continuity Architect. The idea is that DR needs to be a complete solution, meaning that all inter dependencies must be accounted for. The application can scan an infrastructure in a matter of minutes and deliver detailed diagrams of how the systems interact so you can ensure that when you fail to your critical systems, all of the pieces are there.