Quantum Corp. announced that its vmPRO 4000 virtual server data protection appliance and DXi6700 family of disk backup appliances have been selected as finalists in the Backup Hardware category of Storage magazine/SearchStorage.com 2011 Products of the Year award.

F5 Networks, Inc. announced that the latest release of the F5 BIG-IP product family has been certified by ICSA Labs as a network firewall, helping customers protect their public-facing websites from today’s massive cyber attacks. The newly certified solution handles eight times more traffic at the same cost of the closest competitor’s solution.

Fortinet announced that Telekomunikacja Polska (Polish Telecom) (TPSA.WA), the leading national telecommunications provider in Poland, has chosen Fortinet’s FortiGate multi-threat network security appliances as the cornerstone of its new “Managed UTM” offering, designed for small, medium and large enterprises to help secure their internal networks against external threats.

Blue Coat Systems announced that it has added Cloud-Connector to its Blue Coat MACH5 WAN optimization appliances and virtual appliances. Cloud-Connector allows companies with Blue Coat WAN optimization solutions deployed in branch or remote offices to instantly apply Web security from the Blue Coat Cloud Service. Having secure “branch-to-cloud” direct Internet access, enables companies to stop the common practice of backhauling Internet traffic to and from the corporate data center and offers a chance to re-architect the Wide Area Network (WAN) to meet the new application realities. Branch-to-cloud topology lowers networking costs and speeds access to cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications.

Enterprises and SMBs require many different IT hardware products to operate their datacenters and run their IT applications. However, purchasing products from many different sources can be a time-consuming process, creating demand among enterprises and SMBs for new ways to streamline procurement.