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Guide to the '06 All-Stars Winners alphabetical listing WINNERS BY TECHNOLOGY Applications | LANs & Routers | Network Management | OS, Servers & Data Center | Security | Storage | WAN, VoIP & Convergence | Wireless & Mobility WINNERS BY INDUSTRY Construction | Education | Financial Services | Government | Healthcare | Manufacturing | Media | Retail | Travel/Transportation | Utilities Vendors to the All-Stars

With more than 1,500 PCs being used by some 2,200 workers, desktop support at this Burlington, N.C., medical center was painful. In October 2005, it discovered a cure: application virtualization software from Softricity (now a Microsoft company). The Softricity Desktop suite lets applications run in virtual containers so that different instances of software can share the same computer without conflict.

With the addition of Softricity ZeroTouch, software distribution and management software implemented in April 2006, the medical center has seen impressive gains.

It cut 200 hours of IT labor a year by eliminating application-conflict testing, reducing average time to deploy a new desktop application from 87 to 8 hours and saving about $100,000 in downtime costs associated with desktop maintenance. It also expects to save $1.5 million in licensing fees over three years through better asset management and maintenance.