IT Pro's Top Products of 2013

We roundup the best smartphones, tablets, laptops servers and software.

ITPRO Recommended award

Vendors continue to make performance gains with the inclusion of Intel's latest Xeon E5 processor - and there were a number of products which caught our eye this year.

Dell VRTX

This beast of a system came in a 5U rack server or pedestral configuration. and has been used to power environments ranging from retail warehouse environments to hospitals and F1 teams.

Verdict: 5 stars + Innovation award

HP MSA 2040

One of best performing appliances we've tested this year, the HP MSA 240 delivered a high-speed 8/16Gbps FC storage for 6,598 ex VAT, a price few vendors can match.

Verdict: 5 stars + Editor's Choice

Synology DiskstationDS1813+

The recommeded NAS box for SMBs, the Diskstation packed a number of connections and features. It's also sports blistering speeds.

Verdict: 5 stars + Editor's Choice award

Dot HillAssuredSAN Pro 5000

The AssuredSAN Pro 5000 took automated data tiering to the next level, by performing the task in real-time. This was done via Dot Hill's RealStor technology, which moveed hot data to an SSD-based cache in seconds making it responsive to changes in access patterns.

Verdict: 5 stars + Recommended award

Khidr Suleman is the Technical Editor at IT Pro, a role he has fulfilled since March 2012. He is responsible for the reviews section on the site  - so get in touch if you have a product you think might be of interest to the business world. He also covers the hardware and operating systems beats. Prior to joining IT Pro, Khidr worked as a reporter at Incisive Media. He studied law at the University of Reading and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism and Online Writing at PMA Training.