NEW YORK — Sept. 26, 2003 — VentureWire, published by Dow Jones Newsletters, announced the recipients of its Investors' Choice award for the start-up technology companies best positioned for long-term success in data storage, security, and systems management. Nearly 400 business leaders, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and industry analysts attending the Datacenter Ventures Private Equity conference determined the 10 Investors' Choice award winners out of 70 closely held companies that were invited to present their business plans at the recently held conference in Redwood City, Calif. "The Investors' Choice awards are presented to ten start-up companies for their contributions to a variety of technologies, including data storage, networks, security, and systems and server management products," said Richard A. Shaffer, editor-in-chief of VentureWire. "These are the firms with the best outlook for long-term success and survival in a difficult business climate."

Winners were selected from, in alphabetical order, are:

• Azul, a Mountain View, Calif.-based early stage start-up focused on specialized data center infrastructure products (www.azulsystems.com).
• Centrata, a Redwood City, Calif.-based provider of XML-based software to manage computing infrastructure with a central focus on the services to be delivered from it (www.centrata.com).
• CreekPath Systems, a Longmont, Colo.-based developer of storage operating support systems for large enterprises and service providers.
• Decru, a Redwood City, Calif.-based a provider of security storage appliances.
• Fortinet, a Santa Clara, Calif.-based a provider of network protection systems.
• Netezza, a Framingham, Mass.-based provider of data management appliances.
• Outerbay Technology, a Campbell, Calif.-based provider of application data management software.
• Panasas, a Fremont, Calif.-based developer of scalable storage networks that combines a distributed file system with hardware (www.panasas.com).
• Preventsys, a Carlsbad, Calif.-based provider of network security software.
• Sychron, a San Mateo, Calif.-based provider of policy-based workload management software.

Now in its second year, Datacenter Ventures examines trends that threaten established makers of servers, storage devices, and network equipment, while showcasing the new companies that are best positioned to become influential technology suppliers to 21st Century data centers. Topics at this year's conference included which technologies will enable the consolidation of far-flung and inefficient data centers, profiting from the virtualization of mass storage, and protecting corporate data in an era of heightened security awareness.