Company's Switch Wins NH Tech Product of the Year

Technology, mobile devices and how we use the Internet has changed a lot in the last 25 years, but the network supporting it hasn’t. That’s where Nashua-based Plexxi, Inc. and its disruptive networking solution, The Plexxi Switch 2, comes in. The product that condenses and re-architects data networks so applications can operate at lighting-fast speeds took home top honors at the 10th anniversary Product of the Year Award put on by the NH High Tech Council (Council) on Nov. 12, according to a press statement.

The Plexxi Switch 2 transforms decades-old legacy network architecture into a single-tier, single box solution that understands the bandwidth that you and your application need, and carves out a special lane on the information superhighway just for that purpose.

“Since the beginning of digital time, we have created four zettabytes of information. In the next five years alone, we will create 10 times that,” said Michael Welts, the company’s vice president of marketing. “With that exponential growth, how do you expect the current infrastructure to manage that? Something has to change, and that’s what we’re doing.”

More than 200 people, including New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan, were on hand as the Council honored the five finalist companies competing for the 2015 Product of the Year award with Judges Awards recognizing their innovative approaches and development of their inventions and solutions. The five finalists – ARC Energy, B2W Software, Plexxi, Rapid Insight, and Retrieve Technologies – were selected from a pool of dozens of entries, and showcased their products during a reception before the event at the Manchester Country Club and during a seven-minute presentation to the audience. The audience then voted for their favorite finalist, and the popular vote was weighted equally with prior results from the Council’s judging panel to reveal the overall winner.

“Kudos to Plexxi for coming on top of a very impressive field of finalists, all of which may very likely help grow our tech economy,” said Matt Cookson, the Council’s executive director. “The solutions Plexxi is creating benefit anyone who uses the Internet for business, fun, education or to connect to any of the countless devices we rely on every day. We’re thrilled to see innovation like this coming out of New Hampshire and so proud of the 2015 Product of the Year winner.”

Plexxi, along with having its name added to the beautiful POY trophy designed by Pepi Hermann Crystal, will have a spotlight display at the I-93 South welcome center to ensure New Hampshire residents and visitors alike recognize the immense technology innovation that happens in New Hampshire each year.

Past Product of the Year Award winners include Prosenex, Nanocomp Technologies, UltraVision, Insight Tech Gear, Holase Incorporated, Sky-Skan, Foss Manufacturing, Therma-HEXX, and Single Digits.

For more information, or to learn about sponsorship opportunities, please visit nhhtc.org, email info@NHHTC.org or connect via Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.

Captions: POY Winner Plexxi.jpg: Pictured left to right are: Peter Antoinette, co-founder, president and CEO of Nanocomp Technologies, and prior Product of the Year Award winner; Paul Mailhot, VP of Business Operations at Dyn and chairman of the Council’s board of directors; Michael Welts, VP of Marketing at Plexxi; Toral Cowieson, Senior Director of Internet Leadership at the Internet Society and the Council’s vice chair; and Matt Cookson, president of Cookson Strategies and the Council’s Executive Director. Second photo: Michael Welts, VP of Marketing for Plexxi, describes his product, The Plexxi Switch 2, to New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan as part of the Product of the Year Award product demonstration portion of the event.