* Buyer's Guides get more than just a facelift
Network World has released phase one of its revamp of the Buyer’s Guides, making them more useful than ever for helping IT buyers make decisions.
The Buyer’s Guides let you make side-by-side comparisons of network gear, across a wide range of categories. The big list of more than 70 categories shows the breadth of what we’re trying to accomplish here.
In addition to improvements in navigation and just plain looks, we’re bringing lots of useful content to the guides, content that’s specific to each topic. For instance, if you take a look at the WAN Optimization Buyer’s Guide, you’ll see links to the most recent market trends reports, buying tips, best practices and even a technical backgrounder (the “How does it work?” section).
There are also links to recent news on that topic, recent reviews, case studies and more, if they are available.
Note, too, that on the main page there is a “Wiki Overview” description of what the topic is and its importance. At the top right is a link to “edit description,” so if you don’t like the description given, you can modify it. Actually, this is linked to our Networking Encyclopedia, which we’re also encouraging folks to contribute to, but that’s a whole other discussion.
Right now just 10 of the buyer’s guides have the “enhanced” features, but we’re working behind the scenes to fill out more of them over the next few months. Yes, I’ve been, um, drafted to help with the effort – which I’m cool with, really I am, because we’re building something that in the end ought to have real value for readers.
Here’s the list of buyer’s guides that have been enhanced so far. Check them out:
* VoIP Security ProductsWAN Traffic Optimization and Application AccelerationEnterprise Wireless LAN EquipmentUnified Threat ManagementMessaging SecurityWireless LAN SecurityInformation ManagementStorage VirtualizationSecure Web GatewayNetwork Access Control
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