A New Direction
by David Newman, Network Test
For years I've railed against the evils of public testing for vendors. I've had plenty of justification: Lousy products get tested in lousy ways to make them look good. It's a bad use of testing, and it's not something I've been interested in doing.
With our new Web site design, we're acknowledging in public something we've already been doing in private for a few years: We're doing vendor testing too.
The obvious question is: Are we selling out?
I don't think so, and we're working hard to ensure that we stay “clean” in any tests we do. I'll try to detail the ways in which we ensure test integrity, but first some background.
For every test project we take on, we turn away at least five others. Running lean has proven a good business practice, but there's also such a thing as running too lean. Equipment makers and resellers are the largest consumers of testing services. If we want to continue to grow Network Test, it doesn't make sense for us to ignore the largest pool of potential customers.
There are “clean” ways to conduct testing for any customer, including equipment makers and resellers. Here's how we do it:
- When we test prerelease products, we do so under NDA
- When we provide outsourced QA services, we do so under NDA
- When we test public testing for equipment makers, we test that vendor's product(s) or service(s) only
- We do not alter industry-standard methodologies to suit the device or system under test
- We do not conduct competitive public testing for equipment makers or resellers
We continue to provide testing and consulting services for enterprise and service provider customers. These end-users of networking equipment and services can rest assured that their interests continue to drive everything we do. Network Test's greatest assets are its people, its independence, and its good name – and we plan to keep it that way.