All of these ideas came from you, our readers. And, that should come as no surprise, as you are the ones in the trenches dealing with the problems and politics associated with maintaining enterprise networks. Your insight not only helps Network Performance Daily stay focused on the right issues, but it gives us visibility into the daily challenges that network engineers and managers face so that we can continually evolve our product capabilities.
So rather than waiting for more great ideas to roll in, we thought it would fun to proactively reach out to our readers and build a list of Network Performance Management Resolutions for 2008 with a New Year’s Resolution Contest.

• What are your thoughts on improving network and application performance in 2008?
• What are your key initiatives and challenges for the new year?
• What best practices are you going to start?
• What bad habits do you hope to abolish?

And, while we’re feeling thankful and caught up in the season of giving, why not give out some gifts to thank you for sharing your best ideas? So, we decided to put together a fun little contest with a few exciting prizes to reward readers who post the best, most creative or promising ideas for improving network performance in 2008.

Here’s how to win: Submit your best resolution for improving network performance in 2008 idea and contact information by December 31, 2007. Our panel of judges will review the top entries and select one winner in each of these categories:

1. The Performer – a Nintendo Wii will be awarded for the best resolution for optimizing the network for application performance.
2. The Revolutionary – a TomTom GPS Navigation System will be awarded for the resolution that shows promise for the biggest potential impact.
3. The Collaborator - an iPod Nano will be awarded for the best resolution for improving collaboration with other IT groups.
4. The Reformer - an iPod Shuffle will be awarded for the best resolution for kicking a bad habit.

Need some ideas to get the ball rolling? Well, here are a few New Year’s resolutions for network performance stimulated by NetQoS surveys and some of Network Performance Daily’s most popular 2007 posts:
• Takes steps to ensure network performance won’t be hit by recreational use of the network.
• Brush up on vendor-agnostic network performance management skills by completing network training and achieving NetAnalyst certification.
• Stop paying through the nose on maintenance fees on incumbent IT management products.
• Stop fighting fires by moving from a fault-based management approach to a performance-centric approach to network management.

Now, it’s your turn. Submit your 2008 New Year’s resolution before December 31, 2007. Don’t wait. The winners will be announced in Network Performance Daily on January 21, 2008. Stay tuned to Network Performance Daily for weekly updates.