Editorial Independence & How We Make Recommendations

Every product recommendation, ranking, and "best of" conclusion on Need to Know IT is based on editorial judgement. Not commercial relationships.

How we make recommendations

Our assessment criteria:

• Performance and specifications. Real-world capability against the use case, not marketing claims
• AU market availability. Products must be genuinely purchasable in Australia at reasonable lead times
• AU pricing and value. Assessed against AU RRP, not US pricing converted at spot rate
• Warranty and support. AU statutory warranty, local distributor support, and vendor track record
• Fit for the stated use case. A product that is technically excellent but wrong for the reader's situation will not be recommended

Rankings are determined by these criteria alone. A product will not be ranked higher because we have an affiliate relationship with a retailer that stocks it. A product will not be excluded because we don't.

Affiliate links. What they are and what they don't do

Some pages on this site contain affiliate links. If you click a link and make a purchase, we may earn a small commission from the retailer at no extra cost to you.

Affiliate links are always marked with (affiliate) inline. Every page that contains affiliate links carries a disclosure statement at the top of the page.

What affiliate relationships do not affect:

• Which products are included in a comparison
• How products are ranked
• The conclusions we reach in reviews or buying guides

Every best-of guide on this site includes at least one product for which we have no affiliate relationship. This is a structural rule, not a guideline. It is the proof of the editorial standard we hold ourselves to.

Commercial relationships we currently have

Relationship	Detail
Amazon Associates	ID: ntkit-22. We earn a commission on qualifying purchases via Amazon AU links.
Ezoic	Display advertising on some pages. Ad placement does not influence editorial content.

We will update this table as new commercial relationships are established.

What we do not have and will not accept:

• Pay-for-placement arrangements (no vendor can pay to be ranked higher or included)
• Sponsored rankings or "partner" product slots within editorial content
• Exclusivity arrangements with any retailer or vendor
• Any arrangement that requires editorial approval by a commercial partner before publication

Review units and vendor-supplied products

We may accept review units (hardware provided by vendors for evaluation purposes) where this allows us to produce hands-on, benchmark-driven content that is more useful to readers than specification-sheet analysis alone.

When a review unit is used:

• The review page will carry a clear disclosure: "Review unit provided by [vendor]. Editorial independence maintained."
• If the hardware has problems, we will report them. Acceptance of a review unit is not acceptance of a positive review.
• The vendor has no right of review, approval, or amendment of content before or after publication.

Sponsored content

We do not currently publish sponsored content.

If we do in future, it will be:

• Clearly labelled as sponsored on the page
• Separated from editorial content
• Subject to a 90-day blackout from editorial coverage of that brand or topic following publication
• Never placed within or adjacent to editorial rankings

Who runs this site

Need to Know IT is an independent Australian publisher focused on storage, infrastructure, and data management. All content is published under the "Need to Know IT Team" byline. The site operates as an independent entity with an active ABN and ASIC registration.

We do not accept direction on editorial content from employers, clients, vendors, distributors, or advertisers.

Contact

If you have a question about how a specific recommendation was made, or want to flag a potential conflict of interest, contact us via the Contact page.