During last week’s Disaster recovery Summit in Tampa I was surprised to see so few storage vendors and storage resellers. I would have expected to see a whole bunch of Storage resellers at the conference, since recovering data is such an important part of Business Continuity. It seemed very odd, although the attendees were probably very happy not to see them. Zerowait was the only storage support and services company in attendence, and I was the only non- manufacturer on the panel discussions.

In a strange coincidence today in a press release by Tech Data anouncing their NetApp distribution agreement they say: “Whether it’s ensuring critical data is accessible in case of disaster or complying with regulations that mandate increased digital document retention, businesses of all sizes are turning to IT resellers to develop innovative, cost-effective storage solutions,” said Pete Peterson, Tech Data’s vice president, Systems Product Marketing.

Tech data is in Clearwater and the conference was in Tampa, at the Airport Marriott. If Data Availalbility in the face of a disaster is so important to Tech Data and NetApp, I wonder why they did not drive over the bridge to the conference? It would have been a great opportunity for them to introduce their new product.