What Lies Ahead

2001 was definitely a humbling year for the technology industry. Gone are the days of over-hyped dot-coms, overnight millionaires of Silicon Valley, and mountains of venture capitalist dollars. The sluggish economy and financial markets have forced technology companies to get real. Companies are trimming their workforces, reducing their overhead, and bringing products to market that can generate customer interest and sales revenue now - not sometime in the distant future.

Heading into 2002, I predict good things for the technology industry - and its channel partners. Financial analysts are predicting an economic rebound sometime soon. In the meantime, end user companies continue to invest in technology and integration albeit with smaller budgets (for a list of some of these technologies, see my "From The Editor" column in the November 2001 issue).

Adding To The List Of Technologies To Watch
Two technology areas that I left off my list were security and data recovery. The tragic events of September 11 have pushed these technologies into the spotlight and into the minds of technology buyers. As a VAR or integrator, if you haven't put a focus on security and recovery, you may want to start investigating the following technologies:

• Biometrics and identification technologies - Fingerprint identification and handprint, facial, and iris recognition are hot topics in the general news media, as well as in our nation's congressional halls. A recent USA TODAY poll found 68% of Americans support a national ID (identification) system and 86% would like facial recognition technology used to scan for suspected terrorists. While only the largest VARs could implement a nationwide ID program, there's a lot of opportunity for channel companies to sell solutions to airports and other sites in need of security. And, companies like biometrics manufacturer Recognition Systems (Campbell, CA) and printer vendor Zebra Technologies (Vernon Hills, IL), with its Eltron product line (and potentially its Fargo product line), sell through VARs.
• Service providing - Off-site data hosting/replication proved to be a real savior for the financial industry after the World Trade Center collapse. The stock market was up and running in a week, even though many cornerstone financial institutions were located in the WTC. While many VARs don't have the infrastructure to be off-site data centers, service providers are willing to pay VARs for referrals or the resale of their services.
• Disaster recovery - Moving/replicating data to an off-site facility is part of disaster recovery planning. According to Gartner analysts, in the past, businesses spent between 2% and 6% of IT budgets on disaster recovery. Bill Malik, who led a session on disaster recovery at Gartner's IT Symposium this fall, predicts these expenditures will now increase. Storage solutions are an integral part of disaster recovery planning. Many storage vendors at this fall's Fibre Channel Technologies Conference reported multiple inquiries from customers about this subject.

Storage VARs will need to address disaster recovery issues and may have to partner with providers like IBM (Armonk, NY), SunGard (Wayne, PA), and Comdisco (Rosemont, IL). And, if these plans aren't fault proof enough, they can turn to companies like CBL Data Recovery (Toronto) for assistance in recovering this data.

Some could argue that it's unethical to take advantage of business opportunities resulting from the attacks. But, I would disagree. VARs and integrators building security solutions means safer businesses. And in the end, this leads to more commerce. Isn't that what America is all about?