AFCOM 2009: Our Perspective
The B&L team got back from AFCOM’s Data Center World yesterday. The attendance was definitely down from previous years. Probably an indication of the tough economic times, as well as what some say is the waning relevance of tradeshows .
For our part, although the attendance was down at AFCOM, we were happy to see many of our customers, as well as speak with potential new customers about our tape management, eDiscovery and archived data management products.
As we see it, the main shift at AFCOM is from software to hardware. The show is becoming more of a data center hardware show. Things like cables, routers, servers—there was even a flooring vendor there. The other data center software vendors we talked with also see this shift happening. Hopefully the trend will abate or even reverse, because AFCOM has always been a great show for data center software providers like B&L.
But again, we definitely found a lot of value in attending this year. And it’s always good to get out off the office and be able to meet with customers, partners and potential customers in a more informal and relaxed atmosphere.
