By Mark Ferelli
Recently, four companies in the archiving business launched the Active Archive Alliance, dedicated to informing a doubting IT industry that archives are not just files that are well-nigh forgotten. Archives need to be readily available, for reasons of corporate governance, regulatory compliance and litigation support (colloquially known as e-discovery). Spectra Logic, QStar, FileTek and Compellent are uniting to enlighten data center management and sell product that will keep archives available and usable in day-to-day operations. I expect other firms to join in the effort.
Consortia like the Active Archive Alliance are nothing new, but deliver value to the industry as a whole. Veterans of the storage industry will remember the organization built around the Travan tape technology, ably helmed by Michael Stevens of what was 3M and became Imation. Those same veterans will recall the AIT Forum, sponsored by Sony and organized by Marty Foltyn. Finally, they will remember format neutral organizations like the Tape Technology Council, managed by Rich Harada. With Computer Technology Review now in its 30th year of operation, and considering our in-depth coverage of tape technology, we have seen a great many groups rise and retire.
These organizations band together, in part, to do what individual companies hesitate to do individually. Educating a marketplace is the least popular part of the modern marketing process…every executive wants “the other guy” to do the educating for them so they can reap the benefits without shouldering the investment. In many cases, though, a business has no choice but to educate, otherwise their unique selling proposition will fall on bewildered ears. Additionally, the Internet is such a vigorous communications medium that the company who declines to educate potential customers runs a very realistic risk of being lost in the noise.
Do you remember the McGraw Hill “man in the chair” ad, designed originally to sell business-to-business advertising? It had a man confronting another’s company, which wishes to sell a product. In some of the greatest copy ever written, here is the message:
"I don't know who you are.
I don't know your company.
I don't know your company's product.
I don't know what your company stands for.
I don't know your company's customers.
I don't know your company's record.
I don't know your company's reputation.
Now - what was it you wanted to sell me?"
MORAL: Sales start before your salesman calls.
This lesson is as true now as it was 40 years ago, both for advertising and the sales of storage products and services in a very noisy, competitive arena. Without educating the marketplace, you have very little to say to that marketplace. Therefore, kudos to the companies forming the Active Archive Alliance, who assume the burden of educating the marketplace to a more realistic understanding of how archives are active, vital IT assets, and not assets gathering dust in an underground bunker.
