SWC no more?

Keeping with my trend of putting storage companies out of business by buying their products, I've now graduated to storage conference! Storage World Conference, the last of which was held September of 2006, is now a memory. The website is no longer updated and plans for SWC 2008 are in doubt. Previous SWC gatherings were held in conjunction with the Association of Storage Networking Professionals (ASNP). The ASNP merged into the Storage Networking User's Group (SNUG) last year, bolstering the ranks of SNUG.

Is this a preview of things to come? Has the storage industry begun to shrink? What's it all mean?

First and foremost, the loss of SWC reduces the list of storage-specific conferences to just two - Storage Networking World (SNW) and Storage Decisions (SD). SNW is hosted by ComputerWorld and SD is hosted by TechTarget. Both media groups seem relatively stable, with a vast array of IT publications in their collections. Both SNW and SD have a full calendar of events on both coasts, alternating in the Fall and Spring. With, the influx of sponsor dollars necessary for these schedules will be easier with fewer events each year.

Moreover, this could be a sign that the industry is self-correcting. Do we really need three storage conferences each season? Maybe. Maybe not.