With stimulus checks on the way, the question I'm sure you're asking is how you can use yours to help out the storage industry. You are, aren't you?And the industry appears to need some help. With the 1Q reporting season just about done, the slowing economy is creating mixed storage-company results. Some have thrived in the first quarter, some have just survived the first quarter and others... well, they wish the first quarter didn't happen. It does seem like everyone is warning of slower overall revenue in the quarters to come. As we have seen in the past, the storage community isn't immune to economic slowdowns. So what can you do? Back to the stimulus check, to which I've given some thought. Here are my top suggestions: 1. Buy a 1-TB hard drive. Amazingly, I saw them on sale at Sam's Club. Of course, that won't help the high-end providers much, although considering EMC's recent purchase of Iomega, it might help them a bit.

2. Subscribe to online storage services. Online backup is a good place to start. I like iForem's store-it-forever capability, great for tax filings, contracts, and the like.

3. Subscribe to software online. As a serial organizer, I love project management/to do list packages available on the Web. If enough buyers like me follow suit, companies offering these products will need to buy more storage. At the very least, they'll require scalable archiving, right? (Think Permabit or Copan for starters.) Of course, by the time everyone gets their checks, buys a 1-TB drive, and signs up for online services or software, we will be well into 3Q. Luckily, most online backup services aimed at consumers are inexpensive, so even if your contribution doesn't jump-start the storage economy, you will probably have some money left over -- maybe to pay off some credit cards or go further into debt buy that new flat-screen TV...

George Crump is founder of Storage Switzerland, an analyst firm focused on the virtualization and storage marketplaces. It provides strategic consulting and analysis to storage users, suppliers, and integrators. An industry veteran of more than 25 years, Crump has held engineering and sales positions at various IT industry manufacturers and integrators. Prior to Storage Switzerland, he was CTO at one of the nation's largest integrators.