Dave Russell, an expert in backup/recovery and storage management software, has an extensive professional background spanning over three decades. Currently, he holds the position of Vice President of Enterprise Strategy at Veeam Software. In this role, he engages with professionals in data centers, IT vendors, reseller, and channel partners worldwide. Dave passionately believes in backup, availability, and storage management, considering them universal challenges that every organization seeks to address. His vast experience in the industry includes a Vice President and Distinguished Analyst role at Gartner, where his research focused on storage strategies and technologies. As a conference co-chairman for a 2,500 attendee event, he played an instrumental role in spearheading industry engagement. Before joining Gartner, Dave worked at IBM, where he developed backup software for the mainframe and managed storage architects. Dave studied Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Arizona, where he received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees.