Tech Tacks

Location: San Carlos Boulevard,

Fort Myers Beach

In Fort Myers since: 1994

Employees: six

Web site: www.RWT.com

SmartDisk Corp.

Tucked away in Fort Myers' Gateway development is a little powerhouse of a company that produces high-tech gizmos for storing digital photos, music and data files. SmartDisk makes and markets portable hard drives that you can plug into your computer to backup files or transfer them to your laptop or another device. Products range from the pocket-sized FireFly, which can hold thousands of MP3s, photos or videos, to the FlashTrax, a handheld device with up to 80 GB that can hold your digital photos or video, which can be viewed on a small screen. SmartDisk was founded in 1997 in Naples before relocating its corporate headquarters and warehouse in Fort Myers. With additional operations in Europe and Japan, the company is traded on the Pink Sheets.

President and CEO: Michael S. Battaglia

Location: 12780 Westlinks Drive,

Fort Myers

In Fort Myers since: 2003

Employees: 21 in Fort Myers; 31 total

Web site: www.smartdisk.com

Source Interlink

Source Interlink Companies makes waiting in line at the grocery store more entertaining for customers-and more profitable for vendors. Helping stores decide what items to position near cash registers and helping publishers figure out what to put on their magazine covers are a few of the many services provided by the international company headquartered in Bonita Springs. It handles a broad spectrum of marketing, publishing and retail-consulting functions, from building and supplying wooden display racks to helping retailers decide what to place on them. Through its Web-based information system, it provides marketing research to clients, and it's a major distributor of magazines internationally. A recent merger builds on that foundation, adding CDs, DVDs and videogames to its distribution arm. Traded on NASDAQ, Source Interlink has 17 locations throughout the United States, Canada and England.

Chairman and CEO: Leslie Flegel

Location: 27500 Riverview Center Blvd., Bonita Springs

In Bonita Springs since: 2002

Employees: 300 local; 2500 total

Web site: www.sourceinterlink.com

T3 Communications

Chief executive officer Stephen Ward describes his business in terms of a water main: As pipes branch off the main and more users turn on their water, pressure drops. Similarly, those who use mainstream high-speed Internet providers are sharing with other users, so when a lot of people are tapping in at the same time, speed and efficiency drops. T3 Communications' bandwidth, however, comes directly from the source. The second-tier network access point (NAP) in Fort Myers hooks directly to a tier-one NAP-one of only five in the country-in Miami. So users don't feel the same effects of sharing, or "aggregation," as they might with, say, Road Runner or Comcast. And customers also have a choice of Internet carriers, such as Qwest or Expedient. Economic developers hail the locally owned and operated business as providing the kind of technological infrastructure that makes the region more attractive to other technology-related businesses. T3 also is a collocation facility, guaranteeing 100 percent uptime in terms of power and Internet service, providing extra security and dependability to ISPs-who sell access to their customers-and others who locate within the facility.

CEO: Stephen Ward

Location: 2401 First St., Fort Myers

In Fort Myers since: 2003

Employees: 25

Web site: www.T3com.com