When a pebble is dropped into a pond, the ripples travel over the water and touch everything in its wake. One small, unexpected event can cause many disruptions – just as the tech industry is struggling against right now.

An unexpected phenomenon, the extreme flooding in Thailand, has caused problems for multiple companies. The flooding started in November 2011, but four months later, buildings and businesses are still under water and reporting lower than expected profits.

One of the main companies in the middle of all the flooding is Western Digital, which is also one of the biggest hard drive manufacturers in the world. In fact, about 25% of hard disk drives purchased globally come from Thailand. So it isn’t a big surprise that shortages and lost profits come right along with the never-ending water.

And as the ripple affect works, other companies and tech industries that rely on Western Digital’s hard drives are also suffering. Recently, AMD and Nvidia, two graphics card manufacturers, reported a shortfall in their 2011 fourth quarter profits. It isn’t surprising that both companies have pointed fingers at the flood as well. After all, without hard drives, computers can’t be made. Without computers, there is no need for graphics cards.

But, really any company having to do with the manufacturing or distribution of computers or computer parts is taking a hit right now. Dell and Apple are both reportedly working on other ways to build their computers with other hard drive companies who are not caught in the middle of this ripple effect.

Although several companies are struggling in these hard times, AMD and Nvidia have also seemingly moved ahead with their technology to solidify themselves in the mobile world. Graphics cards have now been designed and developed to be placed in mobile phones and other devices. This is definitely a smart move. While computers will never fully disappear, the tech world is always changing and evolving. It seems as the newest trends all have to do with small, mobile devices.

While Western Digital has been able to reopen one of their damaged buildings, it will obviously take a while for things to come back into full working condition. So hopefully these shortages won’t last too long, companies can recover and people can start buying computers again. And obviously it doesn’t hurt for tech companies to have a backup plan for production and purchasing components.