Technical Standards Update

A number of new developments have taken place in the SNIA's industry standards work in recent months:

Common RAID Disk Data Format Specification v2.0 Published
The Common RAID Disk Data Format specification defines a standard data structure describing how data is formatted across the disks in a RAID group. The Disk Data Format (DDF) structure allows a basic level of interoperability between different suppliers of RAID technology. The Common RAID DDF structure benefits storage users by enabling data-in-place migration among systems from different vendors. The published specification is available at: http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/ddf/.

Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) v1.4 Now Available
SMI-S defines a method for the interoperable management of a heterogeneous Storage Area Network (SAN), and describes the information available to a WBEM Client from an SMI-S compliant CIM Server and an object-oriented, XML-based, messaging-based interface designed to support the specific requirements of managing devices in and through SANs. The published specification is available at: http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/.

Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) v1.3 Update
SMI-S v1.3 rev 6 is an update to the previously approved version of SMI-S v1.3 (rev 5). This update has been approved by the SNIA Membership and the published specification is available at: http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/curr_standards/smi/.

eXtensible Access Method (XAM) specification v1.0.1 Preparing for INCITS Submission
The XAM Interface specification defines a standard access method (API) between "Consumers" (application and management software) and "Providers" (storage systems) to manage reference information storage services. XAM v1.0.1 will be submitted to INCITS in September, beginning the process for ANSI and ISO standardization.