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A Decade of Storage Management Progress - SNIA Celebrates Its 10th Anniversary
While marking its 10th anniversary with numerous new announcements and exciting developments at the recent SNW, the SNIA also took a moment to reflect on the past decade of progress and accomplishments. In 1997, a small group of storage industry leaders came together and launched a consortium that would not only advance the industry, but also unite it. At that time, a hard disk held up to 1 GB, and a backup tape held a whopping 20 GB. We've come a long way as an industry since then, and we've come even further as an Association.
The origins of the SNIA began in June of 1997, when Michael Peterson, of Strategic Research, saw the potential and began soliciting support from the industry. On Sept 5, 1997, an initial meeting was held, hosted by Novell, with additional representatives from CNT, Compaq, Seagate, Strategic Research and Xyratex. The organization's name, the Storage Networking Industry Association or "SNIA," was developed at that meeting, and plans were made for an industry "Call to Arms" meeting.
On October 16, 1997, at the San Francisco Marriott, 226 participants representing 91 companies attended the "Call to Arms," which featured on-stage support from Paul Borrill of Quantum, Bob Brown of Seagate, Alan Skidmore of Compaq, and Jim Gast of Novell. From this highly successful meeting, the SNIA was born.
As we mark this momentous 10 years, key milestones from both the SNIA and the industry follow:
| Year |
SNIA Milestones |
Industry Milestones |
| 1997 |
-
The first SNIA organizational meeting is held at Fall Comdex 1997
- The first Board of Directors is elected:
- Paul Borril (Quantum)
- Michael Peterson (Strategic Research)
- Clod Barrera (IBM)
- Ahmet Houssien (Intel)
- Barbara Bardach (Crossroads)
- Brad Stamas (STK)
- Bob Brown (Seagate)
- Gary Archer (Legato)
- Keshava Srivastava (DEC)
- Tom Lagatta (Symbios Logic)
|
- Network storage emerges in reaction to customer demands (1Gb/s Fibre Channel)
- This year modems reach 56 kbps using v.90 standard
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| 1998 |
- Chair: Paul Borril (Quantum)
- Organization grows to 89 members (35 Regular, 10 Emerging, 25 Associate, and 19 Individual)
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- 1st Fibre Channel switch (1Gb/s)
- Direct Access Storage begins losing ground to networked storage
- FC networks adopted in Data Centers
- Google is founded
- Apple introduces the iMac
- 1st Memory stick, 8MB, $40
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| 1999 |
- Chair: Paul Borril (Quantum)
- Technical Council created, chaired by Brad Stamas (STK)
- SNIA partners with IDG's Computerworld to co-own and produce Storage Networking World (SNW) - 1st SNW occurs in Seattle
- Committees created: Conference, Web, Marketing, Education, Membership, Strategy, End User
- SNIA Website goes live
- 1st CIM-based resource management demonstrations (US-wide)
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- Comdex attendance is 417,000
- FC deployment in the Enterprise highlights Interoperability challenges
- LAN-free & Server-free Backup/Restore solutions adopted as a FC technology proof-point
- Wireless 802.11b products introduced
- 340MB microdrive introduced
- DVD-ROM drives introduced
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| 2000 |
- Chair: Larry Krantz (EMC)
- TC Chair: Wayne Rickard (Gadzoox)
- End User Council created
- Interoperability Committee created to address emerging storage networks deployment issues
- 1st Interoperability demonstrations held at SNW
- SNIA Shared Storage Model introduced
- CIFS Plugfest brought to SNIA
- IP Storage Forum launched
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- 1st standards for fabric interoperability emerge
- Y2K came and went without incident
- 1GB microdrive
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| 2001 |
- Chair: Larry Krantz (EMC)
- TC Chair: Wayne Rickard (Seagate)
- Launch of the Supported Solutions Forum to build reference multi-vendors solutions
- SNIA expands its international outreach with the launch of Regional Forums in Europe & Japan
- Technology Center Opens in Colorado Springs
- 1st SNIA Dictionary is published and distributed at spring SNW
- DAFS Forum launched
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- IP Storage emerges as an alternative to Fibre Channel
- 2Gb/s FC emerges
- Security exposures identified in storage networking
- Apple introduces the iPod
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| 2002 |
- Chair: Brad Stamas (StorageTek)
- TC Chair: Wayne Rickard (Seagate)
- SMI-S program launched based on the Bluefin contribution
- Backup/Restore, Security, and SMI Summit events held at Tech Center
- International strategy launched and Int'l Committee created
- Storage Security Industry Forum created
- Storage Management Forum created
- Launch of SNIA-China Regional Forum
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- Storage Virtualization emerges as a new technology
- PCI Express becomes a standard
- SATA hard drive introduced
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| 2003 |
- Chair: Sheila Childs (Legato)
- TC Co-Chairs: Wayne Rickard (Seagate), David Thiel (HP)
- SMI-S v1.0 released for public review, approved as SNIA Architecture
- Data Management Forum launched
- Grand opening of SNIA China RA with Tsinghua University
- New Regional Affiliates launched:
- South Asia: All ASEAN countries and India
- Australia & New Zealand
- SNIA co-founds Storage users organization StorageNetworking.org
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- MAID (Massive Arrays of Idle Disks) emerges as a new technology
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| 2004 |
- Chair - Sheila Childs (EMC)
- TC Co-Chairs: Wayne Rickard (Seagate), David Thiel (HP)
- SMI-S Conformance Testing Program launched at Tech Center
- SNW is the leading Storage Industry event
- SNIA-Canada Regional Forum launched
- EUC delivers "Top 10 Pain Points" at SNW
- DDF becomes a SNIA Architecture
- SNIA-Europe Regional Forum and FCIA-Europe merged to form SNIA-Europe Regional Affiliate
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- 10Gb/s Inter Switch Links for FC
- Tape cartridge hits 1TB
- Comdex cancelled
- 8th Annual CIFS Plugfest
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| 2005 |
- Chair: Wayne Adams (EMC)
- TC Chair: David Thiel (HP)
- Alliance strategies developed to create linkages across the industry
- SNIA Academy launched in Prague and Warsaw
- Storage Developers Conference launched (CIFS folded in)
- FarSighted launches
- Board Advisory Council launched
- eXtended Access Method architecture contributed to SNIA
- Multipath Management API becomes a SNIA architecture
- iSCSI Management API becomes a SNIA architecture
- Grid Taskforce launched
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- Information Lifecycle Management Emerges to help with data management
- 4Gb/s FC emerges
- 1st iSCSI Plugfest
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| 2006 |
- Chair: Wayne Adams (EMC)
- TC Chair: Mark Carlson (Sun)
- Software Development is added as a major activity in SNIA
- iSCSI Plugfest folded into SDC
- SNIA-India becomes a separate Regional Affiliate
- SNIA Board visits IIIE in Bangalore to open Technology Center activities
- Strategic alliances formed with ARMA and EGA (now OGF)
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- 10Gb/s Ethernet emerges
- Hard disk drive manufacturers begin using perpendicular recording technology to drastically increase bit density
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| 2007 |
- Chair: Vincent Franceschini (HDS)
- TC Chair: Dave Thiel (HP)
- Leo Leger named SNIA's Executive Director
- SMI-S Receives ISO/IEC Approval-SNIA's First ISO Standard
- SNIA Academy launched in the US
- Strategic Alliance formed with Eclispe/Aperi
- MOU signed with FCIA, and FCAWG launched
- XAM and Green Storage Initiatives launched
- FAN and Data Integrity Taskforces launched
- SNIA rebrands with new logo and new Website
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- IT industry begins focusing on power and cooling costs – the "Greening" of IT
- Apple introduces the iPhone
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"As we celebrate the SNIA's 10-year anniversary and expand our mission to empower organizations in the management of information, it is fitting that we also take a look back to see how far we've come," said Vincent Franceschini, Chairman of the SNIA. "We certainly would not be here today without the vision, hard work, and dedication of the countless volunteers who participated in the formation and advancement of our organization. To them, we give our heartfelt thanks." |
