The Green Storage Initiative: Mission and Vision

The SNIA Green Storage Initiative (GSI) is dedicated to advancing energy efficiency and conservation in all networked storage technologies and minimizing the environmental impact of data storage operations.

This mission addresses the conflict between the continued exponential growth of storage data and the increasing cost and scarcity of energy resources to power modern data centers. By defining and promoting energy efficient shared storage solutions and best practices, the GSI is enabling sustainable data storage operations that reduce both the cost and the environmental impact of data center infrastructures.

To fulfill this mission, the GSI is organized around the following goals:

• Conduct research on power and cooling issues confronting storage administrators
• Educate the vendor and user community about the importance of power conservation in shared storage environments
• Leverage SNW and other SNIA and partner conferences to focus attention on energy efficiency for networked storage infrastructures
• Provide input to the SNIA Green Storage TWG on requirements for green storage metrics and standards
• Provide external advocacy and support of the technical work of the SNIA Green Storage TWG
• Formulate and popularize best practices for energy efficient storage networking
• Promote storage-centric applications that reduce the storage footprint and associated power requirements
• Be the liaison between the SNIA and other public and governmental organizations with similar energy conservation interests
• Coordinate with SNIA Regional Affiliates to maintain the international focus of all SNIA green efforts and liaise with green storage networking concerns worldwide

The GSI's scope of work includes all shared storage technologies including disk and tape systems, server connectivity, storage appliances, fabrics and other storage network infrastructure, file services, and storage applications. A GSI recommended solution can include individual storage technologies as well as combinations of hardware and software that work in concert to reduce energy consumption in the storage ecosystem.