In Memoriam, Craig Carlson

It is with great sadness that the SNIA community mourns the passing of fellow SNIA member Craig Carlson on June 25, 2026.

Craig was a long-time and highly valued member of SNIA's Technical Council (TC), serving from October 2010 until his passing. During his tenure, he represented QLogic, Cavium, Marvell, and AMD, bringing exceptional technical expertise and leadership to the organization.

Craig was widely respected throughout the industry for his thought leadership and technical contributions. Over the years, he shared his expertise as a presenter at numerous SNIA events, including the flagship SNIA Developer Conference (SDC). He was also a major contributor to several SNIA Technical Work Groups, including StorageAI, SDXI, Computational Storage, Object Drive, Green Storage, SFF, and NVM Programming. In addition, Craig played a significant role in maintaining the SNIA Dictionary and served on the SDC Agenda Team, helping shape the conference's technical program.

Beyond SNIA, Craig was an influential leader and active contributor to several industry standards organizations, including the NVM Express Board, ANSI INCITS Technical Committee T11 (Fibre Channel), and IEEE. Craig was also an important member of Technical Committee T10 (SCSI) where he participated for 20 years from 2002 through 2022. His work on industry standards had a lasting global impact, with many of the specifications he helped develop ultimately becoming international standards through ISO/IEC.

“Craig belonged to that rare class of engineer whose influence extended far beyond any single company. His work became part of the industry’s foundation. Most people who build, buy, or operate enterprise storage systems have almost certainly relied on technology influenced by Craig’s work, even if they’ve never heard his name.” — Dr. J. Metz, Chair, SNIA Board of Directors

Craig's technical excellence, willingness to share his knowledge, and dedication to advancing the storage industry earned him the respect and admiration of colleagues throughout the community. His contributions to SNIA and the broader technology industry will have a lasting impact, and he will be greatly missed.