SNIA Developer Conference September 15-17, 2025 | Santa Clara, CA
SNIA Emerald™ Programs
SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency Measurement Specification
The SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency Measurement Specification identifies metrics by which energy consumption and efficiency of storage networking products can be measured for the purposes of new product development, end-user customer evaluation, and regulatory standards development
All versions of the Measurement Specification are available for download.
On July 3, 2020, the SNIA adopted Specification Version 4.0.0. This revision includes a revised storage taxonomy that specifically addresses Solid State Storage-based systems. In addition there are some changes to testing procedures. This versions of the specification is referenced by the EPA ENERGY STAR® Data Center Storage (DCS) Specification 2.0.
In November 2019, ISO published an International Standard, ISO/IEC 24091:2019 Information Technology - Power efficiency measurement specification for data center storage. This standard is based on and technically equivalent to SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency Measurement Specification V3.0.3 and was adopted by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology. This document is available for a fee from ISO.
On October 11, 2018, the SNIA adopted Specification Version 3.0.3. This minor update to Specification Version 3.0.2 contains clarifications, corrections, and many editorial changes that make this update suitable for submission for ISO standardization as a Publically Available Specification.
On May 23, 2018, the SNIA released Specification Version 3.0.2. This minor update to Specification Version 3.0.1 corrects some inconsistencies in timing requirements for recording data and clarifies the tables in Annex B. This is now available for download. On September 11, 2017, the SNIA released Specification Version 3.0.1. The SNIA Emerald™ Specification V3.0.1 is a major extension of the V2.1.1 specification that:
Adds a test methodology for file access storage devices based on the SPEC® SFS2014 benchmark, substantially expanding the range of testable storage devices;
Clarifies and updates many elements of the specification based on usage experience;
Improves organization of the specification;
Retains all the major elements of V2.1.1 including the storage taxonomy and the block IO test methodology.
The SNIA Green Storage Initiative and Green Storage Technical Working Group worked with the EPA ENERGY STAR® Program's Data Center Storage (DCS) Program to add testing of file access storage devices, as defined in SNIA Emerald V3.0.2, to the ENERGY STAR® Program in the ENERGY STAR® DCS Version 1.1 Specification for Data Center Storage.
Access and download SNIA Emerald Specifications as approved SNIA Architecture.