Sorry, you need to enable JavaScript to visit this website.

Denise Ridolfo of NetApp Joins the SNIA Europe Board of Directors

webinar
For release:

2009-03-02

Marketing Expert Brings Strong Links to SNIA Worldwide

London, UK, 2nd March 2009 - The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Europe
today announced the appointment of NetApp's Denise Ridolfo to its Board of Directors. Ridolfo,
who is based in the USA and France, is NetApp's Industry & Standards Operations Manager,
reporting into the CTO Office, and represents the company in various industry associations
including the SNIA, the Fibre Channel Industry Association and the Ethernet Alliance. Ridolfo has
spent over 15 years in the IT and storage networking industry, and is broadly recognised as an
industry marketing expert; she will take an active role as the Strategic Alliance Chair and in SNIA
Europe's Marketing Committee, supporting the development of educational content for the
European technology initiatives through her strong links with the SNIA Worldwide Forums and
Initiatives.

"SNIA Europe offers IT professionals a broad range of educational tools and I am keen to
leverage my experience to further enhance the profile and appeal of these programmes across
EMEA.", said Ridolfo. "As a vendor-independent industry body SNIA Europe encourages end
users to deploy open storage technologies as key elements of their IT strategies. I am looking
forward to working with the Board and committees to develop educational resources on new and
innovative technologies such as Solid State Storage and FCoE."

The current SNIA Europe Directors serving until October 2009 are:

  • Juergen Arnold - Chairman and Liaison to the Green Storage Initiative (HP, Germany)

  • Malte Rademacher - Vice Chairman (EMC, Germany)

  • Matthias Werner - Secretary and Events Committee Co-chair (IBM, Switzerland)

  • Bob Plumridge - Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair (Hitachi Data Systems,
    UK)

  • Jon Ashley - Director (Infortrend, UK)

  • Frank Bunn - Director and Liaison to the Storage Management Initiative, the Storage
    Security Industry Forum, and the XAM Initiative (Symantec, Germany)

  • Aad Dekkers - Director (MTI Europe, Netherlands)

  • Walter Dey - Director, Events Committee Co-chair and Liaison to the Education
    Committee and the IP Storage Forum (Cisco Systems, Switzerland)

  • Philippe Nicolas - Director and Liaison to the Data Management and XAM Initiatives
    (France)

  • Denise Ridolfo - Director and Strategic Alliance Committee Chair, (NetApp, USA &
    France)

  • Marcus Schneider - Director and Liaison to the Solid State Storage Initiative (Fujitsu
    Siemens Computers, Germany)

"SNIA Europe works closely with SNIA Worldwide to promote the adoption of open storage
architectures, technologies and services and to provide a strong source of vendor-neutral
information to storage and information management professionals throughout EMEA," said
Juergen Arnold, SNIA Europe Chairman. "I am very excited to have Denise join directly the SNIA
Europe's education and marketing efforts. Having worked with her for some time already, I know
her experience and her relationships will be a very strong assets for the European team."

About SNIA Europe
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Europe is dedicated to high-level knowledge
exchange, thought-leadership and to promotion of the acceptance, deployment and confidence in
open storage-related architectures, systems, services and technologies, across the IT and
business community. To achieve this, SNIA Europe runs a coordinated series of activities at both
pan-European and country-level to provide a central source of unbiased information on storage
networking technologies. It is the voice of authority that delivers education and information on
networked storage and associated technologies across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. SNIA
Europe is a non-profit, vendor-neutral organisation run by its members, which include
approximately 70 vendors, channel partners and individuals. For further information you can
email euroinfo@snia.org, contact +44 (0) 20 8785 5555, or visit www.snia-europe.org.

Notes for editors
In order to promote the understanding and adoption of networked storage SNIA Europe runs a coordinated series of activities at both pan-European and individual country-level; these include:

  • SNIA runs a number of tutorials developed by its members for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of the networked storage industry and its technologies; the SNIA Europe Academy, a series of comprehensive, one-day tutorials designed to provide storage professionals with regular educational programs on key storage technologies and solutions, will take place in a number of countries in the coming months including Dubai (3rd February), Stockholm (24th March), Copenhagen (26th March), Paris (28th April) and London (19th May) www.storage-academy.com;

  • Certification: SNIA has developed a certification program for IT professionals. This is the first independent certification of its kind;

  • Storage User Council: country-specific, vendor-independent user groups run by users for users with the participation and support of the vendor community. The European End User Council Chair is an advisory member of the SNIA Europe Board of Directors;

  • Storage Networking World - Europe (www.snweurope.com): the only fully independent conference where IT professionals can listen to the industry's leading figures share their expertise and insights, attend SNIA-endorsed education tracks, get hands-on access to the wide range of SNIA-sanctioned solutions demonstrations, and get the time to mix with industry peers and technology experts who are faced with similar IT storage issues every day;

  • Storage Networking Times - This quarterly newsletter is written by SNIA Europe representatives and independent industry analysts and is aimed at end users. With sections including educational articles, a regional spotlight and a myths uncovered column, Storage Networking Times is a key resource for all EMEA IT professionals involved in storage and data management and can be accessed on www.snia-europe.org/news_events/e_news/.

SNIA Europe's programs are overseen by the member-elected Board of Directors, responsible for high-level strategy, direction, focus and region-wide activities. Four directors hold the officer positions of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Other members of the Board are responsible for membership, events, marketing, education and country committee liaison. Other committees include those responsible for the liaison to the SNIA Worldwide technology initiatives and forums. Below is the current Board of Directors as it now stands until October 2009:

  • Juergen Arnold - Chairman and Liaison to the Green Storage Initiative (HP, Germany)

  • Malte Rademacher - Vice Chairman (EMC, Germany)

  • Matthias Werner - Secretary and Events Committee Co-chair (IBM, Switzerland)

  • Bob Plumridge - Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair (Hitachi Data Systems,
    UK)

  • Jon Ashley - Director (Infortrend, UK)

  • Frank Bunn - Director and Liaison to the Storage Management Initiative, the Storage
    Security Industry Forum, and the XAM Initiative (Symantec, Germany)

  • Aad Dekkers - Director (MTI Europe, Netherlands)

  • Walter Dey - Director, Events Committee Co-chair and Liaison to the Education
    Committee and the IP Storage Forum (Cisco Systems, Switzerland)

  • Philippe Nicolas - Director and Liaison to the Data Management and XAM Initiatives
    (France)

  • Denise Ridolfo - Director and Strategic Alliance Committee Chair, (NetApp, USA &
    France)

  • Marcus Schneider - Director and Liaison to the Solid State Storage Initiative (Fujitsu
    Siemens Computers, Germany)

In addition, SNIA Europe today has country and regional committees in:


Their primary responsibilities are to promote and host the activities of SNIA Europe in the individual countries.

In addition, SNIA Europe has established the following Technology Initiatives to develop and implement education programs in key areas of technology:

Data Management Initiative
Philippe Nicolas, Chair
DMI-Europe-Chair@snia.org
The Data Management Initiative works in conjunction with the SNIA Worldwide Data Management Forum to educate the market about three key areas of data management: Data Protection (including data de-duplication), Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) and Long Term Archive and Compliance Storage Initiative (L-TACSI).

Green Storage Initiative
Juergen Arnold, European Board Liaison
gsi-europe-liaison@snia.org
The Green Storage Initiative works in conjunction with the SNIA Worldwide GSI to educate the market on best practices for energy efficient storage networking, educating the vendor and user community, and promoting storage-centric applications that reduce the storage footprint and associated power requirements.

IP Storage Initiative
Walter Dey, European Board Liaison
IPSI-Europe-Chair@snia.org
The IP Storage Initiative focuses on delivering educational programmes and seminars on the benefits and positioning of various IP storage technologies and solutions, including IETF-ratified standards FCIP, iFCP, and iSCSI. They work with the SNIA Worldwide IP Storage Forum to develop content based on current standards and best practices in order to drive the adoption of IP-based Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions through global marketing initiatives and end-user education.

Solid State Storage Initiative
Marcus Schneider, European Board Liaison
SSSI-europe-liaison@snia.org
The Solid State Storage Initiative addresses marketing outreach and education to become the recognised authority for storage made from solid state devices, and to educate the vendor and user communities about storage made from solid state devices.

Storage Management Initiative
Frank Bunn, Chair
SMI-europe-chair@snia.org
The Storage Management Initiative serves as the European liaison group to the SNIA Worldwide Storage Management Forum, created by the SNIA to develop and standardise a highly functional and interoperable management interface for multi-vendor storage networking products to enable and streamline the integration of large and diverse multi-vendor storage networks.

Storage Security Industry Forum
Frank Bunn, European Board Liaison
ssif-europe-liaison@snia.org
The European liaison to the SNIA Worldwide Storage Security Industry Forum (SSIF) helps storage professionals, security professionals, security practitioners, and academics work together to contribute to a better understanding of storage security and how it applies in your organisation.

XAM Initiative
Frank Bunn and Philippe Nicolas, European Board Liaisons
XAM-europe-liaison@snia.org
The XAM Initiative was created by the SNIA to develop and implement XAM product interoperability programs; XAM, developer programs, XAM standard product conformance programs, and industry education materials.

These initiatives work with the European program committees and maintain a liaison to the SNIA Worldwide technology forums, where standards and best practices in these areas are being developed. A complete list of initiatives, publications, committees and events is available at www.snia-europe.org.