SNIA Kick-Starts the Conformance Testing of SMI-S v1.2 Products and Unveils Easier Web Access to Deployment Information

SNIA Confirms that Five Vendors Passed SMI-S v1.2 Conformance Testing and Announces Access to Vendor Install Portal Pages to Facilitate Deployment of SMI-S Products in Their Data Centers

San Francisco, Calif. (December 10, 2007) The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced today that five vendors are now shipping products that conform to the latest version of the SNIA's Conformance Testing Program (SNIA-CTP) for the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) Provider Test suite. The program was developed to help ensure enterprise and storage management products deliver on the benefits of the fast-evolving SMI-S standard. In the history of the program, the SNIA-CTP has completed provider testing of more than 500 vendor hardware products from 27 companies. The new SMI-S Provider Test suite now adds the capability to test storage products for conformance to the SMI-S version 1.2. The first vendors to pass the SNIA-CTP SMI-S Provider Test suite for version 1.2 storage management include EMC Corporation, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM and NetApp.

"This is yet another confirmation of the steady progress made by the SMI-S program for end users and the greater storage industry," said Paul von Behren, Chair of the Storage Management Initiative. "IT professionals are always looking for greater flexibility in choosing the right solution as well as the ability to reduce the number of vendor-specific storage management tools required to manage today's heterogeneous data center. The SNIA-CTP encompasses both the management software and hardware infrastructure, bringing the industry closer to providing IT users with trusted storage management solutions that help ease their management complexity."

Today, the SNIA has expanded its testing of storage products that conform to the recently completed draft of SMI-S version 1.2 that includes functional enhancements to the array and storage virtualizer support. The SNIA will also roll out additional programs to add testing of additional storage products, such as Fabric and NAS, which conform to SMI-S version 1.2 to further its multi-vendor or heterogeneous storage management.

SMI Install Portals for Providers Launched

The SNIA also announced the availability of new SMI Install Portals for Providers to assist end users in deploying SMI-S products in their environments. Linked from the SNIA-CTP pages for conformant providers, these vendor sites provide useful information for installing and configuring SMI-S support for conformant products. These member company websites contain information designed to help end users more effectively deploy and manage native SMI-S enabled hardware and software. The SMI Install Portals for Providers pages can be reached from the SNIA-CTP pages for providers, which is located at /forums/smi/tech_programs/ctp/conformingproviders/.

The first vendors to provide their SMI Install Portals for Providers include Brocade, Cisco, EMC, HP, IBM and NetApp. "The SMI Install Portal for Providers is aimed at easing some of the pain customers have experienced in trying to deploy SMI-S supported products in their environments," said Mike Walker, Chair of the Storage Management Initiative Conformance Committee. "When customers install an SMI-S client in a multi-vendor SMI-S environment, they are faced with the challenge of installing a variety of providers at various levels. The SMI Install Portal for Providers will allow customers to readily find installation and configuration information for the providers they need in their environment."

About the Storage Management Initiative (SMI)

The SNIA Storage Management Initiative (SMI) is creating and driving to broad adoption, a highly functional and interoperable management interface for multi-vendor storage networking products. By enabling and streamlining the integration of large and diverse multi-vendor storage networks, the Initiative is able to expand the overall market for storage networking technology. For information visit /forums/smi/. End users looking to ensure that a vendor's SMI-S implementation conforms to SNIA standards should look for the official SNIA-CTP mark on tested products or visit:  /forums/smi/tech_programs/ctp/ for specific details.

About the SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of some 400 member companies and 7,000 individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIAs mission is to lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information. To this end, the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. For additional information, visit the SNIA web site at www.snia.org.