SNIA’s Object Drive Technical Work Group Receives the Most Innovative Flash Memory Technology Award at 2019 Flash Memory Summit

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, August 8, 2019 ─ The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), a globally recognized and trusted authority for storage leadership, standards, and technology expertise, received the most innovative flash memory technology award at the 2019 Flash Memory Summit for its Key Value Storage API Specification, version 1.0.

This specification defines an application programming interface (API) for Key Value storage devices and allows upper level applications to take advantage of the key value store method, independent of the interconnect bus infrastructure being used. The API outlines a set of functions that access key value storage the same way regardless of lower level protocol
(NVMe, PCIe, or SCSI). The provider of the lower level protocol includes a library interface that translates the key value API calls into the lower level function calls needed. The API does the heavy lifting, freeing the application to not worry about what bus the storage is on.

“Key value store technology can enable NVM storage devices to map and store data more efficiently and with enhanced performance, which is of paramount significance to facilitate computational storage,” said Jay Kramer, Chairman of the Awards Program and President of Network Storage Advisors Inc. “We are proud to recognize the SNIA Object Drive Technical Work Group (TWG) for creating the SNIA Technical Position Key Value Storage API Specification Version 1.0 defining an application programming interface (API) for key value storage devices and making this available to the public for download.”

The Key Value Storage API Specification is currently available for the Linux operating system. SNIA Object Drive Technical Work Group (TWG) member, Samsung, has developed open source software for use with the Linux stack. Additionally, the set of APIs described in the specification are portable across multiple vendor’s SSD products.

SNIA Technical Positions represent the completion of a formal approval process to publish a final version of the specification, indicating that SNIA endorses and recommends the ideas, methodologies, and technologies described. The SNIA Technical Position Key Value Storage API Specification Version 1.0 was developed by the SNIA Object Drive TWG and is now publicly available for developers and IT professionals to download.

About the SNIA Object Drive TWG

The SNIA Object Drive TWG was created for the purpose of establishing architectures and standards for disk, solid state and tape drive, based functionalities that allow them to be higher level storage nodes in emerging scale-out solutions. The TWG creates specifications that enable scale out storage systems to add and remove these nodes incrementally and seamlessly. These specifications are vendor agnostic and support existing and future functionality in drive form factors. The Object Drive TWG: 

• Identifies, develops, and coordinates standards for object drives operating as storage nodes in scale-out storage solutions
• Produces a comprehensive set of specifications related to data and control path interfaces and protocols
• Promotes interoperability among object drive software hosting environments

About SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of member companies spanning the global storage market. SNIA’s 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.

David Okubo
Ogilvy Public Relations
Phone: 213.248.9126
David.Okubo@ogilvy.com