Explore Existing Work
At SNIA, members collaborate through two primary types of groups: Technical Work Groups (TWGs) and Communities. Both support SNIA’s mission to advance and standardize technologies, but each plays a distinct and complementary role.
Technical Work Groups (TWGs)
SNIA Technical Work Groups are where technical development happens. TWGs collaborate to create and evolve vendor-neutral architectures, standards, specifications, and supporting software related to storage and handling and optimizing infrastructure for data.
SNIA Communities
SNIA Communities are focused on education, outreach, and technology awareness. Communities develop and deliver vendor-neutral webinars, podcasts, blogs, events, speaking engagements, and industry content around specific technology areas. They help evangelize technical work into practical knowledge shared broadly across the industry.
Get to Know the SNIA TWGs and Communities
SNIA Technical Work Groups | ||
Group | Description | Current Projects |
| Accelerated Object I/O TWG | Object storage has matured, requiring data transport mechanisms with less overhead and more efficient use of resources. The SNIA Accelerated Object I/O TWG provides a forum for industry experts to develop specifications and/or software to advance objects | • Accelerated Object I/O Specification Development • S3 over RDMA Architecture • AI and Data-Intensive Workload Optimization • Interoperability and Ecosystem Alignment • Industry Collaboration and Education |
| Cloud Object Storage (COS) Test Tools TWG | The Cloud Object Storage Test Tools Technical Work Group develops open, vendor-neutral tools and methodologies to validate interoperability across cloud object storage systems. Its work focuses on automated testing, API consistency, and multi-vendor compatibility to improve reliability and user experience across cloud storage platforms. | • Development of automated interoperability test tools for cloud object storage APIs (e.g., S3) • Identification, evaluation, and integration of open-source testing tools and frameworks • White papers and technical guidance on multi-vendor interoperability and best practices • Integration of test tools into SNIA Cloud Object Storage Plugfests for real-world validation • Expansion into performance testing and client/SDK interoperability analysis |
| Cloud Storage TWG | The Cloud Storage Technical Work Group develops open, vendor-neutral standards for discovering, managing and migrating data in cloud service provider and cloud-style enterprise storage environments. Its work focuses on defining interfaces, data services, and management capabilities that enable interoperability, portability, and efficient data management across cloud service provider and cloud-style enterprise storage systems. | • CDMI Awareness Initiative, industry vertical whitepapers, joint project with CST • CDMI 3.0 Scoped Extensions • CDMI 3.0 Full Specification Update • ISO/IEC 17826 PAS submission |
| Computational Storage TWG | The Computational Storage Technical Work Group develops open standards that enable processing within storage devices. Its work defines architectures, APIs, and interfaces that improve performance and efficiency for data-intensive workloads such as AI, analytics, and large-scale data processing. | • Simplified fixed functions using NVMe Subsystem Local Memory • Computational Storage Architecture and Programming Model (ongoing enhancements) • Computational Storage API (evolution and adoption) • Interoperability and ecosystem collaboration |
| DNA Data Storage TWG | The DNA Data Storage TWG identifies areas of the DNA data storage pipeline that are amenable to standardization and launch standardization work in those areas deemed to have reached a level of maturity such that standardization is warranted. | • DNA Data Storage specifications (e.g., stability evaluation, Sector Zero and Sector One formats) • Development of DNA data storage architectures, codecs, and technical frameworks • White papers and technical guidance on DNA storage technology, metrics, and commercialization readiness • Biosecurity and regulatory policy contributions for DNA data storage systems • Industry education and market awareness to drive adoption of DNA-based storage • Collaboration to advance R&D, funding, and ecosystem development |
| Green Storage TWG | The Green Storage Technical Work Group develops open standards and methodologies to measure and improve energy efficiency in storage systems and storage devices. Its work defines power efficiency specifications, test methods, and best practices that support regulatory programs and enable more sustainable data center operations. | • SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency specification for Enterprise Storage Systems V5.0 • SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency specification for Enterprise Storage Devices V1.0 adoption • SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency specification for Enterprise Storage Systems V5.0 adoption • Test methodologies, tools, and workloads for power efficiency measurement and validation |
| I/O Traces, Tools & Analysis TWG | The primary focus of the I/O Traces, Tools, and Analysis (IOTTA) TWG is to create/maintain a worldwide repository for storage related I/O trace collection and analysis tools, application workloads, I/O traces, and best practices around such topics. | • I/O trace repository development and expansion (additional I/O traces/datasets) • Tools for trace capture, replay, and workload analysis |
| Security TWG | The Security Technical Work Group develops open standards and best practices to secure storage systems and data. Its work focuses on encryption, key management, and security protocols that protect data at rest and in transit while supporting compliance and trusted storage architectures. | • Storage security specifications and protocols (e.g., TLS for Storage Systems) • Key management interoperability and integration frameworks • Encryption, authentication, and data protection mechanisms • Security guidance, best practices, and industry frameworks • Industry collaboration and ecosystem alignment on storage security |
| SFF TWG | The SFF Technical Work Group develops open, vendor-neutral specifications for storage hardware form factors, connectors, and interfaces. Its work defines mechanical, electrical, and management characteristics that enable interoperable, multi-vendor storage devices and systems. | • High speed cables, connectors, and form factors for PCIe 7.0 and other applications. • Transceivers for ethernet and other applications for 200 Gb/lane and 400 Gb/lane signaling • Form factors (e.g., EDSFF, U.2, U.3) for storage and other applications including liquid cooled SSDs. |
| Smart Data Accelerator Interface (SDXI) TWG | The Smart Data Accelerator Interface (SDXI) Technical Work Group develops open, vendor-neutral standards for efficient memory-to-memory data movement and acceleration. Its work reduces CPU overhead and enables high-performance data transfer across heterogeneous systems and emerging architectures such as CXL. | • SDXI Specification (ongoing evolution beyond v1.0) • Reference software (libsdxi) and developer tooling • OS driver and platform enablement • Compliance and adoption initiatives |
| Solid State Storage TWG | The Solid State Storage Technical Work Group develops open standards and methodologies for evaluating and optimizing solid state storage performance. Its work defines test specifications, workload models, and reference platforms that enable consistent measurement and comparison of SSD performance across systems and use cases. | • Solid State Storage Performance Test Specification (PTS) development and evolution • Real World Storage Workload (RWSW) performance test methodologies • Reference Test Platform (RTP) for standardized and validated testing environments • Workload capture, analysis, and modeling for SSD performance evaluation • Industry collaboration and ecosystem alignment on performance benchmarking • Sprandom Preconditioning White Paper |
| SNIA Swordfish TWG | Develops and maintains the Swordfish Storage Management Specification enabling standards-based management of server- attached, external, NVMe/NVMe-oF, cloud, and enterprise storage. | • Version 1.2.9 released Jan 2026 • Open source tools and repositories: github.com/SNIA; watch for new tools and updates • New functionality to support NVMe and NVMe-oF configurations • Expanding documentation with new white papers • Developing standard management model for DNA Data Storage; includes object storage additions |
SNIA Communities | |
Group | Description |
| Cloud Storage Technologies | The Cloud Storage Technologies (CST) Community focuses on advancing the adoption and standardization of intelligent data storage in cloud environments. Its work promotes interoperability, data portability, and best practices for managing and accessing data across multi-cloud and hybrid cloud infrastructures. |
| Compute, Memory, and Storage | The Compute, Memory, and Storage (CMS) Community is dedicated to advancing integrated architectures that align compute, memory, and storage resources. By fostering innovation in this space, the community aims to educate the industry, enhance performance, improve efficiency, and enable greater scalability across modern data center, enterprise, and AI environments. |
| Data, Storage & Networking | The Data, Storage & Networking (DSN) Community educates and provides insights and leadership for applying technologies to a broad spectrum of end-to-end solutions. |
| DNA Data Storage Alliance | The DNA Data Storage Alliance focuses on advancing DNA as a scalable, long-term data storage medium. Its work develops standards, architectures, and best practices that enable interoperable, durable, and reliable DNA-based storage solutions. |
| Green Storage | The Green Storage Community focuses on advancing energy efficiency and sustainability in storage systems. Its work develops standards, test methodologies, and best practices that enable accurate measurement and optimization of power usage, improving efficiency and supporting regulatory compliance across data center environments. |
| SFF | The SFF Community focuses on advancing standards for storage hardware form factors, connectors, transceivers, and interfaces. Its work develops specifications that enable interoperable, multi-vendor storage devices and systems, improving compatibility, performance, and scalability across the data storage ecosystem. |
| STA: SCSI Trade Association | The SCSI Trade Association (STA) Community focuses on advancing the understanding, adoption, and evolution of SCSI and Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) technologies. Its work promotes industry collaboration, education, and ecosystem alignment to support interoperable, high-performance storage solutions across enterprise and data center environments. |
| StorageAI | The StorageAI Community focuses on advancing open, vendor-neutral approaches to optimize how data is stored, moved, and processed for AI workloads. Its work improves performance, efficiency, and interoperability across modern data, memory, and compute infrastructures. |
| Storage Management | The Storage Management Community focuses on supporting the advancement of vendor-neutral manageability for storage systems by driving education and promotion of standards-based storage management. The Community supports SNIA developed specifications and works with industry partners to ensure a comprehensive management stack for all environments. It also provides support to enable rapid spec development in the Swordfish TWG, providing logistics, SNIA Lab infrastructure support and the Swordfish Conformance Test Program. |