The first vendors to pass the SNIA-CTP SMI-S Client suite for storage management applications include AppIQ, Inc., Computer Associates International, Inc., Crosswalk, Inc., EMC Corporation, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Inc. and VERITAS Software. CreekPath Systems also plans to test products in 2005.

“This marks a big step forward for end users, the SMI-S program and broader storage industry,” said Ed von Adelung, Chair, SNIA Storage Management Forum. “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 fact that the SNIA-CTP now encompasses both the management software and hardware infrastructure brings the industry one big step closer to providing IT users with trusted storage management solutions that help ease their management complexity.”

Chris Wilson, MCI Storage Architect and member of the SNIA End User Council added, “SNIA’s conformance testing initiative is critical to helping the industry advance and address key issues, such as interoperability and the increasing complexity of managing a storage environment. Through our participation in the SNIA, MCI is helping to drive industry standards and processes that will enable us to better serve our enterprise customers with stronger compliance enforcement, new fully automated processes and improved operational efficiencies.”

The SNIA, continues to expand its testing program to provide end users with the trusted storage solutions they need to meet their stringent business and IT requirements. Today, the SNIA has also expanded its testing capabilities to include array, switch, fabric and host asset reporting from storage management applications. In 2005, the SNIA will roll out additional programs to enhance the testing of storage products that conform to the recently completed draft of SMI-S version 1.1 to further its multi-vendor or heterogeneous storage management. These tests will validate the conformance to SMI-S profiles such as: storage arrays that are performing provisioning functions, tape library discovery and asset monitoring, Internet Small Computer System Interface (iSCSI) discovery and configuration, Network Attached Storage (NAS) discovery and configuration, and additional switch and fabric health and performance monitoring—to name a few of the many SMI-S version 1.1 functions available.

Products that pass the SNIA-CTP for SMI-S offer IT professionals more confidence in their ability to manage heterogeneous storage environments with the technology they are purchasing – reducing the challenges associated with deploying complex networked storage solutions. In addition to providing independent validation of the products they are evaluating for purchase, conformance to the SMI-S standard provides a pathway to other important values that IT professionals are requesting. At the same time, the SNIA-CTP program has been instrumental in getting vendor conformance for implementing SMI-S in their client and provider offerings.

About the SNIA-CTP

The SNIA- Conformance Test Program (SNIA-CTP) is the testing process to validate that implementations of a specification conform to standards such as the SNIA's Storage Management Initiative Spacification. The testing process is a critical building block to make multivendor storage environments simpler to implement and easier to manage. The SNIA-CTP will evolve as SMI-S matures and other specifications emerge and need to be tested. End users looking to ensure that a vendor’s SMI-S implementation conforms to SNIA standards should look for officially badged and tested products, or they can check the www.SNIA.org site for specific details.

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 further information visit http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/SMI.