The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced today the launch of its Conformance Testing Program (SNIA-CTP) for the "Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) Client suite", developed to help ensure enterprise and storage management products deliver the benefits of the SMI-S standard.
This move builds on the SNIA-CTP`s provider testing of more than 200 vendor hardware products from 17 companies in the last 12 months. The new SMI-S Client test suite adds the capability to test storage management applications for conformance to the SMI-S version 1.0.2.
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 based on aligning their product release cycle with the testing program.
"This marks a big step for end-users, the SMI-S program, as well as the 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 centre. 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 System Architect and member of the SNIA End User Council, added: "This announcement supports the SNIA`s efforts to address end-user pain points such as interoperability challenges and increased complexity of storage management. Being directly involved in the SNIA CTP test development and the SNIA SMI-lab program, observing the vendor implementations of SMI-S, the SMI-S standard is full featured and stable for production environment deployment."
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 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 asking for. 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.
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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 Specification. The testing process is a critical building block to make multi-vendor 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.
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.
SNIA
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit organisation, made up of more than 300 companies and individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA members share a common goal, to advance the adoption of storage networks as complete and trusted solutions. 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 information, visit the SNIA Web site at http://www.snia.org.
CA
Computer Associates International, Inc (NYSE:CA), one of the world`s largest management software companies, delivers software and services across operations, security, storage, lifecycle and service management to optimise the performance, reliability and efficiency of enterprise IT environments. Founded in 1976, CA is headquartered in Islandia, New York and serves customers in more than 140 countries. For more information, please visit http://ca.com.
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