SNIA ANZ hires European-led executive arm

SNIA ANZ hires European-led executive arm

June 15, 2006: Along with its three year strategic plan, the Storage Networking Industry Association for Australia and New Zealand today announced it had contracted a new executive arm, which will be led by ex-SNIA Europe chair, Paul Talbot and his company EVITO.

Jacob Van der Eyk, Chairman of SNIA ANZ said the Board of Directors are excited about the prospect of delivering “the first real set of long term strategic objectives for this organisation since its formation." Of Talbot and EVITO’s appointment he said, “This is a very exciting time for us. Now we have a mechanism to execute the board’s objectives”.

The three year plan is said to outline priorities in training and certification, events and networking, delivering expertise and content, and growing the SNIA community. SNIA ANZ expects that launching a series of initiatives in support of these objectives will stimulate growth and interest and hopes to recruit not only corporate vendors but channel companies and individuals as well.

Van der Eyk said SNIA would not be releasing documents outlining the plan. Neither could he say how big the end-user community was at present, but insists the new direction for SNIA ANZ will be aimed at delivering benefits to end-users and not just for vendors.

Van der Eyk, who was recently appointed co-chair of SNIA International outlined a vision for SNIA ANZ as a “feedback mechanism” for the global body. He said, “We see ourselves as a regional affiliate and our role is to get out into the marketplace and understand the impact of standards to end-users and companies that support initiatives by large vendors and hope to feed that information back up the chain from an international perspective.”

The appointment of Talbot will no doubt help put the local chapter back on track after its fall out with local event producer, Terrapinn, led to the cancellation of Storage Networking World Australia 2007. It was a major blow to the not-for-profit organisation and the storage industry since it is the only storage event not run by a vendor. 2007 was also to be the first to be held in a city other than Sydney.

Talbot recently registered the company EVITO in Australia, which will serve as the executive arm of SNIA ANZ. EVITO Europe was behind Storage Networking World, Europe 2007 as well as The Storage Academy, an education-focussed SNIA initiative for its European members.

Van Der Eyk says one of the main objectives of SNIA ANZ is to replicate the successes of SNIA Europe, particularly on the education front. He said Talbot’s “depth of experience as a storage evangelist and experience in growing and developing Europe” will help the cause in Australia and New Zealand. He believes Talbot’s success in dealing with Europe’s diverse markets, puts him good stead to navigate the diversity of Australia’s markets. While Australia may not see as many “end-user variations” as in Europe, Van der Eyk believes Talbot and SNIA’s challenge will be achieving similar goals in a geographically dispersed market.

“One of things Paul was instrumental in kicking off was the Academy series,” says Van der Eyk. “He brings the ability to have a focus on conferences or seminars and fulfil our main objective to grow membership from the end-user community and sole practitioners providing services to the end-user, not just the vendor community. We want to focus on people who are impacted by standards.”

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