SNIA extends hand out to records
SNIA extends hand out to records
May 9, 2008: SNIA says they’re reaffirming their commitment to the Australian storage market and have extended out an invitation for the RMAA to join their board in an effort to prove they’re serious about the lifecycle of data—rather than just the hardware that supports it.
Declaring 2007 a planning and strategy year, Jacob Van Der Eyk chairman of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) says this year will see the organisations actually go ahead and execute their plans.
The move comes after reflecting on SNIA’s role in the market and realising more work was needed. “As a board we sat down and said that as an industry association, do we have much weight? And it didn’t appear that we did,” says Van Der Eyk.
The problem, says Van Der Eyk, was that in examining their heritage, SNIA found they had not really engaged with the market place. Knowing this, SNIA has now moved to embark on initiatives that will make them, “more useful to the industry.”
One of the first steps was to expand the board to include system integrators and create four new non-industry seats – the first of which was filled by NAB’s head of client management technology operations, Graham Rothwell.
SNIA has also moved to invigorate their origins. “We’re looking at information now and not just the plumbing,” says Van Der Eyk.
Storage, found SNIA, is no longer just about the nuts and bolts but rather the entire lifecycle of information. In recognition of this, SNIA moved to extend an invitation to Kate Walker CEO of Records Management Association of Australia to join the SNIA board.
Off the back of RMAA’s success in creating standards Paul Talbut general manager of SNIA’s operations arm Evito says with support, SNIA believe they can exert influence on the US. “We believe this market is extremely mature in the way it handles its records and information management,” he says. “We can look at what RMAA has already done and with them, we can begin to influence what’s happening around the world.”
Van Der Eyk says the link with records comes from the fact business is being driven more and more by compliance. “At the end of the day it’s about processes,” he says. There are all these regulatory issues that are only going to get stronger. It’s the data and hardware that will support it.”
While SNIA will not be recovering its once annual Storage Networking World conference and exhibition in 2008, the organisation is instead turning its attention to education courses via a small scale academy series. – Angela Priestley