Vision beyond space
Vision beyond space
November 01, 2004: The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) aims to reach beyond its current vision of standardising storage products and services regardless of make and model. Rodney Appleyard reports on its ambition to create a level playing field so that vendors can build more dynamic devices and applications to sit on top of these standardised systems.
The Storage Management Initiative (SMI) was created by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) to develop and standardise interoperable storage management technologies and aggressively promote them to the storage, networking, and end user communities. It involves some of the biggest companies in the storage business, including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, Sun Microsystems and Hitachi Data Systems.
With the growing need for companies to meet compliance requirements and retain data in line with regulations to stave off the prospect of imprisonment, SNIA has set deadlines for these standards to be met to make life as easy as possible for organisations under threat.
Ray Dunn, is the chairman of the Storage Management Forum, as well as being on the board of directors for the SNIA and the governing board of the SNIA End User Council. He believes that the SNIA still has work to be done after it has completed its mission of standardisation, so that users will find it easier to expand their systems in the future.
"You could compare the standardised journey to a three part film, such as Lord of the Rings. We have made the first two films and the cast has been selected for the third movie. The first movie was about setting the scene, the second was about adjusting and connecting the technology, which is what the SMI is all about, and the third film is about developing new technologies to sit on top of the newly established standardised software and hardware."
Another example, says Dunn, would be to compare it to buying a phone. "When you buy a phone, features such as the answer machine and speed dial impress customers, but they don't pay too much attention to the wire that it's attached too. This is because they assume the wire is going to fit into their home socket without a problem, whereas in the storage world, end-users worry about every piece, including the wires, because up until now, all of the different parts have not been compatible with each other.
"So this is what the SMI-S is doing-creating the basic layer of connectivity that will allow vendors to work on the higher level features in the future. Eventually users will not have to worry about whether different products connect together. Instead they will be more concerned about new ideas that can make storage management even quicker and smarter."
Dunn argues that most end users do not want to buy all of their gear from just one vendor because they would prefer to buy separate, best of breed system components from different companies. End users have also forced a rethink of the old rip-and-replace practices that were once so prevalent. This means that when they want to improve their systems, rather than being forced into a costly disposal their old set-up to make way for a whole new kit, their existing infrastructure can be adapted and built upon to keep pace with current demands.
Additionally, breakthroughs in compatibility demonstrate that the SNIA is making a significant impact in the industry. It has set deadlines of early next year for major vendors to comply with integration requirements, and they are being rigorously tested under the SMI-CTP (Storage Management Initiative Conformance Test Program).
There are even benefits for the smaller vendors, according to Dunn. "In the past, the larger vendors used to make new systems and did not co-operate with the smaller vendors. They used to block the market place and take control of it. But with standards, this means that smaller vendors can design new applications that match the standards, so that they can get involved with the innovation, instead of watching from the sidelines."
Twenty-seven vendors-among them IBM, Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard - are all working together in labs at the moment to make sure that their technologies are capable of interfacing together. In the future, it is hoped that these new products, which meet the SNIA standards, will have the capability of being connected to newer technologies created by any company to enhance functionality.
Dunn adds: "In the future, we will see many more sophisticated inventions. For instance, automation of labelling storage will take place, replacing the manual process that happens at the moment. Vendors will work out how many people it takes to manage a certain amount of storage and assign automated processes to take care of it so that the manpower can be reduced.
"At the moment it is not possible to transfer the hard disk of one PC into a new PC. We are looking into creating a data standard that allows you to fit a hard disk into a new PC without any problems.
"So we intend to create the foundations first to allow us to work on even higher levels of integration between different products in the future too."
Dunn says that the race is on now as compliance deadlines draw closer and closer. He believes that he has never seen such a high demand for standardisation, automation and sophistication in storage retention and retrieval as there is right now. The competition is fierce, but with the direction and guidance by the SNIA, it seems that the needs of the end user are going to be served every step of the way.
Related Article: