Australian chapter of SNIA still in planning stages

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is still in the drafting stages of setting up an Australian branch, but the recent visit of Chairman Emeritus to our shores has put some momentum behind the push.

Larry Krantz, chairman emeritus of SNIA, and former director and senior technologist for EMC in the US, visited Australia to meet with a steering committee of vendor representatives, and raise end-user awareness and interest in SNIA.

EMC representative Mark Heers said the need for a local office is "a perception we're getting from customer feedback".

The goals, agenda and budget of the Australian chapter have yet to be determined, but the committee believes that an Australian-based SNIA would be beneficial vendor-neutral resource to customers, delivering education on topics such as disaster recovery and storage management as well as training on specific hardware, including qualification courses to become SNIA-certified. In addition, committee members expect SNIA to follow US example, and become a vehicle for storage vendors to develop storage technology standards.

Mr Krantz said it is hoped the group will have a more defined roadmap early in 2003.

Although a budget has not yet been set, Mr Krantz said regional chapters are funded by vendors in the initial stages and estimated that Japan spent US$300,000 worth of investment starting up in its first two years of operation.

Members of the interim steering committee include Fujitsu's Jock Crossing, Graeme Gleave from Hitachi Data Systems, EMC's Mark Heers, Andrew Manners from Hewlett-Packard, Quantum's Mike Sparkes, Scott Phillips from Legato Systems, and Narelle Wilson from Veritas Software. Rob Stirling, director of IT public relations firm Markom Marketing, is the interim chairman.

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