COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — (Marketwired) — 05/12/15 —
SMI-Lab program gaining international traction while experiencing uptick in participation.
Member companies eager for involvement due to valuable face-to-face opportunities yielded by event.
The Storage Network Industry Association–s (SNIA) Storage Management Initiative (SMI) recently held a four-day SMI-Lab plugfest to facilitate face-to-face interoperability testing for SMI member companies. The event was hosted by Microsoft in Mountain View, Calif. and included a parallel event running concurrently at Microsoft facilities in Shanghai, China.
The SMI-Lab is an industry-wide collaborative effort to help companies accelerate the development and implementation of Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S) products and to pass the SMI-S Conformance Test Program. The SMI-S is designed to standardize and streamline storage management functions and features into a common standard that addresses the day-to-day tasks of the IT environment. Since its implementation over 10 years ago, it has been included in over 800 products.
The event takes place within a member-driven and vendor-neutral environment to promote multi-vendor storage management interoperability. This plugfest was the group–s third international event for the SMI-Lab program, furthering their global presence and building upon the overwhelming success of their 2014 events, which marked the highest attendance on record of both participants and member companies represented.
“The SMI-Lab program continues to get a lot of interest from large storage companies and is starting to attract mid-sized companies as well,” said Jim Davis, SMI-Lab workgroup chair. “This event was particularly busy and well-attended, giving our members the opportunity to join in-depth working sessions and get the kind of collaboration on current issues that can only come in this environment. It was another successful plugfest for the SMI-Lab program and we look forward to what we will accomplish at our next four events in 2015.”
SMI member companies participating in the event included Cisco Systems, Cumulus Systems, Dell Compellent, EMC, Fujitsu, Huawei, HP, IBM, Inova Development, Microsoft, NetApp, Nimble Storage, Inc. and WS. The SMI-Lab program has gained traction within the SMI and the plugfests are experiencing a steady increase in registrations. Program coordinators are looking forward to another banner year of international participation, furthering the group–s ability to make significant progress with the SMI-S.
“Microsoft supports SMI-S in Windows Server and System Center to promote interoperability with many storage devices deployed by our customers. The SMI-Lab program gives us the opportunity to work directly with other members developing SMI-S provider implementations to help accelerate the product time to market,” said Hector Linares, SMI member and a Cloud and Enterprise Program Manager for Microsoft, who managed the event in Shanghai. “One week at a plugfest face-to-face is a brilliant way to shorten development time and replace weeks of e-mail discussions and conference calls. Because of this benefit, Microsoft participates in at least 5 plugfests per year and offered to host this most recent event in both the US and China to help continue to expand the program–s international reach.”
The Storage Networking Industry Association–s (SNIA) Storage Management Initiative (SMI) was launched in 2002 for the creation, continuous development and promotion of a highly-functional interoperable management standard interface for multi-vendor storage networking products. It includes the Storage Management Initiative Specification (SMI-S), the SMI-S Conformance Test Program (CTP), and the SMI-Lab, an ongoing series of industry-wide collaborative plugfests that aim to accelerate the development and implementation of SMI-S products and to pass the SMI-S CTP. Current SMI member companies include Cisco, Cumulus Systems, Dell, Dot Hill, EMC, Fujitsu, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, IBM, IntelliMagic, Microsoft, NetApp, Nimble Storage, Red Hat, Service Now, Solarwinds, TeamQuest and Tegile. Further information about the SMI and how to participate can be found at .
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of member companies spanning the global storage market. SNIA–s mission is to lead the storage industry worldwide in developing and promoting standards, technologies, and educational services to empower organizations in the management of information. 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 more information, visit .
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Contact:
Dan La Russo
Ogilvy Public Relations for the SNIA
Mobile: 720-840-8254
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