In its 18-year lifespan, SNIA Europe has seen considerable changes in the industry, many of which would have been unimaginable in 1999. The rise of Fibre Channel, SMI-S, the adoption of solid state storage, the Basel II accord, iSCSI, tape storage standards, object storage, energy-efficient data centres, software-defined everything; the list goes on. The rise of the cloud is however one of the most impressive examples of how technology has shaped the industry. Cloud-based technologies have completely changed the face of the market and have had a major impact not only on the way companies store and manage their data, but have also made the concept of data security and privacy tangible for the end user. In a similar vein, the association notes how dependent everyone has become on storage technologies – not only in B2B but also in B2C scenarios, considering the many different devices and methods used to store information nowadays. This is linked to another major shift in the market in the last 18 years, namely the increasing commoditisation of storage. For example, in just three years, the price of a 1TB internal flash drive has dropped from over ?2,000 to under ?300.
Companies nowadays recognise the inherent value of data to their business. 18 years ago, the focus was on reliably storing and retrieving data. Today, organisations not only store and retrieve data, but are able to process and analyse massive data sets, turning them into key business assets that can give them a competitive edge. This in turn has, however, led to an increase in criminal activity as hackers recognise the increased value of data to companies.
“Since SNIA Europe was formed, we have seen many significant changes in our industry. Simple day-to-day actions such as surfing the Internet, for example, have been made possible thanks to the progress of storage technology over the years,” said Daniel Sazbon, chairman of the SNIA Europe board of directors. “Nowadays, companies take it for granted that all elements of the IT infrastructure work seamlessly together. 18 years ago, this exact multi-vendor interoperability was a distant pipedream. Thanks to our efforts, coupled with those of our parent association SNIA, companies now have the freedom to choose best-of-breed technologies without worrying about interoperability, and can implement the storage infrastructure that meets their individual needs.”
With a long track record of providing vendor-neutral, expert comment and opinion, SNIA Europe helps to educate those in the storage industry about technology and best practices, and helps to drive the adoption of industry standards developed by SNIA. SNIA Europe also promotes the work and philosophy of SNIA technical workgroups, which develop and deploy many important storage specifications, such as:
· Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI)
· Linear Tape File System (LTFS) Format Specification
· Non-Volatile Memory Programming Model (NVM)
· SNIA Emerald TM Power Efficiency Measurement Specification.
· SNIA Swordfish Specification
· Storage Management Specification (SMI-S)
· Transport Layer Security (TLS) Specification for Storage Systems.
