The Storage Networking World Series. (Storage as I See it).

There is little doubt in my mind that the Storage Networking World (SNW) conference is the World Series of storage-intensive conferences. It is a leading venue for seeing the brightest and best in storage technology. Produced twice each year, SNW is a huge educational forum for IT professionals involved in enterprise-storage management. The recent fall 2002 SNW featured tutorials developed by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), as well as business and technical tracks for end users that addressed real-world storage concerns. SNW, attended by a range of IT users from CIO to CTO, IT manager to enterprise architect, also provides opportunity for access to storage industry leaders.

The show this year, from a business point of view, was a definite improvement over last year. SNIA and show organizers have worked hard to increase the number of end-user attendees, in an effort to avoid becoming a forum where the industry talks to itself. This fall, of the thousand or so attendees at SNW, official counts report 700+ end users in attendance. One of the major draws was the interoperability lab area, where users could see actual product in operation solving simulated storage problems that were directly comparable with the end user's experiences. The demo area was impressive to any attendee; bear in mind that millions of dollars in engineering talent was dedicated to make sure it was so. Among the many demos at the lab was the CIM-SAN demonstration, which is the first public demo of the CIM-SAN technology (which is the foundation of the Bluefin specification). It demonstrated a multi-vendor storage area network (SAN) managed entirely through a single open interface.

Other demos included the IP Storage Demonstration, which demonstrated interoperability in a uniform IP network. The IP Storage Forum shared draft 16 and 17 of the iSCSI specification, which are only a few steps away from the final draft of the soon-to-be-announced iSCSI standard. Finally, the Interoperability and Compliance Test Program's (ICTP) first demonstration in a series performance testing the shared storage model.

SNIA is a not-for-profit organization, made up of more than 200 companies and individuals spanning the entire storage and networking industry from manufacturers and developers to end users. Executing on the vision of SNIA founder Michael Peterson and a handful of astute storage vendors, the members of SNIA share a common goal to "set the pace of the industry" by ensuring that storage networks become efficient, complete and trustworthy solutions across the IT community. SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel storage networking solutions into the broader market. It currently has multiple technical efforts under way, supporting a network of "forums" ranging from supported solutions to information security.

Originally, SNIA emerged as an educational and marketing organization supporting the storage networking industry. But more recently, it has taken on a role in the development and advocacy of standards. Chief among these efforts is the CLM management specification that is under continuing development. SNIA is not an ISO or IETF, but they have the membership and the will that makes standards efforts at least possible.

SNIA and the show management are moving the winter/spring SNW from Palm Desert, Calif., to Scottsdale, Ariz. If the show continues to draw interested users at the level of this recent show, it bids fair to be one of those few conferences that can pin "Success" on its lapel. In defiance of soft economic times, the show is drawing the foot traffic others envy. It is, in fact, a World Series for storage networking. By the way, talking of World Series, a note for my colleagues in Northern California: the Angels won the pennant.