"As the SMI specification continues to evolve and become integrated into an increasing number of storage products, SMI has focused on increasing the functionality of CTP for end users," said Paul von Behren, chair of the Storage Management Initiative. "Version 1.4 now assists end users to better evaluate their storage purchase options by helping them determine whether a product simply provides basic discovery and monitoring or whether it allows for configuration management via SMI-S."

CTP for SMI-S 1.4 features:

Easy-to-understand CTP reports

Delivery of event notifications

Identification of tested management tasks using business-oriented terms

CTP for SMI-S 1.4 also includes expanded functionality tests like thin provisioning, remote copy services, host RAID controllers, virtual fabrics and partitioned fabric switches. And to help end users align their specific requirements with vendors' capabilities, the CTP results pages now provide information on optional configuration functions such as LUN creation and mapping/masking.

For more information on CTP, please visit http://www.snia.org/forums/smi/tech_programs/ctp.

2010 SMI-S Plugfest Announced

In addition to new conformance tests, the SNIA has launched a new series of plugfests at the SNIA Technology Center in Colorado Springs, CO. SMI plugfests improve multi-vendor interoperability and consistent implementation of the SMI-S standard for both storage systems and devices along with storage management software. This is accomplished though debugging of CTP test cases and deep-dive interoperability topics. The 2010 SMI-S plugfests are scheduled for February, June, August, and November. For more information about SMI-lab and plugfests, please visit http://www.snia.org/forums/smi/tech_programs/lab_program.

About the Storage Management Initiative (SMI)

The SNIA Storage Management Initiative (SMI) is creating a highly functional and interoperable management interface for multi-vendor storage networking products and driving it to broad adoption. The Initiative is expanding the overall market for storage networking technology by enabling and streamlining the integration of large and diverse multi-vendor storage networking products. For information, visit http://www.snia.org/forums/smi/. End users looking to ensure that a vendor's SMI-S implementation conforms to SNIA standards should look for the official SNIA-CTP mark on tested products or visit http://www.snia.org/forums/smi/tech_programs/ctp/ for specific details.

The 2009 members of SMI and SMI-Lab include 3PAR, Brocade, Cisco, Compellent, EMC, Fujitsu, HP, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, LSI, Microsoft, NetApp, Olocity, Pillar Data Systems, PMC-Sierra, Quest Software, Sun Microsystems, Symantec and Tek-Tools Software. Validation of the CTP tests is an iterative process between the engineering team enhancing the test suite and the engineers who implement SMI-S features in their products and solutions. Contributor companies to the CTP 1.4 validation process include Brocade, EMC, Hitachi, Ltd., Hitachi Data Systems, Olocity, and PMC-Sierra.

About the SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of some 400 member companies spanning virtually the entire storage industry. 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 additional information, visit the SNIA web site at www.snia.org.

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