14 DAY TRIAL // A few members of the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) have announced at the SNIA 2008 Storage Developer Conference the launch of the Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI), a project meant to “foster the growth and success of the market for solid state storage in both commercial and consumer environments”. The newly formed SSSI is said to manage and coordinate all SSD-related activities of SNIA, including education, technical development, business development, marketing and implementation.
“The industry is closely monitoring the growth of solid state storage drives as well as making predictions about this technology's future,” said Vincent Franceschini, Chair of the SNIA. “SNIA has created the SSSI to propel the solid state technology in the storage industry. Drawing from the experience and expertise of its existing and new SNIA members, the new Initiative will work to advance the knowledge and acceptance of solid state storage by evaluating and contributing to the standards necessary for industry-wide adoption, as well as through education, training, and best practices.”
The SSSI presents itself as a collective Initiative of industry leaders aiming at becoming the “recognized authority for storage made from non-volatile, solid state memory devices”. The project is meant “to perform market outreach highlighting the virtues of solid state storage” and ensure the development of specific standards for the technology. The SSSI will also establish collaborations with different organizations and initiatives to leverage the SNIA International organization for the promotion of solid state storage worldwide.
“It's both encouraging and timely to see this new Initiative from SNIA,” said Mark Peters, analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. “With the various implementations of solid state technologies poised to make a significant impact on the storage market over the next few years (in terms of I/O rather than capacity), it's gratifying to see this co-operative effort around standards and education, since those are two of the current impediments to fast adoption as the technologies mature and become integrated into more vendor offerings.”
Included on the SSDI's member list are SNIA members and IT industry names like Adtron Corporation, BiTMICRO, Calypso Systems, Coughlin Associates, EMC Corporation, Emulex Corporation, Enterprise Strategy Group, Fusion-IO, Hitachi Data Systems, HP, IBM, Intel, LSI Corporation, Microsoft, Mtron Storage Technology, NetApp, Patni Computer Systems, Pliant Technology, PMC-Sierra, QLogic Corporation, SanDisk,Seagate, Silicon Systems, STEC, Sun Microsystems, Texas Memory Systems, the University of Virginia, and Xiotech Corporation.