D.7 Industry Forums

To accommodate new storage networking trends within the SNIA umbrella, the SNIA has created SNIA industry forums as a vehicle for organization and marketing. SNIA industry forums enjoy some autonomy within the SNIA but are chartered within the general guidelines of SNIA policy. The forum concept enables those who are creating emergent technologies and services to leverage the SNIA infrastructure and thus accelerate development without the need to create separate industry associations.

D.7.1 SNIA IP Storage Industry Forum

The first forum created under the industry forum definition was the IP Storage Forum. After some initial discussion on its scope, the IP Storage Forum now represents all vendors that are developing block storage data over IP solutions. Currently, subgroups have been created for the FCIP, iFCP, and iSCSI protocols. More than 40 SNIA member companies are enrolled in the forum, including new IP storage vendors as well as established storage networking vendors that are developing IP-based interfaces for their products. The focus of the IP Storage Forum is the marketing and promotion of IP SAN technology. It thus complements the technical work of the IP Storage Work Group.

D.7.2 SNIA Supported Solutions Forum

The SNIA Supported Solutions Forum was created to promote storage networking solutions that are interoperable and have vendor backing for customer service. As with other SNIA subgroups, the SSF is open to any SNIA member company. The focus of this forum is to configure and test multivendor solutions for specific applications and to create a support infrastructure that will streamline problem resolution for the customer. Ideally, a customer need make only a single problem call, and the vendors themselves will troubleshoot, isolate, and repair the problem without further customer intervention.

D.7.3 SNIA DAFS Forum

The DAFS (Direct Access File System) Forum is chartered to provide marketing and promotional support for the DAFS protocol and product implementations.

D.7.4 SNIA Storage Security Industry Forum

The SNIA Storage Security Industry Forum is tasked with promoting secure solutions for storage networks, including authentication and data encryption mechanisms for both Fibre Channel and IP storage networks. The establishment of this forum is an indicator of the steady penetration of storage networks into enterprise environments and the security concerns that have accompanied widespread deployment.

D.7.5 SNIA Europe Forum

The SNIA Europe Forum promotes shared storage solutions in the United Kingdom and continental Europe. SNIA-E has its own Web site (www.snia-e.org), committees, and events, including SNW Europe.

D.7.6 SNIA Japan Forum

The SNIA Japan Forum promotes shared storage solutions in Japan. SNIA-J has its own Web site (www.snia-j.org), committees, and events, including SNW Japan.