The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has formed an alliance with The Green Grid. The SNIA and its Green Storage Initiative (GSI) plan to work with The Green Grid in developing and promoting standards, measurement methods, processes and technologies to improve overall data center energy efficiencies.

"Tackling the challenges associated with energy efficiency and green computing will require collaboration across all areas of the IT industry," said Vincent Franceschini, Chair of the SNIA. "Storage plays an important role in power and energy efficiency within data centers and business computing ecosystems. With that, the SNIA's Green Storage Initiative is dedicated to applying the technical and educational expertise of the storage industry to the broader view of the data center to collaborate, develop and find more energy efficient solutions for the IT industry."

Sharing common objectives on the need to develop energy efficient metrics, best practices and education, the new alliance will enable the delivery of a complete and consistent set of information that benefits IT data centers and government bodies such as the United States Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency and other regional and global agencies that have data center and computer equipment energy efficiency programs. This collaboration will leverage SNIA expertise in networked storage and The Green Grid expertise in data centers and business computing ecosystems.

"Within the IT industry, there are a number of professionals who are responsible for data center functionality from CIOs and IT managers to heating and cooling experts. It is imperative that we look at the energy efficiency issue from a single, united point of view," said Mark Monroe, director of The Green Grid. "Together we can leverage each other's core expertise and areas of focus to deliver a holistic and complete approach for an energy efficient data center."

The two associations plan to collaborate on energy efficiency and metrics, whereby the SNIA will focus on networked storage and information management while The Green Grid focuses on computer servers, data center infrastructure, the data center and business computing ecosystems. The management of networked storage with SNIA's Storage Management Initiative-Specification is a foundation for energy efficient storage best practices such as Information Lifecycle Management, consolidation, deduplication and thin provisioning. The Green Grid's best practices include cooling (hot and cold aisles), virtualization and server throttling. Both associations will collaborate on educating the industry through events, whitepapers and demonstrations.


The Green Grid

Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA)