SNIA Forms Solid State Storage Technical Work Group

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), through its Technical Council (TC), announced the creation of the Solid State Storage Technical Work Group (SSS TWG) to create a reference SNIA architecture and facilitate industry-wide adoption of common requirements, methods, and specifications in related standards organizations. Additionally, the SNIA Solid State Storage Initiative (SSSI) released its first technical paper providing an overview and outlook for solid state technologies and will be delivering three unique demonstrations covering both enterprise and consumer solid state storage.

“The 35 members of SSS TWG will work closely with the SSSI on the development, education and promotion of standards and solutions based on solid state storage to help define the new market sector created by this disruptive technology,” said Wayne Adams, Chair of the SNIA. “These two groups are off to a very productive start and are already breaking new ground in helping the industry understand and harness solid state storage.”

Solid State Storage White Paper
As part of the SSSI’s focus on providing valuable, vendor-neutral educational information, the group has released its first white paper titled, Solid State Storage 101: An Introduction to Solid State Storage, which will be available at the Storage Visions 2009 Conference in Las Vegas, NV in the SSSI Booth. The paper provides a thorough overview of questions, trends and concerns of interest to end users, vendors, value-added resellers and others. Of significant importance is the fact that this is the first collaborative deliverable from the entirety of the SSSI — providing a unified voice for the industry. Subsequent educational pieces are being developed by the SSSI and will be made available as they are completed.

Storage Visions Demonstrations
To educate the market on solid state storage technology, the SSSI will debut three unique demonstrations at the Storage Visions Conference:

• Demo #1 – Large Scale Video Streaming From a Single SSS Card. Experience SSS performance, first hand. This demo will stream 256 DVD movies simultaneously to four 42-inch plasma screens from a single SSS card to demonstrate the high throughput offered through solid state storage.
• Demo #2 – SSD versus HDD. Attendees will experience first hand the differences between solid state drives and hard disk drives by directly comparing the performance, attributes and benefits through test results and video.
• Demo #3 – SSD versus SSD. Not all drives are created equal. While adhering to SNIA’s commitment to vendor neutrality, this demonstration will highlight the differences between SSDs from different manufacturers as well as SSDs from the same manufacturer to educate attendees on how to select the right solution to meet their needs.