SNIA XAM Approved as ANSI Standard

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced that the eXtensible Access Method (XAM) version 1.0.1 specification has been approved and published as the ANSI standard INCITS 464-2010, Information Technology – eXtensible Access Method. The XAM specification is now being prepared for ISO accreditation and is expected to be an ISO standard by end of 2011.

To assist companies in developing solutions that integrate XAM, the SNIA Software Release of the standard was developed to provide Independent Software Vendors (ISVs), storage vendors and operating system vendors a set of tools to assist them in developing compatible products and in testing their applications. It includes a C XAM Library with a Java Native Interface (JNI) Wrapper; a Java version of the XAM Library; a Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) Vendor Interface Module (VIM) and a Reference VIM.

The latest version of the Software Development Kit (SDK) is accessible at http://www.snia.org/tech_activities/standards/software/xamsdk. The SNIA also supports and sponsors the XAM Developers Google group to provide community forums to assist individuals and companies in developing products.

"We see tremendous potential for XAM in our archiving and preservation infrastructure strategy. The extensibility of metadata when creating a preservation object is the key to the reliability and the ediscovery of this data. Becoming an ANSI standard protects the investments of those who choose to utilize this technology," stated Mark Saussure, Director of Digital Library Infrastructure at Penn State University.

The XAM Initiative continues to progress and build momentum. The initiative has enhanced its SNIA website with a XAM Solutions Guide to highlight companies that offer solutions that support and are compatible with this standard. To learn more about the companies that offer XAM solutions go to http://www.snia.org/forums/xam/solutions.

Mark Carlson, Chair of the SNIA XAM SDK Technical Working Group and member of the SNIA Technical Council, added: "We created both the specification and SDK to ease deployment for vendors and provide a simplified and valuable asset to end users. The approval of the specification as an ANSI standard and the SDK as a SNIA Software Release are key milestones in the adoption of XAM."

Also Mark Carlson added: "The XAM Initiative would like to recognize and thank the 11 companies that contributed to the development of the specification and software by providing authors and resources as well as the over 20 companies that have integrated XAM into their solutions."