SMI-S Conformance Test Enhancements

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced the availability of the Conformance Testing Program (SNIA-CTP) for the Storage Management Initiative Specification version 1.5 (SMI-S v1.5).

The SNIA-CTP for SMI-S v1.5 introduces enhancements and expanded storage functionality tests, including testing for thin provisioning functionality, component diagnostics and remote storage replication, known as Replication Services. The test is designed to validate array, fabric and host SMI-S implementations for interoperability and conformance to the SMI-S.

Since SNIA-CTP’s inception, the test suite has validated more than 1,000 storage hardware products managed by conforming SMI-S implementations such as SRM applications.

"We first introduced SNIA-CTP in March 2004, and since that date have introduced iterative versions of the test suite to validate conformance of SMI enabled products," said Don Deel, Storage Management Initiative chairman. "This version of the CTP increases ROI for each company’s conforming products by reducing interoperability issues at customer sites and continues to be an integral step towards bringing third-party standards conformance to the marketplace. SNIA-CTP for SMI-S v1.5 is globally important since it has been submitted for accreditation as an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standard."

"EMC believes in running the SNIA CTP Certification suite during its product development to provide the EMC SMI partner ecosystem with a qualified process for ensuring high product performance. The certification also provides customers with confidence and investment protection in VMAX and VNX storage environments, ensuring that we are consistently meeting our customers’ needs while working effectively with our partners with an open, mature SMI standard. By participating in this conformance testing process, EMC can proactively validate SMI specification features and accelerate proven interoperability that delights IT customers," said Wayne Adams, senior director of standards, EMC Corporation.

"HDS embraces and contributes extensively to open standards such as SNIA’s SMI-S. We work with customers and competitors on the common ground such organizations provide. With this announcement, our customers now benefit from increased management interoperability through SNIA’s expanded conformance testing programs and by conforming to international ISO standards," said Hu Yoshida, VP and CTO, HDS.

"Organizations integrating virtualized environments into private or hybrid clouds can face significant challenges with security, performance as well as management of multiple, heterogeneous computing platforms and storage devices. HP conforms to SMI-S 1.5 standards so our clients can be confident of the solution’s full interoperability, which reduces internal testing and enables them to achieve faster return on investment from their infrastructure," said Peter Manning, director, converged management, Storage, HP.