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Jon Ashley of Infortrend joins the SNIA Europe Board of Directors
RAID Specialist Executive Further Deepens the Association's Marketing and Sales Expertise
London, UK, 6th January 2009 – The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Europe today announced the appointment of Jon Ashley, Marketing Director for EMEA at RAID specialist Infortrend, to its Board of Directors. Ashley has a broad background that includes working on both the reseller and the vendor side of the storage industry and will take an active role in the association's Marketing Committee. His expertise further strengthens the Board's commitment to the channel; earlier this year Aad Dekkers of system integrator MTI Europe rejoined the Board.
"As a marketeer I greatly appreciate the value of an organisation such as SNIA Europe, one that aims to educate IT professionals on issues related to data storage. Although many vendors strive to accurately position technologies and products, end users in particular need an impartial source of information to allow them to make well-informed decisions that will help them achieve their objectives and facilitate infrastructure scalability," said Ashley.
The current SNIA Europe Directors serving through October 2009 are:
- Juergen Arnold – Chairman (HP, Germany)
- Malte Rademacher – Vice Chairman (EMC, Germany)
- Matthias Werner – Secretary and Events Committee Co-chair (IBM, Switzerland)
- Bob Plumridge – Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair (Hitachi Data Systems, UK)
- Jon Ashley - Director (Infortrend, UK)
- Frank Bunn – Director and Storage Management Initiative Chair (Symantec, Germany)
- Aad Dekkers - Director (MTI Europe, Netherlands)
- Walter Dey – Director, Education Committee Liaison and Events Committee Co-chair (Cisco Systems, Switzerland)
- Kay Mushens – Director and Marketing Committee Chair (LSI, UK)
- Philippe Nicolas – Director and Data Management Initiative Chair (Brocade, France)
- Marcus Schneider – Director (Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany)
"I am very pleased to welcome Jon on board because he brings a unique combination of skills and expertise, coupled with the intimate knowledge of the RAID industry, one that is of particular importance to storage and IT end users overall," said Juergen Arnold, SNIA Europe Chair. "Today's Board of Directors has a wealth of technology and business expertise and is a strong team entering into 2009."
About SNIA Europe
The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Europe is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought-leadership and to promotion of the acceptance, deployment and confidence in open storage–related architectures, systems, services and technologies, across the IT and business community. To achieve this, SNIA Europe runs a coordinated series of activities at both pan-European and country-level to provide a central source of unbiased information on storage networking technologies. It is the voice of authority that delivers education and information on networked storage and associated technologies across Europe, Africa and the Middle East. SNIA Europe is a non-profit, vendor-neutral organisation run by its members, which include over 100 vendors, channel partners and end users. For further information you can email euroinfo@snia.org, contact +44 (0) 20 8785 5555, or visit www.snia-europe.org.
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Notes for editors
In order to promote the understanding and adoption of networked storage SNIA Europe runs a coordinated series of activities at both pan-European and individual country-level; these include:
- SNIA runs a number of tutorials developed by its members for anyone interested in expanding their knowledge of the networked storage industry and its technologies; the SNIA Europe Academy, a series of comprehensive, one-day tutorials designed to provide storage professionals with regular educational programs on key storage technologies and solutions, will take place in a number of countries in the coming months including 27th January (Zurich) and Dubai (3rd February);
- Certification: SNIA has developed a certification program for IT professionals. This is the first independent certification of its kind;
- Storage User Council: country-specific, vendor-independent user groups run by users for users with the participation and support of the vendor community. The European End User Council Chair is an advisory member of the SNIA Europe Board of Directors;
- Storage Networking World - Europe (www.snweurope.com): the only fully independent conference where IT professionals can listen to the industry's leading figures share their expertise and insights, attend SNIA-endorsed education tracks, get hands-on access to the wide range of SNIA-sanctioned solutions demonstrations, and get the time to mix with industry peers and technology experts who are faced with similar IT storage issues every day;
- Storage Networking Times - This quarterly newsletter is written by SNIA Europe representatives and independent industry analysts and is aimed at end users. With sections including educational articles, a regional spotlight and a myths uncovered column, Storage Networking Times is a key resource for all EMEA IT professionals involved in storage and data management and can be accessed on www.snia-europe.org/news_events/e_news/.
SNIA Europe's programs are overseen by the member-elected Board of Directors, responsible for high-level strategy, direction, focus and region-wide activities. Four directors hold the officer positions of Chairman, Vice-Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer. Other members of the Board are responsible for membership, events, marketing, education and country committee liaison. Other committees include those responsible for the IP Storage Initiative, SMI and Data Management Initiative. Below is the current Board of Directors as it now stands until October 2009:
- Juergen Arnold – Chairman (HP, Germany)
- Malte Rademacher – Vice Chairman (EMC, Germany)
- Matthias Werner – Secretary and Events Committee Co-chair (IBM, Switzerland)
- Bob Plumridge – Treasurer and Membership Committee Chair (Hitachi Data Systems, UK)
- Jon Ashley - Director (Infortrend, UK)
- Frank Bunn – Director and Storage Management Initiative Chair (Symantec, Germany)
- Aad Dekkers - Director (MTI Europe, Netherlands)
- Walter Dey – Director, Education Committee Liaison and Events Committee Co-chair (Cisco Systems, Switzerland)
- Kay Mushens –Director and Marketing Committee Chair (LSI, UK)
- Philippe Nicolas – Director and Data Management Initiative Chair (Brocade, France)
- Marcus Schneider – Director and Liaison to Solid State Storage Initiative (Fujitsu Siemens Computers, Germany)
In addition, SNIA Europe today has country and regional committees in:
- BeNeLux: John Myklebust, BeNeLuxchair@snia.org
- Czech Republic and Slovakia: Rostislav Jirkal, Czech-Slovakchair@snia.org
- France: Philippe Nicolas, francechair@snia.org
- Germany: Stefan Ehmann, germanychair@snia.org
- Italy: Marco Spoldi, italychair@snia.org
- Middle East: Mahesh Vaidya, mideast-chair@snia.org
- Nordics: Bjarne Madsen, nordicschair@snia.org
- Switzerland: Laurent Piguet, switzerlandchair@snia.org
- UK: Jon Tate, ukchair@snia.org
Their primary responsibilities are to promote and host the activities of SNIA Europe in the individual countries.
In addition, SNIA Europe has established the following Technology Initiatives to develop and implement education programs in key areas of technology:
Data Management Initiative
Philippe Nicolas, Chair
The Data Management Initiative works in conjunction with the US Data Management Forum to educate the market about three key areas of data management: Data Protection (including Data deduplication), Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) and Long Term Archive and Compliance Storage Initiative (L-TACSI).
Green Storage Initiative
Juergen Arnold, European Board Liaison
gsi-europe-liaison@snia.org
The Green Storage Initiative works in conjunction with the GSI in the US to educate the market best practices for energy efficient storage networking, educating the vendor and user community, and promoting storage-centric applications that reduce storage footprint and associated power requirements.
IP Storage Initiative
Walter Dey, European Board Liaison
The IP Storage Initiative focuses on delivering educational programmes and seminars on the benefits and positioning of various IP storage technologies and solutions, including IETF-ratified standards FCIP, iFCP, and iSCSI. They work with the US IP Storage Forum to develop content based on current standards and best practices in order to drive the adoption of IP-based Storage Area Network (SAN) solutions through global marketing initiatives and end-user education.
Solid State Storage Initiative
Marcus Schneider, European Board Liaison
The Solid State Storage Initiative serves as the European liaison group to the US initiative created by the SNIA to addresses marketing outreach and education to become the recognized authority for storage made from solid state devices, and to educate the vendor and user communities about storage made from solid state devices.
Storage Management Initiative
Frank Bunn, Chair
The Storage Management Initiative serves as the European liaison group to the US Storage Management Forum, created by the SNIA to develop and standardise a highly functional and interoperable management interface for multi-vendor storage networking products to enable and streamline the integration of large and diverse multi-vendor storage networks.
Storage Security Industry Forum
Frank Bunn, European Board Liaison
The Storage Security Industry Initiative serves as the European liaison to the Storage Security Industry Forum (SSIF) in the US helping storage professionals, security professionals, security practitioners, and academics work together to contribute to a better understanding of storage security and how it applies in your organization.
XAM Initiative
Frank Bunn and Philippe Nicolas, European Board Liaisons
The XAM initiative serves as the European liaison group to the US XAM Initiative, created by the SNIA to develop and implement XAM product interoperability programs; XAM developer programs; XAM standard product conformance programs, and industry education materials.
These initiatives work with the European program committees and maintain a liaison to the SNIA technology forums in the US, where standards and best practices in these areas are being developed. A complete list of initiatives, publications, committees and events is available at www.snia-europe.org.