SNIA approves San certification

Association adds weight to vendor-independent ratification

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has thrown its weight behind the first ever vendor-independent certification aimed at raising reseller skills standards in the storage area network (San) market.

Key storage players, including EMC, Computer Associates and Veritas, have already endorsed the new certification, which provides an open system test across all technologies and techniques used in Fibre Channel Sans.

The programme will be administered by training company Infinity I/O following concerns about quality standards. Deborah Johnson, Infinity I/O's chief operating officer, admitted that the increasing complexity of storage, combined with a lack of skilled individuals, was an issue.

"Today storage is a very heterogeneous environment. Products have to work together to provide data any time, any place, anywhere," she said. "People say: 'I'm a solution provider and I'll make your products work together,' but there's no guarantee of quality."

John Taylor, chairman of the UK sub-committee for SNIA Europe, said that the programme will have four levels. Level one will be for people who need a level of technical knowledge but not necessarily installation know-how, and level two will be for those installing a San.

Both of these levels are out now. Levels three and four, the higher consultancy levels, will be out in about a year.

"We're hoping that this will be the established standard, and that people buying into a San will automatically look for someone with SNIA certification," said Taylor.