The Association of Storage Networking Professionals (ASNP), a new association for storage networking users, has launched complete with a mascot and a motto. With 22 chapters worldwide, The ASNP's goal is to "empower and educate users."
"The ASNP will level the playing field between storage networking users and vendors," said Tom Giannetti, director of information services of operations at Home Depot. "There is so much hype in the storage networking market, which leads to a lot of confusion among users making decisions. The ASNP will provide a much-needed resource for the end-user of storage networks."
The association is actively recruiting members for the first chapter meetings, which are scheduled to take place in January 2004. Regular annual dues are $199, but the first 1000 members to join will receive free membership. More information about membership is available at http://www.asnp.org .
In related news, the Information Storage Industry Center (ISIC) at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) has announced that the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) has become the founding sponsor of ISIC's StorageNetworking.org initiative. StorageNetworking.org is an independent, university-based initiative whose goal is to help create local and regional storage networking user groups. StorageNetworking.org will also be an online resource portal to storage networking-related resources and information.
StorageNetworking.org's academic advisory board includes the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at UCSD; the San Diego Supercomputer Center at UCSD; the UCSD Extension; the University of Minnesota's Digital Technology Center; Pennsylvania State University's School of Information Sciences and Technology; the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs' Network, Information, and Space Security Center; and the Data Storage Institute's (DSI's) Network Storage Technologies Division at the National University of Singapore.
http://www.asnp.org
http://storagenetworking.org
