COMMERCIAL NEWS

Orlando, FLA. — This year’s Storage Networking World Fall Conference & Expo kicked into high gear as a sellout crowd of over 1,700 attendees has gathered for speeches, panels and interactive user sessions led by top storage implementers.

Co-owned and produced by the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) and IDG’s Computerworld, the information services company for Information Technology (IT) Leaders, Storage Networking World is underway at the Renaissance Orlando Resort in Orlando, Florida. The latest conference program information is available online at http://www.computerworld.com/snw .

More than 48 percent of paid conference attendees are from user companies like Allstate Insurance, American Express, Chevron, Credit Suisse First Boston, ExxonMobil, FedEx, First Data, Lockheed Martin, Sears and Sprint.

“First Data Corporation is one of the largest processors of credit information in the U.S. and we have seen explosive growth in the amount of data that we have to manage,” said John Gleeson, Director of Operations Control for First Data Corporation. “The networking aspect of this conference is invaluable because we are able to share ideas and learn new solutions to the challenges that we face.”

Michael Ruettgers, president and CEO of EMC Corporation, set the explosive mood of the conference with a rousing opening keynote address entitled “Storage & Optical Networking = The Content Big Bang.” In addition Linda Sanford, Senior Vice President of IBM’s Storage Group offered insight on the future role of storage in e-business in her Tuesday keynote entitled “Open for e-business.”

The storage industry is experiencing enormous growth as the amount of complex information generated by Web-based and other enterprise systems has increased. With panels and exhibits dedicated to hot topics such as Storage Interoperability and Storage Manageability, Storage Networking World has gathered a variety of IT Leaders to offer timely insight on storage-related business issues.

“In three years, our storage needs have tripled so I came to the conference to understand how to manage storage, to learn more about what can be stored and how to access this information,” said Rick Bauer, CIO at The Hill School in Pottstown, PA.

“I manage the systems software group for Disney’s feature animation division and it is crucial for us to see where the storage industry is going,” said Graham Allan, Manager of Systems Application for Walt Disney Feature Animation. “It is very reassuring to see common vendors thinking about interoperability and to see that it is thought of as not only a challenge but a major need.”

In a landmark debut at Storage Networking World, the onsite $15 million Interoperability Lab featured 47 cooperating industry vendors proving their interoperability. According to a live, onsite, interactive poll, 97 percent of attendees rated the effectiveness of the lab as “very relevant and informative.” In the same poll, attendees predict that managed storage capacity in their organizations will increase 120 percent on average by fall 2001.

A record 65 sponsors are participating at Storage Networking World and many represent the most influential providers of storage technology today including ADIC, BMC Software, Brocade, Compaq, EMC, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi Data Systems, IBM, StorageTek, Sun and Veritas.

The SNIA is a not-for-profit organization, made up of more than 150 companies and individuals spanning both the storage and networking industries. SNIA members share a common goal: to set the pace of the industry by ensuring that storage networks become efficient, complete, and trusted solutions across the IT community. To this end the SNIA is uniquely committed to delivering standards, education, and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market. The SNIA currently has multiple technical efforts underway.

A unit of International Data Group (IDG), Computerworld, Inc. is an information services company for the IT Leader community through its print, online and events offerings. The company’s flagship weekly newspaper for IT Leaders has been recognized numerous times by Folio: Magazine and the Computer Press Association as the best computer newspaper. With a circulation of 250,000, Computerworld has a total audience of 935,200 according to IntelliQuest CIMS v7.0. News and resources for the IT Leader community are available through Computerworld’s Web site at http://www.computerworld.com . Computerworld is based in Framingham, MA.

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