SNIA India Launches Technical Center Champions Program (TCCP), Receives Formal Regional Affiliate Status

SNIA India Launches Technical Center Champions Program (TCCP), Receives Formal Regional Affiliate Status

Move Reflects Increasing Storage Investment in India and Resulting Demand for SNIA India’s Leadership Activities

Bangalore, August 3, 2006 – The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) today announced that SNIA India has become a self-governing regional affiliate. For the past two years, SNIA has served the country of India through SNIA South-Asia’s country forum program. SNIA boasts a growing membership in India of more than 60 storage vendors, channel members, end users, institutions and individuals. SNIA India will continue to work to advance the adoption of storage networks as complete and trusted solutions throughout the country and to deliver standards, education and services that will propel open storage networking solutions into the broader market.

“The increasing presence of global storage vendors, systems integrators and storage professionals in India has made storage networking a key focus area in this region,” said P.K. Gupta, Chairman of SNIA India. “The India market for storage is growing faster than most other markets, and we see a formal relationship with the SNIA as the best way to promote storage networking education, advance the SNIA’s Technical Working Groups (TWGs) and drive membership in the organization.”

Already active in five major Indian cities, SNIA India has initiated the development of a SNIA Storage Lab in Bangalore located at the Indian Institute of Information Technology – Bangalore (IIITB). The SNIA has also trained over 350 industry professionals throughout India in different areas of storage networking over the last two years.

“With the continued globalization of IT operations and high-tech development and customer care investments in India, SNIA will deliver increased value through formal affiliation of SNIA India for the organization as a whole,” said Wayne M. Adams, Chairman of the SNIA. “We look forward to continued growth in the Asia-Pacific region and are pleased with the progress of SNIA India in advancing storage industry education, programs, and relationships.”

In the next year, SNIA India members will actively participate in several storage events and seminars to promote SNIA activities and benefits, will work to provide a broad range of quality education and capitalize on India’s intellect by starting local TWGs. Plans are also in the works for a SNIA technology center champions program in India to increase the resources to support a broadened set of vendor neutral technical programs in the SNIA Storage Lab.

SNIA has established regional affiliates and forums serving Australia/New Zealand, Canada, China, Europe, India, Japan, and South Asia. For more information about SNIA India, please visit www.snia-india.org

About the SNIA

The Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) is a not-for-profit global organization, made up of more than 460 member companies and close to 7,000 active individuals spanning virtually the entire storage industry. SNIA members share the common goal of advancing the adoption of storage networks as complete and trusted solutions. 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. For additional information, visit the SNIA web site at http://www.snia.org.

For more information, please contact:

Ms. Pamela Uthappa
Mobile: 09886164419