SNIA Cloud Object Storage Plugfest

The Next SNIA Cloud Object Storage (COS) Plugfest will be held September 15 - 17, 2025, co-located with SDC’25 at the Hyatt Regency, Santa Clara, CA. 

Are you new and interested in joining the Plugfest? Please review and complete the detailed instructions below.

Are you returning to SDC participating in a Plugfest? Please have your discount code ready - Register here for SDC'25 and the SNIA Cloud Object Storage Plugfest. 

SNIA COS Plugfests are…

• Open to all industry COS developer contributors (you do not need to work within a SNIA member company). If you are a COS developer, architect or provide test support, your contribution is welcome.
• Driving industry collaboration on multi-vendor interoperability, to enhance customer experience of popular COS APIs, including AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, and Azure Blob.
• Dedicated to help developers working on de facto standards like S3, who experience the following…
  • Rapid proliferation across client applications, hybrid, cloud, and multi-cloud deployments, as well as within on-premises compute, storage, database and business analytic micro-services.
  • Massive increase in the number of multi-vendor configuration opportunities (how to add new revenue and support).
  • Need cost effective access to multi-vendor interoperability best practice methods and testing, to meet end-customer demand for rapid innovation AND flawless / seamless S3 multi-vendor interoperability (regardless of which vendor who provides the service).

SNIA COS Plugfests offer a unique opportunity for industry leaders to collaborate and enhance interoperability between cloud object storage solutions. If your organization develops software that utilizes or implements S3-like storage, your participation would be invaluable. SNIA’s Plugfests provide a venue for COS developers to meet, under NDA, to openly test their technology, identify and fix interoperability issues, and discuss best practices. Everyone is invited to participate, from massive cloud providers to small startups. Plugfests are the only event specifically serving the COS developer community. 

SNIA has completed our second COS Plugfest in April ‘25, and we are now preparing our third SNIA COS Plugfest to be held during SNIA Developer Conference (SDC’25) on September 15th - 17th, in Santa Clara, CA. Please join us at SDC’25, where the COS Plugfest Community will help...
 

• Reduce support cost, eliminate bugs, drive industry consistency, and make it easier for storage platforms to quickly add new customer config support and revenue.
• Eliminate barriers to attain any-to-any interoperability between multi-vendor platforms.
• Resolve API behavioral gaps and inconsistencies between multi-vendor implementations, as well as enhance and accelerate cloud storage reliability, stability, supportability, and interoperability.

New Plugfest participants, review and complete the detailed instructions below to register for SDC'25 and participate in the COS Plugfest.

Step One - Send email to express your interest in the next SNIA COS Plugfest

• Please email us expressing your interest to learn more at askcloudplugfest@snia.org.
• We will send you a no-cost and no-obligation welcome package, explaining the checklist of items to prepare for the next COS Plugfest, and provide login information for you to join the COS Plugfest Planning site   
• For new contributors, this will help initiate your first time introduction to explore team participation and get onboard.
• For existing contributors, this will help ensure continued communication within ongoing team planning. 

Step Two - Fill out the SNIA COS Plugfest Participation Form

• Soon after you have reviewed the welcome package and taken time to review the COS Plugfest Planning site, you will notice that the COS Plugfest community conducts every other week planning calls (every other Tuesday at 11:00 AM PST), and the team builds an Interoperability Matrix, to help organize and schedule testing during the event.
• Please complete the SNIA COS Plugfest Participation Form, which provides information about your team, test contacts, name of your product, details describing what type of COS API(s) your product implements, and what type of usage you want to test (client / server / both).  
• This information will be entered into the Interoperability Matrix during one of the COS Plugfest Planning calls, and help make sure your product gets integrated into the schedule of tests. Note - test schedules are based on first come / first serve, so please do not delay.  

Step Three - Register and pay fee to attend the next SNIA COS Plugfest

• Once you decide to participate and want to officially register to attend the next SNIA COS Plugfest event, please complete the following...
• First note - The SNIA COS Plugfest is held in conjunction with the SNIA Developer Conference (SDC’25); therefore, to participate, each COS plugfest participant must register for SDC using the Plugfest Discount Code, provided in the welcome letter and listed on the COS Plugfest Planning site. Or, if you have any questions, please submit an email request to askcloudplugfest@snia.org, and we will walk you through the process.
• When you register for SDC’25 at this site, each participant must pay the COS plugfest fee, $895.00 US, which includes three days of multi-vendor COS interoperability testing, plugfest meals and complimentary access to all SDC’25 sessions.
  • Note - toward the end of SDC’25 registration checkout process (at the site above), you will be asked if you are registering as a COS plugfest participant; you will then enter the Plugfest Discount Code as part of checkout, which applies the appropriate payment adjustment. This enables you to receive your badge when you attend the event.
  • Final requirement to conclude Step Three - all participant companies must provide a signed COS Plugfest Confidentiality Agreement (NDA) and agree to abide by COS Plugfest test guidelines before contributors can participate in any testing activities. This bullet is completed after you have officially registered and before you arrive to conduct testing.
• Other important reminders:
  • Don’t forget to request your manager approval early
  • Book your flight early
  • Book your hotel early (note, SDC’25 and the SNIA COS Plugfest will be held at the Hyatt Regency Santa Clara 5101 Great America Pkwy Santa Clara, CA, where you may book with special rates associated to the conference, or book with another hotel as needed).
  • Finally, review all SDC’25 sessions and begin to map out your schedule availability to test, during the event

Step Four - Participate in Pre-Event Testing before in-person SNIA COS Plugfest  

• Once you have completed all elements of Step Three, including reminders, agree to test guidelines, and completion of the participant company signed COS Plugfest NDA, then participants from that company will be added to the NDA-Only COS Plugfest Slack Channel, where all the interesting developer issues and peer networking discussions are held.
• The NDA-Only COS Plugfest Slack Channel is invaluable for flexible collaboration, setting up access credentials between participating cloud test end points, as well as comparing test results and insights among the full team.
• The NDA-Only COS Plugfest Slack Channel will be set up and available approximately one to two weeks before the face-to-face COS Plugfest event. This allows the team to begin some of the more simple Pre-Plugfest Testing before arriving at the event, and helps the community to focus on more significant discussion and testing while everyone is together at the event. The NDA-Only Slack Channel will be available several weeks after the event, to conduct Post-Event Testing and followup on issues found, as needed.  
• More COS Plugfest Planning information will be provided to participants who initiate Step Four, as well as an information on the SNIA COS Test Tools Technical Work Group (TWG).
• If you have any questions or need anything, please email us at askcloudplugfest@snia.org.