Technical Activities White Papers
The following are technical white papers produced by
various SNIA Technical Work Groups and the SNIA
Technical Council.
Data Protection Best Practices
“Data protection” can have different meanings, requirements, and solutions depending on the technological orientation and experience of the audience, be it with regards to privacy, security, or storage. This paper focuses on the storage aspect of data protection, covering topics such as the role of data protection throughout the data lifecycle, drivers for data protection, and contemporary data protection technologies. The paper provides useful descriptions of real-world requirements and scenarios, as well as recommendations and guidance.
Storage Security: Fibre Channel Security
Fibre Channel (FC) is the premier transport for storage within and across datacenters, known for its reliability, resilience, and high-speed connectivity. Yet the capabilities available to provide security protections within a Fibre Channel network are neither well known nor well understood. In reality, in a Fibre Channel network both servers and storage systems provide many security capabilities themselves, while there are also other Fibre Channel-specific capabilities of the infrastructure that are available to provide additional security within the network. This SNIA/Fibre Channel Industry Association (FCIA) storage security paper provides information on Fibre Channel as it relates to storage systems and the Fibre Channel ecosystem.
NVMe‑oF and Swordfish
This paper provides a deep dive into the NVMe‑oF configurations, and more specifically, how these are represented in both the Swordfish client model and API. It will also focus on the concepts of logical devices, called exported resources, and how these are represented, allocated and managed, as these are represented differently for NVMe‑oF devices than for other types of storage devices modeled in Swordfish.
Storage Security: Encryption and Key Management
Encryption and key management capabilities have become pervasive within storage systems and ecosystems. To realize the full value of these capabilities, storage and security personnel need to understand these technologies, as they relate to storage, as well issues and considerations affecting their use. When implemented correctly, storage-based encryption and key management can serve as an important element of a defense in depth architecture.
Understanding the relevant cryptographic mechanisms and their uses in protecting data transferred to and stored in storage systems is critical to protecting sensitive and high-value data. This technical paper provides a solid foundation for storage and security professionals as it covers a broad range of relevant concepts and offers guidance while highlighting important issues and considerations.
Storage Device-Level Power Efficiency Measurement for Cloud, Datacenter & Enterprise Storage
This technical white paper describes storage device-level (individual storage device) power efficiency test methodology, the device test harness, the capture and use of IO workloads, calculating power efficiency metrics, and reporting device test results. The test methods are applicable to HDD and solid state storage devices (SDD) that have industry standard interconnects. This white paper lays a foundation for a forthcoming 2023 technical specification. This specification will be complementary to the system-level ISO/IEC 24091:2019 IT Specification for Data Center Storage (ISO 24091) Standard based on the SNIA Emerald™ Power Efficiency Measurement Specification V3.0/V4.0.