"Best Practices in Storage" Awards Program
Storage Networking World (SNW), in conjunction with Computerworld and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA), is seeking IT user-organization case study submissions for its "Best Practices in Storage" Awards Program.
The deadline to submit a nomination is Friday, February 9, 2009 and can be made at: http://bestpractices.computerworld.com/2009/snw/
Eligible nominees are exclusively IT end-user organizations. Nominations of IT end-user organizations are accepted from IT users themselves, their public relations representatives, or vendors on behalf of their IT end-user customers. Multiple submissions of case studies describing different deployments per IT end-user/organization will be considered.
Five finalists in each category will be recognized at Storage Networking World, April 6-9, 2009, at the Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida. The top honoree in each category will be recognized on the main stage during the SNW Awards Ceremony. All finalists will be recognized on the event website, in an event press release, and may be featured in a special supplement of Computerworld magazine.
Honorees and Finalists will be recognized in each of the following five categories:
-Innovation and Promise
-Planning, Designing and Building a Strategic Storage Infrastructure:
-ROI and Best Practices in Green Computing and the Data Center
-Selecting and Deploying Storage Networks
-Storage Reliability and Data Recovery
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Best Practices in Storage Award Categories
Innovation and Promise:
Successful "pioneering" of leading/bleeding-edge storage networking technology will be recognized in this category. The ability to overcome early adoption obstacles and to resolve problems ("in-house" or via unique vendor/integrator/other user partnerships, etc.,) will be assessed. Considers promising technologies (for example, Information Lifecycle Management) and deployments addressing ongoing challenges such as growth in data management.
Planning, Designing and Building a Strategic Storage Infrastructure:
Recognizes organizations that have created a well-developed blueprint for deployment success, including strategic storage vision, risk management and cost/benefit justification. Demonstrates the deployment of a storage infrastructure that allows users to easily access stored data of all types. The infrastructure should take into account access to legacy systems, security, disaster recovery, backup and restore, and global management. Submissions should reference the unique design and implementation of the infrastructure.
ROI and Best Practices in Green Computing and the Data Center:
This category includes one or more of these three areas:The nominations may highlight the business and economic impact of green IT initiatives. The convergence of pressures to reduce IT operational costs and the need to be more energy efficient presents new opportunities. The nomination may highlight challenges, initiatives and improvements in energy consumption and a transition to sustainable computing models. Enterprise-wide efforts would be appropriate. The nomination may highlight data center-based challenges, initiatives and solutions to become greener is growing to be an important operational area for IT management attention. All green IT data center and virtualization initiatives may be included.
Selecting and Deploying Storage Networks:
Submissions should describe the successful selection and deployment of a SAN, NAS, and/or object-based storage. Please cover in detail pertinent areas such as data migration, scalability, interoperability, and implementation considerations and tips.
Storage Reliability and Data Recovery:
Acknowledges implementation strategies and programs to insure highly available information and data access. Examples of "business continuance" initiatives (back-up plans, staging, performance testing/projections, etc.) will be key considerations. Successful recovery examples from an actual data access disruption should be described. Summary analysis of restart/recovery factors (time to restart and restore, data loss, etc.) is essential.
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