"Best Practices in Storage" Award Winners Recognized at Storage Networking World in Orlando

FRAMINGHAM, Mass., At the Storage Networking World (SNW) conference today in Orlando, Fla., IDG's Computerworld and the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) announced the winners of the twice-annual SNW "Best Practices in Storage" Awards Program. Co-owned by Computerworld and the SNIA, SNW is the leading educational forum for the storage networking industry and is taking place through Thursday at the JW Marriott Grande Lakes Resort in Orlando.

Winners in five individual program categories include Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. All winners will be honored and presented with an award crystal during an on-stage Awards Program at SNW on the afternoon of Tuesday, October 28. In addition, renowned entertainer Sinbad will perform a special Awards Tribute later in the evening, compliments of event sponsor EMC.

Two co-winners and one honorable mention in each of five categories were announced:

Systems Implementation
Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Washington, D.C. and Level 3 Communications, Broomfield, Calif. (Honorable Mention - Cancer Therapy Research Center, San Antonio, Texas)

Storage Reliability and Data Recovery
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. and Richard Fleischman & Associates, New York (Honorable Mention - City of Arvada, Arvada, Colo.)

Industry Regulation Compliance and Corporate Governance
MidAmerica Bank, Naperville, Ill. and University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston, Texas (Honorable Mention - Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, N.C.)

Data Lifecycle Management
Tektronix, Beaverton, Ore. and Weta Digital, Miramar, New Zealand (Honorable Mention - Tek-Tools, Dallas, Texas)

Innovation and Promise
Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M. and Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colo. (Honorable Mention - Zenon Environmental, Inc., Oakville, Ontario, Canada)

The SNW 'Best Practices in Storage' Awards Program seeks to reward end-users that have taken imaginative approaches to storage technology that have ultimately improved their businesses and organizations," said Leo Leger, vice president of strategic initiatives at Computerworld and the program coordinator. "This fall, we celebrate a broad range of winners, from the prestigious Los Alamos Labs to the JFK Center for the Performing Arts; from the financial industry to the medical field - all demonstrating how pervasive and vital storage technology has become."

As the program's official endorsement-provider and co-producer, the SNIA continues to insure that user case studies are solicited and evaluated representing the most contemporary of industry challenges. Wayne Adams, SNIA board member and the chairman of the SNW conference committee, represents the SNIA as the program co-coordinator. Adams observed, "There has been a key change to this fall's program in terms of the categories. For example, we merged the previous categories of storage reliability and data recovery to recognize the importance to the industry of the challenges users face in managing through disruptive events such as the recent Northeast power grid outage. We've added new categories for 'regulation compliance and corporate governance' considerations and 'data lifecycle management' "