Softek Executive Elected to SNIA Board of Directors

Company Leads Industry in Completing SNIA-Certified Training Courses; Ensures Best-Practices Counsel & Installation for Storage Management Solutions

November 6, 2003

Softek™, a leading provider of storage management software, today announced that Softek Senior Director, Ed von Adelung has been elected to the SNIA Board of Directors for fiscal year 2003/2004. The company also announced it has become the industry leader in completing SNIA-certified technical training courses, with more than 110 sales, systems-engineers and other customer-facing employees passing Professional (Level 1), Practitioner (Level 2) and Specialist (Level 3) competency tests.

With von Adelung's election to the SNIA board, Softek joins representatives from 10 other SNIA member companies, including EMC, IBM, and HP. Responsibilities of this council include the development of a high-level "roadmaps" for the industry, a validation of work group charters, proposals for new work groups, architectural reviews, as well as being SNIA's technical liaison to other technical standards organizations.

To complement the involvement of Softek in SNIA leadership and operations, Softek last year mandated that all of customer-facing employees complete rigorous SNIA technical training courses. To date, 99 percent of the company's sales force have passed SNIA Certified Level 1 tests and 99 percent of the systems engineering staff has completed SNIA Certified Level 2 training. In addition, 75 percent of Softek systems engineers have passed the highest level of technical testing – Level 3. All other Level 2 systems engineers are working toward completing their Level 3 certification.

"Softek's presence in the SNIA has continued to strengthen over the years," said Sheila Childs, Chair of the SNIA. "With Softek's commitment to open storage networking solutions and its high percentage of SNIA certified engineers and sales force, Softek is helping ensure we advance the adoption of storage networks as complete and trusted solutions for the broader marketplace. We couldn't be more pleased with the highly qualified list of Board of Directors we have in place and Softek is an important addition to this group."

"In today's heterogeneous networking environment we face ongoing hurdles of interoperability and SNIA continues to make great strides in bridging the solutions gap," said von Adelung. "As a SNIA board member, I hope to bring valid industry expertise and helpful end-user feedback that will drive storage networking innovation and industry-embraced standards practices."

Based in Dallas, von Adelung responsibilities include coordinating and participating in SNIA activities, as well as work on industry standards and strategic alliances.