For 20 years, the SCSI Trade Association (STA) has been promoting the advancements in SCSI – the proven and sustainable storage protocol that has shaped the modern data center. Today, Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) remains the most popular storage interconnect and is used by all major server and storage OEMs.

On March 14, 2017, STA dedicated an evening to looking back on some of the defining moments of the past 20 years while it celebrated its achievements with members of the T10 Technical Committee. Current and past STA and T10 leaders including Rick Kutcipal, Harry Mason, John Lohmeyer, Jay Neer, and Michael LoBue came together and shared perspectives about the development of SCSI and STA’s early activities.

Special guest Steve Phillips, former CIO of Avnet, also addressed the audience and remarked about the importance of storage and standards: “I can’t think of a more exciting time to be in technology. When I think of the Cloud, the Internet of Things, and digitization of the enterprise, I can see there is incredible disruption going on right now. To address it, enterprise storage needs to continue to increase in terms of capacity, and the key to that is innovation and good solid standards that are respected across the industry.”

A video montage from those who could not make the event, including Marty Czekalski, Dan Reno, Susan Bobholz, Don Jeanette, Mark Delsman, Skip Jones, and Alice Tate, contained reflections and humorous remembrances about STA and SCSI. Following the videos, an open microphone provided an opportunity for additional accolades and memories from anyone wishing to share.

As Steve pointed out, there is incredible change in the industry, and it’s important to have the right technology strategy. The work of STA and T10 continues to be important to both storage and connectivity and enterprise IT leaders everywhere.