Mechanisms and techniques provide a management application providing an enterprise storage area network application programming interface for managing elements in a storage area network. The management application initializes a plurality of access wrappers that each defines operations for management of a respective class of elements operating within the storage area network. The management application provides, to a management client, connection data associated with a specific element associated with one of the plurality of access wrappers. The connection data identifies connection data parameters for performing management of the specific element in the storage area network. The management application receives at least one generic management command for the specific element. The generic management command includes at least a portion of the associated connection data for the specific element. The management application operates at least one access wrapper to translate the at least one generic management command into an operation of at least one vendor-specific command to manage the vendor specific element in the storage area network.