A survey into attitudes of attendees at Europe’s first OpenStorage user conference, hosted by Nexenta Systems in Amsterdam on May 20, found that the widespread use of legacy storage solutions is likely to be replaced or surpassed by the deployment of OpenStorage.

Key survey findings:

• Over 85% of the 56 medium and large enterprise users and storage integrators who responded to the survey expect to use or deploy OpenStorage in their IT environments within the next 18 months.
• The respondents spanned a wide range of storage users, averaging between 20-200TB of storage. Over 11% of the respondents claimed to be responsible for managing half a petabyte or more of data.
• Over two thirds (70%) of respondents believe OpenStorage usage will eventually replace or overtake the proprietary storage solutions they use today.

According to Evan Powell, CEO of Nexenta Systems, the world’s leading provider of OpenStorage solutions, senior IT decision-makers are rapidly waking up to the fact that OpenStorage solutions can offer the same feature-set as legacy storage systems, but at a fraction of the cost.

Powell said: “We’re seeing our channel partners win big deals against the established storage brands by offering comparable solutions with identical technical features that cost 75 percent less than the price of the legacy option. Users have become fed up of being locked-in to a restricted technology roadmap that demands expensive, forklift upgrades every time they wish to take advantage of a new technology innovation.”

Key drivers for OpenStorage

The survey confirmed that the main driver (63%) for switching to OpenStorage was cutting enterprise storage costs. The second biggest benefit (30%) of OpenStorage was seen as having a more customized storage solution, followed (18%) by the desire not to be locked-in to a single vendor.

Powell concluded: “Storage has traditionally been about fitting your business needs around whatever legacy platform is available at any given time, at a cost that the user has little control over. OpenStorage changes this paradigm, driving hugely improved value throughout an enterprise’s storage infrastructure. This survey reinforces the trends we’re seeing in the storage industry at-large. It validates the need for a more flexible environment where companies can have access to an enterprise storage solution that supports cloud and VDI environments and cuts out vendor lock-in while providing a genuine and easily measurable return on investment.”

The Nexenta user conference took place on May 20, 2011 in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The survey was completed onsite during the event and also online by 56 medium and large enterprise users and storage integrators provides a current snapshot of attitudes towards OpenStorage. A copy of the raw data is available from: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it