What Is Open Storage: The Open System Storage Advantage

Imagine that you’ve recently started your own business and, in order to meet your new organization’s data management needs, you’ve also purchased a storage server from Brand Name X. The server works well at first, but then your business begins taking off, and you find you need additional data storage space. When you start looking for ways to expand your current storage, you realize that Brand Name X uses a closed system, and that their server is incompatible with storage appliance add-ons from other vendors As a result, you’re locked into using this one vendor for all your data storage needs, and when one of their components becomes outdated, you have to replace your entire storage system, at a huge expense.

Fortunately, this frustrating hypothetical situation can be avoided by choosing an IT vendor with an open system approach. An open system is any computing system that has been designed so that it is operable with hardware and software components produced by other vendors. For example an open system allows a user to buy a storage expansion JBOD unit that uses SAS or SATA drives from any manufacturer and connect it to an existing storage network from any manufacturer.  An open system is not brand specific it’s plug-and-play capable with most storage networks.

Open Systems Allow for Greater Flexibility

One of the best benefits of an open storage system is that it allows the buyer to pick and choose the components that best meet their performance and storage needs while staying within their budget. A single manufacturer might not be able to keep up with all your IT needs, especially as you accumulate more and more complex and critical data. However, when you use open storage system products, you don’t have to worry about being limited by one single vendor. Open systems make it much easier to add on to existing storage units or update your IT products when you scale up, rather than requiring you to forklift out an old system and start over from scratch. This avoids the possibility of an upgrade turning into a complete replacement of the existing system, an event so common in the industry it has a widely recognized term associated with it: rip out and replace.

Open Storage Systems Benefit Your Bottom Line

For most businesses and organizations, it’s not feasible to completely replace data storage systems every year or two. Even the businesses that can afford to do this could do a lot more with their IT budget if they didn’t have to worry about regularly purchasing a new “closed” system from a single vendor. Choosing a vendor who uses best-in-class components and open software and hardware, assures products that last longer, are easier to upgrade, and save money in the long run.

If you are interested in the open systems approach, check out Nfina’s open system products, such as our NAS (network attached storage) and SAN (storage area networks).