Sun Open Storage

Lore & Background

Prior to Open Storage, most storage products were based on customized operating systems running on specialist hardware, often using old generation hardware because the customized operating systems lagged in support for current processors and system architectures. During the 2000s, the growth in processor performance and multithreading left these often single-threaded storage products with a significant internal processing gap versus current industry standard computers. Open Storage addressed this by building storage products on current industry standard hardware with standard operating systems that track current hardware, avoiding the costs and performance penalties of specialist systems.

Sun's Open Storage products combined their server technologies and software, starting with Solaris 10 6/06 ('Update 2') in June 2006, which included ZFS and the set of protocols to build NAS, SAN, and local storage servers. Core features included the operating environment, ZFS, NFS, SMB protocol interfaces, and the Solaris Fault Management Architecture. Sun produced the 7000 series Storage Appliance range based on the Open Storage platform with closed source parts added. Other companies such as Greenplum, Nexenta, and Delphix also used the platform to produce storage products with various specialities.

Following Oracle's acquisition of Sun in 2010, Oracle stopped using the Open Storage branding and stopped selling the related hardware products (Storage Servers and JBODs), though it continued manufacturing some products for the 7000 series under the 'Unified Storage' name. By that time, many other vendors were selling Open Storage hardware. The Open Storage branding continued to be used by some companies with products based on ZFS and open sourced Solaris (such as illumos), along with an annual Open Storage Summit, though Oracle did not participate.

Reader's Guide

Sun Open Storage represented a shift in the storage industry toward building products on standard server hardware with software-defined personalities, a move that was also adopted by companies including Dell, EMC, HP, IBM, NetApp, and numerous smaller vendors. By using open source Solaris and common hardware, Sun aimed to remove vendor lock-in for customers, contrasting with closed systems from other vendors where all components had to come from the vendor. In 2008, Sun estimated that open storage products and related services would gain 12 percent of the storage market by 2011.

The platform's legacy continued after Oracle's acquisition, as the underlying technologies—ZFS, NFS, SMB, and open source Solaris derivatives like illumos—were used by other vendors to produce storage appliances. The annual Open Storage Summit persisted without Oracle's participation. The concept of building storage products on industry standard hardware with standard operating systems became a broader industry trend, influencing how storage solutions were designed and delivered. The Open Storage approach demonstrated that storage could be decoupled from proprietary hardware, enabling customers to use current generation technologies and avoid the performance penalty of outdated specialist systems.

Did You Know?

• Sun Open Storage was advertised as avoiding vendor lock-in by using common hardware and open source Solaris.
• The platform started with Solaris 10 6/06 ('Update 2') in June 2006, which included ZFS and protocols for NAS, SAN, and local storage.
• After Oracle acquired Sun in 2010, Oracle rebranded the 7000 series as 'Unified Storage' and stopped using the Open Storage branding.
• Other companies such as Greenplum, Nexenta, and Delphix used the Sun Open Storage platform to produce their own storage products.