We have always documented articled that express enthusiasm for open source, but we have never covered IT professionals reluctant to trust open source. Enterprise Storage Forum wrote, “Two Viable Open Source NAS Solutions” about how open source provides manageable and trustworthy network-attached solutions for files. The article focuses on two open source solutions, FreeNAS and OpenFlier, for their active development and popularity:
The two options under consideration in this article are FreeNAS and OpenFiler. Both have been around for a while and have many of the features you would expect in a business-class storage system. While FreeNAS is completely open source, OpenFiler has taken the approach of offering a base system for free but charging a fee for some additional features. You can still put together a usable system with the free version, but you might want to consider some of the paid options for the improvements they offer.
Run through the walk throughs to get a feel for how open source may be the tool you need. Starting with simple file management will get you over the hump and into the wonderful and welcoming open source community. NAS solutions are only the start. Once you do have your NAS setup, a powerful search application like LucidWorks will help track down the data.
Whitney Grace, April 9, 2013
Sponsored by ArnoldIT.com, developer of Beyond Search