Nexentas

Nexentas was a company that provided enterprise-class software-defined storage solutions. Founded in 2005, Nexentas focused on developing and marketing a unified storage platform that was designed to be highly scalable, flexible, and cost-effective. Their core product, NexentaStor, was a network-attached storage (NAS) and storage area network (SAN) solution built on open-source technologies, primarily ZFS. This architecture allowed customers to manage block, file, and object storage from a single interface, offering a converged approach to storage management.

The company aimed to challenge traditional hardware-centric storage vendors by offering a software-only solution that could run on commodity hardware. This approach promised significant advantages in terms of reduced capital expenditure and greater agility for IT departments. Nexentas gained traction in various industries, including cloud computing, media and entertainment, and research institutions, by emphasizing its ability to handle large datasets and demanding workloads.

In 2019, Nexentas was acquired by DataDirect Networks (DDN), a leading provider of high-performance computing storage. The acquisition aimed to integrate Nexentas's software-defined storage expertise with DDN's existing portfolio, particularly in the areas of big data and artificial intelligence. Following the acquisition, the Nexentas brand and its specific product lines were largely subsumed into DDN's offerings, continuing the evolution of software-defined storage within a larger storage solutions provider.