Rafiu Fakunle, CEO of London-based open-source vendor Xinit Systems Ltd., said that users have downloaded more than 38,000 copies of its Openfiler NAS and SAN software from the sourceforge.net Web site. And Zmanda Inc., in Sunnyvale, Calif. -- the company providing support for the open source backup software product Amanda -- says that it supports 20,000 users worldwide.

Open source storage software is available to address a number of user needs, experts say. Amanda is a backup software product targeted at small and midsize businesses that allows the creation of a single master backup server to back up multiple hosts. DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) allows users to securely wipe the hard drives of their computers.

Other open-source storage software includes Lustre, OpenAFS and SAMBA, which are each network file systems used for different tasks. Lustre is used in large scale cluster computing while OpenAFS is deployed to create a single file space across all computers so that any computer can access a file on any other computer. SAMBA allows Linux servers to provide file and print services to Microsoft Windows clients.

Integrators like the Network Resource Group (NRG) in Manhattan, Kan., say they can deliver substantial savings for their customers using open-source storage software. Terry Hull, a principal network engineer with NRG, recently put together a VLAN for a client using iSCSI and open source storage software.

"The incremental costs for the solution were US$1,500 for the open source software versus $25,000 for a comparable configuration from Lefthand Networks and $75,000 for a Dell Fibre Channel SAN," Hull says.