Taking another step in its quest to become 100 percent open source, Sun Microsystems has released a version of OpenSolaris that has been optimized to create a storage server. ChannelWEB reports:

[S]olution providers or their customers can download a copy of the storage version of the OpenSolaris operating system and install it on any server and have a NAS appliance within ten minutes. "

Sun's senior director for storage servers and appliances, Graham Lovell, indicates that the move from proprietary to open source software in storage tech is similar to the move from proprietary to open servers. He says:

Storage today is the last bastion of proprietary technology. Customers buy their hardware, software, and services from a particular vendor. And if they want additional services, they have to go back to that vendor. But hardware is starting to standardize.

Smaller vendors are already taking advantage of Sun's new strategy, the story says.