Enterprises are adopting new strategies for building and managing file-based storage solutions in response to the high growth in file-based information and the critical need to more cost-effectively manage these information assets. In a series of interviews with U.S. and European enterprises, IDC found that companies are increasing their file-based storage by 50-120% a year and place a high priority on boosting the efficiency and reliability of their management processes for file-based information.

Network-based file virtualization is a key technology for more effectively managing file-based information. By using the virtualization and data management functions in Acopia Network's ARX products, interviewed companies from a cross-section of industries stated that they could:

• Rapidly and non-disruptively migrate data from file servers to more scalable NAS systems (cutting migration times by up to 90%)
• Automate movement of data to lower-cost tiers of storage based on preset policies (reducing spending on disk capacity by 50-80%)
• Reduce resources set aside for backup (cutting tape consumption and backup times by 50-80%)
• Share critical business files across applications, departments, and geographies (boosting end-user productivity and reducing development times)