In 1881, John Pierpont Morgan’s home on Madison Avenue in New York City became the first private home in the world to be lit entirely by electricity.  Morgan invited the crème de la crème of New York society to witness this amazing technological display where he boldly declared, “Electricity as the future.”  Despite electricity’s successful debut, Morgan’s father, Junius Spencer Morgan, dismissed the technology as the “stuff of carnivals and fairs” and admonished the younger Morgan for investing in this emerging and unproven technology.  The elder Morgan had a point.  He was after all the legendary financier who built the “House of Morgan.”  How can this upstart technology possibly challenge Standard Oil and its stranglehold on kerosene?

Just as electricity changed the world, OpenStorage and Software-define Storage are revolutionizing the storage industry as we know it.  Nexenta Systems, the leader in Software-defined Storage solutions for the enterprise, is on the forefront of this revolution.  A recent IDC study showed that the quarterly factory revenues for EMC, NetApp and other storage industry incumbents are on the decline.  Conversely, the revenues of upstart storage companies (“Others”) are on the rise.  In fact, factory revenues for EMC, NetApp, IBM and Hewlett Packard all declined from Q2 to Q3 this year. EMC fell 2.2%, NetApp dropped 2.9%, IBM slipped 9.4% and Hewlett Packard tumbled 10.4%.  In contrast, factory revenues for “Others” increased by 49% from Q2 to Q3 this year.  If the current trends continue, “Others” will surpass the quarterly factory revenues of EMC in the fourth quarter of 2012.