It is also an "enabler" for renewable energy, providing a source of electricity that can step in to fill the gap when the wind is not blowing or the sun is not shining.

WSJ: Daniel Yergin on the Shale Gas Revolution: Stepping on the Gas

With the amount of digital data in data centers growing annually and storage budgets highly constrained open source storage system designs can fill an important niche for data centers and IT people comfortable with installing and maintaining their own hardware.

FORBES: Open Source Storage Changes Industry Cost Structure