According to the Chaos Theory, in a giant system that has lots of interconnections, even the smallest action can have a massive impact. It’s more simply described by the butterfly effect. This theory has taken its toll on the software business, thanks to the rise of open-source software platforms. Today, I learned about a move made by Backblaze, a small San Francisco-based online back-up service that can cause a similar disruption in the storage industry.
The company, whose primary business is selling online storage to consumers for a small monthly fee today, announced that it’s giving away the design of its storage cluster for anyone to use, modify and build upon. The design allows anyone to build large storage clusters -– from a few terabytes to over a petabyte. – GigaOm
That’s right, in an interesting move, Backblaze gave away their storage ‘pod’ design and now anyone, theoretically, can build their own cheap storage system. In this one move, Backblaze show you how to set up your own storage for a fraction of the average market price.
It makes me think about the rise and rise of open source software. Could hardware go the same way?
Speak your mind