For all the emphasis on speeds and feeds, storage is at its core very much dependent on software that for the most part runs on commodity hardware.

The services that differentiate storage vendors from one another are defined almost purely by the software they use.

In effect, all storage is software-defined, whether it is available as software defined to run on any hardware and/or the cloud or pre-integrated with hardware arrays or appliances.

As part of CRN’s 2023 Storage 100, here are 50 vendors bringing software capabilities, services and cloud connectivity to storage technology.