Acopia Networks, Inc., the leader in high performance intelligent file virtualization, today announced that leading independent research firm, TheInfoPro (TIP) has reported Acopia is “edging out” its competition in the file virtualization space, including Network Appliance, Microsoft, Cisco, Brocade, and others. The findings, based on 154 hour-long interviews with TheInfoPro’s peer network of pre-screened Fortune 1000 storage professionals, showed that file virtualization has now moved into the top position on TheInfoPro's Storage Technology Heat Index – a measure of users' spending and implementation plans.

“With installed NAS growing rapidly in the data center and the long project timelines needed for block virtualization, storage professionals have been focusing their near-term energies and budgets on improving file content,” stated Robert Stevenson, managing director of TheInfoPro’s Storage Sector. “In fact, two of the more salient findings of the research were that information lifecycle management (ILM), tiering, and migration are all prominent management technologies now being considered for short term implementation, as well as the substantiation that there is in fact no such thing as a ‘one-off’ data migration in today’s enterprise.”

“We are delighted that results of the TheInfoPro Wave 8 Study reinforce Acopia’s growing market presence in intelligent file virtualization,” said Kirby Wadsworth, senior vice president of marketing and business development. “More importantly, TheInfoPro results provide quantifiable proof that F1000 companies are investing in file virtualization solutions today and intend to invest even more in the near future. As a technology and market leader, Acopia is uniquely positioned to address the data management needs of these F1000 enterprises.”

To view a rich media presentation of TheInfoPro’s Wave 8 Storage Management Fortune 1000 Study please visit: http://www.brainshark.com/theinfopro/storw8_smr_f1000_pr.

About Acopia ARX Solutions

Acopia ARX™ systems simplify file storage management – making it easier than ever for companies to migrate, tier, balance, and replicate file data across the entire enterprise storage environment, inclusive of files storage on the storage area network (SAN). Specifically, Acopia ARX intelligent file virtualization provides customers with the ability to:

• Migrate large numbers of files, transparently to users, without scheduled outages,
• Tier data to appropriate storage media automatically and continuously – freeing expensive high-performance disk and dramatically reducing storage and backup costs
• Increase utilization and optimize performance with advanced real-time load balancing
• Replicate data efficiently and flexibly to ensure data protection and high availability