The 2025-26 DCIG TOP 5 Cybersecure NAS Solutions 10PB+ Global Edition Report underscores a pivotal shift in enterprise data storage, highlighting Workload-aware storage platforms as the natural evolution of Network Attached Storage (NAS) and Storage Area Network (SAN). As data growth accelerates and ransomware threats intensify, traditional NAS and SAN systems are being reimagined to meet modern demands. The Tintri VMstore emerges as a standout solution, exemplifying how Workload-aware storage delivers performance predictability, scalability, and cybersecurity. Let’s explore the report’s key highlights and how Workload-aware solutions are shaping the future of data management and storage.
Key Highlights of the DCIG Report
The DCIG report (click here to download the report) provides an independent, comprehensive analysis of Cybersecure NAS solutions with capacities exceeding 10 petabytes, evaluating 24 solutions based on over 300 features. Here are the key takeaways:
- Explosive Market Growth: The global NAS market is projected to nearly triple, growing from $40.3 billion in 2024 to nearly $130 billion by 2032, according to Fortune Business Insights. Over 80% of organizations currently use NAS, driven by increasing data volumes, larger file sizes, and high-resolution media.
- Cybersecurity as a Core Focus: NAS solutions are prime ransomware targets due to their widespread use. Modern systems counter this with features like data immutability (e.g., WORM file formats, immutable snapshots), at-rest encryption, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and AI-driven anomaly detection to monitor unusual activity.
- Diverse Use Cases: NAS solutions now support five key roles beyond traditional file sharing: enterprise file services, performance-sensitive workloads (e.g., containers and databases), hypervisor hosting (e.g., VMware, Hyper-V), backup targets, and edge/remote deployments.
- High Availability and Scalability: Solutions offer various high-availability (HA) configurations (e.g., Active-Active, Scale-out) and scale beyond 10PB, with options to tier data to cloud or on-premises object storage.
- Performance Enhancements: The adoption of all-flash configurations, fast Ethernet (10Gb, 25Gb, 40Gb, 100Gb), and data reduction technologies (compression, deduplication) ensures low-latency performance for demanding workloads.
- Top 5 Solutions: DCIG ranks Tintri VMstore T7080 as a top cybersecure NAS solution, excelling in scalability, cybersecurity, and workload optimization.
DCIG and Tintri hosted a webinar covering the results as well as a number of live demo features by Tintri CTO, Brock Mowry with additional commentary from reseller StarNet Solutions. Check it out here: DCIG / Tintri Webinar On-Demand
The Evolution: From NAS and SAN to Workload-Aware Storage
NAS and SAN systems have been enterprise storage staples for years, with NAS excelling in file sharing and SAN in high-performance block storage. However, their one-size-fits-all approach struggles with modern workloads like virtual machines (VMs), containers, and databases. Workload-aware storage systems address this by intelligently allocating resources to specific applications, ensuring consistent performance and robust security.
These systems, like the Tintri VMstore T7080, go beyond traditional NAS by offering:
- Performance Isolation: Eliminates the “noisy neighbor” problem by dedicating resources to individual VMs or applications providing guaranteed performance.
- Scalability: Supports scale-out and scale-up architectures to handle tens or hundreds of petabytes.
- Cybersecurity: Integrates advanced features to combat ransomware and data breaches.
A comparison of SAN, NAS and Workload Aware Storage
| Feature | SAN (Storage Area Network) | NAS (Network Attached Storage) | Workload-Aware Storage |
| Architecture | Block-level storage over a dedicated network | File-level storage over TCP/IP network | Software-defined, adaptable to workload types |
| Protocol | Fibre Channel, iSCSI | NFS, SMB/CIFS | API-driven, supports multiple protocols |
| Access Type | Block-based (e.g., LUNs) | File-based | Both file and block, context-sensitive |
| Use Case | Databases, virtual machines | File sharing, backup, collaboration | AI/ML, containers, analytics, multi-cloud |
| Performance Optimization | Manual tuning, static provisioning | Basic caching and file-based tuning | AI-driven, auto-tiering, real-time tuning |
| Workload Awareness | None | Limited | High – adapts storage behavior per workload |
| Scalability | Moderate to high | Moderate | Very high (scale-out + elastic) |
| Management Complexity | High (requires storage specialists) | Low to moderate | Simplified via automation and analytics |
| Cost Efficiency | Expensive (dedicated hardware) | Lower (general-purpose hardware) | Optimized (pay-per-use, hybrid models) |
| Cloud Integration | Limited | Moderate | Native or hybrid cloud-native |
| Data Placement | Static, admin-defined | Static or user-based | Dynamic, AI-optimized |
Tintri VMstore T7080: A Workload-Aware Leader
Tintri VMstore is the only Workload-aware storage platform on the market, optimized for virtualized environments through its Tintri Operating System (TxOS). The DCIG report highlights its distinguishing features:
- Multi-Hypervisor Support: Concurrently supports VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix Hypervisor, and Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, offering flexibility amid VMware’s licensing changes.
- Immutable & Locking Snapshots: Creates over 100 per-VM immutable and invisible snapshots stored in reserved, inaccessible space, ensuring ransomware protection and fast recovery of entire VMs or specific files.
- Workload Intelligence: Tintri Global Center software provides stack-wide visibility, enabling hardware issue detection, latency troubleshooting, and automated application placement across federated clusters.
The Future of Storage: Cybersecure and Workload-Aware
The DCIG report confirms that NAS remains critical, but its future lies in workload-aware systems that combine scalability, performance, and cybersecurity. With the NAS market poised for significant growth and ransomware threats on the rise, solutions like the Tintri VMstore T7080 are setting the standard. By addressing diverse use cases—from enterprise file services to edge deployments—and prioritizing workload-specific optimization, Tintri has redefined what true enterprise storage looks like.
For organizations aiming to future-proof their infrastructure, adopting workload-aware storage is not just an upgrade—it’s a necessity in a data-driven, security-conscious world.
