TrueNAS

2025 has been the year enterprise storage was forced to evolve. Artificial intelligence, immersive media, and scientific research generated data at unprecedented levels. Ransomware incidents became more sophisticated, cloud costs less predictable, and vendor lock-in more punishing. CIOs and IT leaders discovered that adding capacity wasn’t enough. The real challenge was control—managing an organization’s data estate with confidence, clarity, and resilience in the face of volatility.

That context explains why TrueNAS was named Data Storage Company of the Year 2025. The recognition is not just about technology or revenue growth. It reflects a model built around giving enterprises mastery over their data: control, transparency, predictability, and peace of mind. As Mike Lauth, CEO of TrueNAS, put it: “Storage isn’t just about where you put data anymore. It’s about whether you’re in control of it. In 2025, that became the defining issue for every CIO we spoke with.”

This year, TrueNAS reached new milestones. With over 40% annual growth since 2021, TrueNAS has reached an all-time revenue high, while the number of multi-petabyte customer deployments continues to rise across government, media, and AI workloads. Additionally, the release of TrueNAS 25.10 introduced the company’s most intelligent and resilient software to date. TrueNAS 25.10 simplified operations while strengthening ransomware protection, ensuring organizations could operate with confidence in high-risk environments.

At the same time, the TrueNAS Community Edition surpassed 1 million deployments worldwide. That adoption reflects a business model built on transparency and reliability: millions of systems hardening the platform globally across diverse environments, so enterprise customers inherit software already validated at scale.

Lauth credits this growth to a philosophy that has remained consistent over two decades. “We’ve always believed that trust comes from transparency,” he said. “By giving organizations a clear view of how their systems operate, without black boxes or hidden costs, we empower them to make storage a strategic advantage they can run on their own terms.”

Beyond control and transparency, enterprises also prize flexibility and simplicity. In a year defined by rapid data growth and constant change, these qualities matter more than ever— storage environments must adapt quickly without adding layers of complexity. TrueNAS delivers that by unifying multiple workloads—block, file, object, virtualization, backup, and AI - under a single software platform.

Whether running on disk, flash, or hybrid environments, organizations manage it all through one consistent interface and a single pane of glass. That versatility eliminates the silos and complexity of juggling separate systems, giving CIOs and their teams a simpler way to scale and adapt as requirements evolve.

The impact of this approach is evident in the range of industries now running TrueNAS at mission-critical scale. Vanderbilt University’s structural biology lab turned to TrueNAS to manage a surge of Cryo-EM imaging data, shifting to the M-Series to eliminate manual backups and gain ransomware protection through automated replication. “In the past, we spent hours babysitting backups,” said Jarrod Smith, Assistant Director at Vanderbilt. “With TrueNAS, it just works, and my team can finally focus on research instead of firefighting.”

Storage isn’t just about where you put data anymore. It’s about whether you’re in control of it. In 2025, that became the defining issue for every CIO we spoke with.

In entertainment, TrueNAS powered real-time ingest at the Las Vegas Sphere one of the most data-intensive media environments ever built. It supported next-generation audio workflows at Skywalker Sound, where creative teams need speed and reliability without compromise to produce chart-topping, blockbuster films. In research, it helped AI clusters scale without forcing teams to re-architect infrastructure, allowing organizations to innovate on their own terms without being boxed in by vendor limitations. Across these environments, TrueNAS demonstrated mastery of complex data environments through transparency, predictability, and resilience as the real differentiator.

What makes this trajectory notable is not just performance but philosophy. TrueNAS is designed for organizations that demand control of their data. It provides transparency through an open architecture with no hidden costs. It delivers predictability by giving organizations clear visibility into costs and control over upgrades. It consolidates multiple workloads— virtualization, backup, enterprise file sharing, AI storage, etc—into one unified platform, enabling CIOs to simplify operations and plan for the future with confidence. And, it reinforces peace of mind with ransomware resilience and expert human support always within reach.

Lauth noted that this emphasis on control has resonated deeply with enterprise buyers. “When CIOs talk to us today, The conversation isn’t about speeds and feeds. It’s about whether they’ll have control over costs, performance, and data availability five years from now. Transparency gives them that confidence, and that’s why they choose TrueNAS.”

This philosophy reflects a broader shift in the market. Enterprise storage is no longer defined by how much capacity can be added or how many features appear on a checklist. It is defined by whether organizations can stay in control—of costs, of performance, and of the data itself— while retaining full transparency into how their systems operate. TrueNAS earned recognition this year because it provided that clarity in a market that has often relied on black boxes, forced upgrades, and opaque pricing.

For enterprises navigating an era of explosive data growth and innovation, the lesson is clear: the defining measures for enterprise storage are control and transparency. That is what Fortune 500 leaders value most, and that is what TrueNAS delivered in 2025.