Here's an interesting architecture around the emerging trends around storage and specifically around scale-out NAS solutions. This article does a good job explaining the needs for scale-out NAS solutions and their evolution into cloud based solutions.

The article mentions some potential solutions that include Symantec's FileStore product. FileStore is one of the fastest performing scale-out NAS solutions in the market. While VirtualStore is not mentioned in this article it is a completely software solution that can be used to gain the same benefits mentioned in the article while using existing storage hardware.

Check out the blog at: http://searchstorage.techtarget.com/feature/Scale-out-NAS-object-storage-cloud-gateways-replacing-file-storage?asrc=EM_USC_14145246&track=NL-58&ad=838313&

You can find more information about Symantec's FileStore and VirtualStore products at

VirtualStore

New Release: Introducing Symantec VirtualStore

Symantec VirtualStore

FileStore

Symantec FileStore Sets SPECsfs Performance Record

Boost Performance and Scalability with FileStore-Embedded NAS appliances