This IDC study examines the impact of wide area file services (WAFS) on the storage market and vendors. It discusses the advent of this technology, the reasons for its popularity, and the drive among users to embrace it. This study also provides an overview of the possible early adopters of this technology, as well as the outlook for its future.

Jack Yu, market analyst, Storage Research, IDC Asia/Pacific, notes, "The continued economic growth of the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) or APEJ country markets and the consequential expansion and decentralization of business operations have fuelled interest in WAFS. This is a relatively new, largely untapped segment of the IT infrastructure market. We have seen many partnerships and alliances between vendors as they attempt to gain a share of the growing pie, and expect to see more activities in this space in the short to medium term."