SoftNAS is a Linux-based virtual NAS appliance that runs as a virtual machine on public and private cloud services. It provides software-defined capabilities for data performance, cost management, availability, control, and security. SoftNAS offers unified storage optimized for high-performance, IOPS, and data reliability and recoverability. It also increases storage efficiency through thin-provisioning, compression, and deduplication. SoftNAS supports a wide range of storage protocols, including NFS, CIFS/SMB-AD, and iSCSI, and can improve cloud application performance with faster throughput, better IOPs, and less latency than other cloud storage solutions.