Storage in large-scale data centers is changing dramatically. The move from high-cost enterprise class storage systems to storage nodes that are part application, part storage and part service is pervasive. These nodes make up new technology plays, like hadoop, hbase, mongodb, and cloud storage. This paper talks about real-world use cases for building out these environments, the business drivers, the successes and failures. It provides details on the cost models, the changes of the paradigm and when and why this new paradigm should be used.