Improvements in animation technology have led consumers to expect high-quality productions. To meet these expectations, studios grapple with increasingly more complex renderings. Whether it’s 2D or 3D productions, billions of files may need to be edited and processed, often from remote locations. Slow uploading and downloading of files can extend workdays and delivery schedules.
That’s why more studios are looking to the cloud for file storage and data access. However, moving to the cloud is not always the best solution. Studios have to weigh on-premise capabilities against cloud services to find the right mix. Sometimes, the best option is a hybrid solution.
What does hybrid mean?
Hybrid environments are infrastructure configurations that use on-premise and cloud-based solutions for daily operations. What stays on-premise depends on the studio. However, many companies are realising that cloud-based services are more efficient than on-premise and can be just as effective.
Balancing on-premise rendering with cloud-based services can enable organisations to scale as needed. Qumulo’s hybrid solution enables studios to work with petabytes of file storage with the ability to scale for rapid growth and expanded renderings.
What is a hybrid infrastructure?
Hybrid infrastructures may use hardware devices, software or both to transmit data to and from on-premise and cloud environments. Solutions that integrate with existing applications can minimise operational disruptions.
With the right configuration, hybrid infrastructures can provide reliable, high-performance data access while maintaining file visibility and management of massive amounts of data. Hybrid solutions can provide the speed needed for remote collaboration without losing control.
File system
Files should be accessible quickly. Teams do not have time to wait while files are located and downloaded. That’s why Qumulo deploys its all-NVMe or hybrid flash-first solution to ensure extraordinary performance and low latency. With flash-first writes and predictive caching, the file system enables collaboration with fast access speeds and renderings.
Protecting data is essential for animation studios. File loss means hours of work wasted. Qumulo’s hybrid solution ensures data protection through erasure coding. With erasure coding, data such as a file is broken into groups known as data blocks. These data fragments are combined with parity blocks and stored across multiple locations. If data is damaged or corrupted, the file can be reconstructed from the parity fragments.
Cloud services
Many organisations have moved to the cloud to address multi-location environments that require significant computing power. Whether it’s a public or private cloud, well-designed render farms can quickly scale to address increased rendering or modelling processes. With a hybrid solution, studios can access the cloud environment to allow teams to access content remotely, collaborate easily and complete projects on schedule. Cloud computing eliminates legacy storage obstacles, so studios can pivot to address changing requirements of animation production.
What are the benefits?
Hybrid solutions deliver the best of both worlds. They allow on-premise rendering with the ability to scale when demand for more computing capabilities is required. Qumulo’s hybrid solution offers the following benefits:
- Increase productivity with ultra-fast performance
- Ensure reliable data access
- Enable remote collaboration among artists
- Access powerful cloud computing capabilities
- Integrate applications through APIs
- Protect data through erasure coding
As studios grow, the hybrid solution grows with them with minimal disruption. Qumulo’s software-defined design creates a simple but scalable storage solution. Node clusters using Qumulo hardware are used to facilitate the movement of files and resources between on-premise and cloud farms. As demand increases, studios can add nodes to the infrastructure to increase capacity and performance without interruption or downtime.
Analytics
Qumulo’s solution has built-in analytics to help optimise work environments. Real-time performance monitoring across the enterprise simplifies production management. The solution provides information on workstation performance down to the file level. Administrators can use real-time analytics to identify possible concerns and address them before they create an operational disruption. Using the insights gained through analytics, companies can make data-driven decisions about future needs.
Finding the right media cloud storage solution
Data is the lifeblood of every organisation — and the same goes for the animation industry. Without easy and quick access to files, animation companies will struggle to maintain a competitive advantage. If unstructured data grows across an enterprise, it will be difficult for studios to scale quickly.
As a leading provider of cloud file data services, Qumulo understands the need for a more elastic solution that provides the control, visibility and scalability that organisations need to manage their digital assets. Qumulo’s file data platform enables studios to manage, store and share data from any location. It’s a cloud-native solution that delivers the same user experience whether on-premise or in the cloud. The goal is to provide continuous file data storage services, so creativity is not interrupted.
If you’d like to learn more about building the right media storage solution, get in touch with us at Nexstor — the data specialists who can help find the right data solution for your business.
