HITS

2020 was a year like no other. Media and entertainment organizations face urgent challenges to keep creative workflows moving forward and generate new business as they work to keep up in this “new normal.”

As creative teams today are now dispersed, organizations need to create an infrastructure that will address collaboration and work-at-home requirements, and that provides fast reliable user responsiveness to all media applications, as well as fast and secure access to the content needed for each project.

Utilizing cloud environments seems like the simple answer to connect these teams with their applications and content. But is it simple?Making a smooth transition to support remote video and creative production environments can be challenging. Here are a few important points to consider as you evolve your strategy.

CHOOSE A FILE DATA PLATFORM THAT SUPPORTS MULTIPLE CLOUDS AND ON-PREM

The cloud has incredible allure — virtually unlimited compute power, thousands of applications to choose from, and enough storage capacity to tackle any job. The cloud allows
resources to be deployed where and when they are needed, all on demand, all at a moment’s notice. While investigating file data platforms to support your cloud initiatives, the best choices are those that provide the same tools and user experience in the cloud that have historically been enjoyed on-prem.

Look for solutions that can demonstrate reliable and predictable performance to ensure you will be able to seamlessly handle intensive rendering requirements.

NOT ALL FILE DATA SYSTEMS ARE CREATED EQUAL

Let’s take a look at a Qumulo customer.

Cinesite Studios is a leading digital entertainment studio employing nearly 1,000 digital artists and staff, with offices across Montreal, Vancouver, London, Berlin, and Munich, and have produced feature films such as The Addam’s Family and Riverdance, as well as VFX projects such as the Avengers: Endgame, and Rocketman.

Their production requirements needed to leverage a file data infrastructure that would support them both on-prem and in AWS for rendering. However as production grew, and resolutions expanded up to 16K, they experienced frequent network slowdowns, which stopped production for hours at a time. In their case, they not only needed hybrid cloud flexibility, they also needed a more robust file data solution to solve their severe performance issues which were threatening to delay the release of major projects.

As a result, using Qumulo with AWS, Cinesite Studios was able to break through their technical barriers, support their complex and demanding workflows, to deliver motion picture projects faster than they ever thought possible

SEAMLESS CONNECTIVITY OF REMOTE WORKERS TO APPLICATIONS, CONTENT

The right cloud file data platform to support remote creative teams is the one that will support not just rendering but a complete studio in the cloud. It will enable collaborative teams to edit and deliver video footage in the cloud with the same levels of performance, access, and functionality as workstations in a local studio.

It needs to work seamlessly with the many software tools used in post-production, such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe After Effects, Cinema 4D, Nuke, Maya, and others. And, it must offer SMB support in the cloud to enable the creators on Mac and Windows devices.

Also, to support applications in the cloud, the advantage of having simple API integration features to help automate workflows with key applications is a great advantage.

SIMPLIFY RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Look for solutions that help simplify administration with real-time analytics dashboards to allow visibility to the storage usage, latency, throughput, IOPS, and client IP addresses to each editing workstation and each video stream.

Real-time analytics provide administrators with the insights they need to manage issues proactively, optimize workflows, and to make well-informed planning decisions for the future.

SECURITY IS A MUST

When it comes to adhering to industry security standards for the prevention of leaks, breaches, and hacks of studio assets, a well-designed cloud studio architecture can greatly limit exposure of these assets because they never leave the organization’s virtual private cloud (VPC).

With this type of solution, organizations can be assured that data is safe and can easily pass industry audits.

The best news is, when we all get back to the office, or we evolve into a modified ‘new normal’, having a flexible cloud-native file data infrastructure to improve your time to market and support your business into the future, provides more than just peace of mind, it assures that you have the very best tools and platform available to stay ahead of the competition.

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By By Linda Thomson, Senior Solutions Product Marketing Manager, Qumulo

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