Software-defined cloud storage is rapidly becoming the preferred solution for businesses that handle massive amounts of data. Film production companies in particular have taken up products such as NexentaStor from Nexenta, a Seagate Cloud Builder Alliance partner. Following the partnership of Daystrom and Nexenta to support the latest Kickstarter-funded Spike Lee film, Framestore has announced that it will use Nexenta’s technology to improve its storage infrastructure.
Framestore has contributed visual effects and high-quality images to notable films such as “Gravity” and “Skyfall.” To make all of this work, however, it needs reliable access to data via scalable cloud storage systems. In particular, Framestore requires solutions that can accommodate tremendous data volume and enable key functionalities such as disaster recovery.
It turned to SDS from Nexenta, pairing it with hardware from Dell and the open source ZFS operating system. This arrangement provided a more palatable alternative to hardware-based, less scalable proprietary solutions.
“I believe Nexenta is on the crest of a wave, one that has a strong potential to disrupt the storage industry status quo,” stated Framestore CTO STeve MacPherson. “The coupling of affordable enterprise grade hardware, a strong and open ZFS base and Nexenta software features provide us with great flexibility in how we design and deploy production storage. Nexenta provides that last critical software and support component that allows us to move everything forward as we re-architect our global storage strategy.”
This move toward software-defined tools for storage is just one trend that is reshaping how organizations and data center operators do business in the cloud. Writing for InformationWeek, Jeff Aaron observed that the software-defined data center was on its way, but that the key step may be the deployment of flash hypervisors. These layers cluster all server-side flash into an acceleration tier, providing scalability without having to continually add faster processors and disks.
