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And the Emmy Award for Early Development of Data Management Software goes to…

CMMA Blog

Wow.  Thank you so much.  I didn’t even prepare a speech.

OK.

First, I’d like to thank the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF TELEVISION ARTS & SCIENCES for this recognition.  And of course our thousands of customers in this industry.  So many of our customers have created Emmy-award winning content that has enriched our lives, and for Quantum to be recognized with a Technology and Engineering Emmy award is a tremendous honor.

I’d like to thank our engineers.  Their innovations in data management (or “HSM”) software, going back to the early 2000s, have enabled our customers in media to produce content more efficiently, and preserve their content digitally for decades.  By making media workflows more efficient and more automated, our customers in broadcast and post-production have been able to focus on better collaboration, creating better content, and distributing that content to a larger audience.

I’d like to thank our partners – both our channel partners and our technology partners.  Without them, this wouldn’t have been possible.

And notably, Quantum is unique amongst the other recipients of this Technology and Engineering Emmy in that we are the ONLY VENDOR that has integrated our data management functions with all of the leading Media Asset Management providers.  Not only have we developed a sophisticated policy engine, but we expose those policies via API so third-party applications like MAMS, PAMS, DAMS can leverage the HSM capabilities we have.

I just spoke with a large broadcaster this week, and one of the reasons they chose Quantum is because:  “We can use our MAM to drive the StorNext policy engine, to move content between production, nearline, and archive tiers.”

This award is also particularly timely because later this year we will announcing another fundamental advance in data management technology, new capabilities that will help our media customers manage the content challenges of the next decade.

Our development of HSM began nearly 20 years ago, in early 2000. It was a cold winter day, and our engineering team…there’s the music.  OK, I’m getting the hook I’ve got to wrap this up.

Quantum’s StorNext ®, which combines a high-speed file system with data management software, incorporates HSM technology and has been widely adopted by the media and entertainment industry to address the growing problem of sharing, preserving, and analyzing massive volumes of unstructured data.

See you at NAB!

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Same NVMe Speed, Lower Price

CMMA Blog

Last year at NAB, we introduced the Quantum F2000 – an NVMe storage server designed for the highest-performance workloads with the highest availability requirements.  The F2000 has won multiple industry awards and is in production at some of the world’s largest brands, government agencies, and major studios and post-houses.  It’s been a great year!

But there was also a consistent point of feedback from many customers – they see the benefits of NVMe (accelerate productivity, reduce infrastructure cost and complexity, gain back data center space), but not every workload requires a highly-available server and the expense that comes with that.

Enter the Quantum F1000.  The F1000 uses the same software-defined storage platform as the F2000, and provides ultra-fast streaming performance and response times, with a less expensive server platform and design.

Like the F2000, the F1000 gives users the parallel processing capabilities that are inherent with NVMe and uses RDMA networking technology to deliver SAN speeds over less expensive ethernet network infrastructure.

Also, like the F2000, the F1000 is easy to deploy as part of a StorNext file storage cluster.  And system health can be monitored anytime, anywhere by connecting to Quantum’s cloud-based monitoring software.  StorNext can even move files and folders between NVMe and nearline pools of storage, so you can get the benefits of NVMe for those workloads that require it most without committing to an all-NVMe infrastructure.

In short, if you have been researching NVMe, and thinking about how it could benefit your environment, now is the time to reach out.  We’ll work with you to design an architecture that best fits your needs, for a price point that doesn’t crush your budget.

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Why Video and Image Data is at the “Core” of the Global Datasphere

CMMA Blog

A recently published IDC blog, “How You Contribute to Today’s Growing DataSphere and Its Enterprise Impact,” talks about the global datasphere and the impact on the enterprise. In his blog, IDC’s David Reinsel discusses how the number of connected devices and the growing Internet of Things (IoT) are contributing to massive data growth. He talks about a recent IDC study that analyzes where data is coming from (surveillance cameras are the #1 source of data), and where all this data is going.

Our mission here at Quantum is to
be the leader in video and image data infrastructure, and this IDC DataSphere
study intersects our strategy in a few ways:

First, it reinforces how video
and “video-like” data (such as high-resolution images generated by machines on a
manufacturing floor) make up the largest majority of the global datasphere.
Whether this data is generated by machines like surveillance cameras, movie
cameras, or by consumer devices, like smartphones – the common thread is that most
of the data being generated is video and imagery.

In fact, Reinsel notes how most
of the “edge” data is being generated by consumer devices with most of it being
video and images. Anyone with a smartphone can attest that video and image data
consumes most of the storage on their device.

Second, in terms of where this
data goes, most of it ends up in what IDC calls “the core” – i.e. cloud
datacenters where this data is copied or backed up, and where it needs to be
stored forever. Quantum excels at both the high-speed processing of video and
image data, as well as the long-term storage of video and image data, whether
on-premise or in-the-cloud.

Here at Quantum, we’re helping businesses be prepared in this data-driven world with solutions that help manage, store, and protect the massive amounts of data they create. Visit our Solutions page to learn more about our secure, reliable data management solutions for video and image data.    

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The Latest Buzz from the Front Lines of the Media Industry

Archive Storage

Those who have attended IBC in Amsterdam at some point in their career know that participating in the show is like briefly transplanting oneself into an alternate universe for 5 days.  What the rest of the world knows as Friday, Saturday, Sunday becomes IBC Day 1, IBC Day 2, IBC Day 3, etc.  Maneuvering between the massive halls of the RAI and trying to find obscure meeting rooms can be like navigating a small city (and without the help of GPS)!  And the amount of sleep one gets due to the post-exhibition activity is probably most akin to a weekend in Las Vegas.

All of that, however, is a small price to
pay for the wealth of benefits and opportunity that can be had while attending
the media industry’s biggest conference outside America. From an efficiency
standpoint, it’s fairly impossible to outmatch the density of meetings one can have
with customers and partners in such a short timeframe. This year this that was
especially true as our Quantum team had our meeting rooms constantly full, not
to mention a packed partner event on the opening day. 

Latest Trends Taking Shape

The other primary benefit is that being at
the show is an outstanding opportunity to learn about where the industry is
going, as well as how these trends are taking shape in the challenges the
vendor community will need to solve next. Given their importance, I think these
are certainly worth sharing – so in no particular order, here are the trends
that seemed to be most topical at the show:

Jason Coari CSI Magazine Awards IBC 2019
Goran Nastic (editor at CSI Magazine), Jason Coari and Paolo Pescatore accepting CSI Magazine’s ‘Best Data Storage Solution’ award at IBC 2019.

Democratization
of Video  

As video has become the dominant communications platform across the world, and is on track to make up more than 80% of the world’s data, both traditional media and non-traditional media organizations are finding themselves in the middle of the evolution to constantly be producing video content. One effect of this transformation means production timelines are shortening and distribution channels are broadening. All meaning that organizations need more sophisticated and flexible storage solutions to support the creation of an immense amount of compelling content. 

Cloud-based
Workflows

Just the day before the show began, Disney
had announced an agreement with Microsoft to do post-production in Microsoft
Azure. This move could certainly be a sign of things to come and is exciting with
the flexibility it could offer those organizations creating content, as well as
efficiencies it could offer by doing more work closer to where the data resides.
At Quantum we are keenly aware of this trend, which is why we are investing in StorNext to
facilitate all stages of the media workflow whether it’s on-premise,
off-premise, or any combination of the two.

Transition
to IP

What was a hot topic at NAB continued to be a hot topic at IBC – and it’s easy to see why.  From lower capital costs to more rapid deployment and streamlined operations, placing massive importance on transitioning to an all-IP based infrastructure.” This is why all the products that Quantum has launched over the past year are optimized to provide maximum performance across Ethernet networking. 

Remote
Production

The fact that this was discussed so broadly
was somewhat surprising. However, as customers shared the benefits of doing
more production onsite, the fact that it’s becoming a bigger trend became more
apparent. Quantum actually has solid experience here working with companies
like The Rebel
Fleet – an innovative post-production team doing onsite production in the
mountains of New Zealand. We also recently launched our R-Series
ruggedized storage system to further facilitate these types of use cases. Could
this become more mainstream in the months to come? I wouldn’t be surprised….

IMG 8039

So that’s a wrap on the top trends from IBC
2019. In closing, I’d like to give one final kudos to the entire Quantum
product and engineering team that had anything to do with designing and
building our F-Series .
The product picked up two more awards at the show and is on track to become the
media industry’s de facto standard for ultra-performance NVMe-based storage. And
stay tuned for some exciting developments in this space over the coming months,
as their work is just getting started!  

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Four Reasons Why you Need a Modern File System for Media Workflows

CMMA Blog

In media and entertainment, it’s often
difficult to meet even the basic requirements for data storage. You need to
ingest content quickly, provide fast access to that content, facilitate
collaboration, and cost-effectively preserve and protect content over the long
term.

But as viewing habits are changing, and the creative process
continues to evolve, meeting the escalating requirements for storage is
becoming more difficult than ever before. You need greater performance and
flexibility to handle 4K and higher-resolution content from a growing number of
sources. You also need to balance this with capacity and cost.  And last but not least, somehow streamline
management of an increasingly complex storage environment.

Within the technology ecosystem of a modern storage
implementation, there are a number of crucial aspects at play influencing the
dynamic interplay of performance, capacity, management and cost. Chief among
these is the file system.  So, let’s take
a quick look at four key areas where a modern file system can really make a
difference to your overall workflow efficiency.

Performance

It wasn’t long ago that organizations could make do with storage
performance that was “just good enough.” However, as the industry has moved to
higher-resolution formats, much more performance is required for real-time editing,
color grading, transcoding, and other tasks.

This is where the right file system substantially improve the performance
of the underlying storage hardware – no matter if its composed of solid-state
drives (SSDs), hard-disk drives, or any combination of the two.  For example, a file system that separates user
data and metadata operations—and runs those operations in parallel—enables both
tasks to complete faster while helping ensure data transfer is unimpeded. In
addition, a file system that slices logical unit numbers (LUNs) and enables the
creation of stripe groups can help better match high-performance workloads to
high-performance storage.

Flexibility
To
enhance the efficiency of workflows and facilitate collaboration among team
members, storage solutions must enable simple, flexible access to content. By
creating a single, global namespace, a modern file system can give team members
direct access to files, images, and other content at high speed—no matter where
users are located.

The right file system will also support several types of storage
systems and connectivity options. This means that the file system should
natively support shared storage area network (SAN) environments with Fibre
Channel connections as well as scale-out network-attached storage (NAS)
environments over Ethernet. Such flexibility for different storage types and
connectivity provides organizations the capability to architect the most ideal
infrastructure for their specific use case. 
And as most organizations will need to expand and grow as their business
becomes more successful, they have the option to migrate to a different
topology as future needs dictate. 

Optimization of Storage Resources

How can you effectively balance performance, capacity, and cost for
your storage environment? One tried and true method is to architect a
multi-tier environment that seamlessly integrates multiple types of storage; from Tier 0 flash-based storage through object-based systems, data tape
archives, and cloud archives.  This kind
of structure allows for the hottest data to be placed on the fastest storage
pools, while cold or less frequently accessed data can be placed on capacity
optimized storage pools. 

Another crucial functionality is that the data
movement must be automated so it flows seamlessly across those storage tiers.  Ultimately this translates into the ability to
keep current, time-sensitive projects on high-performance arrays while moving older,
less-frequently accessed content to cost-effective media and large-capacity
archives.

Streamlined Management

Very few media organizations have large, dedicated administrative
teams to handle storage. As storage environments grow in size and complexity, organizations
need ways to simplify management so their IT teams can more easily meet the
requirements of their users. The right file system will streamline
administration by offering an array of capabilities—from remote management
options to analytics tools. This means an entire multi-tier environment can be
managed with a small staff or even a single person.

Move forward with StorNext So as you can see, there are a handful of exceptionally good reasons why investing in a storage infrastructure powered by an industry leading file system could really make a large impact on your business. To learn more how StorNext can deliver the performance, flexibility, balance, and streamlined management I just described, download the new eBook, “Modern File System Functionality That Can Supercharge Your Media Workflows. “

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How Advanced User Interfaces Are Becoming Increasingly Important to Both Viewers of Immersive Content and The Organizations Providing It

Cloud Services

Last week, I had the privilege of participating in a panel session entitled Future Production Trends: 8K, HDR, and AI in front of a packed auditorium at the Sports Tech Innovation Forum (organized by the brilliant BroadcastTech team).  At the end of the session, an interesting question came up from the audience that asked the following:  Given how hard technology vendors and broadcasters are working to provide their viewers with immersive content that puts them as close to the action as possible, are these same entities also making sure to provide their audiences all the tools necessary to easily find the content and configure the best experience on their home devices? 

Essentially, the question was focused around the user interface for the consumer.  Andy Beale, Chief Engineer at BT Sport, answered confidently that it is indeed something that BT is constantly thinking about for their viewers, but that BT needed to continually work closely with the vendor community to make sure this aspect was not only being thought through, but also resourced. In many ways, it was the kind of answer I believe the audience member was hoping for.

What I found most interesting is this question and response is closely aligned to a development stream that Quantum has been heavily investing in over the past year; not only is an efficient and modern UI important for the home consumer, it’s just as important to support the advanced operations of our customers. In fact, the development of more advanced GUIs is becoming more important than ever as we strive to provide transparency between what technology can do, and what we actually ask it to do.  And as technology ecosystems are becoming more heterogeneous, they are simultaneously becoming more interdependent, so having a unified management interface is even more critical.

Double-clicking down on this thought,
let’s transition to the practical implementation of the above as it relates to
helping organizations more efficiently manage their storage
infrastructure. 

This week we are launching the latest
release of our award-winning file system, StorNext 6.3.1. In addition to a
number of small improvements to make the file system operate even more
smoothly, we are also improving its capability to manage offline files. 
With Offline File Manager 2.0, in addition to giving users the ability to
directly truncate and archive files, users can now see what specific tier of
storage a file or directory resides in.  This significantly helps users be
more efficient by adding further clarity around file retrieval times, and also
provides IT staff an automated mechanism to better manage user expectations.  

StorNext is not the only Quantum
technology that is receiving attention within this context, next month we are also
launching important improvements to our ultra-fast F-Series NVME storage
arrays.  Now more than ever F-Series systems will be easier to deploy and
manage thanks to an intuitive GUI that can control a wide-array of storage
operations such as health monitoring of multiple system components, creating
RAID sets, and configuring storage networks.  Furthermore, F-Series now
supports Quantum’s Cloud Based Analytics software, so both administrators and
Quantum support can remotely monitor F-Series storage for even greater levels
of autonomy and uptime.   

Both of these latest enhancements
should be of tremendous help to IT professionals — a group of individuals
often under tremendous pressure to support a growing number of users – as well
as the organizations they work for in being able to better manage more
complexity across their storage environments.

To learn more about all that StorNext
and F-Series can do for your business, visit Quantum.com or contact us directly
today.

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