CABSAT 2018: Quantum Takes On Demanding Storage Workflows

At CABSAT 2018, Quantum will present its latest innovations for demanding storage workflows, including major new enhancements for its Xcellis workflow storage family and the StorNext shared file system and data management platform.

New Xcellis Scale-out NAS Platform
Quantum will showcase its new Xcellis Scale-out NAS platform, which delivers the highest levels of storage performance and scalability in a cost-effective Ethernet-based appliance. Powered by Quantum’s StorNext shared storage and data management solution, the multiprotocol, multiclient Xcellis Scale-out NAS appliance unites robust media and metadata management with scalability and performance to support content creators’ most demanding collaborative workflows and ease their transition to IP-based infrastructure.

A single Xcellis Scale-out NAS platform performs at least three times better than that of the market’s next best NAS offering. An Xcellis NAS cluster can scale performance and capacity together or independently to reach hundreds of petabytes in capacity and more than a terabyte per second in performance.

“We’ve enhanced our Xcellis workflow storage and StorNext 6 platform with game-changing options and capabilities that we’ll feature at CABSAT 2018,” says Gabriel Chaher, VP, global market development at Quantum. “With Xcellis products, we’re bringing enterprise-class storage to a broader range of creative facilities, empowering users to leverage AI to better understand and monetize their content, enabling greater efficiency in handling content across the storage environment, and offering NAS storage performance that’s three times that of the nearest competitor. Valuable new options within StorNext 6 deliver vital capabilities for content synchronization, sharing across multiple sites and fine-grained optimization of performance across facility workstations.”

StorNext 6 Release
StorNext 6 software demonstrates Quantum’s ongoing leadership in workflow storage — with a particular focus on extending collaboration globally and providing new data management options. StorNext 6 highlights include the following:

• FlexTier Public and Private Cloud Access — The new FlexTier cloud-access feature for StorNext makes it easy to integrate existing public cloud storage accounts and third-party object storage (private cloud) into a StorNext environment. As a result, content owners can get all the content access and visibility benefits provided by StorNext, protect their investments in a cloud-based archive and reduce the cost and complexity of cloud storage administration.

• FlexSpace Shared Archive — Addressing the challenges of global “always-on” production workflows, the new FlexSpace feature allows multiple instances of StorNext, located anywhere in the world, to share a common content repository. As a result, any user within a StorNext environment can access, browse and pull files from the shared workspace. With this game-changing new capability, a creative team member working in one city can create content that is automatically stored to the common repository and make it immediately available for further work by team members in other cities.

• FlexSync Multisite Synchronization — FlexSync is a powerful new capability that provides a fast, flexible and simple way to synchronize content between multiple StorNext systems in a highly manageable and automated fashion. FlexSync supports one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-one file-replication scenarios, and can be configured to operate on specific files, specific folders, or entire file systems. By leveraging enhancements in file-system metadata monitoring, FlexSync recognizes changes instantly and can immediately begin reflecting those changes on another system.

New Xcellis Foundation Entry-Level NAS Appliance for Media Workflows
At CABSAT 2018, Quantum will also feature Xcellis Foundation, a new high-performance, entry-level workflow storage system specifically designed to address the technical and budgetary requirements of small- to medium-sized postproduction facilities and corporate video departments. Powered by StorNext, the new system delivers the benefits of enterprise-class Xcellis storage, including high performance and scalability, in a NAS appliance for under $25,000. By providing a more powerful, more feature-rich alternative to other entry-level storage systems at a similar price point, Xcellis Foundation is ideal for smaller video production facilities that need the benefits of a collaborative workflow but have limited budgets.

aiWARE for Xcellis: Veritone AI Platform in the StorNext Environment
aiWARE for Xcellis is a new hybrid on-premises and cloud version of the best-in-class artificial intelligence (AI) platform from Veritone. This solution allows users to leverage the power of Veritone’s best-of-breed cognitive analytics ― in areas such as object recognition, optical character recognition and transcription ― to extract hidden value from their on-premises video and audio content.

ClarityNow for Xcellis
During CABSAT 2018, Quantum will feature the integration of Data Frameworks’ ClarityNow with Xcellis workflow storage. Together these technologies allow users not only to look at the physical nature of the storage environment to see where files are kept, but also to establish policies so that files are moved in a way that yields the most capacity. By scanning content in near real time, building an index of that content, and then grouping similar content into collections, the integrated solution makes it easier to attach exact costs to storage related to specific content and projects. As a result, studios and other content creators can keep specific groups of content in the most economical and appropriate storage medium.