Give your storage a new dimension with Quantum

You may know Quantum as providers of the kind of large-scale tape libraries that your archive depends on. But their high performance, high capacity solutions cover online, nearline and cloud storage too – all powered by an industry-recognised filesystem. Here’s what you need to know.

By Liz Sunter November 04, 2020

Meeting the demands of modern media workflows

As 4K footage becomes standard, the demand on media storage and infrastructure increases exponentially. Working with 4K requires 8GBps of throughput, and a single hour of UHD footage can consume 7TB of storage space. Quantum’s unique storage systems are designed to help production and post teams meet that challenge head on.

Their three-pronged approach uses a trio of innovative technologies: the StorNext file system, Xcellis workflow storage, and F-Series NVMe technology.

A more flexible approach to storage management

StorNext is both a software-defined file system and a data management platform. It’s designed for organisations that require high streaming performance, reliability and resiliency on a massive scale. StorNext makes finding and accessing unstructured data far faster, and makes your storage system far more extensible – at the point when a traditional file structure would become unmanageable, StorNext continues to scale seamlessly. And no matter how big your StorNext system becomes, you can still enjoy fast, reliable file access and playback – up to 23GBps per stream.

But that’s not all. StorNext includes a rich set of data management tools, meaning you can move your data between superfast local NVMe storage for the edit, nearline HHD arrays, cloud storage for remote teams, and your trusty LTO archive. FlexTier and FlexSync functionality ensures that files are always protected and backed up, no matter where they are in your data lifecycle. Utilisation and bandwidth management tools helps broadcast engineers keep a close eye on their facilities’ storage needs and make more proactive use of the space they do have – meaning you can make more informed investments when it comes to expansion.

Hardware with intelligence built in

While StorNext is available as a software solution, Quantum also offer Xcellis storage appliances – flexible server and storage options with StorNext built in. Xcellis appliances enable high-speed shared access to your files, and are available in a variety of configurations, both for hosting the StorNext Metadata Controller (MDC) software, and for scaling out extra clients and capacity.

Choose between Ethernet or Fibre connectivity (or both!), separate or combined file and metadata storage, and Quantum hardware to build a storage system that’s uniquely moulded to your business’s workflow.

The performance media professionals need

One of the most exciting of your storage options is Quantum’s F-Series NVMe arrays. These provide massive parallel performance for handling multi-layered effects, hi-res footage and HDR and HFR workflows – or even complex AR and VR projects. Quantum estimate that incorporating the F-Series into your effects workflow can make your render performance 10-100 times faster, depending on your project.

Because Quantum designed the F-Series specifically for media workflows, it has helpful features like an RDMA link, which provide direct access between workstations and the NVMe storage devices. This gives predictable, ultra-fast network performance. It also works seamlessly with StorNext’s utilisation tools to ensure the only footage that truly needs to be on your top-tier storage is there, moving any other footage off to nearline storage until its needed. All of which means massive time and productivity gains with minimal disruption to your creative team’s existing workflow.

Building your Quantum workflow

As with any infrastructure project, building a Quantum workflow requires more than plugging in a few boxes and hoping you see the desired result. A Quantum specialist can audit your workflow and make specific hardware recommendation based on your real-world usage and access needs. That way, you’re not paying for more online storage than you need, and can avoid being hit by any surprise fees when it comes to access cloud storage and services.

Pre-flight testing and professional installation can also cut down your setup time and reduce the risk of drives being dead on arrival.

That’s where we come in

As Quantum’s EMEA Media and Entertainment Partner of the Year 2020, we work closely with Quantum to get you the best pricing, pre-sales advice and ongoing support. Our own engineers are qualified Quantum Systems Integrators, meaning we can provide the same level of technical support as Quantum themselves. And, because we have great relationships with media industry stalwarts like Avid, Adobe, Telestream and Aspera, we can help you make the most of Quantum’s API to integrate their system into every aspect of your existing setup – no matter which platforms your creative teams use.

Want to know more about the latest from Quantum? Learn more here, or get in touch with the team on 03332 409 210, email broadcast@Jigsaw24.com or simply fill out the form below.