Real-Time Data Compression for Entertainment Companies

Disk capacity costs are decreasing per TB and the benefits of disks in the speed and performance realms outweigh tape, especially in the entertainment industry where, business continuity, data recovery and online access are so vitally important. Costs are not the only factor driving changes to data storage requirements. Real-time online access to data is increasingly important especially for digital content creators. Video editing companies strain a storage system with large files being rendered into even larger files. Without usable files at their fingertips, work comes to a halt. Real-time storage optimization of primary data can save entertainment companies from seeing their profit margins being eaten away by storage costs.

Here are four ways IBM Storwize appliances help entertainment companies reduce their storage burden:

Compresses data in real time without performance degradation.
Increases disk capacity by up to 80 percent and reduce need for both physical and virtual servers, making them easier to manage.
Cuts or delays storage disk purchases with IBM Storwize real-time data compression which is powered by a patented Random Access Compression Engine (RACE) architecture.
Conserves CPU cycles which reduce power expenditures that can be better used for video and 3-D graphics rendering.

Field Findings:

Snowball VFX, a production and outsourcing services animation studio, specializing in highly complex 3D animation projects and related services, deployed IBM Storwize. They reduced their storage cost per TB by more than 80 percent ($5K to less than $1K) resulting from an average 85 percent file size reduction. They also achieved a 93 percent performance improvement in compositing processes.

Learn more about the Snowball VFX case study, or watch one of the IBM Storwize videos to get details about how real-time data compression optimizes storage without compromising on performance.