Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/585189
STORAGE UPDATE www.postmagazine.com 44 POST OCTOBER 2015 PROMAX TARGETS AVID WORKFLOWS SANTA ANA, CA — ProMax Systems (www.promax.com) introduced the new Platform Online 1000 workflow server at the recent IBC show in Amsterdam. The high-performance, shared-storage system offers built-in, native Avid Project Sharing (Bin Locking) capabilities, along with transcoding, rendering and asset management features. ProMax Platform Online 1000 brings studios the speed, reliability and expandability of enterprise storage at an affordable price. The company is positioning the Platform 1000 as an entry point into its highest server class product line, and believes it competes directly with Avid's ISIS 1000. The new 4.6 software update provides Avid Project Sharing and provides performance that is said to exceed the ISIS 1000 in terms of streaming speeds, storage capacity, scalability, connectivity and price. With a single-node capacity up to 96TBs, the Platform Online 1000 has the ability to expand to multiple Petabytes with additional nodes. The 1000 also boasts two 5.25-inch drive bays that can be filled with LTO drives, drive swaps, card readers or a 4TB SSD RAID. Platform Online 1000 is now shipping, with an MSRP starting at $17,995 for the 32TB version. ATTO ADDRESSES THROUGHPUT NEEDS OF 4K/8K EDITING AMHERST, NY — ATTO Technology (www.attotech.com) showcased its portfolio of connectivity solutions at the 2015 IBC show last month. IBC marked the official launch of ATTO's FastFrame 40GbE Network Interface Cards. FastFrame 40GbE NICs combine near-line speed throughput with best-in-class laten- cy to enable high-performance ap- plications, such as uncompressed 4K and 8K video editing. ATTO also released Xtend SAN V.4.0 at IBC. Xtend SAN V.4.0 brings a major refresh to the product, ensuring optimal per- formance of block-based iSCSI transfers in OS X environments. In a live demonstration, ATTO used a FastFrame 40GbE NIC in a Dell Precision T7910 workstation to stream uncompressed 4K footage from a Facilis TerraBlock running DaVinci Resolve. When used in combination with ATTO's FastFrame 10GbE offering, 40GbE NICs provide a comprehensive solution to integrate production workflow with a facility's IT infrastructure. 5 TIPS FOR BETTER DATA STORAGE EFFICIENCY In a quest for improved efficiency, higher performance and maximized storage utility, organizations operating in increas- ingly demanding IT environments continue to deploy expensive proprietary products or ineffective heterogeneous hardware/ software solutions to gain the necessary IOPs and/or capacity required for their particular compute needs. Companies can better maximize their storage investment while outperforming alternative solutions by following these five tips: 1 - Ditch the "legacy" equipment: Too often companies look to save money by repurposing their existing data center hard- ware using software-defined solutions that are then supposed to maximize performance and capacity lacking in their current infrastructure. The problem is that while software solutions look to optimize how data flows through any particular hardware architecture, the results will be less than if the hardware itself is optimized to pro- vide the highest speeds and peak performance, without the reflections, through- put bottlenecks and signal loss inherent in underperforming legacy solutions. 2 - Avoid vendor lock-in: Purpose-built solutions in which both hardware and software are designed by a single company to work in perfect harmony can be an ideal solution for organizations needing the performance often lacking in heterogeneous environments. However, the costs of such solutions are often prohibitive. Implementing an open storage platform allows customers to inte- grate hardware in any configuration, with the software solution of their choice to maximize flexibility while minimizing costs. 3 - Hardware should complement software: Whether using open-source software or proprietary software-defined storage solutions, a company's use case should determine which protocol and "flavor" of storage they implement. Whether they need DAS, NAS, SAN or other protocols, a mechanically flawless hardware architecture that overcomes software incompatibilities is a necessity to satisfy the ruthless IO requirements of cloud storage, big data analytics, HPC, enterprises and remote sites. 4 - Mitigate the "either/or" dilemma: By implementing a hardware solution that increases the storage density of both SSD and SAS/SATA storage solutions, companies can gain the benefits of both traditional Tier 1 and Tier 2 storage in a flexible, customizable and fully scalable single storage solution. Through the combination of storage and compute resources in a single storage solution, organizations can cut data center space requirements, while increasing perfor- mance at a lower TCO compared to disparate systems. 5 - Implement hardware with top-of-the-line components: State-of-the-art software solutions need state-of-the-art stor- age servers built to the highest specifications for speed, perfor- mance and reliability. By using top-of-the-line components from audited suppliers rather than cheaper mass-produced parts to omit cross talk, packet loss and power jitter, companies can assure themselves maximum through- put and reliability not available in standard, off-the-shelf hardware products. Choosing a storage solution is a business-critical decision for many organi- zations faced with the capacity and performance needs of today's data-hun- gry environments. Storage incumbents continue to offer the same hardware configurations regardless of improvements in media or software available, claiming that their equipment is capable of handling the changes. The reality is that only by implementing a high-performance storage server system designed to maximize the utility of software solutions can organizations truly meet the demanding storage needs of their particular industry. Designed without the inherent physical bottlenecks or software incompatibili- ties of other storage products, SavageStor is an all-in-hardware (server, network- ing and storage) solution that satisfies the ruthless capacity and IO requirements of cloud storage, big data analytics, HPC, enterprise and ROBO environments. — Phillip Roberto, CEO, Savage IO, Fairport, NY | www.savageio.com