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Storage - NAS

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Network Attached Storage (NAS) Solutions

NAS Overview *



		BlueArc Titan NAS

As the demands of applications and network users increase, many organisations are recognising the benefits of a networked attached storage (NAS) solution. Traditional file servers may be too small and storage area networks (SANs) can be too expensive and complex, but a NAS solution fills the gap by providing powerful file serving capability, high storage capacity and a growing suite of enterprise-class features.

In its simplest form, NAS is a disk-based storage system with an IP network interface for serving files on an IP network. This dedicated file serving offers vastly greater storage capacity than traditional file servers that hold just a few disks. NAS is also noted for superior connectivity and storage performance. A NAS system is simple to deploy, requiring little more than a power source and an IP network connection for basic operation. A proprietary operating system is frequently included to enhance performance and ensure security. NAS is recognised for three principal benefits: consolidation, deployment simplicity and ease of management.

* Information in this overview has been sourced from the "Making the Move to Network Attached Storage" whitepaper. Download the full whitepaper by clicking here.

Digistor NAS Offerings

Digistor offers Proware's proNAS range and BlueArc's scalable, high performance network storage systems. proNAS is a fully featured NAS for post production. BlueArc provides a family of high-end enterprise-class products for the highest levels of performance and scalability.

Proware proNAS

The ProNas range is, as the name suggests, a range of Professional NAS devices. Digistor reviewed a number of NAS products in the market and selected ProNas as being “best of breed” and ideally suited to the post production market.

Although relatively unknown, ProNas is the ideal storage device to centralize the storage of your media assets. Don’t confuse a NAS device with a SAN such as XSAN. SAN’s are ideal for the real-time access to video and audio files whereas a NAS device is ideal for all the other files you have on your network such as graphics files, sound effects, 2D & 3D assets, word/pdf files, etc. Storing these sorts of files on your expensive SAN is not the way to go. They will slow down your SAN and managing user access to them is more difficult. This is where you need a NAS device such as ProNas. ProNas can therefore be used regardless of whether you have a SAN or not.

ProNas offers incredible reliability plus all the high end features you’ll ever need at a very modest price point. Without going into great technical detail, here are the main bullet points for ProNas and why it should be considered as your primary Post Production storage device:

· High Capacity - up to 16TB in the one rack-mount NAS device
· High Speed – trunking of multiple GE ports, and/or 10GE connectivity, provides blistering speed
· High Reliability – supports RAID levels 0, 0+1, 1, 3, 5 and 6
· Linux-based embedded system for 24x7 operation
· Easy to install and manage
· Integrates with active directory if required or run standalone
· Support agreements available from Digistor if required
· Includes snapshot and replication and other more advanced features
· Data backup functionality with support for tape drives
· Comprehensive logging and e-mail notification support

BlueArc

BlueArc's goal is to provide customers the most scalable network storage solution alongside the best total cost of ownership with superior return on investment. BlueArc's SiliconServer family offers the most scalable, highest performing network storage systems in the world. BlueArc customers benefit from lower total cost of ownership through improved productivity and efficiency derived from high data throughput, storage consolidation and the reduction of costs through simplified management.

BlueArc in Entertainment and CGI

Creativity and talent drive great visual results. Lightning fast storage is the accelerator. In CGI development, quality and speed are vital. BlueArc lets artists create more revisions and dramatically speeds render farm output – fueling extraordinary productions on schedule while reducing costs.

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BlueArc at Weta Digital

Academy Award winning visual effects studio, Weta Digital Ltd, has implemented BlueArc's Titan 2000 storage system for use in the intensive process of visual effects development.

"Titan 2000 delivered consistent top-line performance during testing, and gives us the capacity we need as films increase in complexity and higher resolutions become the standard," said Milton Ngan, CTO, of Weta Digital.

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BlueArc at Photon VFX

Photon VFX has deployed a Titan 2000 network storage system, aimed to help the Queensland, Australia-based studio dramatically accelerate rendering output and boost staff productivity. Photon VFX's Titan system, configured as a single large volume with approximately 10 terabytes of storage, is shared both by production artists and render nodes, and supports artist access, whether they use Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh or Linux operating systems. Support for integrated tiered storage provides the company with the flexibility to create a cost-effective network that combines high performance disk drives for projects and shots in progress, and high capacity storage for archival files.

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