STORAGE

Silicon Graphics announced today that it is offering the first truly heterogeneous Storage Area Network (SAN) that fully supports Mac OS X: SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS(TM). Mac OS X is used extensively in leading film studios, post production and visual effects houses, broadcast stations and digital publishing facilities. But until now these Mac clients were not able to take full advantage of the benefits of a shared filesystem approach to SANs -- saving time and storage capacity by not having to copy files and move data. This meant that media studios and facilities could not include Macs in the way most of the industry works, or wants to work -- using a shared-file collaborative workflow between multiple operating system clients. Previously, large visual effects files created on Mac OS X, using highly popular software such as Final Cut Pro(R), Shake(R), Discreet(R) combustion(R) and Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) and After Effects(R) had to be moved around a media facility, taking up to twice as much time as sharing the files using CXFS SAN. SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS, used worldwide, currently allows instant, shared access to files -- with no file copying necessary -- between SGI(R) IRIX(R), Windows NT(R), Windows(R) XP and Windows(R) 2000, Linux(R) 32-bit and 64-bit, Solaris(TM) and other UNIX(R) operating systems. The company will begin delivery of SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS with Mac OS X support in early March. With Apple's recent introduction of the fast and extremely powerful Power Mac(R) G5, 39% of visual effects and dynamic media studios and 26% of broadcast stations and cable systems in the United States now use Mac as their primary system for production/editing workstations, according to TrendWatch Fast Facts, published by TrendWatch, Inc. -- up 11% and 8% respectively from only one year ago. SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS will support the growing number of Power Mac(R) G4 and G5 single- or dual-processor systems. "Our media customers told us what they needed and SGI listened," said Gabriel Broner, senior vice president and general manager, Storage and Software Group, SGI. "We are now delivering a powerful and unique infrastructure that will result in higher productivity and substantial cost-savings for the many media facilities that want to include Mac OS X in their multiple-OS workflow." "Panther set a new gold standard for operating systems delivering breakthrough performance, rock solid reliability and Apple's legendary ease of use making it the platform of choice for the media industry," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "SGI CXFS SAN allows film and video facilities to integrate popular applications running on Mac OS X as part of their workflow." SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS is in production at hundreds of sites including major film and visual effects studios such as Hollywood giant Pacific Title & Art Studio for Digital Intermediates, San Francisco/Los Angeles' The Orphanage and media powerhouse Ascent Media, which exemplifies the need for the Mac OS X client. "The vision and the implementation of transitioning our facility to a digital, fully collaborative workflow will be completed by embracing the last remaining operating system that hasn't been able to fully participate: Mac OS X," said Andy Tran, Chief Technical Officer, Pacific Title & Art Studio. "Instead of wasting time moving data around, our move to an SGI CXFS SAN shared filesystem has had a huge impact on us on a day-to-day basis. Now that SGI is adding a Mac OS X client, the last piece of the puzzle is in place. Everyone will be included and our artists can choose the applications that are important to us and to our customers. They're going to love it." The Orphanage with 120 artists creating complex visual effects for a variety of blockbuster films and commercial spots eagerly anticipates the Mac OS X client. "While our visual effects department is running Windows, our editorial department is based on Mac OS X. With the OS X client, our editorial department can bolt straight in to the same file system and each of their workstations can become clients to the same file system when we're editing. This means they should be able to edit SD/HD material from the same file system that we're dealing with," said Nicholas McDowell, IT director, The Orphanage. "Our SGI CXFS shared filesystem has allowed us to move more of our workflow to file-based and networked architectures, with the ability to have only one copy of our content, and to share access to it from IRIX, Windows, and Linux hosts as though it were on local storage-but the last remaining major player has been noticeably absent," said Phil Mendelson, Senior Vice President of Engineering, Ascent Media Creative Services. "Extending the benefits of the SGI CXFS SAN to the Macintosh platform completes the system because we can now choose to use the Mac OS X applications our artists need, accessing only one shared filesystem with no local copy needed." An added plus for creative media studios is that, via SGI CXFS, Mac OS X workstations can directly share files with Discreet systems and software. Discreet, a long-time SGI partner and market-leader in visual effects, announced its open access initiative for future versions of its inferno(R), flame(R), flint(R), fire(R), smoke(R), lustre(TM), combustion and 3ds max(R) products, enabling them to read and write directly to the SGI CXFS shared filesystem. This will allow film mastering and video production facilities to improve their productivity, manage multiple jobs simultaneously, share content between digital content creation seats on a variety of operating systems, and most importantly, optimize the time of their creative talent. "SGI customers demanded a comprehensive, collaborative environment that included all the best-of-breed applications running on IRIX, Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. At the time they told us what they needed, SGI could network IRIX, Solaris, Windows NT and Windows 2000. In the last year we have delivered Linux 32-bit, Linux 64-bit, Windows XP and now, Mac OS X clients," added Broner. "The marketplace told us what they had to have in order for SGI InfiniteStorage systems to be a 'must-have,' and now with Mac OS X support, we literally have the missing link. SGI expects a tremendous response to our all-OS-inclusive SAN, especially in media and effects studios, but also -- because QuarkXpress is the de facto software in advertising agencies and print media -- we anticipate even more interest in SGI InfiniteStorage solutions from those markets as well. We invite everyone with Mac OS X to come play in our SAN box." SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS Created for the world's most data-intensive environments, InfiniteStorage solutions uniquely enable customers to: transparently share data anywhere; scale data as business requirements grow; manage the data lifecycle without limiting access; and accelerate workflows for real return on investment. SGI InfiniteStorage Shared Filesystem CXFS provides no-compromise data sharing within a SAN, enhancing workflow and reducing costs in data-intensive environments by eliminating file duplication and the time it takes to move large files over the network. A SAN provides direct, high-speed physical connections between multiple hosts and disk storage. CXFS provides the software infrastructure to allow simultaneous shared access to that storage -- all systems have direct access to all data and are no longer bottlenecked by slow, congested networks or overloaded file servers. CXFS combines unparalleled 64-bit scalability and performance with SAN technology, enabling computer systems to efficiently share data and do more work in less time. Currently, IRIX, Solaris(TM) 8, Solaris(TM) 9, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Red Hat(R) 7.3 and Red Hat(R) 8.0 for 32-bit Linux, IBM(R) AIX(R) 5L, and 64-bit Linux for SGI(R) Altix(R) are supported, with Mac OS X Jaguar support shipping by early March, Panther support by early June and more platforms to follow. SGI InfiniteStorage solutions have proven valuable where the growth of data is exceeding boundaries of conventional storage technology. Among the company's achievements in managing data management challenges are supporting a 70TB single file system and more than a petabyte of data managed on a single site, delivering 12GB of I/O to a single system and accomplishing a 10TB/hour record backup and 7.9TB/hour restore. Availability and Support SGI InfiniteStorage solutions are available directly from SGI or through the SGI Solution Providers worldwide. Complementing InfiniteStorage are SGI Technology Solutions, that custom design, deliver and support storage solutions, and SGI Managed Services that provides comprehensive installation and configuration services to provide immediate return on storage investment. SGI's SAN Review board, comprised of the company's top storage experts, provides customers and partners an unparalleled depth of expertise in real world, high-performance SAN design and implementation.