SYSTEMS

CIS Hollywood and FotoKem Among Post-Production Studios Using Isilon's New OneFS 5.0 and Accelerator-x to Power Leading-Edge Visual Effects Operations: Isilon Systems today announced that CIS Hollywood and FotoKem are among leading post-production studios using Isilon's latest clustered storage systems, including OneFS 5.0 operating system software and the Accelerator-x performance acceleration product, to power a wide range of post-production workflows -- from digital imaging and film processing, to 2D composition and 3D animation. Isilon's clustered storage systems create a single, high-performance, highly scalable, shared pool of storage to unify large and rapidly growing stores of digital content, accelerating data-intensive visual effects operations while reducing IT cost and complexity. Isilon IQ delivers up to 20 Gigabytes per second of performance and 2.3 Petabytes of capacity in a single file system and single volume, while the Accelerator-x delivers 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 GbE) connectivity for next-generation, high-performance networking. "At CIS Hollywood, we provide a complete slate of post-production capabilities while still maintaining a truly client-centric environment," said Matt Ashton, CTO, CIS Hollywood. "Therefore, our business is innately focused on our clients' projects, leaving no time to worry about managing our storage, or money to pay for more storage than we actually need. With Isilon IQ, we can simply pay as we grow, freeing us from costly storage overhead, while the performance of its latest systems is night and day with its previous generation, enabling us to accomplish more work in less time and better serve our clients." CIS Hollywood, the visual effects studio for such major motion pictures as Beverly Hills Chihuahua, Leatherheads and Tropic Thunder, is using Isilon clustered storage to help power its full range of services -- from 2D composites and animation to complex 3D tracking and CGI -- while reducing IT cost and complexity. As continued demand for CIS Hollywood's leading-edge visual effects escalated data growth, its traditional SAN and NAS storage systems were incapable of cost-effectively scaling to meet CIS Hollywood's needs. By deploying Isilon IQ, CIS has been able to significantly reduce IT overhead while growing its storage in step with its data growth, reducing management time and increasing workflow efficiency. Additionally, with the increased performance of Isilon's new OneFS 5.0 and Accelerator-x, CIS Hollywood has been able to move larger productions onto the Isilon system, further accelerating its workflow and increasing its capacity for taking on new projects. "FotoKem is a full-service post-production facility, powering the intense digital post-production demands of today's leading motion pictures. Our operations necessitate a storage solution with unmatched performance, reliability and ease of use to ensure we meet our deadlines with the highest quality work," said Bill Schultz, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Digital Film Services, FotoKem. "Isilon's latest systems deliver SAN-like speeds with NAS-like price-performance and ease of use. Isilon IQ doubles our project capacity and enables us to accelerate our workflow in ways that were impossible with traditional storage." FotoKem was co-recipient of two IBC Innovation Awards for post-production work on Walt Disney Pictures' Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert stereo3D movie. Isilon IQ is FotoKem's primary storage platform, powering its entire range of leading-edge digital intermediate operations, including digital intermediates, visual effects, dust busting, image processing, film recording and film scanning. Using Isilon IQ with Accelerator-x, FotoKem is able to provide its most performance-intensive applications with 10 GbE connectivity, while moving lower performance applications to the 1 GbE connections available on standard Isilon X-Series nodes, ensuring each application receives exactly the performance necessary to speed time-to-completion. With Isilon clustered storage, FotoKem has accelerated its workflow while reducing IT cost and complexity, enabling the post-production studio to complete more projects in less time and advance its business. Powered by OneFS, Isilon IQ X-Series delivers the industry's first single file system that unifies and provides instant and ubiquitous access to the rapidly growing stores of file-based data, setting the standard for scale out file storage. OneFS is a unified operating system software layer that powers all of Isilon's award-winning IQ family of clustered storage systems including the Isilon IQ 1920, 3000, 6000, 9000, 12000, Accelerator-x, and EX 6000, 9000 and 12000. Isilon also provides a robust suite of software applications including SnapshotIQ, SmartConnect, SmartQuotas, and SyncIQ that leverage OneFS and clustered storage, providing the highest levels of data protection and automated data management.