CASE STUDY entertainment industry and the increasing demands of content , means that DreamWorks must actively engage in innovation .
For every one of DreamWorks ’ CG films produced in the last 20 years , NetApp solutions have played an integral role in supporting the studio ’ s data management strategy .
From a solid onpremises foundation to a rapidly evolving hybrid cloud , NetApp provides the studio with innovative technology to help manage the massive amount of data generated by production , while balancing data storage performance , flexibility and cost .
Digital storage and data management are vital to DreamWorks ’ production workflow .
Hundreds of artists at a time work on each feature film in production . Billions of files and petabytes of data must be efficiently managed and accessible across various data locations , including on premises , private cloud and public cloud .
Availability of data is crucial to keep production on schedule and to enable artists to respond quickly to creative direction and business demands .
NetApp technology at DreamWorks includes a myriad of hybrid cloud , storage , data and virtualization solutions that streamline the management of applications and data .
By providing hybrid solutions that enable artists and engineers to access , protect and store critical data , NetApp is accelerating the studio ’ s focus on what matters most – creativity .
Skottie Miller , Technology Fellow for Systems Architecture at DreamWorks , said : “ NetApp ONTAP being ‘ always-on ’ with our data was a critical business multiplier – it was ahead of the curve .
“ When we found ourselves wanting to move into the hybrid cloud , again NetApp was ahead of the curve – they had already started investing in cloud enablement solutions .”
The integration of a hybrid cloud environment is enabling DreamWorks to scale their infrastructure without having to build new data centers . The studio is currently in the process of implementing several new NetApp cloud offerings in the process , including Cloud Data Services , Astra and Azure NetApp Files . To fill out its data management environment , DreamWorks also relies on FlexCache to accelerate their data and StorageGRID for tiering data , short term archiving and long-term asset preservation .
“ Hybrid cloud will be the best option when we want to achieve a new business ambition – or take advantage of an opportunity – without significantly changing pipelines or workflows ,” said Kate Swanborg , Senior VP of Technology Communications and Strategic Alliances , DreamWorks
As DreamWorks continues to respond to and engage with the ever-changing CG animation landscape , the ability to manage data quickly and efficiently continues to be mission critical .
“ We have identified and started work on a robust hybrid cloud roadmap that integrates into the DreamWorks business ,” said Swanborg .
“ As that roadmap comes to full fruition , a truly robust , always-on hybrid cloud infrastructure allows us to produce any piece of content that DreamWorks needs , in the most agile way possible .” p
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