Pure Storage® (NYSE: PSTG), the IT pioneer that delivers the world's most advanced data storage technology and services, today announced that Cumulus VFX, a premium VFX provider, is leveraging FlashBlade®, Pure Storage's unified fast file and object platform, to manage ever-growing data demands, achieve enhanced security, and minimize the environmental impact of its data center - all supporting the company's growth into a leading global VFX provider.
Customer Challenge:
Cumulus VFX, a premium visual effects (VFX) provider having worked with the likes of Netflix and Foxtel, has grown rapidly since its founding in 2010, gaining a global reputation for quality and reliability in the VFX world.
Visual effects are at the center of modern film production, and managing the sheer volume of information required to produce photorealistic imagery presents a growing challenge to the industry. With the rapid growth of its global client-base, Cumulus VFX faced critical storage capacity challenges, a common problem in the industry as the amount of technology and data applications continue to grow.
To manage heightened demands, and ultimately support its rapid growth, Cumulus VFX turned to Pure Storage and Agile Data Services, a leading supplier of new and used enterprise IT hardware and maintenance solutions, to build a future proof, enterprise-grade, integrated data storage environment based on FlashBlade, Pure Storage's unified fast file and object storage platform.
Customer Impact:
Cumulus VFX now operates its entire production environment on a 7x52 TB FlashBlade – including current projects for Disney, Warner Bros and Bazmark. Benefits include:
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Improved Scalability and Performance: Cumulus VFX reduced the management time of applications from hours to minutes and, in some cases, even seconds with Pure Storage's RapidFile Toolkit and its advanced Linux integration. Pure also supports Cumulus VFX's management of applications like Houdini, Blender, Autodesk Maya, Silhouette FX, 3D Equalizer, and Adobe Photoshop. With improved speed and scalability, Cumulus VFX increased the number of rendering artists from 20 to 60.
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Enhanced Data Security: Due to the nature of Cumulus VFX's business, an outage while executing massive workloads with developers could lead to catastrophe. Pure Storage enables enhanced data security as mission-critical data can be encrypted at rest.
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Reduced Data Center Footprint: Pure Storage's FlashBlade, helping global organizations achieve up to 67% in direct energy savings versus competitors, enabled Cumulus VFX to minimize carbon emissions with higher rack density and improved performance.
Executive Insight:
"As an IT decision maker, there's an obligation to put the most efficient, lowest impact solutions in place across our IT environment. What Pure Storage provides in four to six units would take competitors 96 units. Pure Storage not only ticked all the performance and technical requirements, but it had the best energy footprint. Cumulus VFX's decision to move to Pure Storage FlashBlade was a no-brainer - the company is leaps ahead of the competition." – Nicky Ladas, Chief Technologist, Cumulus VFX.
"The visual effects industry has highly demanding computing requirements with tremendous volumes of unstructured data. Companies like Cumulus VFX are right on the cutting edge of innovation and are doing Australia proud. Pure is delighted to be able to support the great work that they do with our unified fast file and object platform to tame all that unstructured data." - Amy Rushall, Area Vice President, Australia & New Zealand, Pure Storage.
About Pure Storage
Pure Storage is a leading data storage company that simplifies data management for organizations. Its cloud-based solutions empower customers to optimize data utilization while minimizing infrastructure complexity and costs. The company's commitment to providing storage-as-a-service enables customers to quickly and easily adapt to changing data needs, regardless of workload or application. With an industry-leading Net Promoter Score, it is dedicated to customer satisfaction and continually expanding its roster of delighted clients. Additionally, the firm prioritizes sustainability in all aspects of its business, striving to reduce the carbon and energy footprints of data centers worldwide.