Pure Storage enables Cumulus VFX to manage and secure data

Storage technology vendor Pure Storage announced that visual effects provider Cumulus VFX is leveraging Pure Storage’s storage platform FlashBlade for data management and enhanced security, while minimising the environmental impact of its data centre.

Due to Cumulus VFX’s rapid growth since its founding in 2010, the company has increasing data demands and a significant client-base.

Cumulus VFX said it faced critical storage capacity challenges which is why it turned to Pure Storage's FlashBlade platform.

It now operates its entire production environment on a 7x52 TB FlashBlade, which includes current projects for Disney, Warner Bros and Bazmark.

One benefit for Cumulus VFX is the improved scalability and performance that Pure Storage’s platform provides.

With Pure Storage’s RapidFile Toolkit and its Linux integration, Cumulus VFX was able to reduce the management time of applications from hours to minutes or seconds.

Pure also supports Cumulus VFX’s management of applications which includes Houdini, Blender, Autodesk Maya, Silhouette FX, 3D Equalizer, and Adobe Photoshop.

Pure Storage said the “improved speed and scalability” that it provided Cumulus VFX, that the company was able to increase the number of rendering artists from 20 to 60

Another key benefit for Cumulus VFX is the enhanced data security that Pure Storage’s platform provides.

Pure Storage enables enhanced data security as “mission-critical” data can be encrypted at rest, reducing cyber risks.

FlashBlade has helped Cumulus VFX to reduce its data centre footprint, minimising its carbon emissions with higher rack density and improved performance.

“As an IT decision maker, there’s an obligation to put the most efficient, lowest impact solutions in place across our IT environment,” Cumulus VFX chief technologist Nicky Ladas said.

“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.”

Pure Storage ANZ vice president Amy Rushall said, “The visual effects industry has highly demanding computing requirements with tremendous volumes of unstructured data.”