Leading European full-service post-production Studio sees major boost in capacity, scalability, and performance with Qumulo

Qumulo, the simple way to manage exabyte-scale data anywhere, today announced that award-winning, Prague-based PFX Studio is working with the company to streamline its full service post-production environment. Working in tandem with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Qumulo is supporting PFX Studio to consolidate multiple locations and workflows onto the Qumulo® File Data Platform.

The mission of PFX is to produce world-class, Post-Production services for film, television, animated content, as well as advertisements. It fulfills this mission by collaborating with leading global companies such as Netflix, HBO Max, Disney, and many others. PFX has grown into one of the most prominent and trusted VFX companies.

The studio is utilizing the Qumulo File Data Platform’s interface for efficient management and real-time operational analytics. Real-time insights are of key importance for the M&E sector. PFX automates key processes using the Qumulo advanced API.

“Everything worked from the start. Qumulo has a great approach, is customer-focused, doesn’t overwhelm with information, and helps us concentrate on what is essential for us,” said Martin Polak, Head of IT, PFX.

Unstructured data has grown exponentially over the past decade, and legacy architectures can no longer keep up with the growing demands to store and manage it. The big data behind PFX’s expanding production portfolio ultimately led to technical issues. By turning to the Qumulo File Data Platform, PFX optimized the management and centralization of its massive file data for all sites.

Top three business benefits

• Major boost in capacity, scalability, and performance. Compared to Hitachi HNAS, Qumulo’s file data platform offers a much simpler, more scalable, and agile solution. Capacity can be expanded on demand. Since PFX opted for an All-NVMe solution with Qumulo, the performance boost was noticeable from the start. PFX is utilizing Qumulo as their active storage, whereas HNAS covers the NAS storage without performance needs, and the backup
• Real-time data visibility and control of data. Effective data management at scale is impossible without real-time data visibility. This is of key importance in the M&E sector. PFX’s central repository managing plug-in was causing a system slow down. They were able to fix the issue with the help of real-time insights. Qumulo’s real-time analytics dashboard and data services were built to control access, monitor usage, prevent bottlenecks, and predict costs using live data
• REST-API to simplify file management and automation. Qumulo's software is enhanced, complemented, and managed by a robust REST API. It helps PFX to retrieve all information with REST calls and supports automation. Information presented in the Analytics tab can be retrieved with REST calls against the API. Most file system operations can also be invoked with the REST API

Qumulo’s software platform and Scale Anywhere™ approach offers customers a simple solution for managing big data within their private data center by bringing together a consumption-based approach, on-premises controls and a modern cloud experience. The Qumulo and HPE solution runs on HPE ProLiant DL325 Gen10 Plus servers for higher performance, industry-leading security, and optimized workload capabilities.

Qumulo is the storage software of choice for in-house and remote creative work teams. From major film studios, streaming networks, gaming and production houses, to animation, post production and VFX companies, Qumulo helps innovators capture, collaborate and distribute creativity for audiences all over the world to enjoy.