NetApp StorageGRID Powers Australian ASE Cloud for Video Processing, MAM and Archiving

ASE IT announced that it is offering a no-access-fee cloud-storage and archiving service for media and entertainment companies.

The service is designed to work with a variety of cloud-based production workflow, delivery workflow, asset management, storage, and backup/archiving applications.

“Media companies today deal with a massive amount of data, and as that data grows, so do the storage and maintenance costs. At the same time, these companies need more tightly integrated real-time media-workflow support than most cloud service providers are currently offering,” said Andrew Sjoquist, CEO, ASE. “That’s why we’ve built a cloud-storage architecture that lets us offer cloud storage on a cost-per-gigabyte basis with no charge for retrieval. In this way, media companies can deploy multiple clouds as needed for their workflows and use any of those tools against the data that we hold for them.“

This versatility allows each company to use whichever application works best for any given situation knowing that it will be compatible with company’s cloud-storage architecture. Furthermore, unlike with other cloud-storage services, clients pay only for the storage they use, not for accessing or retrieving the data. This cost structure results in cost savings for media companies, which trade in massive files sizes and high-bandwidth workflows.

Built on NetApp, Inc.‘s StorageGRID Webscale object storage system, firm’s cloud-storage service takes advantage of the object storage concept and NetApp’s Data Fabric.

Unlike file systems, object stores group files and their metadata into objects that can be coherently accessed by different MAM systems, file-delivery systems, and other production and distribution applications. Object stores are designed to support multiple storage nodes across internet-connected sites, ensuring there is a unified data fabric that connects clouds and on-premises architectures. Allowing customers to push data in and out of the company’s cloud without penalty gives them more choice in terms of where they want to store their data – on premises, in the cloud, offline, or a hybrid of those – and what services they want to use to access it.

A related benefit of the company’s cloud-storage service is lifecycle management, meaning that the firm’s service manages the data from content creation through archiving. Based on user-defined rules, the firm’s service uses StorageGRID Webscale’s intelligent policy engine to move content to tape or to other S3 cloud targets or simply delete it automatically as the content ages. This capability eliminates the need to move or delete thousands or millions of files manually, and it ensures each piece of data is stored in the most economical part of the storage infrastructure based on its value.

The cost-per-gigabyte, no-retrieval-fee service is available to cloud-based application providers who wish to integrate their workflows with ASE storage for end users in the media and entertainment space. Those providers can pass the cost benefit on to the broadcasters, post houses, aggregators, and other media companies they serve.

Several company’s customers have tested the firm service with cloud-based applications such as Silver Trak Media Room, Avid ISIS, Encoding.com, and Aspera FASP, and all have begun offering it to their customers.

“We chose to integrate ASE with Media Room because Media and Entertainment clients have very specific concerns about data integrity and access. ASE’s StorGrid provides a level of confidence and performance benefits at a price point that is suitable for retrieving and archiving large volumes of media. Silver Trak now has a platform that allows us to further extend the value of storage objects with a sophisticated policy management engine,” said Christian Christiansen, MD, Silver Trak.

“We designed StorageGRID Webscale to help companies reduce the complexity of their data repositories, optimize their workflows, and minimize the cost of managing their data from cradle to grave,” said Jason Danielson, media and entertainment solutions, NetApp. “ASE has been a longstanding NetApp customer across a wide range of our products. Its focus on building real-media workflows is making the cloud more than simply a computing or storage platform.“

Video: ASE Builds Innovative Cloud Services on NetApp