Australian Cutting Edge Powers VFX Projects With Oracle ZFS Storage

Cutting Edge, an Australia’s artist driven VFX and post production studios has purchased multiple Oracle ZFS Storage systems and Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 modular tape libraries from Magna Systems and Engineering to support visual effects (VFX), editorial and rendering projects on a variety of long-form TV and feature length movie projects in its Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne studios.

Owner and director, Cutting Edge Michael Burton, explained: “We had a need to upgrade our current file serving system to handle a greater volume of projects and data that would also optimize our workflows, so we began a search for the best options. When we assessed what was available it became clear that the Oracle ZFS Storage offered by Oracle partner Magna Systems and Engineering was by far the best solution for our needs.“

Cutting Edge has one of the most inspiring creative teams in the country, a mix of talents that are closely matched to the demands of VFX and post production. To continue to deliver amazing work, it needs access not only to great people, but also to the best systems and equipment.

Dan Mons, head of IT R&D, explained: “It’s clear that Oracle is a growing force in the storage market mainly due to the superior performance of its products and how cost effective they are. After initial discussions with the team at Magna Systems and Engineering we tested and evaluated the Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance at our studios. Magna, a Gold level member of Oracle Partner Network (OPN), also brought in a team of technical experts from Oracle to help with any in-depth questions. I must say we were particularly impressed with the ZFS Storage Appliance’s performance and the fact that they have excellent analytics about the file systems embedded into their core. This means if there are any issues, they can be quickly and easily identified with no slow down or loss of performance.“

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance combines a DRAM-centric architecture and multi-threaded symmetric multiprocessing storage OS for faster streaming of media files. It enables studios to produce movies in multiple formats (2K, 4K, 8K) and bring them to market faster. It also provides scalable performance for VFX generation, handling millions of DPX files and delivering content to interactive digital artists during peak editing periods.

To complement the Oracle ZS Series systems Cutting Edge also purchased Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 modular tape libraries, two for system backups and one for both archive and backup. With scalability from 30 to 300 cartridge slots, the SL150 enables capacity to reach 750TB. Easy to install expansion modules offer growth to accommodate growing production and post-production environments.

Michael Burton concluded: “When all was said and done the combination of Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance and Oracle’s StorageTek SL150 was the best the market could offer. We found Magna Systems’ sales, service and support to be excellent and the combination of their expertise coupled with that of Oracle’s to be a formidable offering.“