Image Engine Turns to Avere

Avere Systems, Inc. announced Image Engine Design Inc., a VFX company specializing in visual effects for feature films, has tapped Avere to reduce costs as part of its new storage architecture system.

Since implementing a cluster of Avere FXT 3500 Edge filers, storage costs were reduced for the Vancouver-based company whose involvement in feature films includes Zero Dark Thirty, Battleship, District 9 and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Breaking Dawn.

"Our continued success has required us to do a greater amount of rendering which puts significant pressure on the servers and systems," said Gino Del Rosario, head of technology, Image Engine. "By leveraging Avere, we are able to scale as well as send and route massively large files without any challenges. The Avere architecture separates storage performance from storage capacity allowing us more flexibility to address studio needs in a compartmentalized manner – something our previous solution addressed in a totally different way."

Access to VFX software currently used by Image Engine runs through the Edge filer cluster including all 3D and 2D applications. One of the key features that has proven to be helpful for Image Engine has been the analytics provided by the graphical user interface, which enables the company to monitor performance in order to pinpoint hotspots, IOPS and latency trends.

"Our Avere FXT 3500 Edge filers have proven to be extremely successful in handling the high I/O demanded by VFX applications," said Ron Bianchini, president and CEO, Avere. "But what makes our products stand out from the crowd is the ability to provide extreme performance at a fraction of the cost of traditional NAS solutions.