Etihad Airways Installed GB Labs 10GbE Storage Network

Etihad Airways, a new airlines based in Emirate of Abu Dhabi, UAE, has installed a new 10GbE creative storage network. The GB Labs multi-tier storage solution was installed by the Middle East’s creative media technology distributor, MediaCast, LLC.

The new installation saw the company’s digital assets transferred from multiple external HDDs, thumb drives, local disks, and server-managed storage onto a dedicated, media-optimized NAS solution. The online platform is supported by 256TB nearline, with offline storage provided by GB Labs’ multi-tape LTO unit.

The Visual Communications Department at Etihad generates marketing and advertising content for video and print media. The team uses video, 3D, and graphic editing software together with the latest high-end Mac and PC workstations. Space’s ability to support multiple concurrent users on different platforms means that creative collaboration is now enabled. Space has no requirement for drivers or special adapters, making installation and configuration of the storage and workstations particularly straightforward.

John Roger Antonio, product specialist – pro video, MediaCast, commented: “Its excellent capabilities aside, we chose Space over other solutions due to its ease of use. The interface is very easy. Deploying a big scale solution like this, one has to get it right in the beginning, having many different equipment from different vendors and having them work together could turn out to be difficult. Having all the equipment needed from a single vendor gives you more peace of mind in terms of compatibility. A solution this complicated has to be approached with simplicity, and Space did just that.“

The Space central storage can exchange data with the nearline Echo 36 system. Tools built into the storage enable the automated backup and replication of files for a secure workflow. Assets can also be auto-copied to LTO tape, with Space LTO hosting up-to 4 LTO-6 drives running at full speed.