EditShare Releasing XStream EFS Enterprise Shared Storage System

EditShare LLC continues to push the enterprise shared storage boundaries, adding native OS X and Windows client support, lower latency, improved fault-tolerance and HA options to its recently released XStream EFS shared storage solution.

Based on a distributed, parallel and fault-tolerant file system, XStream EFS is designed to manage large volumes of media, ultra-high data rates and the complexities of collaborative media environments, leveraging key technologies like SwiftRead to mitigate resource contention. XStream EFS integrates with company’s Flow media asset management and Ark nearline and archiving solutions to facilitate an end-to-end media workflow across departments, facilities and remote production locations.

XStream EFS, which began shipping this past April, has been adopted by production companies, post-production houses, television networks, studios and other large content creation entities around the world including Jimmy Lee, I&U TV, Proper TV, ProSieben1 Media AG, Seismic Productions and Westcom.

Nicolas Forest, technical director, Jimmy Lee, comments on the value of investing in EFS for his company’s media production infrastructure: “Jimmy Lee is a progressive company. We are always trying to find new ways to make our productions more efficient and often talk to our vendors about what we would like to see. EditShare is listening and answering our needs with products like XStream EFS.“

Forest adds: “The new XStream EFS architecture brings us many advantages. First, it’s a strong and secure way to store our files. The EFS node system combined with a good backup workflow gives Jimmy Lee the protection that we need in case of disaster. Also, it’s a better way to manage media spaces with the single namespace file system. EFS gives us a complete overview of our media, which allows us to manage the entire storage environment more efficiently.”

XStream EFS also sets a standard when it comes to scalability. Customers like Jimmy Lee can simply add another storage node to increase bandwidth and storage capacity. EFS automatically re-distributes media content across the expanded system without interrupting production tasks.

Debuting at IBC2015 are two important EFS capabilities – native EFS clients and EFS HA software services. Native EFS clients for OS X and Windows replace AFP and SMB clients, providing more bandwidth for reads and writes, lower latency when retrieving media files, and improved fault tolerance for workstation-to-storage communications.

XStream EFS configuration builds upon the existing fault-tolerant design of the media storage nodes, adding advanced HA software services. This design manages multiple EFS metadata controllers and employs advanced cluster communications, resource management and fencing algorithms to eliminate single points of failure. The EFS HA software services are backward compatible with all existing XStream EFS systems.

“The XStream EFS brings a new level of scalability, performance, fault-tolerance and ease of use to the category of enterprise scale-out shared storage,” comments Andy Liebman, founder and CEO, EditShare. “And, as demonstrated with the improvements we are showing at IBC2015, we continue to push the envelope. New native EFS clients for OS X and Windows mean greater bandwidth, lower latency, improved fault tolerance and the ability to bond multiple 1 or 10-GbE connections, which combined with our HA configurations provide total security for clients 24/7. It’s these key features that are driving the EFS sales success, backed up with our dedicated support and services teams.“

XStream EFS ships with Flow production asset management and Ark archiving as part of the configuration. Flow provides key workflow oversight with extensive asset tracking and integrated tools to manage ingest, browse, automation and remote collaboration while Ark provides a platform for nearline and offline archiving of media assets.

Jimmy Lee plans to take advantage of the integrated production asset management capabilities for its transcode and remote workflows.

Forest explains: “Thanks to Flow file ingest capabilities, we will be able to move the transcode process to the EditShare server, freeing our NLEs for client work rather than transcoding footage. The AirFlow component will allow us to share footage more efficiently across our different offices around the world as well as with freelancers working remotely. The ability to search footage in a remote office’s library and download the proxy or the high-resolution file to the local server will save us lot of time and money. We can download only what we require instead of sending a HDD across the ocean with a whole bunch of content that we don’t necessarily need, saving us storage space and shipping costs.“