The Associated Press Sets the Bar for HD Video with EMC Isilon
The Associated Press Sets the Bar for HD Video with EMC Isilon
News Giant Gains Competitive Advantage by Speeding Access to HD Video
with “No Compromise” Scale-out NAS
SEATTLE – January 18, 2012 – EMC Corporation (http://www.emc.com/)
(NYSE: EMC) today announced that The Associated Press (AP), one of the
world’s largest sources of independent newsgathering, has deployed EMC®
Isilon® scale-out NAS ( http://www.isilon.com/products/index.php ) to
support the Big Data demands of its high-definition video production and
archive workflows. By implementing a single EMC Isilon system and
software, AP has boosted the performance of copy and transfer rates,
streamlined storage management, improved reliability, and lowered its
video archive storage costs, without compromising on any of these
dimensions. Although EMC Isilon was initially deployed specifically for
AP’s video editing workflow, the news organization soon began using
Isilon to archive content as well, realizing significant cost savings.
Customer Benefits:
* Simplified IT management – EMC Isilon allows AP to aggregate all
storage assets into one pool, assign users appropriate levels of
service, and easily perform other storage management tasks. EMC Isilon
is also enabling AP’s transition from four storage tiers to two
(object-level and block-level)
* Accelerated content access – EMC Isilon delivers a 6X video copy
and transfer rate performance increase over AP’s previous tape
archival system
* Increased reliability – EMC Isilon provides 99 per cent reliability
vs. AP’s legacy tape-based system, which failed 10 to 15 per cent of
the time
* Easy scalability – EMC Isilon scale-out architecture and management
software will enable AP to seamlessly and effortlessly scale from about
800 terabytes today to about 2.5 petabytes by mid-2013 and add capacity
and boost performance as needed
* Lower storage and IT costs – AP is realizing savings of up to 45
per cent per terabyte of HD video content with EMC Isilon, compared to
the tape-based archival system it had been using
* Ease of use – IT staff required no training to deploy and configure
EMC Isilon
Customer Challenges and Solution:
As newsgathering organizations continued transitioning to HD video in
2011, AP needed to upgrade its standard-definition video content
offerings. However, the tape-based video archival system AP had deployed
for standard-definition video was not up to the task of handling more
performance-intensive HD content. The tape system had a high
per-terabyte cost, sluggish access and transfer rates, and failed 10 to
15 per cent of the time. In addition, every few years tape technology
changes, requiring organizations to convert existing tapes to make them
compatible with the latest standards.
Having previously implemented Isilon for its video editing workflow, AP
expanded its use of Isilon into video archiving as part of a complete
video infrastructure revamp to support the HD video upgrade, from
camcorders to servers to storage. AP deployed EMC Isilon NL-Series
(http://www.isilon.com/nl-series) and X-Series
(http://www.isilon.com/x-series)platform nodes in its New Jersey and
London data centres to support its video production and archival system.
The Isilon OneFS® (http://www.isilon.com/onefs-operating-system)
operating system, and SmartPools (http://www.isilon.com/smartpools) and
SmartConnect (http://www.isilon.com/smartconnect) software enable AP to
aggregate all storage assets into one pool, assign appropriate levels of
service to individual users, and easily perform other storage management
tasks. EMC Isilon enabled AP to transition from four storage tiers to
two (object-level and block-level), and to unify multiple content
archives in one infrastructure, further simplifying IT management and
reducing storage costs.
Customer Quote:
Don Merrick, Storage and Backup Services Manager, Associated P
ress
“As part of its multimillion-dollar upgrade, the AP is transforming
its video business by switching its entire newsgathering, production and
distribution systems to HD, forming the largest rollout of HD by any
news agency globally. As part of a complete production environment
transformation, we deployed EMC Isilon to take our video storage
capabilities into the next generation. Now we don’t have to compromise
capacity for performance – we can grow both at the same time. With EMC
Isilon we’ve made content access much faster for our clients, and
we’re gaining a competitive advantage over other content
providers.”
EMC Quote:
Sam Grocott, Vice President of Marketing, EMC Isilon
“Media organizations around the world depend on the Associated Press
for timely content, whether it’s video, still images, or news
articles. Every second counts in the newsgathering process, and EMC
Isilon is helping AP deliver the fastest possible video content access
to its customers while also helping AP reduce storage costs and simplify
IT management.”
About Isilon
Isilon, a division of EMC, is the global leader in scale-out NAS. We
deliver powerful yet simple solutions for enterprises that want to
manage their data, not their storage. Isilon’s products are simple to
install, manage and scale, at any size. And, unlike traditional
enterprise storage, Isilon stays simple no matter how much storage is
added, how much performance is required or how business needs change in
the future. We're challenging enterprises to think differently about
their storage, because when they do, they'll recognize there’s a
better, simpler way. Learn what we mean at http://www.isilon.com.
About EMC
EMC Corporation is a global leader in enabling businesses and service
providers to transform their operations and deliver IT as a service.
Fundamental to this transformation is cloud computing. Through
innovative products and services, EMC accelerates the journey to cloud
computing, helping IT departments to store, manage, protect and analyze
their most valuable asset – information – in a more agile, trusted
and cost-efficient way. Additional information about EMC can be found at
www.EMC.com.
EMC Canada (www.EMC2.ca), headquartered in Toronto with nine offices
from coast to coast, is a wholly owned subsidiary of EMC Corporation.
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For more information contact:
Mike Martin/Michelle Chang
StrategicAmpersand
416-961-5595
mike@stratamp.com
michelle@stratamp.com