DreamWorks Is Data-Driven with NetApp
October 23, 2018
NetApp Provides Data Fabric to Support DreamWorks’ Unlimited
Imagination; DreamWorks to Keynote at NetApp Insight 2018
LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–NetApp
(NASDAQ: NTAP), the data authority for hybrid cloud, today announced it
has partnered with DreamWorks to develop and oversee the studio’s
customized Data Fabric approach, designed to enable expanded
capabilities and future growth for the Glendale-based leader in family
entertainment.
Through the partnership, NetApp’s engineers are working closely with
DreamWorks’ IT team to optimize the Data Fabric and meet the studio’s
unique, rapidly expanding data storage and management needs. The
incredibly detailed and immersive graphics that DreamWorks artists
create represent enormous volumes of data and add the challenge of
complexity to the DreamWorks IT environment. The NetApp® and
DreamWorks partnership represents an innovative approach to this
challenge, focused on predictive analytics and other new capabilities to
power real-time access to large datasets. The approach also simplifies
the overall integration and orchestration of data across a hybrid IT
infrastructure.
“NetApp is the leader in hybrid cloud data services,” said Kate
Swanborg, senior vice president of Technology Communications and
Strategic Alliances at DreamWorks. “Having used NetApp solutions on all
of our CG animated feature films, DreamWorks trusts NetApp to deliver
the data services our filmmakers rely on to innovate today and tomorrow,
as they unleash creativity and dream new realities.”
DreamWorks is a rapidly expanding digital business, and the amount of
data to which its teams must have immediate and widespread access is
staggering. An average animated feature film requires hundreds of
artists and engineers, over 600 terabytes of data, more than 100 million
compute hours, and half a billion digital files. And, as the studio
grows its business and brings its world-class digital assets to new
channels, its data requirements continue to expand exponentially.
“DreamWorks’ world-class filmmakers, storytellers, and artists are all
focused on creating experiences of incredibly high quality, like the
studio’s next film, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,
which features over 60,000 distinct dragons on camera at one time,” said
Jeff Wike, chief technology officer of DreamWorks. “While we’ve
traditionally specialized in animated films and television series,
increasingly our creators are also developing content for theme parks,
live entertainment, and emerging platforms like AR and VR. This
data-driven transformation of our business requires that we pursue
greater efficiencies for sharing workflows across multiple platforms and
preserving assets for future content extensions.”
As DreamWorks and NetApp continue to work together on solutions that
NetApp will eventually roll out more widely to its customers, the teams
are finding innovative ways to:
-
Empower production workflows. Optimize and take advantage of a
massive amount of content-creation data across multiple, simultaneous
productions. -
Maximize creative development. Ensure on-demand availability of
filmmaking data for artists’ creation, iterations, and reviews. -
Streamline operations. Simplify and automate infrastructure
architectures to maximize production uptime.
“Ultimately, it is data that is the foundation for DreamWorks to create
immersive experiences within worlds we could not otherwise possibly
imagine,” said Scott Dawkins, NetApp chief technology officer of Storage
Systems and Software. “As Jeff mentioned, DreamWorks’ next film, How
to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, has a level of graphical
innovation that places unprecedented demands on the performance, speed,
accessibility, and stability of data in the IT environment. NetApp’s
Data Fabric, combined with DreamWorks’ IT team’s own expertise, is
central to building the infrastructure and data services necessary to
make on-demand, real-time content creation a reality for their artists,
who expect to work at the speed of their imagination.”
DreamWorks will give the keynote address at NetApp Insight™
2018 and share more details about how it has transformed its business
with data and what it means to be data-driven.
To learn more, watch this video https://datavisionary.netapp.com/#featured_customer
About NetApp
NetApp is the data authority for hybrid cloud. We provide a full range
of hybrid cloud data services that simplify management of applications
and data across cloud and on-premises environments to accelerate digital
transformation. Together with our partners, we empower global
organizations to unleash the full potential of their data to expand
customer touchpoints, foster greater innovation, and optimize their
operations. For more information, visit www.netapp.com.
#DataDriven
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Contacts
NetApp
Amelia Vierra, 1 408-822-6403
ng-uspr@netapp.com