The company specializes in entertainment media production including films, TV projects, shows and advertising. Its projects are highly popular both in Russia and abroad. The company creates hundreds of hours of video content and this amount constantly grows.
As the number and size of digital media contents grow over time, the existing NASes in different locations are not able to maintain the data services with quick access to the massive media files for sharing and archival. It becomes more complicated to find new space and network links to add more NASes for expansion. “Besides all the challenges we have,” said the IT manager. “Just as importantly, any solution had to be extremely reliable. Businesses will not tolerate downtime.”
Additionally, the increasing resolution such as 4K or 8K for digital media contents will trigger the demand for much more storage space in the next couple of years. “The new storage systems must support our future expansion efficiently and economically.” Supplemented by the IT manager
After conducting thorough market research and engaging in extensive consultation, the university selected QSAN as its storage vendor because of the exceptional balance between price and performance that QSAN could deliver. The QSAN SAN 1200 series stood out as the most cost-effective storage solution available, offering competitive pricing without compromising on performance. With its robust hardware and comprehensive software features, the XCubeSAN also ensured the highest level of data security — a critical requirement for the university’s operations.
Given the extremely large volume of data the university needed to store, the deployment required a huge number of drives. However, the available space in the data center’s racks made it impractical to accommodate such a high drive count using standard 4U24 JBODs, which simply could not fit within the spatial constraints. To address this, QSAN recommended and certified Western Digital Ultrastar high-density JBODs — specifically the Data60 and Data102 models — as the ideal expansion solution.
In this scenario, the optimal choice was to deploy the QSAN XS1212D storage system together with the Western Digital Ultrastar Data102, which supports up to 102 large form factor (3.5”) HDDs in just 4U of rack space. This innovative combination allowed the university to meet its data capacity requirements while using minimal physical space.
The entire solution — comprising a QSAN storage unit paired with a high-density JBOD — required only 6U of rack space in total. The connectivity between components was designed to be simple and straightforward, reducing complexity in installation and maintenance. Moreover, the system allows for future expansion and upgrades without causing any downtime or disruption to operations, making it a flexible and scalable choice for the institution’s growing needs.
It is worth noting that even a half-populated Data102 delivered significantly better cost efficiency and far greater capacity compared to standard 4U24 JBOD configurations. Additionally, each QSAN storage system can support up to four Western Digital Ultrastar high-density JBODs, further enhancing the scalability of the solution.
Overall, this thoughtfully designed storage architecture enabled the university to maximize data capacity, optimize space utilization, and maintain budget efficiency, all while ensuring reliable performance and data security for the years ahead.
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