The
high-performance storage specialists at Active
Storage have kept the new mMedia platform under very tight
wraps but, as a leading storage and infrastructure expert, we can
bring you the lowdown on a shared storage solution designed to
cover your entire workflow.
First the basics: mMedia is a complete end-to-end storage solution
centred around an enhanced ActiveSAN high-performance metadata
controller appliance. This is partnered with new additions, mRAID
and mVault - all tied together by optimised management software.
Intended to take care of storage and management throughout your
workflow, the mMedia platform is scalable in both performance and
capacity, allowing content producers to assemble a storage solution
that fits their individual needs.
"mMedia is the platform of the future for broadcast production,"
said Alex Grossman, founder and president of Active Storage, Inc.
"mMedia provides an integrated workflow storage platform with the
performance, scalability and configuration flexibility to meet
nearly every broadcast and post-production facility's ingest,
online and nearline archive capability."
"Since the demise of the Xserve, Apple System Administrators in
post and broadcast have had to cobble together different components
and software to form a viable shared storage solution," our Storage
Product Manager Andy Walton pointed out. "In that sense, the mMedia
fills a big gap in the market by offering a highly-customisable
solution that works at every point in the chain - from ingest right
through to archive. The scalability of mMedia is extremely useful -
if you need a lot of nearline storage but not so much offline
archiving, you can buy five mRAIDs and a single mVault and it'll
all work smoothly together. Which of course means you won't end up
paying for anything you don't need."
mRAID: nearline storage
mRAID is a new media-enhanced RAID platform, and provides the
heart of the mMedia platform. And, coming from Active Storage you
can be confident that it'll be easy-to-deploy.
"The eight 8Gb Fibre Channel ports provide bandwidth strength to
support multiple expansion enclosures," said Storage Consultant
Sammy Aindow. "Current ActiveRAID users will also be pleased to
know that they can upgrade their Active RAID systems and bring them
under the management of mRAID to take advantage of its improved
processing power."
Active Storage is keen to point out that, as it utilises the same
Linux foundation that powers their ActiveRAID, the mRAID is rock
solid. While the external appearance might be similar, don't be
fooled into thinking it's the same solution - mRAID has been
specifically engineered to handle the next generation of
Intel-based storage processors. It offers immense processing power
that can move huge amounts of content from the SAN to disk and
back, leaving additional headroom for other functions such as
optimisations, adaptive caching routines and background data
scrubs, as well as error checking. Despite all that, the addition
of the new Environmental Processor ensures that your system won't
be loaded down with UPS control and environmental process
handling.
mVault: the archive
While backup solutions are generally the less glamorous element of
a storage solution, mVault is a particularly exciting addition.
"mVault is big news," says Sammy. "It offers massive density and
180TB of raw storage which, combined with the mRAID means you could
scale to petabytes of nearline storage for content
archiving."
Combined, mRAID and mVault offer 228TB of storage in only 7U of
rack space. Whether used to replace or complement an offsite
long-term tape archive - because it's targeted at content creators
- you can rest easy knowing that there'll be no compatibility
issues.
Want to learn more about Active
Storage mMedia? We'll be bringing you more info - including
pricing and software news - as it's released, but you can get in
touch at any time by calling 03332 409 306 or emailing broadcast@Jigsaw24.com.
Keep abreast of the latest news by following us on Twitter
(@JigsawVideo) and clicking 'Like'
on our Facebook
page.
Experts in Broadcast & Post-Production Workflow
Shop Online at
