Hammerspace is a software-defined data solution providing unified file access and automated data orchestration spanning otherwise incompatible storage silos from any vendor, across one or multiple locations, clouds, and cloud regions.
Running on commodity servers, VMs, or cloud instances, Hammerspace enables users the experience of high-performance local NAS access to global data stored on any storage anywhere.
Unlike other solutions that shuffle file copies around, Hammerspace creates a high-performance Parallel Global File System from data-in-place on existing storage so all users everywhere are working with the same files globally, not copies.
In this way, Hammerspace customers leverage remote talent without needing to migrate entire datasets to remote locations. Remote users and their applications are rapidly provisioned, enabling immediate access to their files in a true global namespace as if they were local to the primary datacenter.
M&E customers use this capability to unify content access across on-premises storage/compute resources and multiple cloud regions, providing unprecedented flexibility to cut costs and expand production capacity.
For example, Jellyfish Pictures, a UK-based VFX company, leverages Hammerspace to enable local access to artists all around the world. Before selecting Hammerspace, Jellyfish struggled to recruit and bring remote artists online to meet spiking production demand.
The problem was that traditional file movement methods (FTP, rSync, shipping physical media) were too complex and inefficient. Even using the cloud to copy data around the world was manual, slow, and expensive.
To fix this, Jellyfish selected Hammerspace to unify access to on-premises and cloud compute/storage resources so remote artists could enjoy high-performance local file access as though they were at the primary datacenter.
This enabled Jellyfish to take on new projects for Netflix and Disney by rapidly bringing new teams online in Australia, India, and South Africa, who now had the same user experience local artists in London enjoy.
A related issue is the high cost of render workloads in expensive cloud regions. Rendering in London or Los Angeles is significantly more expensive than in cloud regions located in more remote areas.
With Hammerspace’s data orchestration capabilities integrated with Autodesk ShotGrid, Jellyfish could achieve significant cost savings for cloud rendering by automatically routing jobs to lower-cost cloud regions without creating multiple copies of data.
In these ways, Hammerspace has revolutionized the way broadcast, film and other industries can manage distributed workflows and data across one or more on-premises and cloud compute and storage.
