Cloud-based media management company WCPMedia Services has implemented a new type of architecture, embedding shared, fast storage layers into a virtual environment. The company says this results in a boost in performance for the transcoding and QC engines that are true game changers.
“Running the platform under a virtual environment was a key strategic decision for WCP,” explains WCPMedia Services vice president, director of operations Giovanni Contri. “It facilitates flexibility, service continuity and scalability that the cloud platform otherwise would not permit.”
He said a virtual system was a must in order to:
Provide automatic backup of the OS, reducing the restore process for one server to less than 30 minutes
Make any hardware fault an old souvenir as the virtual architecture will move a server to alternate hardware in real-time and without losing process activity
Deploy new servers in less than 30 minutes, providing fast scalability of the WCP farm,
additionally, environments such as VmWare provide rich monitoring tools, facilitating control over everything from network traffic to CPU usage
Needing to accommodate fast storage, shared among many servers operating under different operating systems and versions, WCP selected a SAN structure with a scalable 10Gb network, exporting SSD-based LUN using iSCSI protocol. An additional key component was a file-level-locking security system that could work with different file systems to ensure writing control of stored files into a volume and to prevent file corruption.
“As part of our process of technical analysis and software selection, we were looking for a flexible and scalable SAN solution that could provide a solid file level locking security on Windows and Linux OS file systems,” explains Contri. “Our aim was to ensure writing control of the files stored into a volume and to prevent the file corruption.”
WCPMedia Services technical and functional requirements were to integrate, into a unique storage volume, both Linux and Windows servers within a virtual environment for security and scalability.
After completing their due diligence, WCPMedia Services selected Tiger Technology Tiger Store shared storage workflow software.
As video professionals, WCP engineers met Tiger Technology years ago while working with companies that specialized in the distribution and integration of professional equipment for television, cinema and telecommunications. “Tiger software products are among the best solutions robust and easy to manage shared storage, and are also price competitive. In addition, as Tiger is hardware agnostic, it was possible to reuse valuable hardware storage already present at client site.
“We also knew, from our previous experience with Tiger, that 24/7 technical support is always available, prompt and competent in responding,” says Contri. “Finally, with Tiger Store, WCP can offer its clients a very rich, automatic and scalable video solution over the web, providing professional media transcoding and QC functions without wasting time and money.”
Tiger’s technical support team assisted WCP through the set up phase. “Tiger Store has provided the performance and reliability we hoped for,” Contri observes. “We now have a unique configuration that, for the first time, has Tiger Store running in a virtual environment.”
Tiger Store is helping WCPMedia Services provide its media and entertainment clients with a rich, automatic, scalable web-based solution for media asset management. “Our platform is unsurpassed for fast file transfers, professional-quality transcoding and digital delivery,” Contri said. “Our clients are breaking free from outdated, traditional technologies and they are saving time and money.”
WCPMedia Services www.wcpmediaservices.com