Which Shared Storage Companies
When an all SSD shared storage solution for audio, video and film post production is off the table a hard disk solution with SSD caching is an affordable alternative. But then the bases must be right.
So in a system with SSDs and hard disks the ease with which media internally is moved or copied between SSDs (cache) and hard disks transparent for operators should be the deciding purchase decision.
For that purpose DDP comes with Project Caching. The Project Caching technology uses two data paths per file. So DDP can internally move files between devices such as SSDs and hard disks without effecting the directory tree. So lets see in this User Case who else support a similar mechanism.
Companies we looked at are Harmonic/Mediagrid, SNS, Avid/Nexis, Facilis, Editshare, OpenDrives, Tiger Technologies, Elements, GBLabs, Pixit Media, Scale Logic, TrueNAS and Quantum.
At first the thought was to discuss this separately for each company. But then it became clear that most support transferring media files internally from SSDs to hard disks or vice versa in a standard way.
This means that the directory tree or trees changes.
This is disturbing for operators.
Some companies use one name space/remapping technology to keep names as is but this is not straightforward. Also files which are in use can not be transferred. It then has to be guaranteed that none of the project files are in use before the transfer starts. Many also use a low level way of caching. This mechanism is not files and folders aware. So not very useful for media files. Some competitors use other caching mechanisms such as caching on desktops but no one comes close to Project Caching.
So it is only DDP which comes with Project Caching for performance critical projects.
Project(s) can be ingested to the Project Cache with automatic copying through to the hard disks. Or project(s) can be ingested to the hard disks and copied to the cache when needed.
This can be selected per project folder or for multiple projects using inherited. Caching can be On Demand or Pinned and is selectable per project folder.
Projects which are finished can be instantly cleared from the Project Cache because its files are already also on the hard disks.
Project files are automatically accessed from the hard disks when they are not on the SSDs.
And in none of these cases the directory changes!
