IBM has shipped its 500,000th IBM TotalStorage Linear Tape Open (LTO) drive solution to Sony Pictures Imageworks. The company purchased the new storage technology solution to back up its digital animation productions.
The IBM TotalStorage tape solution will help Sony Pictures Imageworks continue to quickly back up its growing daily volume of data and access and manage digital animation shots, which sometimes average more than 1,000 shots per movie. IBM's expertise in media and entertainment and storage technology has allowed it to work with various digital animation houses across the world in designing and implementing a storage system to fit their needs.
Currently in production at Imageworks are THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE, SUPERMAN RETURNS, the all-CG MONSTER HOUSE and BEOWULF, GHOST RIDER, SPIDER-MAN 3 and the first two 3D-animated features from Sony Pictures Animation, OPEN SEASON and SURF'S UP.
The system implemented at Imageworks features the IBM TotalStorage UltraScalable Tape Library 3584 with 20 LTO tape drives, including dual robotics designed to continuously back up information. This high-availability option is designed to allow two robotic accessors, or robotic arms, to operate simultaneously in two to 16-frame configurations. The dual accessor pulls tape cartridges from a slot and inserts them into a drive and vice versa to help decrease the chance of a tape library failure.
In addition, the IBM Tape Library system is designed to provide multi-petabyte capacity in an automated tape library that is scalable to 192 tape drives and more than 6,200 cartridges for midrange to enterprise open systems environments.
"We are pleased that Sony Pictures Imageworks has recognized the business benefits of embracing IBM's highly scalable tape storage solutions for digital content workflow and has received the 500,000th shipment of our tape drives," said Cindy Grossman, vp, IBM TotalStorage Tape Solutions.
Sony Pictures Imageworks Inc. (www.imageworks.com) has been recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with Oscars for its work on SPIDER-MAN 2 and the CG-animated short film THE CHUBBCHUBBS! Imageworks is a division of Sony Pictures Digital, which oversees the digital production and online entertainment assets of Sony Pictures Ent.
IBM (www.ibm.com) is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of leadership in helping businesses innovate.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
