复杂网络Leaps from Print to Digital with StorNext

Improving Collaboration and Productivity for Digital Content Workflows
Moving to all-digital operations created new storage challenges for Complex Networks—a leader in delivering content for Millennials. The company needed storage that could help editorial teams support growing volumes of digital media, maximize productivity, and meet tight production schedules.

Founded as a print magazine in 2002, Complex rapidly gained a large audience by covering music, fashion, food, personalities, sports—plus other topics associated with youth and hip-hop culture. Within a few years, Complex began investing heavily in its online presence, launching new websites and producing digital media versions of magazine content.

By 2014, the company had become the third most-visited online destination across the United States for adults between 18 and 34. After an acquisition by a Verizon-Hearst joint venture, Complex Networks today is a digital media giant with more than 100 websites, news feeds, and online channels broadcasting an array of award-winning original content.

Reinventing Complex for Digital Operations
Transitioning from print to an all-digital media company required Complex to navigate many changes in content production and distribution. Unfortunately, the company’s early-generation storage and workflow systems were not ready for digital media operations.

“Producing digital content presents different challenges than print,” says Jermaine Harrell, Manager of Video IT Operations at Complex Networks. “As we produced more content with higher-resolution formats and over a larger variety of platforms, we encountered much greater demands on the workflow side.”

The company’s network-attached storage (NAS) could not keep up with increasing demands for high-resolution video. “Our shared storage system restricted our teams to working at only one-quarter to one-half of the ideal resolution needed,” says Harrell. “As a result, editors were using external hard drives to increase throughput and get higher performance on their workstations—this interrupted workflows and impacted overall efficiency.”

用量子向前移动
The IT team needed a storage platform designed for high-performance video that could grow with the company and support 4K and higher-resolution content in a shared work environment.

“I had previously read a lot about Quantum StorNext’s interoperability with Xsan, in addition to working with other platforms, and the system’s high performance and effective file sharing capabilities stood out as one of the most useful options,” says Harrell. “The technologies were optimal for our large Mac-based environment and I was impressed with the roster of companies that were already using these systems—some of the biggest names in the media world.”

With help from system integrator Chesapeake Systems, Complex installed a StorNext-based Xcellis workflow storage system along with 500 TB of Quantum QXS-5000 Series RAID arrays.

促进与快速直接访问内容的合作
而不是在隔离的五个不同的团队中生成内容，现在所有的编辑器都通过Stordext直接，共享访问相同的文件。新环境提供16个编辑器光纤通道访问，用于高性能处理。对于诸如摄取和播放等较低性能任务，环境提供了40个以上的编辑器访问与以太网相同的存储共享。

Enhancing Efficiency and Boosting Productivity
“在单一的共享存储环境中允许大大提高效率，”Harrell说。“StorNext的性能允许我们的编辑直接在全本机4K中直接工作。”

The Quantum environment is also opening doors for managing, editing, producing, and distributing content in new ways. “StorNext has provided us with a reliable foundation to build out the appropriate technological infrastructure needed to support the growth of a global brand and media empire,” says Harrell.

为未来的增长做准备
Quantum解决方案已经工作得很好，该复杂是在第二个办公室计划另一个安装，并正在寻找使用StorNext来扩展其归档功能的方法。“今天，我们将内容移动到商业云位置，以便保护和文件检索进行重用，”Harrell说。“但是我们需要能够处理更多数据并更快地获得它，因此我们正在查看向Quantum LTO磁带存档添加并通过StorDext集成该层。有那个选择很棒。“