Apple Computer Inc. is now shipping its Xsan storage-area network (SAN) file system. Xsan is perceived as a major breakthrough by video professionals.
“Xsan is the holy grail of shared storage for Final Cut Pro,” said Mark Raudonis, director of Post Production, Bunim-Murray Productions. “We can now take advantage of Final Cut Pro HD in a fully networked environment to edit groundbreaking reality TV series such as MTV’s ‘The Real World’ and ‘Road Rules’ and FOX’s ‘The Simple Life’ in real time at a third of the cost of existing solutions.”
Xsan is ideal for demanding professional video workflows as well as storage consolidation for business, government, education and high performance computing. Advanced features such as metadata controller failover and Fibre Channel multipathing ensure high availability; file-level locking allows multiple systems to read and write concurrently to the same volume which is ideal for complex workflows; and sophisticated volume management results in more efficient use of storage resources.
Xsan combines breakthrough performance with Apple’s legendary ease of use for customers who require scalable, high-speed access to centralized shared data for storage consolidation and workflow in video post production, data center, broadcast and high performance computing environments.
“Apple’s pro video and IT customers now have an affordable, high performance SAN file system on Mac OS X,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “Together, Apple’s Xsan file system software and Xserve RAID storage hardware deliver a powerful, easy-to-manage, enterprise class SAN solution at a breakthrough low price.”
Xsan is a 64-bit cluster file system for Mac OS(R) X that enables organizations to consolidate storage resources and provide multiple computers with concurrent file-level read/write access to shared volumes over Fibre Channel.
It is certified with Apple’s suite of professional applications, including Final Cut Pro(R) HD, Apple’s Emmy award-winning editing software and Motion, a breakthrough application that redefines professional motion graphics production.
For the first time on Mac OS X, up to 64 video professionals can simultaneously access a single storage volume that supports multiple high-bandwidth video streams for efficient workflow in video and film editing, broadcast, visual effects and motion graphics creation.
Murdok | Breaking eBusiness News
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