SIGGRAPH Roundup: EMC, Dell, Fusion-io

The 38th International conference and exhibition on computer graphics and interactive techniques (SIGGRAPH 2011) is underway in Vancouver this week. Here are a few of the headlines from the event:

EMC Isilon selected by Render Rocket.  EMC announced that Render Rocket, a cloud-based rendering services company, has deployed EMC Isilon scale-out NAS to enhance its "self-service" 3D rendering solution and to keep pace with the rapidly growing global demand for its offerings from entertainment and design clients.  To deliver their cloud-rendering service, Render Rocket selected and deployed Isilon X-Series and NL-Series Platform Nodes and Isilon software to easily scale in performance and capacity. "Rendering in film and design is becoming more and more data intensive," said Tracey Farrar, vice president of business development at Render Rocket. "By moving to Isilon, we've increased our storage capacity five-fold since last year and cut labor and management costs by 40 percent. Our service platform is more robust and more secure, with stronger file security and system redundancy, enabling us to render jobs of any size."

Dell Services selected by MPTF.  Dell announced that the Motion Picture and Television Fund (MPTF) and Dell Services have signed a seven-year agreement for Dell to oversee and deliver a full range of information technology solutions for MPTF.  With the goal of driving greater efficiencies in IT Dell will useFusion-io  their MSite solution to provide cloud-based hosting of MPTF's MEDITECH Health Care Information System.  For disaster recovery Dell will provide a fully-managed JSite solution. Together, Dell and MPTF will review healthcare market and IT trends, implement innovative health IT solutions to improve patient care and reduce costs, and develop a strategy for physician EMRs and practice management solutions. “We are committed to using the Dell platform to drive innovative IT solutions to the entertainment community members accessing our many essential services," said Seth Ellis, Chief Operating Officer at MPTF. "Dell’s extensive experience in the healthcare industry gives us confidence that this new relationship will help us maximize the use of IT in our organization, now and in the future."

Fusion-io collaborates to accelerate entertainment production.  At SIGGRAPH Fusion-io (FIO) announced its collaboration with a number of leading technology companies, including NVIDIA, Thinkbox Software and Tweak Software, to accelerate entertainment production by demonstrating full resolution, real-time digital content creation for many of the industry’s most powerful applications. In their booth (#453) at the conference they are showcasing how Fusion ioMemory technology combined with the NVIDIA Quadro Plex 7000 Visual Computing System provides the throughput necessary to play 12 full HD (1080p) uncompressed video feeds simultaneously off a single workstation with interactive graphics processing unit (GPU)-based color correction. “Multiple SSDs configured in a RAID can provide basic throughput, but struggle to provide the low latency required for delivering interactivity in powerful content creation applications," said  Vincent Brisebois, Fusion-io Product Manager. "By working with our innovative partners NVIDIA, Thinkbox Software and Tweak Software, we are helping studios and artists unlock their creativity. Now, not only can artists do more faster, but with the flexibility offered by Fusion-io and our partners, studios can focus on the artistry that separates good from great."