Powering big screen special effects

Vsual effects company Scanline VFX is using Internap’s high-density colocation and route-optimised Performance IP™ services to deliver the speed, reliability and scale needed to process high volumes of performance-intensive digital content workloads and easily accommodate business growth and changing project workflows.

With offices in Los Angeles, Vancouver and Munich, Scanline VFX specialises in creating complex visual effects for high-end feature films and TV commercials. Well-known for its Flowline software, used to create fluid effects like water and fire, the company’s portfolio includes 300: Rise of an Empire, Batman Vs. Superman, Captain America, Divergent, Furious 7, Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, Iron Man, San Andreas and The Wolf of Wall Street.

Scanline previously operated four corporate data centers to support its visual effects workflows, which include the continuous acquisition, editing and production of massive amounts of data-intensive digital content. However, as its in-house space neared full capacity, the company sought to merge its infrastructure into one location with an outsourced data center provider that could offer improved performance, reliability and scalability. Scanline VFX required an infrastructure solution with large amounts of CPU power, along with guaranteed availability and redundancy, to run thousands of renders and simulations concurrently, amounting to more than 210 terabytes of data daily, with an overall storage capacity of more than three petabytes. High-performance data center networking was also imperative to ensure that engineers across Scanline’s three global locations could rapidly access and process visual effects jobs at any time, without interruption.

“We run one of the biggest data islands in the country, and with the sheer number of renders and simulations that are constantly running, flawless data management is absolutely critical to our business – downtime or blips in performance aren’t an option,” said Scott Miller, studio manager at Scanline VFX. “Moving our entire internal data center footprint to Internap was an easy decision. With fully redundant infrastructure, high-power density capabilities and an optimised, managed network, as well as the ability to scale on short notice to meet new client and render capacity demands, we can focus our efforts where they matter most – on delivering outstanding visual effects.”

Internap’s colocation service supports high-density power of up to 18kW, with a unique design that enables Scanline VFX to scale power in-rack without consuming more floor space. Internap’s data centers also feature a concurrently maintainable design, 24x7 on-site data center engineers, advanced security features and remote management self-service tools. Its global Performance IP service with patented Managed Internet Route Optimizer™ (MIRO) technology, backed by a 100% uptime guarantee, evaluates available service networks in real time, ensuring low latency and delivering Scanline VFX traffic over the fastest Internet path. Additionally, as Scanline VFX’s workload needs change over time, it is able to future-proof its infrastructure investment, with the ability to hybridise colocation with Internap’s OpenStack-based public cloud and automated bare-metal server instances, as well as managed hosting – all managed via a single-pane-of-glass portal.

“Media and entertainment companies are facing new digital business models, changing consumer viewing habits and increased competition, requiring higher levels of business agility and infrastructure performance than ever before,” said Mike Higgins, senior vice president of data center services at Internap. “Internap delivers performance on every front, with an unmatched combination of scalable, ultra-high density power and optimised data center networking to help the media and entertainment industry, from visual effects studios to broadcast and social media companies, turn infrastructure into a competitive advantage.”