Harmonic MediaGrid 4000 Shared Storage Solution

Harmonic, Inc. announced the release of its next-generation media-storage platform, the MediaGrid 4000 shared storage solution.

The performance scale-out storage system increases storage density to 24x6TB drives in a 4RU chassis, and delivers the performance of a FC SAN with the simplicity and scalability of Ethernet-based NAS. Capable of supporting every stage in diverse media workflows, including production of live sports, news and entertainment in HD and 4K/Ultra HD, the MediaGrid 4000 system enables workflow efficiency and productivity through storage consolidation and on-the-fly scaling of capacity and bandwidth.

“With the increased performance and density of the Harmonic MediaGrid 4000, a facility can truly deploy one storage platform to support the entire production workflow,” said Bart Spriester, SVP, video products, Harmonic. “Specifically built to support media applications, reduce the costs of storage management and optimize video production workflows, the MediaGrid 4000 can handle everything from compressed workflows to online digital libraries and uncompressed video. Flexible scaling of both bandwidth and capacity enables users to immediately take advantage of their storage investment, and to build on it as their workflow demands evolve.“

There are two members of the MediaGrid product family. Offering twice the performance of MediaGrid 3000 system components, a 50% increase in storage capacity and double the number of 10GbE ports, the MediaGrid ContentServer 4000 elevates the capabilities and throughput of base MediaGrid systems to their highest level yet. Storage capacity can be expanded incrementally by 48, 96 or 144TB by adding MediaGrid ContentStore 4240 nodes outfitted with 24 hot-swappable 2, 4 or 6TB SAS drives. ContentStore 5840 nodes can also be added to MediaGrid 4000 systems for storage density of up to 504TB in 5RU.

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The capacity and throughput of MediaGrid 4000 makes it possible to consolidate ‘islands’ of storage and run all workflow steps off a single system. Boasting a low rate of IT utilization, this model not only reduces operational costs, but also increases workflow, productivity by reducing media copy and transfer times. Backwards compatibility allows current MediaGrid 3000 users to add MediaGrid 4240 storage nodes to their existing systems, making it easy to expand their storage deployment without disrupting ongoing business operations.

“As an increasing number of media facilities transition to 4K, video codecs become more demanding of storage systems and make capacity requirements more daunting,” added Spriester. “The Harmonic MediaGrid 4000 offers an ideal solution to these chllenges, leveraging SAN performance an NAS simplicity to facilitate the optimal balance of bandwidth and capacity.“