Annex Pro Chooses Qumulo

Qumulo, Inc., in data-aware scale-out NAS, announced that Annex Pro has chosen Qumulo for its data-aware scale-out NAS capabilities for media and entertainment customers.

Annex Pro is a Vancouver, British Columbia-based VAR of software, hardware and IT infrastructure for the media and entertainment Industry. Since 1983, it has been consulting, training, and supporting the creation of visual effects, animation, games, TV/film and many other kinds of digital media. As the company’s customers got deeper into data-intensive animation and visual effects for TV and film, the need to add cost-effective and scalable NAS to the mix became apparent. That’s when Kerry Corlett, president, Annex Pro, went on the hunt for a solution and heard about Qumulo through an existing customer.

Qumulo offers a data-aware scale-out NAS, delivering real-time analytics that provide visibility into data usage and storage across flexible, fast and scalable commodity hardware. These real-time analytics help businesses obtain answers about their data footprint by explaining usage patterns and workload impact on performance and capacity.

“Having been in this business for more than 30 years, I consider myself fairly skeptical,” said Corlett. “I went to the initial meeting with Qumulo because I really respect my customer’s judgment on technology, but I was having trouble believing what I was hearing.“

As Corlett heard more about what had already been accomplished and got into the technical details and demos, any remaining doubts were erased – and after sitting in some initial customer meetings with the Qumulo team, Corlett knew he had to have the product. “I have never seen the type of reaction that I saw from customers in those first Qumulo meetings. Every single one wanted to buy – it was merely a question of when and how large,” says Corlett.

Given the demands of visual effects (VFX), animation and video processing, media and entertainment customers are always looking for solutions that add speed and efficiency to their operations. Most people are in the business because they enjoy the technical challenge and creative energy, and that’s what Qumulo brings to the table for Annex Pro.

“We feel very fortunate to have gotten involved with Qumulo as early as we did. There is a very long and fruitful relationship ahead of us since Qumulo products have become our ‘go-to’ choice in scale-out NAS,” says Corlett.

Annex Pro has expanded their relationship by completing Qumulo’s Installation Services Training. The training was very straightforward, and Corlett’s team feels they’re in a better position to offer on-site installation and support for their customers.

Annex Pro values the strong, stable margins that come from offering the Qumulo product line. Corlett and his team also appreciate the two-week software release cycle, which brings frequent new features and functionality.

“We’re extremely excited about the growth potential for Qumulo going forward,” concludes Corlett. “In fact, we truly believe – and even tell customers – that there will come a point in the not-distant future when Qumulo will be the #1 NAS choice in our industry. It’s inevitable given the way things are going; over the next year or two it will be very difficult for people to justify buying anything other than Qumulo.“

“Annex Pro is a highly respected leader in the media and entertainment industry with a proven track record of bringing organizations the best in software, hardware and IT infrastructure solutions,” said Mark Bennetts, VP of worldwide sales and partners, Qumulo. “We are excited to have found a partner who is passionate about bringing next generation scale-out NAS to Canada.“

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