Oct 2005
Report Seven: Grid Computing – Adoption for Digital Media Creation and Distribution

Grid computing, over the past few years, has become critical to the digital media industry – particularly for movie studios and production houses – and its importance will only increase as the need for more sophisticated animation and special effects drives greater demand for computing horsepower. Grid technology attributes – including virtualization, collaboration and heterogeneity – are also important as studios seek to better manage and distribute their digital media assets and reduce the number of masters or scans required to create the burgeoning range of derivative products spawned by an individual movie. Despite embracing grids, the industry also appears more paranoid than others – with concerns about cost, location, data movement, security and performance. Grid and utility computing models can be of great advantage to the digital media industry, but vendors still have a lot to do in order to address concerns in terms of offering concrete benefits instead of theoretical ones.

This seventh report in the 451 Grid Adoption Research Service analyzes the adoption and deployment of grid computing in the digital media industry for creation and distribution. It highlights the approaches of nine enterprise organizations in the media sector in deploying grid computing technology, their willingness to use outsourced rendering services, key obstacles and challenges they face, and the expected future usage of grids in this sector. The report also looks at nine technology vendors, outlining the various approaches they are taking to help companies in this sector overcome the challenges and barriers they face in successfully implementing grid computing technology within their enterprise organizations.

> Early-adopter case studies: Axyz Animation, BBC, Can Factory, DreamWorks, Hammerhead, Pixel Corps and Sample Digital.

> Vendor assessments: Exanet, GridIron, HP, IBM, Pipelinefx, Seriss, SGI, Sun and Veoh.

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