The Animationsinstitut at Ludwigsburg chose a Hammerspace data platform for file and object data to support projects across its distributed campus, from collaboration to render workloads.
The Animationsinstitut is among the world's leading academic institutions for Animation, Visual Effects, Technical Directing and Interactive Media. It is part of Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg (FABW) in Ludwigsburg, Germany, which is itself recognised as one of the top international film schools.
FABW manages between 200 and 250 projects per year that include requirements for high-performance data ingest and processing, as well as for supporting multiple students collaborating on a single project. These projects, many of which are produced either at or in collaboration with the Animationsinstitut, place special demands on the school’s storage and data processing systems.
It requires a high performance data platform for students and faculty across its distributed campus. Further to these demands, the institute was recently looking for a solution that could take its render workloads out of its on-premises server room and into the cloud. To cover all of its requirements, it has invested in a Hammerspace data platform for file and object data.
Custom Metadata
An advantage of the Hammerspace platform relates to custom metadata, which the Animationsinstitut plans to use to automate portions of its workflow. Through metadata, Hammerspace makes all data across all silos, sites and clouds identifiable as soon as it is created to avoid loss or delays. Metadata is assimilated (absorbed and integrated) immediately into a global namespace, making the data visible and the files and objects accessible across all locations even when the data is in motion, using standard protocols.
"It is now easy for us to understand that separating metadata from data will be critical into the future," said Stefan Binggeser, Head of Technology at the Animationsinstitut, when referring to the Hammerspace architecture. "We have some workloads that need extra performance, and some that require long-term, low-cost storage, so the ability to use metadata-driven data orchestration policies to automate tiering and protection throughout our environment has been an important aspect of Hammerspace."
ABOVE: Hammerspace Objectives are data orchestration policies that automate data protection and data tiering across the environment. Organisations can use Objectives to declare their intentions and preferred outcomes for data, and combine them with programmable conditions.
Local Access
Hammerspace software creates a global data environment, encompassing a hybrid cloud, so that users, applications and cloud services can all gain local access to data regardless of its storage location. This kind of architecture addresses the problems encountered when software builds, and visual effects and render pipelines are distributed across multiple storage systems, multiple data centres and different cloud regions. All users, at all locations, can access the same files, using local access to shared data resources and keeping latency low.
Because the Hammerspace hybrid cloud spans datacentre and cloud storage resources in one global filesystem, production workflows can ‘burst’ into cloud compute and storage resources on demand. Extra resources can be provisioned quickly to support concurrent users and accelerate workflows.
Re-using Hardware Infrastructure
Another critical aspect of the Hammerspace solution for Animationsinstitut was the ability to assimilate data from the school's existing scale-out NAS system and make that part of the Hammerspace data environment. This integration allowed Animationsinstitut to keep its scale-out NAS system in place, import that metadata into the Hammerspace metadata layer, and then reuse and repurpose that system for additional storage capacity.
Existing hardware infrastructure can be used for data wherever it has been installed. Hammerspace functionality connects workflows across all locations, without having to transform files and objects. "Being able to reuse hardware was a big deal for us in order to reduce our carbon footprint. Having a solution like Hammerspace that lets you reuse and extend the use of your old systems was an important consideration for us and for many companies in the European Union," said Stefan.
This project was delivered in collaboration with Hammerspace's channel partner DVEAS, whose commercial support helped ease the procurement process. Hammerspace pefers to collaborate with local partners to simplify execution and increase their value to customers.
Hammerspace is showing its work with Animationsinsitut and other media and entertainment organizations at FMX 2025 in Stuttgart, Germany. hammerspace.com
