BlueXP is now NetApp Console
Monitor and run hybrid cloud data services
Hey everybody. I’m Jodi Fleisig from NetAppTV and we are at Insight North America in Austin, Texas where we are talking to some of our favorite customers. And who better to talk to than Skottie Miller from DreamWorks. Skottie, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me, Jodi. I appreciate that. So let’s talk about NetApp and DreamWorks. It’s all about data and data management. How does NetApp help you with that? Every film we’ve ever made at DreamWorks Animation was born and resides on a NetApp filer. -Wow. -Yeah. We’ve been a customer more than two decades and a partner for more than five years. And in that whole journey, NetApp has been fundamental to our production— how we create the films, how we store them, how we repurpose them, do franchises. As we mentioned, NetApp is fundamental both on-premises and now that we are expanding into the hybrid cloud, leveraging NetApp expertise, tool set, software and features have allowed us to continue our on-premises journey by extending into the cloud using NetApp technologies. And the hybrid cloud strategy? Tell me a little bit about that. How were you making that transition? Yeah, for us, cloud is not one of these miracle places. It’s not magic. What the cloud is,capable and agile, and it’s an enabler for us to do a global production to bring work to the artists and the technologists instead of having to bring the artist and the technologists to the work. Using the NetApp cloud environment, it gives us safety, data protection and in a secure environment in which to do our films on a global scale. And you used the ONTAP before it was even called ONTAP. Yeah, my very first filer in 1995 was a purple F 330. So I’ve been a big fan of NetApp, the appliance approach and just the reliability, data integrity and overall thoughtfulness that goes into the product line. So I heard you coined the phrase “transformation is a lifestyle.” Transformation is. People talk about transformational events like, “Oh, a new thing’s out. I have to transition to it.” But what we found is there’re so many new things, so many new capabilities, so much more technology that can help us make these films that we’re constantly adopting something new. So when you’re constantly adopting something new, it’s not an event, it’s a lifestyle. We’re always looking for the best way to make our films. One of the executives at DreamWorks says that, and I quote, “NetApp has the best people on the planet.” Yeah. So, I mean, well, I’ll give you an example. So while we have a support account manager and he’s really part of our team. He brings us proactive issues with ONTAP, bugs that we might be hitting. It’s constantly looking at our environment and making recommendations, configuration tuning. If there’s an incident, we get hand-holding, incident management. If there’s futures, we’re part of the early access program to test new versions of ONTAP to ensure that we have the right applications, the right licenses and the right systems to do our testing. -So we're really like this. -Absolutely. Yeah. We meet with NetApp on the regular with engineering, with the account teams, with our support account manager, with our SCs, and it’s an extension of our team. -Puss in Boots. -Yes. What is new and different about Puss in Boots? If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll see that the film is basically another chapter in Puss in Boots It’s called The Last Wish, where Puss comes to terms with mortality. -He has to think about the fact that— -Like all of us. —having a cat. Yeah, exactly right. Being a cat with nine lives, that at some point you might run out. So it tells the story of Puss’s journey when he makes that discovery and just how we adjust. Thank you, Skottie, so much for joining us. -Love to. Happy to. -We love talking to you. And make sure you tune in to NetAppTV for lots more stories about DreamWorks.
Learn how DreamWorks Animations has been able to drive innovation for more than two decades by taking advantage of the NetApp secure hybrid cloud model with ONTAP allowing them to bring the work to their technologist on a global level.