Exponential-e and Jellyfish Pictures boost competitiveness of British VFX industry

British Cloud Network provider, Exponential-e, has announced its powerful Desktop-as-a-Service for Graphic Processing Units (DaaS – GPU). Exponential-e harnesses the power of NVIDIA GPUs in a virtualised desktop environment, hosted in the Cloud, so companies have on-demand access to scalable computing power. The new product has been developed in conjunction with Jellyfish Pictures, the London-based, BAFTA-winning, visual effects (VFX) studio.

Lee Wade, CEO of Exponential-e, explains the significance of this latest launch: “The nature of the VFX industry is project-based with companies often requiring technology resources and freelancers on demand. DaaS - GPU will enable VFX studios to quickly respond to fluctuating project requirements by providing easy access to additional computing resource that can be deployed anywhere in the world. Firms such as Jellyfish Pictures will now be able to concentrate on what really counts - delivering award-winning, state of the art animation and VFX for clients.”

“London’s VFX industry is considered to be a world leader. DaaS - GPU will help it maintain that competitive edge by providing enterprise class facilities at globally competitive prices,” continues Wade. “IT infrastructures can now be easily scaled so that VFX companies can meet tight production deadlines, while offering assurance to studios that they can successfully deliver on projects of any size.”

Exponential-e’s hosted service sits on the Local Area Network (LAN) on the clean side of the firewall, negating any security or privacy issues. But most importantly, it means that Jellyfish Pictures no longer needs to rely solely on its existing architecture when further processing power or capacity is required. Instead, the company can spin-up additional resources on demand, such as blade servers and processing power. By operating in a virtualised desktop environment, DaaS - GPU ensures that users can work on graphics applications from any device, from any location.

“In the past, the huge amounts of processing power needed to render animated and motion content meant that artists, designers and developers were tied to a physical desktop,” comments Lee Wade. “However, the traditional workstation has been transformed by DaaS - GPU and Jellyfish Pictures is one of the first companies in the UK to adopt this operational model.”

Jeremy Smith, CTO of Jellyfish Pictures, explains, “We are fundamentally reliant on creative and innovative technology delivery. And for us, DaaS - GPU delivers just that. The acoustics behind DaaS - GPU are leading edge. Scaling in the picture industry, at speed with security and privacy centre stage, is inherently difficult. Exponential-e’s DaaS - GPU solution means that we can be responsive and needn’t worry about scaling up compute resources to meet the requirements of new projects.”

Built using NVIDIA’s GRID™ Technology for high performance graphics-accelerated computing power and VMware Horizon™ DaaS® Platform for Service Providers, Exponential-e’s DaaS - GPU is delivered on its secure, Cloud-ready super-fast 100Gig Ethernet Layer 2 VPLS (Virtual Private LAN Service) network.

“NVIDIA GRID™ Technology is key to having a true workstation experience when using virtualisation because it can handle graphics-heavy applications,” said Will Wade, Director of NVIDIA GRID at NVIDIA. “Jellyfish Pictures understands the importance of the end-user experience when implementing VDI. Their VFX artists are now able to enjoy highly responsive rich media experiences from wherever they need to work.”

Jeremy Smith concludes, “Jellyfish Pictures is now capable of moving from a CapEx business model to an OpEx structure. For the first time this means that we are highly flexible when bidding for future work. It also supports other developments within the Jellyfish group including the opening of Jellyfish Animation, our new purpose built, 4,000 square foot animation studio in Brixton, where 60 artists and supporting production staff will be based. Through our work with Exponential-e and NVIDIA, we will be able to create a system that allows work to be shared in real time between our studios so that our employees and contract/remote workers can effectively collaborate on projects all on the same logical workspace.”

Benefits of Exponential-e DaaS - GPU:
• Flexible and on-demand: Ability to scale computing power and virtual workstations so that budgets can be aligned with projects
• Support for OpEx model: Facilitate OpEx model, delivering 100% deduction in taxable profits for the service
• Expert managed service: Centralised IT security and control allowing teams to concentrate on creating strategic value
• Future proof technology strategy: DaaS - GPU reduces the need for hardware and software refreshes
• Multiple services down one pipe: All delivered via Exponential-e’s scalable, secure CloudNet 100gE service
• Control workflow remotely: Facilitates flexible work practices, improves productivity by enabling mobile access and remote collaboration
• End of power poverty: Cooling stresses and electricity outages are a thing of the past
• Graphics-accelerated VDI: NVIDIA GRID™ Technology allows access to all critical applications, including 3D-intensive software
• Uncompromising desktop performance: VMware Horizon DaaS Platform for Service Providers with vDGA enables the full workstation experience from Exponential-e’s datacentre
• Storage: ability to access Big Data from a secure and private Cloud, remotely from any location