OpenDrives is bringing significant updates to its Atlas data storage platform, introducing unlimited capacity pricing and targeted feature bundles designed to give media organizations more cost predictability with economical scalability. The revamped platform separates hardware from software, allowing for certified third-party hardware options that maintain high performance while providing studios and production houses with greater flexibility.

Storage Without Limits: How OpenDrives is changing the data capacity game for media workflows

The newest evolution of Atlas tackles one of the biggest pain points for production facilities—unpredictable storage costs as projects grow. The platform now offers unlimited capacity per controller without additional software fees.

• Users can add 500TB or even 2PB of storage without incurring extra software licensing costs

• The system is specifically engineered for unstructured, performance-demanding workflows common in media production

• Atlas' composable design disaggregates hardware from software, allowing greater flexibility in infrastructure choices

• A newly improved dashboard provides analytics over longer historical periods

Tiered for Production: The new bundle approach offers strategic options for different facility sizes

OpenDrives has created two distinct feature bundles that align with different production environments, eliminating the traditional model of paying per capacity and per feature.

• Atlas Professional targets fast-growing, mid-sized media organizations that have outgrown prosumer solutions but need cost predictability for moderately complex workflows

• Atlas Comprehensive is designed for enterprise-class operations with geographically distributed teams handling highly complex workflows

• Both bundles leverage the next-generation Atlas Performance Engine that combines open-source architecture with proprietary engineering

• Organizations can easily switch between bundles as their business needs evolve

Under the Hood: The Atlas Performance Engine delivers specialized optimizations for media-intensive workflows

The core of the platform's performance comes from a suite of technical innovations specifically designed for media production requirements.

• Customized kernel and latency-focused system tuning optimize handling of large media datasets

• An Adobe Accelerator feature uses shared caching to speed up collaborative mounting and rendering

• Automated block-level tiering moves frequently accessed footage to faster cache tiers (RAM/NVMe)

• Intelligent prefetching predicts and serves frequently requested data before it's needed

• "All Flash Array" performance using hybrid infrastructure delivers exceptional speed while reducing total cost of ownership

Final Cut on Storage Costs: The unlimited capacity model represents a paradigm shift in how productions can budget for expanding media archives

As the media industry recovers from what the report calls "last year's production drought," OpenDrives' approach to storage economics addresses a critical need for predictable infrastructure costs.

• The unlimited capacity model eliminates the traditional anxiety around storage expansion during production and post

• Media companies can now scale storage with confidence during busy production periods without budget surprises

• The ability to use certified third-party hardware creates a more competitive ecosystem that benefits end users

• The timing of this release aligns with an anticipated "content comeback" when efficient data management will be crucial

• This approach gives technical directors and post-production supervisors more flexibility in how they allocate their technology budgets

While it may seem like a technical infrastructure announcement, OpenDrives' new approach represents a significant shift in how productions can think about and budget for their expanding media archives, potentially allowing more resources to be directed toward creative tools rather than storage overhead.