Exponential-e to deliver new Render-as-a-Service Platform in collaboration with Microsoft
Posted on Mar 15, 2016 by Alex Fice
BAFTA-award winning, visual effects (VFX) studio, Jellyfish Pictures is already utilising RaaS.
British cloud and network provider, Exponential-e, has announced it is working with Microsoft and its cloud platform Microsoft Azure, to deliver Render-as-a-Service (RaaS). Through this relationship, Exponential-e will deliver hybrid render services at scale to industries that utilise 3D modelling such as architecture, manufacturing, medical providers, the VFX industry and scientific research organisations.
“Due to steadily rising image resolutions, rendering is requiring more and more computing horsepower. Also the limitations of power, space and cooling for in-house render farms means they are increasingly more expensive and complex to run,” explained Mukesh Bavisi, Managing Director at Exponential-e. “Exponential-e’s unique collaboration with Microsoft Azure solves the headache of restricted resource on maxed out internal render nodes. It provides an on-demand, scalable solution that enables seamless hybrid integration of on premise resource privately connected to the raw compute power. The service is managed as one environment via a single self-service pane of glass.”
This point and click solution is achieved by combining Exponential-e’s high-speed, secure network with the Hyper-scale public cloud of Azure, and will provide private rendering capabilities that can be matched to project delivery timescales and spend.
The solution will be delivered over Exponential-e’s own 100 gig-Ethernet network, through private or hybrid Local Area Networks (LANs) that connect the customer’s on premise data to the raw compute power offered by Azure.
“Render-as-a-Service will alleviate the key pain point for businesses that utilise render processing across the globe,” concludes Bavisi. “Marrying our network with the Microsoft Azure cloud means greater rendering efficiencies than ever before, and provides us with the opportunity to take this solution to new sectors. By alleviating a key challenge in rendering, our customers can instead focus on driving innovation in an increasingly competitive landscape.”
The RaaS solution, currently in beta testing, will enable organisations to bid competitively for larger projects that have bigger batch compute requirements. BAFTA-award winning, visual effects (VFX) studio, Jellyfish Pictures is already utilising RaaS to flexibly scale resources on demand and significantly reduce production times.
