Storage made The Ant Bully what it is

IN A REALLY desperate attempt to hitch itself to a bandwagon, storage company Isilon has issued a press release about its role in the new animated box office smash The Ant Bully.

Apparently, DNA Productions, the post production house that created the special effects, used Isilon storage clusters to hold all its computer files. Isilon now claims that its clustered storage systems, Isilon IQ - powered by OneFS 4.0, whatever that is, they don't say - enabled the production company to deliver "unparalleled quality, efficiency and detail in the creation of the The Ant Bully".

Rich Hirneise, Director of Network Operations, DNA Productions, very generously seems to support this theory. "Studios and audiences alike expect us to deliver breakthrough visual effects and animation as a core component of the stories we tell, and as such our films are incredibly complex to create," he told whoever wrote the press release. "Isilon IQ delivers the high performance, flexibility and cost-effectiveness we require to power our state-of-the-art productions and meet crucial deadlines in our business operations."

The tribute may arouse some anger among other office suppliers to DNA Productions, which feels its supporting role is being overlooked. Staples, the stationery retailer which provides envelopes, letter paper and paper clips, among a whole range of holistic office equipment solutions, may be up in arms that its supporting role in the creative process has been overlooked. As indeed are the suppliers of electricity, water and gas, which we can't name for legal reasons.

"What about the people who supplied the chairs," asked one wag, "without chairs nobody could sit down and write a single script. But have they thanked my client? I don't think so."

However, Brett Goodwin, VP of Marketing & Business Development, Isilon Systems, gamely continued to equate his employer's clustered storage system with the thought processes involved in creating a groundbreaking piece of drama.

"With The Ant Bully, DNA Productions has once again raised the bar for film animation, bringing unparalleled levels of realism and artistic value to audiences the world over," Goodwin insisted. "Isilon IQ was built from the ground up to store, manage and access digital content and DNA's deployment of our solutions is a great use case for companies looking to gain a competitive advantage through the use of clustered storage architectures."

A Microsoft spokesman was not available for comment. µ