Storage software supplier DataCore is buying media and entertainment object storage supplier Object Matrix.
DataCore supplies block (SANsymphony), file (vFILO), object storage (Swarm), and Kubernetes storage (Bolt). It entered the object storage market by buying Caringo in 2021. Swarm Object Storage is used by hundreds of customers in over 25 countries, growing in excess of 35 percent in 2022.
DataCore can provide increased sales coverage to Object Matrix, as its CEO, Jonathan Morgan, acknowledged: “By leveraging DataCore’s experienced leadership team, worldwide distribution – consisting of over 400 channel partners and more than 10,000 global customers – combined with world-class engineering, sales, and marketing, we are in an excellent position.”
The media archives here are disk-based and online, not based on tape or optical disks. The need is to store vast amounts of media content affordably online so that it is immediately available. There is no waiting for a slow tape library to find it, mount a cartridge, and stream the data out to the waiting video effects artist.
Object Matrix was founded in Wales in 2003 with the idea of storing video workflow data on disk in object storage form rather than on LTO tape. The company developed its MatrixStore software product to be a pre-production archive, storing production content data and making it available on-demand. Broadcast, production, VFX, post-production and creative agency types have been customers since 2006.
It now supplies on-premises appliances, hybrid systems, and cloud storage with which broadcasters and service providers can securely manage content at all stages of the media life cycle. Object Matrix customers include NBC Universal, Warner Bros. Discovery, MSG-N, ATP Media, BT, and the BBC.
In September 2022, DataCore did a deal with shared storage supplier Symply to release DataCore Perifery, a media archiving appliance using Swarm as its objects storage base. The product supports edge devices and integrates with workflows used in media production, post-production, studios, sports, and in-house creative teams.
Object Matrix’s appliances and cloud services will be added to DataCore’s Perifery portfolio. This, it says, will reinforce the Perifery line of edge devices and systems, and add talent and expertise to its Perifery team.
Abhijit Dey, general manager of DataCore’s Perifery business, said: “Gartner predicts that more than 50 percent of enterprise-managed data will be created and processed at the edge by 2025. We’re excited to expand our Perifery portfolio with innovative solutions that will enable us to lead in edge markets.”
There is now the possibility of Object Matrix transitioning to Swarm technology as its object storage, thus reducing DataCore’s object code base count and engineering costs.
The cost of the acquisition was not revealed. CB Insights classed privately owned DataCore as a unicorn, worth over $1 billion, earlier this month. The company has been vigorously expanding since CEO Dave Zabrowski came on board in 2018.
Object Matrix co-founder Nick Pearce has written an entertaining blog about the acquisition.
