Press Release

FotoKem Selects Isilon Over Traditional Storage Vendors for its Unmatched Ability to Accelerate and Streamline the Digital Content Workflow

Seattle - February 27, 2004 – Isilon Systems®, the premier provider of intelligent clustered storage systems for digital content, announced today that FotoKem, one of the largest film and video post production companies in the United States, has purchased and deployed Isilon IQ for its work on major motion picture films. FotoKem uses Isilon IQ for the daily workflow of creating, processing and editing motion pictures. FotoKem also uses Isilon IQ to digitally process film trailers, including those for Oscar-nominated films "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" and "Monster."

FotoKem turned to Isilon IQ to manage hundreds of thousands of files in the digital intermediate process, the industry's most progressive technology for perfecting the final look of major motion pictures. FotoKem looked at a host of network storage systems and selected Isilon IQ for its ability to scale capacity and throughput quickly and easily, maintaining consistently fast access to multiple projects in various stages of the post production workflow. FotoKem manages more than 22 terabytes – 22,000 gigabytes – of digital content at any one time, with up to eight terabytes moving quickly in and out of the Isilon IQ cluster for color correction, dust and scratch removal and other editing processes. After installing Isilon IQ, FotoKem experienced immediate benefits such as the ability to manage more projects concurrently and generate more revenues from their existing resources.

"As a leading film and video post production company, FotoKem demanded a highly scalable and reliable network storage system that could be used with multiple file formats and on numerous projects simultaneously," said Bill Schultz, senior vice president and general manager, digital film services division at FotoKem. "We have seen tremendous benefits from the Isilon IQ system because it delivers the same high performance regardless of the number of projects in the pipeline, and is so incredibly easy to use. It took us longer to take Isilon IQ out of the box than it did to install the system."

Isilon IQ Accelerates the Production Workflow

For over 40 years, artists have relied on FotoKem's unmatched experience, craftsmanship and reliability to help them realize their goals for filmmaking. FotoKem provides a full suite of filmmaking and post production services for all of the major film and television studios, including Warner Bros., Columbia Pictures, Walt Disney Productions and Universal Studios. To assist these companies in creating high-quality films, FotoKem often creates digital intermediates, where motion picture film is scanned, and a digital copy is created and worked on. The finished digital product is recorded back to motion picture film for movie theaters, and converted to video for other distribution outlets. Isilon IQ works extremely well throughout the digital intermediate process, allowing hundreds of thousands of digital files – averaging 13 megabytes in size each – to be accessed, processed and rapidly moved through the workflow. Additionally, FotoKem works with leading companies that make promotional film trailers, such as Mojo, that created the trailers for "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World."

Because Isilon IQ is a complete storage system based on industry-standard hardware, the system integrates easily with FotoKem's existing storage area network and enables FotoKem editors and automated processes using Windows, Macintosh and SGI systems to access and edit files simultaneously. The result of Isilon IQ's installation is a faster, more productive workflow, where FotoKem can work on more projects at once, move them through the production process faster than ever before, and return finished products to their customers ahead of schedule.

"It is crucial that our network storage system work in a cross-platform environment, where the systems in use and the number of simultaneous projects do not impact the workflow," said Paul Chapman, senior vice president of technology at FotoKem. "Overall, Isilon IQ is easy to install, configure and manage, and went into our existing environment extremely well. Isilon IQ is one product that truly works as advertised."

"We are thrilled at the chance to provide FotoKem with a storage system that suits their needs so specifically and works very well regardless of file formats, number of projects or storage pool size," said Brett Goodwin, vice president of marketing and business development at Isilon. "The requirements FotoKem had for a fast, easy, powerful network storage system were exactly what Isilon IQ was designed to tackle and we're delighted that FotoKem chose Isilon IQ for their mission critical workflow."

Isilon IQ is a high performance clustered storage system that combines an intelligent distributed file system with modular industry standard hardware to deliver unmatched simplicity and scalability. Isilon's OneFS™ distributed file system eliminates islands of storage by creating a single global namespace and enables customers to grow both storage capacity and performance linearly. The system was designed specifically for high growth, high throughput applications, such as those in media and entertainment, digital imaging, life sciences, and oil and gas.

About Isilon Systems
Isilon is the premier provider of intelligent clustered storage systems for digital content. Isilon's initial product, Isilon IQ, is a high performance clustered storage system that combines an intelligent distributed file system with modular industry standard hardware to deliver unmatched simplicity and scalability. Isilon IQ was designed for digital content and large data-intensive markets, such as media and entertainment, digital imaging, life sciences and oil and gas. The Seattle-based company is financed by Sequoia Capital, Atlas Venture and Madrona Venture Group. For more information, visit http://www.isilon.com.

About FotoKem
FotoKem is a full service motion picture laboratory, also providing video and audio post-production, storage, duplication and distribution, digital media management and digital film services to motion picture studios, independent production companies, television networks, advertising agencies and Fortune 1000 corporations. FotoKem was founded in 1963 to provide film processing and printing services to film makers. The company rapidly expanded to offer post-production services to provide an end-to-end solution for its customers and is a pioneer in the development of digital media management and digital film services. Visit FotoKem on the web at http://www.fotokem.com.