E! Networks Fuels International Network Growth With Shift to File-Based Workflow and Clustered Storage

E! Networks Fuels International Network Growth With Shift to File-Based Workflow and Clustered Storage

World's Largest Producer and Distributor of Entertainment News and Lifestyle Programming Streamlines Production and Distribution With 50 Terabytes of Isilon IQ Clustered Storage

SEATTLE, Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Isilon(R) Systems, the leader in clustered storage, and E! Entertainment Television today announced at the IBC conference in Amsterdam that E! Entertainment Television has made an initial deployment of more than 50 Terabytes of Isilon IQ clustered storage systems as the core storage platform for its new file-based production system. E! Entertainment Television (commonly referred to as "E! Networks") is the world's largest provider of entertainment news and lifestyle-related programming, creating 1,800 hours of original programming annually. E! Networks distributes its content via a wide array of distribution channels including cable, satellite, Video on Demand (VoD), interactive services and advanced mobile video services. By ingesting programming into its digital workflow system and storing its content on Isilon IQ clustered storage, E! Networks is able to efficiently edit and distribute programming across multiple distribution channels.

"Isilon clustered storage enables us to achieve our ambitious goal of a large scale, open architecture, file-based production environment," said Jeff Mayzurk, vice president of technology for E! Networks. "Isilon IQ is unique in its ability to provide heterogeneous access to large volumes of storage with the levels of performance, scalability and reliability that we require in a 24x7 media operations environment."

E! Networks is currently available to more than 86 million U.S. and 400 million international cable and satellite viewers in over 120 countries. Prior to adopting Isilon IQ clustered storage, E! Networks used both traditional Storage Area Network (SAN) systems and proprietary video storage systems, but the lack of interoperability and scalability of these systems made it difficult to achieve the level of integration needed in its production environment. With Isilon IQ, E! Networks is able to ingest its raw footage once, edit it into programs, transcode it into various broadcast and other formats while retaining the high-resolution digital masters for future use. With access to the central repository from multiple systems via standard protocols, E! Networks is able to produce and distribute content faster than ever before.

"Isilon IQ clustered storage enables E! Networks to radically simplify and speed up the production and distribution of its programming," said Brett Goodwin, vice president of marketing and business development for Isilon Systems. "Isilon IQ was designed from the ground up to address the unique data characteristics of unstructured data and delivers unparalleled levels of flexibility, control and scalability that are not possible with traditional storage systems."

As a file-based clustered NAS system, Isilon IQ readily integrated with E! Networks' existing infrastructure, which includes non-linear video editing systems, transcoding and playout systems. By creating a single pool of networked storage, Isilon IQ linearly scales capacity and performance in less than 60 seconds and allows E! Networks to rapidly expand its storage environment without system downtime.

Isilon recently announced the next generation of its award-winning Isilon IQ family of clustered storage systems -- the Isilon IQ 1920, 3000 and 4800 -- which are powered by the latest version of Isilon's award-winning OneFS(TM) distributed file system software and use high speed, low-latency InfiniBand for intracluster communication.

About Isilon Systems

Isilon is the leader in clustered storage. Isilon's award-winning family of Isilon IQ products consists of high-performance clustered storage systems that combine an intelligent distributed file system with modular industry-standard hardware to deliver unmatched simplicity and scalability. Isilon IQ was designed for unstructured data and for use in data-intensive markets such as media and entertainment, digital imaging, life sciences, oil and gas and government. The Seattle-based company is financed by Lehman Brothers Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Atlas Venture, Madrona Venture Group and Focus Ventures. For more information, please visit: http://www.isilon.com/ .

About E! Networks

E! Entertainment Television, Inc. ("E!," but known commonly as the collective "E! Networks") is the world's largest producer and distributor of entertainment news and lifestyle-related programming. The company operates E! Entertainment Television, the 24-hour network with programming dedicated to the world of entertainment; Style, and E! Online, located at www.eonline.com.

Internationally, E! programming can be seen in more than 120 countries worldwide, reaching 400 million homes. The company operates the E! International Network, a 24-hour English language global entertainment channel available via satellite in Europe, Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

NOTE: The names of companies mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners.

Source: Isilon Systems

CONTACT: Chris Metcalfe of Isilon Systems, +1-206-315-7577, or cmetcalfe@isilon.com; or Nicole Goesseringer of E! Networks, +1-310-822-4775, or ngoesseringer@eentertainment.com

Web site: http://www.eonline.com/

Web site: http://www.isilon.com/

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