OWC unveiled a new portable storage solution, targeting post-production workflows, at IBC 2023 last week; the Jellyfish Nomad is a compact, transportable network attached solution (NAS) that offers up to 64TB NVMe storage (48TB usable, using 8TB SSDs) in a desktop mini ITX form factor.
It’s essentially a PC (it has 128GB DDR4 ECC memory) with a lot of storage, a 350W PSU, a 6-port Ethernet network switch (10GbE), a built-in handle and OWC’s own software layer.
Having 8TB SSDs running as a JBOD means that the Jellyfish Nomad - which is available from $10,995, complete with a foamed lined carry case - can deliver up to 6GB/s of aggregate bandwidth, more than enough to handle RAW files, multi camera projects, 8K image sequences and VR footage.
The mobile storage server works out of the box and according to OWC can be up and running with no prior networking experience. OWC bundled Kyno, a popular media management and workflow software as well as its own media engine, remote access and server manager software. Mac users can also let OWC own connect app automate setup; note that the Nomad is also compatible with Linux.
All OWC Jellyfish utilize ZFS RAID which adds an extra layer of protection to your data since all data and metadata are stored on your pool. And by default, an OWC Jellyfish Nomad can sustain the failure of one SSD drive per 8-disk virtual device, up to a maximum simultaneous failure of one physical drive per pool.
A more powerful version called the Jellyfish Studio offers lower sustained read/write speeds (up to 3.5 GBps) but higher raw capacity (180TB SSD) and allows up to 14 devices to be attached via six 10GbE and eight 1GbE Ethernet port. It comes with a larger price tag as well (from $11,995) and is aimed at a much larger team.
OWC certified the products to work with the most popular video editing software around (Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple Final Cut Pro, Davinci Resolve, Avid media Composer), digital audio workstation software (DAW) and more.
A growing number of NAS now come with 10GbE ports and support for NVMe drives: Asustor has the Flashstor 12 Pro, Synology has the DiskStation DS1823xs+ while QNAP has the TVS-872XT. None however have quite managed to match OWC’s feature set.
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