Parliament VFX Increases Business Agility with the WEKA Data Platform in Google Cloud

Launching with no physical space, no investors, and right at the onset of a global pandemic, Parliament faced the daunting task of operating from day one as a medium- to large-sized VFX company. The cloud-first strategy enabled Parliament to move faster than it could have on-premises and enabled more artist collaboration than they ever could otherwise. However, as they scaled their operations, they found the economics of content creation in the cloud was a completely new game.

According to Tom Taylor from Gunpowder LLC, who consults with Parliament on their technology strategy: “…we quickly ran into a significant roadblock with the available cloud storage options. The cost to achieve the performance we required was just astronomical. It was a catch-22; pay through the nose to get the performance needed and risk being unprofitable or save money but compromise on quality. Neither was an acceptable option.”

Parliament can now build even the most challenging creative projects in the cloud using WEKA. Taylor underscores the real-world significance of this change by referring to Parliament’s work on high-profile projects, such as Super Bowl commercials and Taylor Swift’s music videos. “These projects required managing huge amounts of data. Intelligent, automated data management isn’t just a convenience in such scenarios; it’s a necessity. It empowers us to deliver high-quality work within time and budget consistently,” Taylor concludes.

“That’s where WEKA comes in,” Taylor concludes. “WEKA eliminated the trade-off between performance and cost. It delivered the high-speed data storage performance we required for VFX rendering without the hefty price tag. It’s not just the technical operation WEKA enables – it’s the entire business. And that, in a nutshell, is why WEKA is such a game-changer for us.”