How SoftNAS Supports Media Storage Solutions at Scale

The Media & Entertainment industry is undergoing a profound transformation. The rise of global streaming platforms, the demand for ultra-high-definition content, and the shift to digital-first production models have reshaped the way content is created, delivered, and archived. Companies are searching for high-performance media storage solutions.

For the companies driving this change—whether they’re major studios, music labels, broadcasters, or independent content creators—data is everything. But not just data itself: the way it’s stored, accessed, protected, and moved across increasingly hybrid environments. That’s where SoftNAS comes in.

SoftNAS, the software-defined storage platform from Buurst, is purpose-built for the high-performance, data-intensive workloads that define today’s media pipelines. From live sports broadcasts to decades-old film archives, SoftNAS empowers M&E organizations to manage their content with speed, control, and confidence—without breaking the bank.

The New Realities of Media Storage Solutions

Consider how media has evolved in just the past decade. In the early 2010s, delivering HD video was a technical feat. Today, 4K and even 8K are quickly becoming the new standard. Streaming services are producing as much original content as traditional studios. Cloud-based editing, AI-powered metadata tagging, and global distribution are now table stakes. 

All of this is fueled by data—massive amounts of it. A single hour of raw 4K footage can consume over 300GB of storage. A full season of a television show, when accounting for rough cuts, final edits, and promotional assets, can reach tens of terabytes. And that’s just video. Add in project files, audio stems, subtitles, artwork, and metadata, and the total grows exponentially. 

But it’s not just the size of the data that matters—it’s what you do with it. Content must be accessible to editors, producers, and engineers in real time. It needs to move quickly between departments, across continents, and between on-premises and cloud environments. It must be secured against loss and cyberthreats, yet flexible enough to allow seamless collaboration. 

Traditional storage systems—rigid, expensive, and tied to physical infrastructure—simply can’t keep up. You need a high-performance media storage solution.

SoftNAS was designed to change that. 

What Makes SoftNAS Different than other Media Storage Solutions?

SoftNAS takes a software-defined approach to media storage solutions. Rather than relying on expensive, proprietary hardware, it runs on commodity servers and within all major cloud environments, including AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud. This flexibility allows organizations to build scalable, high-performance storage environments that meet their exact needs—without vendor lock-in.

For Media & Entertainment workloads, this brings a long list of benefits:

• Elastic scalability to accommodate fluctuating demand and growing libraries
• Low-latency performance for real-time editing and smooth streaming
• Multi-protocol access for diverse creative toolchains (NFS, CIFS/SMB, iSCSI)
• Robust data protection through snapshots, replication, and automated backups
• Efficient metadata handling, which is critical for search and retrieval at scale\
• Deployment freedom—on-prem, cloud, or hybrid—based on project requirements

Whether you’re managing a high-profile live event or migrating decades of film to the cloud, SoftNAS provides the storage backbone that lets creative teams focus on what they do best—telling stories.

Performance That Keeps Up with Production

One of the most critical demands of the M&E industry is performance from their media storage solution. Editors and visual effects artists can’t wait for files to load. Streamers can’t afford buffering or downtime. Production teams need their footage and assets ready instantly, wherever they are in the world.

SoftNAS is engineered for these types of real-time, high-throughput workloads. Using advanced caching algorithms, RAID configurations, and support for SSD and NVMe-based storage tiers, it delivers consistently low latency even under intense data loads.

In cloud deployments, SoftNAS takes advantage of the native high-speed networking provided by hyperscalers. For example, in AWS, SoftNAS can leverage VPC Peering to eliminate egress costs between storage and compute instances, resulting in significant savings for cloud-based editing, rendering, or content delivery.

The platform’s built-in compression and deduplication features also help reduce storage footprint, boosting performance while lowering total cost of ownership.

This is especially valuable in environments where millions of files are being accessed, indexed, and transferred simultaneously—such as streaming services updating their content libraries, or post-production teams working on multiple parallel projects.

Scaling Without Limits

Media storage needs don’t just grow—they explode.

A new show can mean hundreds of terabytes of additional data. A move to 8K doubles storage requirements instantly. A sudden hit song or viral documentary can trigger a global wave of downloads and re-encodes. And as AI-driven workflows become more common—automating metadata generation, speech-to-text, content localization—the amount of ancillary data explodes even further.

SoftNAS supports both vertical scaling (adding more capacity or performance to a single instance) and horizontal scaling (spinning up additional instances as needed). This makes it ideal for organizations that need to move fast and scale smart, without lengthy infrastructure overhauls.

You can start small—perhaps supporting a single team or project—and scale out as more departments come on board. SoftNAS ensures that your storage grows as your business and content grow, not before or after.

And with policy-based tiering, you can automatically move data between hot, warm, and cold storage tiers based on access frequency—keeping costs in check while ensuring performance where it counts.

Archives That Protect Your Legacy

Media archives are more than just backups—they’re living, breathing repositories of cultural value, creative IP, and commercial opportunity.

Studios often need to revisit archival footage for remasters, sequels, or marketing. Music labels rely on decades-old recordings for re-releases, samples, and sync licensing. Broadcasters need instant access to historical footage for retrospectives or breaking news. This means that archives must be both secure and searchable, not locked away in inaccessible cold storage.

SoftNAS delivers on both fronts.

With high-integrity snapshot technology and point-in-time replication, SoftNAS provides granular recovery options that safeguard against accidental deletion, corruption, and ransomware. And its fast metadata indexing and traversal make it easy to locate specific files or projects, even in multi-petabyte datasets.

SoftNAS also supports cross-region replication, allowing organizations to create geographically distributed backup sets for disaster recovery or regulatory compliance.

For M&E companies monetizing their archives—whether through OTT platforms, licensing deals, or digital reissues—SoftNAS ensures that valuable content remains accessible, secure, and ready to deliver.

The Jiostar Story: Streaming at Scale in Real Time

A standout example of SoftNAS in action comes from Jiostar, India’s leading streaming service. When Jiostar was preparing for the T20 Cricket Tournament, one of the most-watched sporting events in the world, the stakes were incredibly high.

They needed to ingest, process, and deliver both live and on-demand content to millions of viewers—many of them watching on mobile devices with varying bandwidth and connectivity. The storage system had to support real-time file writes, concurrent access by multiple processing systems, and rapid delivery to content distribution networks.

In total, the event generated over 500 terabytes of video and metadata—equivalent to more than five million hours of HD video. And it all had to be stored, accessed, and delivered without delay or failure.

SoftNAS provided the core storage infrastructure for this massive operation. With its high throughput, cloud-native architecture, and support for live ingestion and distributed access, it allowed Jiostar to:

Maintain performance under extreme load conditions

Scale rapidly to accommodate traffic spikes

Protect data with built-in snapshots and replication

Reduce operational costs compared to traditional infrastructure

The result? A seamless viewing experience for millions, and a testament to the power of software-defined storage at scale.

A Strategic Advantage with Buurst + AWS

Behind every SoftNAS deployment is Buurst, a company that understands the nuances of cloud migration, intelligent data management, and performance at scale.

The value proposition is clear:

“Buurst for AWS delivers accelerated cloud migration, cost optimization, low latency, high data transfer speed, and high-performance data storage through intelligent data management.”

For M&E customers, this means faster time to market, fewer infrastructure bottlenecks, and better collaboration across departments, time zones, and technologies. It’s a storage platform that fits into your creative process—not the other way around.

The Future of Media is Built on Flexible Storage

As the Media & Entertainment industry continues to evolve, so too must its infrastructure. Today’s storage must support tomorrow’s formats. Today’s workflows must anticipate tomorrow’s demands. And today’s costs must not compromise tomorrow’s opportunities.

SoftNAS is more than just a storage platform—it’s a strategic enabler for media companies ready to embrace a new era of content creation, distribution, and monetization.

Whether you’re producing your next global hit, preserving your studio’s legacy, or preparing for the next big live event, SoftNAS gives you the tools to scale with confidence, move with speed, and protect what matters.

Because in this industry, your content is everything—and SoftNAS helps you treat it that way.