Converged Cloud news and how HP and DreamWorks Animation work together to ‘make it matter’
HP Discover 2012 was in full production mode on Tuesday morning. The day began bright and early with a general keynote presentation by HP CEO Meg Whitman and special guest speaker Jeffrey Katzenberg, followed by some big Converged Cloud news.
Today’s announcements:
HP is taking the next logical step with its Converged Cloud model. With a series of new cloud solutions announced today, you can more easily put the Converged Cloud model to work for your organization. Integrating private, managed and public cloud with traditional IT creates an environment that can rapidly change based on where your enterprise needs to go, while avoiding complexity, cloud silos, risk and vendor lock-in.
Today’s announcements help make real the promise of Converged Cloud. New solutions include:
- Converged Cloud services for the airline industry.
- Building hybrid cloud environments.
- Managing the next generation of cloud applications.
- Increasing office productivity with cloud print solution.
- Closing the IT cloud expertise skills gap.
To learn more:
And now, on to today’s show highlights:
Coffee in hand. Check. Laptop, tablet or other mobile device. Check. Bright eyed and bushy tailed?
Today’s show attendees started the day off right with a general keynote session presented by HP’s CEO Meg Whitman, in which she introduced the core message of HP Discover 2012: Make it matter. The bottom line? What matters to you, matters to us.
DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg followed with an inspiring talk about “Where creativity and innovation meet,” and to highlight some of the ways that HP has been making it matter to DreamWorks for more than ten years.
To start things off, Katzenberg rolled video of the time he got onstage with a living, breathing lion named Pancho to introduce the inspiration for The Lion King. “We couldn’t have made The Lion King without Pancho, just like without technology, Madagascar 3 couldn’t have been made,” said Katzenberg.
A brief history of DreamWorks and HP
Back in the day, circa 1994, Disney created The Lion King with primarily hand-drawn stills. Yeah, the old fashioned way. But then computer animation took off and changed the whole animation game. When DreamWorks began to develop the computer-generated Shrek in 2001, it needed a technology partner, and how.
Katzenberg explained, “There was a cultural shift as well as a technological shift,” and DreamWorks needed to work faster, smarter and more creatively. HP answered their call and has even developed technology specifically for DreamWorks over the years, such as the HP DreamColor monitor, for near-perfect color rendering. “You couldn’t ask for a better, smarter and more helpful partner,” said Katzenberg. “HP technology works powerfully for us. I couldn’t be more confident about the company’s future.”
Scalable multicore processing introduces the next evolution
Katzenberg went on to explain how HP is further transforming the field for DreamWorks through scalable multicore processing. Using this technology, creators can work much faster by animating characters as they appear on the screen, in real time (meaning, no lengthy rendering process to see their finished work). “Artists have had to work at the speed of technology; now they can work at the speed of their imagination,” said Katzenberg.
Every business wants to make things faster, better, cheaper, continued Katzenberg. But achieving all three proves elusive. However, through DreamWorks’ partnership with HP, DreamWorks is moving closer every day toward doing just that. “We are a very high-end user who keeps pushing the boundaries of the possible,” said Katzenberg.
DreamWorks is deep in its latest technological transformation with scalable multicore processing. “Cloud, security, information—these are not just promises; they will quickly become realities,” said Katzenberg. Here’s how DreamWorks is exploiting those possibilities.
- Cloud computing: DreamWorks was HP’s first cloud client. DreamWorks’ computing demands created usage spikes that HP’s flexible compute service smoothes out. So the animators can focus on getting their jobs done.
- Security: HP has been handling DreamWorks’ security for years. “We have zero tolerance for security issues,” said Katzenberg. “We’ve never had a security issue thanks to HP. HP secures our entire enterprise and keeps our systems secure whether data travels next door or across the world.”
- Information explosion: DreamWorks’ colossal information load is all housed on an HP infrastructure. With the help of Autonomy, DreamWorks turn its data into information that animators can use.
Final words closing the keynote: “Technology is essential, and invaluable partner. We live in the age of technology. There’sno avoiding it. It’s either working for you or working against you,” said Katzenberg.
Did you know?
- Jeffrey Katzenberg first worked with Meg Whitman at the Walt Disney Company.
- DreamWorks was HP’s first cloud client.
- A typical computer-generated film contains half a billion digital files, which adds up to more than 200 terabytes of data.
Upcoming:
Start your day tomorrow with more highlights from today—and don’t forget that the general session starting at 8am PT will feature HP’s Dave Donatelli, Todd Bradley and Stouffer Egan, and a keynote from Intel CIO Kimberly S. Stevenson. Check here for highlights tomorrow evening or watch it live yourself by registering for Discover Online.
