Choosing the Right Cloud Storage for Media Workflows on AWS: A Practical Perspective

Choosing the Right Cloud Storage for Media Workflows on AWS: A Practical Perspective

Over the past 30 years working in IT, media engineering, and post-production, I’ve seen firsthand how essential storage is to workflow performance and how often it’s misunderstood. Storage isn’t just about capacity or speed. In media pipelines, it's the heartbeat: feeding artists, editors, colorists, and render farms with the data they need exactly when they need it.

As more media companies move into the cloud either for burst rendering, global collaboration, or full-scale editorial pipelines AWS has become the natural platform of choice. But once you're in AWS, the next question is critical: what storage backend should you build on?

In this article, I’ll break down the leading storage solutions on AWS for media workflows, based not on spec sheets, but on real-world experience integrating these platforms into studios, post houses, and finishing teams.

Cloud Storage Isn’t One-Size-Fits-All

A single 8K OpenEXR sequence can bring a pipeline to its knees if the storage backend isn’t tuned right. Likewise, 100 artists hammering away on high-res editorial proxies will kill your productivity if latency spikes or throughput dips. The best cloud storage systems solve for bandwidth, latency, resilience, and accessibility while fitting into the creative flow, not working against it.

So, let’s talk about the options that actually hold up under real production pressure starting with my personal favorite.

Cloud Native Qumulo – Built for the Cloud from Day One

Among all the storage vendors operating in the AWS ecosystem, Cloud Native Qumulo stands out to me for one key reason: it wasn’t ported to the cloud it was engineered for it from the start.

The architecture combines Amazon S3 as the durable object storage tier with EC2-based NVMe caching to provide high-speed file access. This decouples compute from storage and allows you to scale elastically spinning up more performance when you need it and scaling down when you don’t. It’s the kind of flexibility that’s only possible when your file system is cloud-first in design.

In real-world deployments, Cloud Native Qumulo has demonstrated performance exceeding 1 TB/sec of read throughput, which isn’t just impressive it’s production-grade under pressure. I’ve seen render farms and editorial environments hit this kind of bandwidth without bottlenecks or performance drops, even under concurrency.

Pros:

• True cloud-native architecture — not a ported appliance
• Elastic scaling of compute and storage for peak efficiency
• S3-backed durability with high-performance NVMe cache
• Predictive caching (NeuralCache) accelerates data access by anticipating workload needs, reducing wait times and optimizing performance for sequential and bursty file-based workflows
• Robust API and automation support for modern pipelines

Cons:

• Less aligned with legacy enterprise protocol needs like iSCSI
• Requires thoughtful workflow architecture to unlock full benefits

If you're architecting a media pipeline in AWS, especially for VFX, finishing, animation, or high-speed editorial, Cloud Native Qumulo remains one of the most performant and cloud-aligned platforms I’ve worked with. It feels like it was built for the way media teams work — because it was.

NetApp FSx for ONTAP – Mature, Reliable, Versatile

NetApp is a staple in enterprise IT, and their ONTAP system via FSx on AWS brings a rich feature set into the managed cloud space. You get native support for NFS, SMB, and iSCSI, along with automated snapshots, replication, and tiering to S3.

In my experience, it’s well-suited to hybrid environments and traditional IT-style workflows that need broad protocol support and high availability. Performance is strong and consistent, and while it's not as elastic as Qumulo, it’s very reliable.

Pros:

• Multi-protocol support for mixed workloads
• Enterprise-grade replication, snapshotting, and S3 tiering
• Managed by AWS (FSx) with native console integration

Cons:

• Scaling performance requires upfront provisioning
• Less tailored to media-specific workflows
• Slightly heavier operational model

NetApp’s a great fit when you need something mature and reliable that fits into broader corporate infrastructure plans.

PixStor (Pixit Media with IBM Spectrum Scale) – High Performance with Flexibility

PixStor, powered by IBM Spectrum Scale (GPFS) and supported by Pixit’s deployment expertise, is one of the most technically capable storage systems available to media professionals and in AWS, it holds its own when architected properly.

I’ve used GPFS-based systems in the past, and the performance is excellent, particularly for mixed workloads. Whether it's playback, rendering, or editorial concurrency, GPFS handles metadata and scale very well. In the cloud, Pixit’s engineering helps abstract away the underlying complexity of GPFS but it’s still a powerful beast under the hood.

Pros:

• Highly performant under metadata-heavy workloads
• Excellent scalability and throughput
• Deeply customizable, especially for hybrid or burst pipelines

Cons:

• Complex to configure and maintain without expert support
• Less of a turnkey experience compared to Qumulo or OpenDrives
• Typically requires partner-managed deployment

PixStor is a strong candidate if you already know you need GPFS-style control and performance, and you have a partner like Pixit or Ingenia backing your setup.

Quantum StorNext – Editorial Meets Archive

Quantum’s StorNext is a workflow-aware file system designed for editorial and media asset management. In AWS, it performs well when deployed with EC2-backed metadata controllers and integrated tiering to S3 or Glacier.

In editorial environments where you’re managing hundreds of thousands of files and need policy-based archival, StorNext still holds value. Its ability to archive and restore without interrupting creative workflows makes it ideal for long-term project lifecycles.

Pros:

• Designed for editorial + archival balance
• Policy-driven tiering to Glacier/S3
• Long-standing history in media production

Cons:

• Requires more setup and tuning in cloud environments
• Smaller community for cloud-native use cases
• Somewhat limited flexibility outside its designed workflow

StorNext is still a solid choice if archiving is a key part of your workflow — and you're comfortable managing a bit of infrastructure.

OpenDrives Atlas Cloud – Premium NAS Without the Hassle

OpenDrives’ cloud offering brings the same performance-first approach that made them a favorite in post houses into AWS. Their managed NAS platform is tailored for media use, providing low-latency access and predictable playback for editorial and finishing.

You don’t need to touch EC2 instances or tweak storage volumes everything is preconfigured and fully managed. That’s a big plus for smaller studios or fast-paced teams who don’t want a storage admin role on staff.

Pros:

• Fully managed, turnkey deployment
• Tuned specifically for playback and editorial
• High performance without tuning overhead

Cons:

• Less customizable than DIY setups
• Higher price point at scale
• May be overkill for archive- or render-heavy workflows

Atlas Cloud is a great choice when you want a premium, no-headache editorial storage system in AWS.

Hammerspace – Intelligent Global Data Orchestration

Hammerspace is less of a traditional storage system and more of a global data orchestration layer. It creates a single, unified view across multiple storage backends whether they’re in AWS, on-prem, or across regions and allows you to move data where it needs to be based on policy, activity, or access needs.

For media teams collaborating globally or trying to blend on-prem pipelines with AWS rendering and archival, Hammerspace unlocks serious agility. It doesn’t care where the data is it just moves it and presents it seamlessly.

Pros:

• Global file system overlay across cloud/on-prem
• Data mobility based on policy or workload
• Ideal for hybrid or multi-region collaboration

Cons:

• Not a primary storage engine — needs underlying storage
• Adds some complexity to debugging access/performance issues
• May require more planning upfront

If your challenge is more about managing where your data lives than how fast it reads, Hammerspace can be an excellent control plane.

Final Thoughts

If you're moving heavy media workflows into AWS, storage isn't just a backend decision it's an architectural one. The performance of your rendering, editing, and asset management depends heavily on choosing the right platform.

For most cloud-first environments, Qumulo is the most cloud-native, elastic, and media-aware storage platform I’ve worked with. It’s not a lift-and-shift it’s designed for scale, speed, and smart economics from the ground up.

But every environment has its nuance. If you’re looking for multiprotocol legacy compatibility, NetApp still earns its place. If you're building high-performance hybrid systems with GPFS and need surgical precision, PixStor with Ingenia is a proven platform. And if you're focused on fully-managed solutions or global file visibility, OpenDrives and Hammerspace each bring something uniquely powerful to the table.

The bottom line? Match your storage to your workflow, not just your storage budget. The performance gains and the headaches avoided will more than justify it.