Khara moves 500TB to Wasabi for 80% lower storage costs

Khara, the Japanese anime studio behind the Evangelion series, has chosen Wasabi Technologies as its cloud storage provider, migrating 500 terabytes of archival data from on-premises to the cloud.

With this move, Khara aims to address challenges related to the maintenance of hardware-based storage systems and to reduce associated management costs. The studio has relied heavily on on-site data solutions for years, storing extensive image and video archives vital to its creative output and ongoing productions.

According to Khara, repeated hardware failures, particularly with hard disk drives (HDDs), have created significant risks over time. The risk of losing unique creative assets has prompted concerns about data security and continuity.

A major advantage of Wasabi cloud storage is that it frees us from frequent HDD failures and hardware replacements, allowing us to concentrate on system administration work," said Kazuki Misawa, Chief System Engineer, Khara, Inc. "Repeated failures with our hardware increased the risk of losing irreplaceable data and the fear of this happening kept me awake at night as the large amount of data in each hard disk made replacement a nerve-wracking chore and replacing and rebuilding data on a single disk would often take one or two weeks. With Wasabi's cloud storage, the infrastructure cost is comparable to the existing system, and the management and operation cost will be reduced by about 80%. It is very significant that we can focus on our core system management tasks without having to deal with HDD failures and hardware upgrades.

Khara, which has archived image and video files over its 18-year history, sought a storage solution that could protect its intellectual property and manage ongoing data growth. Migration to Wasabi cloud storage is expected to substantially decrease operational costs, with an estimated 80% reduction in management and operation expenditure, based on the company's projections.

The nature of Khara's work means that every new production further increases data storage requirements, necessitating scalable solutions. Wasabi's cloud storage offers such scalability, allowing the studio to expand its digital archives quickly without additional physical infrastructure.

In addition to cost savings and simplified management, Wasabi cloud storage enables easier access to archives. Multiple production sites operated by Khara can now securely access stored assets as needed, streamlining workflows and supporting collaboration across locations.

A further feature of Wasabi's offering is its pricing structure, which eliminates traditional fees for data access, egress, and API requests. This predictability in costs is aimed at providing organisations with greater control over their budgets when compared to other cloud storage vendors.

We're excited to work with the innovative team at Khara to help keep their data safe and eliminate the headaches associated with replacing and rebuilding their on-premises solutions," said Aki Wakimoto, Japan country manager, Wasabi. "Wasabi will enable Khara's IT team to work more efficiently and help drive creative ideating without being burdened with worries of data loss.

Wasabi's cloud-based storage, described as secure and simple to use, is positioned as a solution suitable for a variety of organisations across different sectors. Khara's adoption of cloud storage means the studio's IT and systems teams can now devote their attention to system planning and development, instead of hardware maintenance and troubleshooting.

The shift from on-premises infrastructure to cloud storage reflects broader trends in media and entertainment, where data management and security are essential concerns. By centralising its digital archive in the cloud, Khara aims to support its ongoing projects and safeguard its creative assets for the future.