Enabling a new generation of cloud-native studios
The creative industry is changing.
While headlines sometimes focus on large studio closures, the more interesting story is happening every day: talented creatives building something of their own. Directors, VFX supervisors, and producers are launching small, highly specialized studios with bold ideas, strong identities, and the freedom to define their own culture.
These founders are not running from something. They are building toward something.
But visionary creatives want to focus on storytelling, animation, design, and production, not storage architecture, GPU allocation, network design, or data lifecycle management. They are masters of their craft. They should not have to become data technology experts just to build a studio.
They need technology that simply works, seamlessly supporting their ambitions without getting in the way.
EngineLab was founded to solve exactly this problem.
At the center of that vision is Sam Reid, co-founder and CEO of EngineLab. Sam previously served as CTO of Untold Studios, the first studio built entirely in the cloud on Amazon Web Services, a milestone AWS has publicly validated.
He has done this before, at scale, in production, and under real-world creative pressure.
“Technology should be an enabler, not a distraction,” says Sam Reid, Co-Founder and CEO of EngineLab. “We handle the complexity so that business owners and visionaries can concentrate on building their studios, and creatives are free to execute their vision unencumbered by outdated legacy systems. Together, EngineLab and Qumulo give ambitious studios the next-generation foundation they need to compete.”
EngineLab operationalizes that experience for the next generation of studios, handling cloud infrastructure, storage, performance, and resilience so creatives can focus on what they do best: creating.
Building Studios at Cloud Speed
Whether responding to the sudden closure of a large studio or helping a team launch a new venture, the challenge is the same: technology cannot take months. It must take days.
EngineLab designs and deploys fully operational, production-ready cloud studios. Networking, compute, storage, security, and workflow integration are delivered as a cohesive platform, allowing creative teams to step into an environment that simply works.
Today, AWS is EngineLab’s primary platform. That decision is rooted in experience. Sam Reid built the first fully cloud-native studios on AWS and understands its architecture and production realities firsthand. Combined with AWS’s mature ecosystem and global scale, it provides a reliable foundation for creative workloads.
EngineLab’s automation frameworks, deployment playbooks, and production-tested patterns are therefore deeply aligned with AWS, where the team has delivered proven results.
Qumulo adds an additional layer of flexibility, with support across AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). As studios grow and infrastructure strategies evolve, that multi-cloud capability helps ensure creative pipelines remain portable and adaptable.
Why Qumulo Is EngineLab’s Storage Preference
Creative production depends on high-performance shared file data. For EngineLab, Qumulo has become the preferred storage platform because it aligns with how modern cloud studios need to operate.
1. Simplicity That Scales
Qumulo is straightforward to deploy and easy to operate. That simplicity matters deeply for emerging studios.
EngineLab frequently works with teams that lack in-house infrastructure departments. Qumulo’s ease of use translates directly to customers, enabling rapid environment stand-up, fast performance validation, and risk-free trials with minimal operational burden.
Studios can test, validate, and move forward quickly without prolonged infrastructure planning cycles.
2. Elastic Economics for Modern Studios
Studios operate in waves of production intensity.
One of the most compelling benefits of Qumulo in the cloud is elasticity. Storage nodes can be shut down during quieter production phases, reducing costs dramatically while preserving durable data in object storage.
“For emerging studios, cash flow is everything,” says Sam Reid, Co-Founder and CEO of EngineLab. “The beauty of a cloud-native model is that your technology investment grows with your work — no heavy upfront costs, no commitment to capacity you don’t yet need. You stay lean, stay agile, and scale when the time is right.”
3. Familiar Workflows Without Refactoring
Qumulo provides a distributed unstructured file system that integrates seamlessly into existing creative pipelines. Artists and production teams continue using the tools they know without interruption.
There is no need to rearchitect applications or redesign workflows. That continuity reduces risk and accelerates time to productivity.
AI Workflows That Enhance Creativity
AI is becoming a powerful accelerator within creative pipelines. It is not replacing artists. It is removing friction.
EngineLab is developing managed AI workflow solutions built around tools such as ComfyUI. These structured pipelines automate repetitive tasks like rotoscoping and asset preparation, allowing artists to focus on higher-value creative work.
Every AI-driven workflow depends on fast, reliable access to large volumes of data. Models, training datasets, generated assets, and multiple iterations must be stored and retrieved efficiently without slowing production.
Qumulo provides a high-throughput, distributed file platform that supports this demand. Its architecture enables consistent, high-concurrency access to data across teams and workloads, ensuring AI pipelines operate smoothly at scale.
EngineLab manages the production environment. Qumulo ensures the data layer keeps pace. Creatives remain focused on innovation.
As AI workloads expand, another operational factor comes into play. GPU capacity is not always available in a single availability zone or region. Production teams often need to secure compute wherever it is accessible, sometimes across multiple zones. Without a distributed storage architecture, this can lead to data silos, unnecessary duplication, version conflicts, and costly data transfers.
Qumulo’s cloud-native design addresses this challenge directly. By maintaining a single, consistent file system that spans availability zones, studios can direct compute to wherever GPUs are available without moving or copying data. Storage no longer constrains compute decisions. Data remains unified, performant, and accessible while workloads scale dynamically.
Multi-AZ Flexibility and Smarter GPU Utilization
Rendering and AI production demand flexibility. GPU availability shifts across regions and availability zones based on capacity and demand.
Qumulo’s ability to operate across multiple availability zones allows studios to allocate compute resources wherever GPUs are available while maintaining a unified data layer. There is no need to manually duplicate or reposition data to chase capacity.
Teams benefit from cross-zone file accessibility, lower latency, reduced transfer costs, and improved resilience.
For creatives, this means deadlines are met without technology becoming the bottleneck. EngineLab manages the complexity behind the scenes so production continues uninterrupted.
A Partnership Designed for Ambition
This collaboration reflects complementary strengths:
EngineLab brings hands-on, production-tested cloud studio expertise.
Qumulo delivers high-performance, cloud-native file data services across the public cloud.
AWS provides the global infrastructure foundation currently powering deployments.
Together, we enable emerging studios and data-driven teams to launch quickly, scale elastically, reduce infrastructure risk, maintain familiar workflows, and integrate AI capabilities without distraction.
Creative founders should be focused on vision, storytelling, and building culture. They should not be worrying about storage nodes, multi-AZ topology, or performance tuning.
That is why EngineLab exists.
That is why Qumulo fits so naturally into this model.
The creative industry is decentralizing. Teams are forming faster. Production cycles are tightening.
Infrastructure must evolve accordingly.
EngineLab and Qumulo are helping define what the next generation of truly cloud-native, globally connected studios looks like. Built from the ground up for elasticity, scale, and modern production demands, these environments enable teams to collaborate seamlessly across regions, support follow-the-sun workflows, and give studios the freedom to tap into talent anywhere in the world while working at speeds that feel local.
