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Other World Computing (OWC) has acquired OpenDrives, the Los Angeles software-defined storage company whose Atlas platform has sat behind Hollywood studios, post houses, and live broadcast networks since 2011. The deal brings OpenDrives’ Atlas, Astraeus, and Edge platforms into OWC’s shared storage portfolio alongside the Jellyfish line, and OWC says it extends that line into enterprise-scale data management, hybrid cloud orchestration, and edge workflows. Terms weren’t disclosed. What OpenDrives Brings OpenDrives’ Atlas data storage and management platform is the core of the deal. It’s built for the low-latency, high-throughput work that uncompressed video pipelines demand, and it’s been the company’s flagship since 2011, with hardware and software updates we covered through the Ultra hardware platform and Atlas 2.1. Two newer products round out the portfolio. OpenDrives Edge, announced in April 2026, is a hybrid cloud-edge performance accelerator that gives distributed teams at edge sites local-speed data access without the cost and complexity of a conventional hybrid cloud workflow. Astraeus is a cloud-native data services platform aimed at infrastructure modernization and at bridging data silos while cutting costs; it went into beta with early adopters in late 2025, and OWC says an updated release is planned for 2027. Building on Jellyfish OWC bought Jellyfish from LumaForge in 2021 and has expanded it since into a range that runs from mobile and desktop production through the enterprise-class rackmount and all-flash XT systems and on to petabyte-scale deployments. OpenDrives adds the software-defined management and cloud layers that line didn’t have. “OWC and OpenDrives share so much synergy; we couldn’t be more excited about this partnership,” said Trevor Morgan, CEO of OpenDrives. He described the combined lineup as an end-to-end data ecosystem running from plug-and-play edit bays to global enterprise pipelines that handle uncompressed 8K and 12K workflows across on-premises, edge, and hybrid cloud, with OpenDrives customers picking up OWC’s direct-attached and shared storage products for archive and backup. OWC founder and CEO Larry O’Connor framed the acquisition as connecting the company’s storage and workflow hardware with software-defined data management services, so customers can capture, create, collaborate, and access content wherever they’re working. OpenDrives’ employees join OWC, which O’Connor said now numbers more than 250 people worldwide. Joel Whitley, partner at OpenDrives investor IAG Capital Partners, said OWC shares OpenDrives’ focus on creators and will carry on its product line for creative teams. For OWC, the move is a step up the stack, especially for M&E workloads. Jellyfish has been a hardware story, and OpenDrives’ Atlas, Edge, and Astraeus give the company a software and services layer it can sell into the same studios and broadcasters, with Edge and Astraeus aimed at the distributed production teams that Jellyfish alone couldn’t serve.
document fetched 2026-09-16 02:55 · canonical https://storagereview.com/news/owc-acquires-opendrives-adding-atlas-astraeus-and-edge-to-the-jellyfish-shared-storage-line