Movisio Keeps Production Data on Its Own Terms with TrueNAS
When Vendor Support Ends, Control Becomes the Priority
Movisio is a Czech IT company with roughly 50 employees across two main divisions. One team creates what Vladimír Holička describes as a “3D world,” producing models, videos, animations, and other digital assets. The other side of the business focuses on software development and the workflows that support it.
For both teams, storage isn’t a background utility – it’s an active part of daily production.
Movisio started with customer-grade NAS devices, then moved to Dell storage as their needs grew. But after about seven years, Dell ended support for the appliance the company depended on, leaving Movisio without a clear path forward. The storage conversation changed from simple expansions and support refreshes to real operational risk.
“We didn’t want to run business critical applications and store data on unsupported hardware,” Vladimír said. “That’s just like that.”
The experience left Movisio looking for a different kind of storage relationship. According to Vladimír, the message from Dell felt like, “bad luck, sorry, buy something new.” Movisio didn’t want to shift to another proprietary storage platform where the vendor controlled the support timeline, the refresh cycle, and the economics. They needed enterprise storage on their own terms, with data they owned, infrastructure they could operate directly, and a growth path that didn’t depend on support expirations tied to forced replacement.
One Platform for 3D Production, Development, and Virtualization
Movisio’s environment had several different storage demands. The 3D division needed large-capacity storage for production assets before and after rendering, including hundreds of terabytes of data. The software development team needed faster storage for active workflows. The company also needed storage to support virtualization as it looked to replace an aging VMware environment running roughly 40 virtual machines.
TrueNAS gave Movisio one adaptable enterprise platform for all of those different needs.
The company selected a TrueNAS M40-HA system and began using it as production storage for virtual machines, 3D data, and development workflows. With the versatility offered by TrueNAS, Movisio was able to solve all three of their storage challenges with a single unified solution, avoiding the need for multiple systems or software suites. One strategic purchase built a foundation for multiple parts of the business.
“Those are the three use cases we wanted to cover with TrueNAS,” Vladimír said. “It worked and works quite well.”
Owning the Data Was Non-Negotiable
Movisio evaluated other vendors, including HPE, but TrueNAS stood out because it aligned with both the technical requirements and the company’s need for control.
Some alternatives leaned toward leasing-style models, but that did not fit Movisio’s business plans. Movisio customer contracts, including some government entities, required long-term responsibility for stored data and archives; so for Vladimír, keeping the storage environment on premises and under Movisio’s ownership was essential.
“We didn’t want to lease some kind of space and not have our data in our control or ownership,” he said. “It was an on-premise solution from you – for a fair price.”
Vladimír also came to the decision with prior experience as a TrueNAS community user, which helped establish confidence before the enterprise purchase. He already understood the platform and believed TrueNAS could deliver a business-ready solution.
“I was a community user for a long time,” Vladimír said, “and it somehow popped in my mind that you should be able to create some kind of enterprise solution for us.”
Predictable Value Without Giving Up Performance
The decision ultimately came down to fit. Movisio needed enterprise storage that could handle demanding workloads without forcing the company into a costly, opaque vendor model.
TrueNAS delivered the performance Movisio needed with storage economics the business could plan around.
“I think it is the combination,” Vladimír said. “The performance that TrueNAS delivers for the money we paid for it is quite good for us. As we checked the other vendors, this was the solution that won.”
That value mattered because Movisio’s storage requirements are broad. The company is supporting 3D production, development workflows, virtualization, and long-term data retention. TrueNAS gave the team a way to address those requirements without creating separate silos, requiring training on multiple systems, or surrendering control of the underlying infrastructure.
“The Experience Was Great for Us”
For Vladimír, the value of TrueNAS came from the full experience: not just the product, but also the presales process, the sales team, procurement, and the support behind the system.
Even before the decision was made, Movisio worked with the TrueNAS team to shape the right configuration for its environment, then moved from decision to deployment in just over two months. For a system built in the United States and shipped to the Czech Republic through a European distributor, Vladimír described the process as smooth and reasonable. “Considering everything,” he said, “it was okay.”
That mattered because Movisio wasn’t buying a piece of hardware. They were selecting production storage for business-critical workloads, across half the planet, with ownership, support, and long-term confidence all part of the decision.
“I think it was the whole experience,” Vladimír said. “The pre-sale guys, the sales guys, everything we needed to solve with support, the support guys are great… The experience was great for us.”
Production Confidence Comes from Proof
Movisio’s TrueNAS system now supports all three of their daily production workloads, completing the move away from a forced-refresh vendor experience to a storage platform they can operate, trust, and expand on their own terms.
The company is already looking at future TrueNAS use, including backup expansion and a university project involving a digital twin of a nuclear reactor. For Movisio, TrueNAS is more than the “next hardware refresh” that replaced aging storage – it’s a platform the company can trust to build their business on.
