Remote workers gain instant access to terabytes of data

About the company

In the media and entertainment industry, the amount of content continues to soar. Video production is one area that has a unique set of needs, specifically in post-production workflows which encompass creative project data that involves editing, music, motion graphics, animation, color correction, and sound mixing. Media companies are struggling with the fact that network storage, often upwards of 100s of terabytes of data or more, continually fails to keep up with the demands in production workflows.

Business challenge

With over 80 on-prem workers and a constant rotation of offsite staff and freelancers, John McNeil Studio (JMS) was looking for a cloud-based solution that would allow them to share on-prem files across a distributed workforce. The legacy SAN was unable to keep up with these business demands. JMS workers had to access data on-prem, which meant they could not do any post-production work off-site or remotely. Also, Dropbox was being used to help offload the use of an expensive SAN for files that didn’t require high performance, which introduced an additional cost and a separate process, which was sometimes cumbersome for users. Being able to edit easily and share large data files remotely is integral to the future of their workflow.

Google Drive

JMS was already using G Suite by Google Cloud and naturally turned to them for a solution. Google Drive required users to download an entire file, and with 100s of TB on production servers to meet their needs, Google would have to cobble together a solution. Both companies realized that Google was not optimized for that amount of data in large files and didn’t scale for post-production workflows.

Dropbox & Box

JMS also worked with established solution providers, Dropbox Business and Box for Business. Neither solution was able to adequately meet all their needs related to rapidly accessing large data files. Both solutions required the user to download entire files, sometimes several gigabytes in size, adding additional time to the process.

Solution

When Advanced Systems Group (ASG), a leading production and post-production VAR and trusted JMS vendor, discovered LucidLink; they immediately made the recommendation. ASG knew that LucidLink Filespaces was a uniquely suited solution for object storage and would not only solve their current issues around remote access but also address some future storage-related capabilities that they knew JMS would like to have.

LucidLink’s solutions team met with JMS to discuss their needs and existing production environment. JMS currently uses Quantum for its on-prem storage needs and initially choose Amazon S3 as it’s remote destination behind LucidLink. Since LucidLink Filespaces works with any object storage, on-prem, hybrid, or multi-cloud, as well as any S3 compliant cloud provider, it was a natural fit.

JMS really liked the flexibility of not being restricted to any object storage destination in case future needs dictated the need for a different or additional provider. JMS was able to augment their on-prem storage with LucidLink in front of AWS S3 to provide a seamless way of moving data to where it is needed. Since LucidLink takes security very seriously, both in-flight and at rest, JMS can “check the box” for data protection.

Results

LucidLink’s distributed file services give JMS the digital capacity and quick “time-to-file” they need to be successful. Artists no longer have to stay late in the office waiting on files and approvals. With this innovative file system, both users and IT are more productive without the restrictions of having only on-prem storage. Staff can now work remotely and not be tied to the office environment and IT can easily support the solution.

JMS with LucidLink Filespaces is now able to:

• Provide streaming access to files enabling teams to work remotely on huge video files.

• Reduce time and cost savings by leveraging additional freelancers.

• Manage storage costs more tightly by utilizing existing SAN.

Jonathan Loomis, IT Director at John McNeil Studios, said, “After the installation of the LucidLink app, within three days I checked in with my users. I was surprised to find that LucidLink Filespaces was working in the background without any change to the team’s workflow. That’s a very poignant thing!” Jonathan added, “The big turn on was LucidLink’s file streaming capability.”

Summary

LucidLink’s on-demand streaming file service optimizes distributed workflow which reduces complexity, increases flexibility, and dramatically enhances remote team collaboration and productivity. LucidLink has taken a fresh approach to the problem of file access and latency, thereby allowing customers to keep their data centralized by:

• Improving security

• Eliminating the need to download or sync data

• Maintaining a flexible SaaS solution for any OS, any device

• Using versatile object storage

• Providing read/write streaming access to media assets

As the complexity in production workflows increase and the need for project collaboration escalates, professional media companies struggle to provide the best productivity tools for their remote staff and offices. By facilitating seamless, quick access to large data files like music, video, and images, regardless of location, LucidLink delivers high-performance access over distance that performs like a local disk. Creative teams don’t see a change in workflow and enjoy the benefits of streaming data.

About John McNeil Studio

John McNeil Studio (JMS) is a creative studio focused on building brands from production, motion, image, and design, to technology, strategy, and innovations.