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Creative Agency Streamlining Adobe Cloud and Archival Storage
Company Situation
The company is a creative agency specializing in web design, branding, video production, and photography. Their team consists of approximately a dozen full-time employees and several part-time contractors. Most of the team works from a shared office space, with a few remote members. They operate within a larger organization that provides IT support, including data storage infrastructure.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the agency relies on their parent company’s servers for media storage. They have fast attached storage that supports direct editing of high-resolution files, including 4K video and occasional 6K footage. Due to the growing volume of media assets, much of the data has been moved to archival storage to manage space. Photography files, while present, are less demanding in storage size compared to video files.
Editing is primarily done using Adobe Creative Cloud tools, though they do not currently use Frame.io or similar review platforms. The main workflow pain point centers on the storage layer managed by the IT department rather than editing performance itself.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The agency faces persistent pushback from their IT team regarding storage usage, particularly the archival storage volume which has grown beyond a terabyte, with active editing volumes around eight terabytes. The IT team regularly pressures the creative team to delete footage to free up space, which conflicts with company ownership of media assets and the agency’s need to retain files.
While editing speed is sufficient on the current fast servers, the growing data volume and limited archival solutions strain IT resources and create ongoing tension. There is a need for a storage solution that reduces IT involvement and better accommodates the agency’s data growth without compromising accessibility.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade’s media storage platform would provide the agency with a scalable, efficient solution specifically designed for creative workflows. By offloading archival and active storage to Shade, the agency could:
- Maintain fast access to large media files for editing without relying solely on internal servers.
- Reduce pressure on the IT department by shifting storage management responsibilities to Shade’s platform.
- Ensure secure, compliant retention of company-owned assets without risking deletion or loss.
- Streamline collaboration among team members, including contractors, through centralized and optimized media access.
This would help the agency manage growing media volumes seamlessly while preserving workflow speed and creative control.
Benefits
- Scalable storage tailored for large video and photography files
- Reduced conflict with IT over storage space and data management
- Fast, reliable access to media for smooth editing workflows
- Secure retention of company assets with less risk of accidental deletion
- Simplified collaboration across in-house and remote team members
- Lower administrative overhead related to storage management
Technologies Used
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