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Sports Media Company Consolidating Backblaze B2 and AWS Deep Glacier
Company Situation
The company operates within the sports media and content management industry, supporting a mid-sized organization transitioning from a large Fortune 500 environment. Their team is managing an extensive digital media library approaching petabyte scale, servicing fast-paced workflows that require collaboration across multiple remote and in-office users. The organization is also undergoing a physical relocation, moving their headquarters with a temporary fully cloud-based setup in place.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the company relies on a complex, multi-software ecosystem to manage and share their media assets. This includes using cloud storage platforms such as Backblaze B2 for primary storage, AWS Deep Glacier for disaster recovery, and Box or SharePoint for file sharing. They also employ specialized tools like Iconic, Lucid Link, and Frame to enable remote editing and collaboration, while still having legacy workflows that involve carrying and ingesting media from physical hard drives. For image assets, they use Box, with plans to migrate to SharePoint. Their workflow requires significant manual project management for large media files (300+ GB projects), often necessitating uploads and downloads through multiple platforms before collaborators can access or edit content in real time.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
Fragmented Software Stack: Using 5 to 7 different platforms creates data silos and complicates workflows, making adoption and training difficult for the team.
Inefficient Collaboration: Large media files must be manually uploaded and downloaded between platforms, causing delays and version control challenges. Existing tools like Adobe Team Projects and Iconic do not fully meet performance or usability expectations.
Cost Concerns: The company is incurring high ongoing costs for storage and streaming services, especially with Lucid Link’s pricing model, which is not scalable for their petabyte-level data.
Lack of Real-Time Workflow: Current solutions do not enable seamless real-time editing handoffs, forcing reliance on asynchronous file transfers and making collaboration cumbersome.
Migration and Integration Uncertainty: The upcoming headquarters move and shift to a fully cloud-based environment create uncertainty around storage migration and performance, especially with Backblaze’s mixed performance reports.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a unified platform designed to consolidate media management, search, access, and sharing into a single cloud-native solution that “feels like a hard drive” with built-in production assistant capabilities. By replacing the fragmented ecosystem with Shade’s integrated service, the company can:
- Access and edit large media files in real-time without the need for multiple uploads/downloads or separate tools.
- Reduce software complexity by training the team on one platform with a highly intuitive interface and robust search functionality.
- Leverage Shade’s two-tier storage model, combining hot storage for immediate access and a cost-effective vault storage tier with AI-powered review and approval workflows.
- Maintain or migrate existing Backblaze B2 storage into Shade’s bring-your-own-storage environment or switch to Wasabi for improved performance, optimizing costs and scalability.
- Streamline external sharing with simple, secure link sharing eliminating the need for additional platforms like Frame or Box.
Benefits
- Significant cost savings (estimated 3.4x reduction compared to current stack)
- Simplified user experience and faster team adoption with a single platform
- Real-time collaborative editing and project handoffs without lag or cumbersome uploads
- Scalable storage architecture optimized for petabyte-level media libraries
- AI-enhanced media review and approval workflows built-in
- Flexible integration with existing cloud storage providers and future-proofed for post-move infrastructure
Technologies Used
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