Shared Storage For Creative Teams: Challenges And Solutions

Many creative teams struggle with inefficient storage solutions that hinder productivity and stifle creativity. We know this because we constantly receive inquiries from creative teams like yours seeking a reprieve from their desolate and disconnected workflow. 

From managing massive media files to collaborating across different locations, the list of challenges that can slow down a video production workflow is endless. Let’s dive into some common challenges experienced by creative professionals and explore how SNS can offer a much-needed lifeline.

Challenge #1: Heaps Of Hard Drives

“We’re still using a bunch of hard drives to manage our media—it’s a nightmare.” 

We see this situation a lot. The crux of the problem: storage is driven by disparate hard drives rather than a centralized storage solution. Users are constantly passing hard drives around, spending hours hunting down files, and worst of all: losing media. No creative team should be subject to such an inefficient and ineffective workflow.

Solution: Upgrade To A Centralized Storage Server

A centralized solution can eliminate your reliance on hand-passed hard drives. Creative teams can access and share projects and media files seamlessly, without fear of misplacing a hard drive. And adding Media Asset Management (MAM) to your centralized workflow will help video editors find exactly what they need, without wasting time searching for files across dozens of drives or meticulously tracking where media is in convoluted spreadsheets.

EVO makes centralizing your workflow easy with high-performance shared storage that’s fast enough to edit on and the award-winning EVO Suite of software to help your video editors and collaborators stay organized and productive. Scalable storage space, performance to handle your most demanding projects, media management, collaboration tools, remote workflow solutions—EVO has it all.

Challenge #2: The High-maintenance Server

“We have an internal server that we would love to move away from as it constantly needs to be upgraded and drives swapped out.”

Ah, the joys of server maintenance… Some servers can be a black hole of frustration and costly upkeep. Beyond the inconvenience and expense, sticking with an old server that constantly requires software patches and swapped drives can be a security risk for your organization. 

Solution: Upgrade to A Secure, Efficient Storage Solution

If you are looking for low-maintenance server alternatives, consider EVO on premise or in the cloud. 

Known for its reliability, production teams trust EVO for video content creation all around the world. In fact, Nashville Public Library’s technology services manager proudly touted a continuous uptime of over 5 years, saying “my favorite part about EVO is that it is maintenance-free.” 

For a fully hands-off approach, EVO Cloud is available for a flat monthly rate and requires no server hardware in your facility. All users can connect remotely to your EVO Cloud instance and enjoy its media asset management, transcoding, media sharing, and workflow automation features from anywhere. Learn more about EVO Cloud. 

Bottom line: On premise or in the cloud, EVO is technology you can trust.

Challenge #3: Not Considering Remote Workflow

“We occasionally have one or two remote editors, so remote editing isn’t 100% necessary at the moment.”

Even if your workflow is fully on premise today, if 2020 taught us anything, it’s that we need to be able to adapt at a moment’s notice. There are many reasons why an editor may not be able to come to the studio: illness, inclement weather, childcare, or a global tech outage that leaves them stuck in an airport for days (remember that?). 

No matter the circumstance, having an on prem solution that can accommodate the occasional remote editor provides much-needed flexibility for creative workflows. It allows your creative process to move forward when necessary without negatively impacting those who are in the studio.

Solution: Set Your Team Up For Success, Anywhere

SNS EVO is a network attached storage (NAS) server that facilitates shared access to projects and media files in the office or studio, and around the world. Here are some of the ways EVO enables remote production without compromising the on premise experience. 

1. In 2020, SNS launched Nomad, a remote editing tool to empower workflow for remote editors. This tool has been a lifesaver for many of our customers (their words, not ours!). By providing a simple way to access lightweight proxy files for offline editing, Nomad keeps projects moving forward when editors can’t be physically present in the office. 

2. In addition to Nomad, SNS can automatically backup and sync media to various cloud storage destinations, including Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure and OneDrive, Dropbox, Box.com, Wasabi, Backblaze, Google Cloud Platform, and EVO Cloud. EVO can be set up to automatically share media to remote users via these cloud integrations to enable remote and multi-site workflows.

3. Finally, for the best remote workflow, users can access their on premise EVO from anywhere with a VPN service like SNS Cloud VPN. Secure remote access to EVO opens a world of opportunities for creative teams to search, share, edit, and create amazing content, from anywhere. 

Challenge #4: International Collaboration Costs An Arm And A Leg

“It is incredibly expensive to ship drives via courier, and our cloud service has extremely long render times. Looking for an efficient multi-user workflow accessible across three countries.”

Global collaboration sounds glamorous until you realize you’re spending more time wrangling files than creating masterpieces. Whether it’s the wait for international courier deliveries, excruciatingly slow cloud push/pull workflows, or the exorbitant price tag of egress fees and overnight shipping, an international workflow can be costly. 

Solution: Secure Remote Access And Cloud Collaboration

EVO offers a truly global workflow with its built-in tools for international media transfer via the cloud, or multiple cloud services. You can set a watched folder to automatically send footage to the cloud destination of your choice based on preset criteria. You can add international collaborators as authorized users and enable SNS Cloud VPN for secure remote access to EVO from anywhere in the world. You can opt for a fully cloud-hosted workflow with EVO Cloud, enabling real-time editing in the cloud for a flat, predictable monthly cost. 

Whether you’re leveraging EVO Cloud, connecting remotely with SNS Cloud VPN, or syncing to an external cloud, EVO enhances global collaboration for your entire media production team.

Challenge #5: No MAM To Find Your Media

“We need a better way to find our media and share files without duplicating everything.”

A powerful server is essential, but without a strong MAM system, managing files and media is like trying to find a specific brick in a giant, disorganized LEGO pile. A MAM system is the sorting tray that brings order, making it easy to find the right piece at the right time.

Solution: Shared Storage With Media Asset Management Included

EVO comes with ShareBrowser—powerful and easy-to-use media asset management software for unlimited users so everyone on your team can find what they need, exactly when they need it. Search, tag, comment, preview, and even import media into your video editing project in Adobe Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro, and DaVinci Resolve. ShareBrowser MAM (EVO’s built-in asset manager) does it all.