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STORAGE www.postmagazine.com 28 POST JAN/FEB 2021 uring 'normal' times, award-winning media production company Taylor Made Media works from its creative hub in East London, col- laborating closely with clients globally throughout the entire process. With strong and transparent client relationships, producers share content with colleagues and clients at each stage, requiring fast, efficient workflows and media delivery solutions. However, when the UK first went into lockdown in 2020, it was instantly forced to work remotely. Its main priority was to ensure the smooth running of content pipelines as staff collaborated from home and worked on content for some of the world's leading brands. Data security and round-the-clock technical support were critical, particularly as this shift happened virtually overnight. To guarantee it could continue to share rushes and creative assets, Taylor Made Media turned to managed cloud services company BASE Media Cloud — an IBM Aspera partner — for a solution that would support its new strategy. EMBRACING THE NEW NORMAL At the center of Taylor Made Media's transition was the need to quickly move away from its on-premise storage and manual media workflow. To maintain the efficiency of media exchange with clients and colleagues, it had to immediately migrate all media assets to an integrated cloud storage solution. With several projects in progress and staff unable to access its on-premise storage in London, the company required a quick turnaround solution with minimum disruption to existing workflows and processes. Assets like rushes, editing, music and animation files had to be migrated efficiently and made accessible to all stakeholders through cloud storage — all while ensuring data security, resilien- cy and redundancy. Instant access backup, archive and file sharing capabilities were key requirements. Finally, the technical solution had to come with minimal training requirements and continuous technical support for creatives working around the clock to ensure this fast and seamless transition of its storage and data workflows. Understanding the project's urgent require- ment — migrating 10 terabytes of data over a single weekend — BASE Media Cloud deployed IBM Aspera on Cloud and IBM Object Storage alongside its migration and support services for data migration. The decision was made on a Friday and Taylor Made Media's employees were working seamlessly by the following Monday, accessing rushes and project materials quickly and remotely via their standard home IP connections. Due to IP connectivity restrictions at the compa- ny's London production facility, the hard drive was transferred directly to the UK-based data center, using IBM Aspera on Cloud to migrate the assets to IBM Cloud Object Storage. This all ensured busi- ness continuity for Taylor Made Media, enabling it to continue producing content for the likes of Barclays, Accenture and American Express. WORKFLOWS TRANSFORMED Despite restricted access to data centers during the first weekend of lockdown posing signif- icant data migration challenges, BASE Media Cloud was able to centralize Taylor Made Media's storage in the cloud using IBM Aspera on Cloud and IBM Cloud Object Storage in what was an extremely time-sensitive situation. With creatives able to access valuable media assets from a single storage hub and collaborate seamlessly from home, its new remote working strategy has enhanced its workflows and created a more dynamic way of working — whether from the studio in London or home offices. The solution's capabilities, combined with BASE Media Cloud's technical support, has en- abled Taylor Made Media to maintain its efficiency in delivering creative support to clients during a period of significant disruption. Staff can work from the safety and comfort of their homes with peace of mind that valuable client content re- mains secure. As well as delivering a fast and smooth tran- sition, its new cloud-based infrastructure has provided the added benefit of future-proofing its workflows beyond the pandemic. The modular na- ture of the solution means Taylor Made can evolve its production workflows as required. For example, it can add more storage space or facilitate adjacent services such as media asset management and transcoding for the potential creation of a virtual studio in the future. "Although we had been interested in transi- tioning to cloud storage for some time, the pandemic proved to be the deciding factor, presenting an urgent need for remote access to content virtually overnight," explains Taylor Made Media's production manager, Ian McGinty. "BASE Media Cloud responded in lightening quick time. Our new workflows have enabled us to adapt to new ways of working without any drop in performance or customer service, and given us the tools to respond to any disruption thrown our way." TAYLOR MADE MEDIA QUICKLY EMBRACES A REMOTE STRATEGY D BASE Media Cloud helped Taylor Made quickly transition to a remote workflow. STORAGE