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Creative Agency Streamlining Adobe Workflows with Synology NAS
Company Situation
The company is a creative design agency operating within a larger corporate group. Their team consists of around 22 people focused on producing visual and design assets. They handle large and complex digital files typical of creative workflows, including Adobe Creative Suite file types. The agency is the last part of a multi-entity group to transition from on-premises storage to cloud-based solutions, aiming to fully embrace cloud storage while maintaining compliance with ISO certifications related to information security.
Existing Workflow
Currently, the agency uses an on-premises Synology NAS server for file storage and sharing. The broader group has already migrated its other teams to Microsoft SharePoint because of their predominantly Microsoft-based workflows. However, the agency’s creative file sizes and workflows do not fit well with SharePoint’s architecture. Remote workforces rely on VPNs to access the Synology server, which causes slowdowns and inefficiencies. The agency also struggles with file naming conventions and long file paths that exceed limitations on SharePoint, complicating potential migrations.
Issues with the Existing Workflow
The on-premises NAS server creates bottlenecks for remote users, who experience slow access speeds over VPN.
SharePoint, used by the rest of the group, is not suitable for large creative files, both in terms of performance and file naming/path length restrictions.
The cost of moving to SharePoint for this volume of data (30-40TB) was estimated to be prohibitively expensive for this volume of data.
The agency has long-standing challenges with enforcing consistent workflows, naming conventions, and metadata tagging, with previous attempts failing to gain user adoption.
Security and compliance remain top priorities, influencing their choice of cloud providers.
How Shade Would Change Their Workflow
Shade offers a cloud-based storage solution designed to behave like a traditional NAS, enabling the agency to continue working with large creative files seamlessly in the cloud. Instead of downloading large files locally or relying on slow VPN connections, users can stream files directly from the cloud with near-local performance. Shade integrates well with Adobe Creative Suite and supports the complex file packaging typical of creative teams. This allows the agency to transition fully to cloud storage without disrupting existing workflows drastically. Additionally, Shade’s security certifications (ISO 27001:2022 and pending ISO 27017) provide the trust and compliance assurances the company requires. The platform also supports metadata, tagging, and eventually workflow enforcement features, helping the agency implement the structured processes they have long sought.
Benefits
- Seamless cloud storage that mimics traditional NAS for familiarity and performance.
- Enhanced remote access speeds without reliance on slow VPNs.
- Cost-effective alternative to SharePoint for large creative datasets (30-40TB).
- Improved integration with Adobe Creative Suite and complex file structures.
- Strong security posture with relevant ISO certifications to meet compliance needs.
- Potential to implement better file organization, metadata tagging, and workflow governance.
- Enables final cloud migration phase for a multi-entity corporate group, unifying storage platforms.
Technologies Used
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