Save time and money by future-proofing your video editing workflow

JJ Powell • Dec 10, 2020

multiple external hard drives connect to a computer

Many teams choose quick, short-term fixes when trying to scale their available storage for their video editing workflow. It makes sense - not many people have the time it takes to figure out a better way of expanding their storage in a money-saving fashion. That's where we come in!

Once upon a time, we were just a few editors trying to stop wasting money on external drives. Now we specialize in providing the best storage solution for video teams!

The standard fix to video storage is costing your team more money and more time than investing in a Jellyfish. We know that is a bold statement, but we aren't simply saying it because we love our product. We do, but we also broke down the process and reasons for you below.

The quick solution

When working as a part of a video team, there is always a dire need for storage. That need is usually fulfilled with a quick fix solution, most commonly RAIDs or external hard drives. It’s a quick and inexpensive fix, but it’s not the perfect solution for many reasons.

Why? Let’s run through the process

Let's say that for a team of two editors, you've provided each of them with a desktop RAID that cost $2,000. As the team takes on more projects and the RAID fills up, you need more and more storage that will provide you with the speed and efficiency you need to be able to deliver the project on time. The original $2,000 that you spent turns quickly into $4,000 and then snowballs into $6,000. Before you know it, you've spent thousands of dollars in less than a year on a short term fix. Sound familiar? This cycle never ends, leaving you stuck with an imperfect solution with issues.

Time wasted in the video world

The price of drives isn’t the only variable one should think about in this situation. The other factor in the equation is time. How much time does it actually take to locate, copy, and relink files? How much time does the company afford to keep a resource tied up? No one has time for that; that’s when things get unorganized, lost, or simply forgotten. Some poor soul has to go back and sift through the mess, resulting in even more time and money lost.

How does the Jellyfish remedy these issues?

The Jellyfish gives you your time back, as well as keeps your team organized. Everyone is granted access to the same storage so there is only one copy of the file needed instead of multiples on various different storage devices. As project sizes increase, so does the need for more storage space. From HD to 8K, the landscape is constantly changing and, as a video team, you need to be ready for the next project and its need for real estate on your storage platform. By moving to a high-speed, video workflow server with hassle-free expandability in mind, you add a safety net to your infrastructure needs by providing your team with organized active storage.

“Well, what do I do with all the Desktop RAIDs that our company has invested in?”

That’s an understandable question. With a central hub for your video storage, you can now reuse those drives to hold onto backups from your active shared storage in case something goes awry with the server or if an accident-prone team member deletes some files. The workflow that we'd suggest is keeping your active storage available for current projects and using your RAIDs or slower in-house network storage to host 3-6-month-old projects so they can be easily called back if the client returns or asks for changes.

The Jellyfish gives editors some peace of mind

By having the right storage solution infrastructure, you can save thousands of dollars, countless hours, and many headaches. Investing in a reliable storage server like the Jellyfish allows you to get back to doing your creative work. We always say that the Jellyfish was created by editors, for editors. This gives our product an edge because it was created with your workflow in mind. That being said, we also know that investing in anything can be a tough sell to your management. Show them this blog! Or better yet, show your finance team as they'd love to know how to save more money in the future!

If you (or they) have any questions, please feel free to message one of our workflow specialists.


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