All over the world, content creators have begun working remotely. It’s been a complicated transition—some may even call it infuriating. But for those willing to understand how this new world works, taking advantage of technology and making this shift smoother is critical to improving workflows.
The rewards are worth it. The following are only a few of the many benefits of organizing your digital media assets in the age of remote content production.
****Accessibility****
Every member of the production industry understands how important it is to ensure your digital media assets are easily retrievable. Accessibility is arguably the most crucial aspect of organizing anything. Losing track of files saved on separate external storage devices, or simply forgetting the name or date of a download, is partly why employees waste an estimated eight percent of their workdays just searching for files.
By storing your assets in the cloud, your content can be reached on multiple devices at the same time. Cloud technology saves you the time and stress of rummaging through random downloads on a desktop. You can finally stop searching for that hard drive you “swear you just saw.” More importantly, you’ll save space—in real life and on your computer—because the cloud does not eat up storage on your device’s hard disk and there’s no need to purchase additional hardware. Cloud technology centralizes your files, making them easy to retrieve.
****Reliability****
Every year, you face a 12 percent chance your hard drive will fail. Liquids, viruses, a crash or a system reboot could wipe out every file on your desktop in an instant. If you didn’t back those files up with a hard drive or another device, there’s no hope of retrieval. Storing digital assets in the cloud saves time dealing with malfunctioning hard drives or sifting through desktop downloads—and upload speeds can be as fast as your high-speed internet, rather than hooking up an old external drive and waiting for that transfer. Making the switch to cloud storage is an investment in the future of your work and your time.
****Saving Money****
Storage is expensive. You might be wondering how you can organize digital media assets without spending loads of money. The price of a single external storage device might sound cheap at first, but quickly becomes costly. With file sizes growing larger, using bigger hard drives to store 8k videos will be significantly more expensive than you realize—consider buying more hard drives every year, and filling them faster with terabytes of footage, plus requiring redundant copies for safety on even more. If there’s no hardware involved, that’s going to save you money.
Conversely, a high-quality cloud platform that utilizes tiered storage will let you pay less for files you don't need to access frequently. Not only will you never have to buy a hard drive again, but you will pay less for storing the majority of the files you don’t use every day.
****Security****
The cloud is unrivaled in terms of security. Data stored in the cloud is encrypted and unlikely to contract viruses, suffer cybersecurity breaches or fall to massive attacks. (Personal responsibility and password security is a whole other issue, but we hope you’re smart enough not to use “password” as your password.)
Cloud technology is managed within the walls of remote data centers: facilities full of computer systems that store all your files in machines managed and protected by qualified, professional technicians. Built-in redundancies—essentially a virtual safety net—protect from the possibility of file corruption by creating copies of your data. Being hacked by external software is impossible when world-class firewalls protect cloud technology from any threats.
****Easy Navigation = Easy Collaboration ****
If you work with a team, you probably don't all use the same computer. Your important files then have to be saved separately, requiring unnecessary conversions, downloads and an incredible waste of storage.
With cloud technology, multiple devices can access a universal storage account simultaneously. Using a single account where all digital media assets are stored saves time and computer storage, letting you spend more time doing the work you love.
****Where Should You Look for Cloud Storage?****
Choosing the right storage platform is crucial to whether you reap the benefits of organizing your assets. With Alteon Cloud, you get scalable cloud storage—so you pay less for files you don’t need immediately—combined with high-speed file transfer and collaborative tools. Alteon users can share digital content freely and customize their organization. Alteon also lets you add collaborators to projects and all files are centralized on a single account that can be accessed on multiple devices. Using Alteon to manage your digital assets will ensure the safety of your content while saving you time, money, effort and frustration. Learn more and create a free account at alteon.io.