Video Production Firm ProductionFor Buys Crossroads StrongBox LTFS NAS

Crossroads Systems, Inc. announced that Austin,
Texas-based ProductionFor, a video
production and post-production company, selected the StrongBox LTFS NAS
solution to create an archive of its digital
files.

StrongBox is a non-proprietary, file-based and portable storage
solution for long-term data retention. The enterprise-level solution leverages LTFS technology, combining the
scalability of tape with the speed and accessibility of disk.

ProductionFor is using StrongBox T1 with the HP MSL2024 tape library
and 2 LTO-5 tape drives to archive their video projects. Using Disk Order
application in a completely Mac environment, over an NFS mount, it
archives tiered folders called ‘projects’ in StrongBox for long-term data
protection.

Most projects are 200GB to 1TB in size and comprise of numerous
files. While they are archiving and reading multiple folders at one time,
ProductionFor is also utilizing StrongBox’s dual copy policy to
meet data protection needs. Additionally, they’re meeting data management
policies, such as data retention and exclusion, and utilizing caching and
buffering capabilities, such as configurable read cache, to have faster access
to archive data for post-production work.

"At ProductionFor, we
deal with anything having to do with production. We acquire the media and
manage the entire post-production process, including motion graphics, 3-D
animation and color correction," said Chris Blankenship, partner at
ProductionFor. "We have lots of
large files and we’re always adding things to them – so we’re creating elements
that add up to a lot of storage. As new technology emerges, the need for space
gets bigger. There is a need for a reliable way to archive all of these files.
We’ve been really pleased with our investment in StrongBox because it allows us
to move large amounts of data off of our RAID into an archive system that is
always online. The cost of putting all of this data on tape with StrongBox is
significantly less than hard drives."

"StrongBox is secure,"
Blankenship continued. "It’s a
technology that you know when you go back to it it’s going to work. I think
there is a misconception that tape is slow. And actually, the way that
Crossroads has developed StrongBox, they have employed a tape library to create
an efficiency and speed for moving the data around. Even for a small production
company, if you’re not thinking about how you’re going to store and manage your
data, you’re really not thinking about your clients’ needs."

StrongBox presents itself as a standard NAS target with the ability
to mount CIFS/NFS shares. No agents, backup software or application
modifications are required, and organizations gain a view for all
files on tapes stored in the library.