The Customer
The Integrator
About ZX HA NAS
Scale Logic’s feature-rich, extreme performance ZX enterprise-class media storage NAS offers enterprise workflows and features without the enterprise cost:
- Unlimited snapshot functionality
- Data replication and data encryption at rest
- Scale out from 48TB to 9PB
- 24x7x365 health monitoring
- Hybrid cloud support
- Free trial version of storage analytics
- Single global namespace up to 2PB
- Clustered heads for High-Availability
- Unlimited snapshot functionality
- Data replication and data encryption at rest
- Scale out from 48TB to 9PB
- 24x7x365 health monitoring
- Hybrid cloud support
- Free trial version of storage analytics
- Single global namespace up to 2PB
- Clustered heads for High-Availability
About Remote Access Portal (RAP)
Scale Logic’s revolutionary RAP works with any SAN or NAS device, providing ultimate security and control while enabling remote workforces to access on-prem storage for both proxy and high-resolution workflows.
We are thrilled by how quickly and seamlessly Scale Logic and CHESA implemented the solution. Their teams were able to implement the solution and boost our productivity almost immediately.
About Citizen Pictures
Established in 1984, Denver, Colorado-based Citizen Pictures is a full-fledged and Emmy-award-winning television production and content hub today. Drawing in enthusiastic talent of all sorts, the company produces high-profile storytelling built on popular trends—from food (including Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives program) to travel, home, sports, true crime, and more. The company credits much of its success to collaborating with some of the country’s top networks, streamers, and digital platforms.
The Challenge
Pre-2020, the Citizen team used a fibre-channel-based SAN to the desktop to mount storage. However, once the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the company realized it had to change its access model—including enabling users to work remotely.
In the earlier days of COVID-19, the company created a workaround to support their now-working-from-home team of approximately 15-25 full-time and freelance users. That workaround involved shipping out drives to each user’s home. However, this solution was fraught with production delays brought on by time spent having to coordinate exchanges. Moreover, collaboration was severely hampered as users struggled to adjust to this “new normal.”
To solve the problem, Citizen initially considered implementing a remote access portal and a simple 1PB NAS “bitbucket.” Their original rationale was that this combined solution would enable remote work while also providing the company enough capacity to migrate from SAN to a NAS—even offering some room to grow. However, Citizen ultimately decided that—with all their storage going to a centralized NAS—they would need a solution to maximize system availability. As such, they began searching for a high-quality and cost-effective, high-availability NAS solution.
The Solution
Citizen Pictures sought out CHESA for their expert recommendation. Following discussions about Citizen’s needs and after providing a Zoom demo, CHESA proposed a combined solution: ZX high availability/failover NAS technology developed by
Scale Logic, along with Scale Logic’s RAP (Remote Access Portal) for solving the company’s remote access challenges.
Both ZX and RAP were installed in 2022.
The Results / Benefits
Currently, Citizen Pictures is considering adding on Scale Logic’s health monitoring support service, as well as archiving and cloud costing. The goal is to evolve and maximize the current combined solution so the company can easily add any number of new clients to the system without specialized lock-in software and drivers on the client side. In doing so, this will enable Citizen to freely upgrade clients when business or creative needs arise.
Conclusion
Within only two days of implementation, the dual Scale Logic solution was up and ready to go.
Almost immediately, remote workers began to experience a much faster, more efficient process for collaboration—and much more reliable access to critical files in storage. Ultimately, this significantly shortened production times, ensuring Citizen’s client and partner needs could be much more easily met than ever before.
Today, Citizen Pictures creates its episodic workflow using Adobe Premiere, supported wholly by the ZX NAS shared storage and RAP.
