My IT department (which I manage) supports a video production studio. I’m running up against a dilemma in how to best support the data management needs of this studio, and I’d like some feedback from others who may have had similar experiences.
Video production is done entirely in digital format. As you can imagine, these files can be rather large. The studio uses a storage server with two areas — one static, read-only area (1 TB) for files that don’t change (source files and stock video footage), and one “active” area (160 GB) where current projects are stored. The static area is backed up when new content is added, and the active area is backed up weekly as part of our enterprise backup.
Disk space is routinely used up almost as soon as it is allocated. In looking at their files, I see not only duplicate files, but old files that haven’t changed in more than a year, that I feel could be archived and removed from the server. Naturally, they’re asking for more space. Disk space is easy enough to come by, but I’m worried about the larger impact of increasing the storage (more tape backup capacity being the primary concern). Infinitely increasing disk storage doesn’t seem to be a sustainable model. Is this a problem that can be addressed through policy means (like encouraging the studio to be better data managers), or through technological means (by adding more storage and backup capacity)?