As a Systems Engineer for Extensis, I frequently encounter creative teams who often struggle with finding large capacity storage solutions for their increasingly demanding workflows. Customers often report that their internal I.T. departments are unable to provide the amount of storage originally requested and are also often unable to properly accommodate network storage connectivity for Apple Macintosh OSX workstations. Out of desperation, customers sometimes turn to experimentation with cloud-based storage which they often find to be sluggish, cost prohibitive, and difficult (if not impossible) to incorporate with existing backup solutions.
To support our customers with these infrastructural storage challenges, Extensis Portfolio supports flexible deployment options, including physical or virtual file server instances, on-premise or off-premise installations, and deployment on cloud servers like AWS, Rackspace, Azure, or other cloud-based options.
Another storage solution for Extensis Portfolio is Apple’s new 2018 Mac Mini along with RAID storage. This combination makes an excellent, cost-effective fileserver solution for customers with Apple Macintosh OSX-centric workflows.
Both PROMISE and LaCie have RAID storage offerings available for purchase directly on the Apple Website from 8TB ($600) to 72TB ($5,300) capacities with the added bonus of being able to leverage Apple Time Machine for periodic snapshots.
Whichever storage solution you’re able to support, Extensis Portfolio supports you with a host of flexible options for your high-performance creative workflow. Here's a few of the favorite features from the customers I've worked with.
Extensis Portfolio includes both Web Client (HTML5) and Desktop Client (Drag & Drop into Adobe Creative Cloud) interfaces that provide users with lightning fast predictive search as well as the automatic ability to search for images, artwork, and/or fonts used within InDesign files.
Portfolio also allows administrators to quickly create customized, branded microsites—with no programming required—that allow for controlled access to an unlimited number of users along with activity reporting.
Current versions of Portfolio also include a powerful built-in Server-Side Scripting engine that allows for the creation of product customizations such as the ability to send out periodic email reports for items due to expire, movement of assets to quarantined areas based on custom metadata values, as well as custom metadata fields auto-populated by filename.
On-premise fault-tolerant storage along with high-performance asset management for your creative teams does not need to be cost prohibitive nor a struggle to implement and maintain. Extensis Portfolio gives your team complete control over costs and security as well as the ability to easily expand to accommodate future asset needs.