Case Study
Protecting Irreplaceable Video Content for a Leeds Training Provider
The Challenge
A Leeds-based online training provider with 145 employees – most working remotely – faced a problem that kept their management awake at night: over 10TB of irreplaceable video content sat on individual videographers’ computers with no backup whatsoever. Their remote videographers captured and produced training content from home, working with enormous file sizes that made traditional backup solutions impractical. Each videographer held over 5TB of original footage and production files on their local machines. If a hard drive failed or a laptop was lost, thousands of pounds worth of professionally produced content would vanish instantly. The videographers weren’t being careless – they simply didn’t have a viable backup solution. Cloud storage was too slow for working with large video files, and external hard drives created their own risks. They needed something that could handle massive files, provide reliable backups, and still allow them to work efficiently from home. The training provider needed a solution that was both cost-effective and, crucially, easy enough for their creative team to use without disrupting their workflow.
Understanding the Requirements
Before proposing any technology, we met with the customer to understand exactly how their videographers worked. We discussed their production workflow, file sizes, editing requirements, and what “disaster recovery” actually meant for their business. This wasn’t about finding the fanciest solution – it was about designing something that met their specific needs without breaking the bank or creating unnecessary complexity.
The Solution: A Three-NAS Architecture
We designed a distributed Network Attached Storage (NAS) system that balanced performance, protection, and practicality.
Home NAS Units: Each videographer received a high-performance NAS at their home location, connected via 10GB LAN for maximum speed. These weren’t just storage devices – they became the videographers’ primary working environment. They could edit 4K video content directly from the NAS without any performance lag, just as if the files were on their local machines.
Headquarters NAS: At the company’s Leeds office, we installed a large-capacity NAS configured to automatically synchronise with both home units. Every file the videographers created was copied to headquarters without them lifting a finger. This headquarters NAS featured snapshot technology, creating point-in-time versions of files. If a videographer accidentally overwrote an important edit or needed to recover a previous version, it was readily available.
Cloud Backup Layer: Following the industry-standard 3-2-1 backup rule (three copies, two different media types, one offsite), we connected the headquarters NAS to the customer’s existing Azure tenant. Critical folders automatically replicated to cloud storage, providing protection even if the entire on-premise NAS infrastructure experienced catastrophic failure.
The Results
The training provider now has complete peace of mind. Over 10TB of irreplaceable video content is protected by multiple layers of backup, and the videographers don’t need to think about it – the system works automatically in the background. The high-speed home NAS units actually improved workflow. Videographers can access their entire content library instantly, collaborate more easily, and work with large files without performance bottlenecks. File versioning through snapshots has already proven valuable, allowing the team to recover previous edits and restore accidentally deleted content without panic or data loss. Most importantly, the business is protected. Content that would cost thousands of pounds to reshoot is now safeguarded against hardware failure, accidental deletion, and disaster scenarios.
Why Proper Backup Design Matters
This case study demonstrates that effective backup solutions aren’t about the most expensive technology – they’re about understanding how your business works and designing protection that fits your workflow. For businesses working with large files, remote teams, or irreplaceable content, the cost of implementing proper backups is always less than the cost of losing critical data.
Is your business data properly protected? Contact Cactus IT to discuss a backup solution designed around how you actually work.