If you're a videographer, filmmaker, or photographer, chances are you've searched for an easy and secure way to share your media files. Since gargantuan file transfers to the cloud take up so much time, dumping data onto an external hard drive and shipping it out is a common practice.

But is a common practice always a "good" practice? 

Logistical Risks

First up, let's talk about the logistical risks of physically shipping a hard drive. Shipping a delicate package can be a risky proposition. No matter how well you pack them, there's always the chance of your hard drive getting lost or damaged in transit. And if that happens, you could lose irreplaceable content—a nightmare scenario for sure.

More Downtime

Even if you manage to avoid logistical mishaps, there's another reason why external hard drive workflows are never ideal: they slow down production. This type of workflow relies on copying files and creating frequent backups.

Transferring large amounts of footage between drives is an extremely time-consuming process. All that time spent transferring files could be better spent actually working with the content. Plus, if your process involves duplicating files before editing them, there's the added risk of lost or corrupted data

Disjointed Workflows

The problem isn’t just the time it takes to transfer files. It's also the fact that using external hard drives can create a disjointed workflow due to constantly moving files between drives, and switching between them to edit. If you're not careful you can lose track of which files are on which drive, which can lead to a lot of unwanted confusion.

Between the logistical risks and the time-consuming transfers, there are just too many potential dangers to your project when you rely on shipping hard drives. We've met many creators and facility managers who have wrestled with these challenges, but fortunately for them and you, there's a much safer, faster, and cost-effective option.

Try Editing With Cloud Proxies Instead 

Cloud-based media asset management (MAM) solutions can provide a great way to store and access footage from anywhere, anytime. With a MAM in the cloud, physically shipping hard drives of your footage will no longer be necessary.

Turnaround times can be drastically reduced with no need for tedious tasks like duplicating files, or backing up drives. Instead, editors are able to work easily from wherever they need to, with handy access to their assets in the cloud. 

Here's how it works in iconik:

Access on-premise content from multiple locations, and indexed in iconik. The iconik Storage Gateway (ISG) will manage these locations and send proxy versions to the cloud for instant search and preview. Have footage in the cloud? You can index cloud storage buckets in iconik too!

The cloud-based structure gives a complete view of all assets regardless of where they are stored. Editors can use iconik to search, preview, download, upload and request hi-res original files as needed. 

And it doesn’t hurt that iconik has one of the most powerful Adobe Premiere Pro panels available where editors can open iconik files without leaving the platform. The panel also lets you to manage project files and sequences, bulk upload assets and even rendered sequences. 

External hard drive workflows are handy, but come with risks and limitations that slow down production. Using a cloud-based media asset management solution is a much safer and faster way to store and access footage from anywhere.

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