TAKE CONTROL OF
YOUR STORAGE
By JAMES MCKENNA,
VP MARKETING & PRE-SALES ENGINEERING, FACILIS
Occasionally we get a prospective customer who
has their mind set on a certain method of work-
ing. This may be based on prior experience with
other facilities, an old-school mentor who was set
in his ways, or simply the most easily visualized
process. It’s tough to change someone’s mind
on what they think will work, and much easier to
deploy a technology that fits in with their plans. I
don’t believe that anyone can be fully knowledge-
able about a workflow or project methodology
that they haven’t seen firsthand. However, having
consulted on hundreds of facility networks and
having experience on an intimate level with post-
production workflows, I feel that we as vendors
do our customers a disservice by allowing them
to go blindly down the path of least resistance.
A storage network has to be designed with usabil-
ity and workflow in mind. Unlike enterprise IT
storage, which caters to the needs of the adminis-
trator and views end-users as a herd of sheep that
should do as they’re told, creative driven facilities
require a solution that can be as easily manipu-
lated by an artist as an engineer. There are several
Broadcast Beat Magazine • www.broadcastbeat.com • 71