Transitioning to cloud storage can be a game-changer for any creative workflow. But where do you and your team start? Is it really possible to move your studio’s 75 Terabytes of footage, including all of your archived and active media, smoothly and without trouble to the cloud?

In this post, we’re outlining the five most important things creative teams need to know about migrating their media to the cloud. We work hard to ensure it’s a straightforward process—here’s what you need to know about your studio’s migration to Suite’s revolutionary cloud storage.

Tip #1 — Plan ahead for your best experience.

First things first, it’s imperative to ensure your files are well-organized in their current location. This will enable easy drag and drop transfers into Suite, avoid any unnecessary headaches later in the process. At Suite, we understand that your media is your livelihood—this is our reminder to take note of every detail prior to your studio’s migration to the cloud. This ensures every file finds its way on Suite seamlessly, and you can get back to your creative workflow faster than ever.

Tip #2 — Choose your most reliable location.

When you’re ready to move your data into Suite, it’s paramount you consider where you’ll be completing the file transfer, as in the actual physical location where you and your machine will be stationed for this exercise. We recommend your studio, home office, or wherever you have access to your best possible internet connection. Pro tip for cloud migration: Consider starting the process during a slow moment in your workload, when you know with certainty that you won’t have to use your computer extensively for other tasks.

Tip #3 — Educate yourself on the tech specs.

Remember that the speed at which your files can be uploaded to the cloud is directly related to the internet “pipeline” that you have established at your studio, office, etc. Here’s the quick rundown: In the post production process, computers take massive amounts of data (media files), process it in fractions-of-a-second and spit out the result in real-time back to its user. This information is communicated in bytes, which are groupings of even smaller data points (bits); many millions of bytes packaged together make up an entire file and the speed at which a computer can process this information is affected by bitrate and internet connection.

Next, internet connection and bitrate come into play. This is the pipeline through which your media is uploaded/downloaded and streamed in real-time. The higher the bitrate, the bigger the pipeline; the bigger the pipeline, the faster your media can move through it. Simple as that. Understanding these nuances is critical to correctly forecasting your studio’s media migration.

Tip #4 — Start small, one project at a time.

Just the thought of migrating your creative workflow to the cloud might seem daunting. Like most things, consider starting small. Transferring one project, or a handful of smaller projects, is an easy way to get your “foot in the door” with Suite’s cloud storage, and there’s no minimum storage requirement to get started—use as little (or as much) cloud storage space as you need to make your workflow more efficient. Once you get your migration process perfected with these smaller projects, the rest of your studio migration will fall right into place. Simply said, this will allow you to get familiar with Suite before gradually scaling up to migrate the rest of your data.

Tip #5 – Understand your circumstances & act accordingly.

Depending on the size of your team and the scale of your media transfer, the process that’ll you use to actually migrate your media onto the cloud might vary from a studio different than yours. It’s all dependent on the various plug-ins, workflow integrations, and other nuances of each individual workflow that define the process. Especially for larger and enterprise-level teams, be sure to know every aspect of your workflow to ensure that Suite seamlessly integrates into the processes you already utilize at your studio.

When you’re ready to upload your first 10 files—or your first 20TB—of media to Suite, here’s a quick list of questions to ask yourself to ensure the smoothest possible migration:

• Is your Suite drive mounted to the correct disk on your local machine?
• Have you considered how your team will utilize Suite’s on-site or pre-caching features?
• Does every member of your team have Suite installed and running on their machine?
• Does every member of your team have the correct permissions assigned to them?
• How much data, in total, do you plan to transfer?
• How stable and speedy is your internet connection? Do you know your bitrate?

Taking the plunge into cloud storage is a significant step that can greatly enhance your creative workflow and productivity, and Suite is making it possible for creative teams to centralize their media and work more efficiently between remote collaborators. When it’s time to transition your team to Suite, keep these tips top-of-mind to ensure a seamless migration. To gain access to unlimited cloud storage, click here.