Other cloud storage solutions weren’t cutting it, so Rethink rethought how it stored media.

CHALLENGE: Rethink faced several challenges with its previous cloud storage provider, which prompted the IT Dept. to seek out new solutions. The biggest recurring problems were loss of local cache data on a user-by-user basis & a lack of effective integration with Rethink's Single Sign-On (SSO) manager, preventing easy onboarding.

WHY SUITE?: Rethink transitioned to Suite's cloud storage for a few plain reasons: better performance, lower cost & the ability to integrate with SSO. Suite’s exceptional customer support; Time Machine & Suite Connect features; and simple integration with the company's SSO provider, JumpCloud, made the switch to Suite an easy one.

“Suite empowers our company, truly everyone, to have a hybrid workflow. Work from wherever... I don't care.”

- Benjamin Gradidge, IT Infrastructure Manager, Rethink

Rethink is a full service creative agency that’s taken a different approach to earning its reputation, relying on industry awards & word-of-mouth to keep new projects piling up. Content driving business… ah, what a beautiful thing!

Rethink’s creatives are always working a little harder, and the Vancouver/Toronto-based media agency touts a portfolio including some of the biggest brands around, including WestJet, Kraft Heinz, Decathlon, Ikea, Penguin Random House and more. Not only does Rethink step out-of-the-box for every one of its commercial projects, this team creates a case study for each campaigns, capturing content-of-the-content to help tell the story of each client project. This means Benjamin Gradidge, IT infrastructure manager at Rethink, also has to go the extra mile to ensure his dispersed video editing team maintains access to the right files at the right times.

“There are ad agencies out there really focused on the ‘media sell’ or digital analytics,” says Gradidge, a nine-year Rethink employee who knows the inner-workings of the company’s workflow processes better than anyone. “We don’t have a sales team. We're all about the creative.” Now, all of that creative is edited & stored directly on Suite’s cloud storage, enabling Rethink the flexibility to pass work between key players from any location & more…

At Rethink, there are five IT specialists, eight in-house project managers/editors, and nearly 20 contract editors working on video projects in Adobe Premiere Pro & After Effects at any given time. Making things trickier, this network is split between Vancouver and Toronto; yet working from cloud storage provides the team a way of collaborating between dispersed players that feels like everyone is sitting in the same room. “This is where a cloud-based system is fantastic,” comments Gradidge. “We can have an editor start a project in Toronto then safely pass it to someone in Vancouver to finish it. Choosing Suite, our team became one, unified block of the editors operating from one, contiguous drive. It didn't matter anymore—all those barriers went away.”

A former cloud storage customer with one of the more well-known options on the market, Gradidge ended up fraught with mind-numbingly slow support, local cache issues, and mounting complaints from his team, Gradidge knew the benefits of cloud storage prior to switching to Suite; he just needed a tool with more capability, so the team of creatives he represents could get back to work, and he could stop worry about file security, SSO incompatibility, and caching issues... “We constantly ran into problems with people losing their local cache index with [our previous storage provider],” recounts Gradidge. “It became a huge pain in the a** when the editor would have to rebuild it; when you’re dealing with multiple Terabytes of data, that’s no fun.”

No fun & a total time-waster. Double whammy. But there was one more factor on Gradidge’s mind… “The SSO integration also solved a ton for us. [The other guys] can only integrate with Microsoft Azure or Okta. Suite works with anything SAML 2.0 compatible, which is fantastic.”

Managing everything data-related at Rethink, Gradidge also earns newfound peace of mind on a daily basis thanks to Suite’s simplicity as a cloud-native filesystem. “Suite offers a secure product that enables our team to work from anywhere,” he says. “We can safely establish admins to manage a workload; those people then assign out folders as needed to the contractors. It’s all very neat, and we can scale our editing team instantly as big as needed.”

From easy-to-set granular permissions, to the fact that Suite handles all of the heavy-lifting associated with cloud storage, Gradidge is more at ease. “Disaster recovery is something you don't have to think about,” he notes. “Everything is farmed out to Suite. If I'm on vacation, I don't worry. That's huge.”

Better yet—the benefits extend beyond Gradidge’s desk next to the server room, and resonate throughout the entire business. “It really empowers my IT team to enable everyone in our company, truly everyone, to have the hybrid workflow. Work from wherever... I don't care,” he says with a smile. “Finance departments also hate giant appliance bills for upgrading & refreshing equipment. That’s another big win with Suite, there’s no huge upfront cost.”

In the end, though, the human factor solidified Gradige’s decision to switch to Suite’s cloud storage, including Suite’s oft-celebrated Customer Support, openness to product feedback, and transparency on the future. “I'm spooked by how quickly anyone responds on support chat,” he laughs. “I can't always be around 24/7 to help out; I feel confident that if my team hits the chat tool… you’ll be there. Hats off.”

Working alongside the team at Suite during testing & adoption also resonated with Rethink’s main tech specialist, as he notes, “Suite Connect was also definitely a huge carrot, knowing that we could ingest footage directly to our Suite Drive. Seeing that launch helps me recognize Suite understands how we're using this kind of tool.”

Working directly off of Suite’s cloud storage has (finally) established the workflow that Gradidge imaged when he first tried to make it work at Rethink. Now, it functions perfectly, and the benefits emerge on every level: IT can take a deep breath knowing files are stored safely & accessibly; project managers can more easily onboard contract workers, maintain oversight of project status, and make corrections instantly; and freelancers can instantly dive into editing work in Adobe Premiere Pro & After Effects, from anywhere with an internet connection. “The support team has been fantastic. Suite integrates With our existing SSO, which [our previous cloud storage provider] did not. It's a little cheaper. And it runs better… Suite is fast—legitimately quick,” he finishes.

In the creative space where time flies & the next project will get scooped up by someone else if you’re stuck waiting for drives in the mail, the speed at which you can collaborate is pivotal. Handling big media files, video teams also know the headaches & dread the slowdowns. Choosing Suite’s cloud storage enables Gradidge & the team at Rethink to get back to their creative work faster, with more flexibility and better control over their media. In turn, everyone remains focused on the creative, ensuring that every campaign has award-winning potential.

To read more Case Studies about Suite’s cloud storage, click here.

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