A Solution for Mac OS X
Since its origin in 1988, Datumpress has developed its service offerings and has made customer service and satisfaction a very high priority. In doing so the company has retained existing customers and attracted a wealth of new business.
Based just outside of London in Hatfield, Datumpress services include design, artwork creation, pre-flight checking, proofing solutions, electronic file delivery and print. Producing a wide range of material for print including high quality brochure work, packaging and point of sale, the Company now boasts an enviable blue chip client list that is serviced by approximately 40 employees.
With success, come problems. Scott Pearce, Director, responsible for IT explained, “We all work very hard to provide the very best possible service to our existing customers and in doing so, we have attracted many new customers. However, we had reached the stage where either we had to invest in new technology to take our services to another level or, take on new employees to meet the demands of our existing business. One of the key issues to address was how best to manage the sheer amount of work we were processing and how best to store and access this data for subsequent use.”
Scott continued, “We create vast numbers of images and artworks and these are subsequently archived for our customers. On average, we create about 30 to 40 Gb of data a day. With the system we had, we archived data to DVD and these were held in a physical archive, referenced by a job number. We also used Retrospect to backup data. Due to the amount of data we create, backing up was a continual process
|
 |
that had to run throughout the day. This really slowed down our network. When we were asked to find a job by a customer or if we needed to find images held in the archive, we first had to identify the job and then go to a machine to retrieve it. Finding the job could take anything up to a few hours and then restoring the job was again hindered by the fact that the backup processes were continually running. We were getting to the stage where the system was creating a large bottle-neck! We investigated how we could use technology to resolve our problems. We looked at many solutions, including software such as Portfolio, but these did not provide the flexibility we needed. Finally, our technical consultant introduced us to JPY and they started to look at our requirements.”
Following a thorough consultancy process, a proposal was made for a new workflow solution; one that would resolve our issues and allow us to grow and offer new services.
The solution comprised three key software components: HELIOS to provide the underlying stability of the workflow process; PresSTORE to manage archive and backup and Cumulus to search and retrieve digital assets quickly and efficiently. In addition, the Cumulus dynamic web publishing system also offered web browser access to material over the Internet. The software would run on a dual processor Xserve, with attached raid devices and archive storage provided by a Plasmon DVD jukebox.
“The benefits are immediately visible. First, the server is stable and reliable. Our daily work now revolves round Cumulus; it is the hub of the solution. With Cumulus, we are now able to search for jobs and they are found immediately. Cumulus integrates with HELIOS and allows us to automatically catalogue files as they are copied to the server. If we need to restore archive material, again this can be accessed using Cumulus, directly from the DVD jukebox via PresSTORE. No time is wasted, it happens in seconds! PresSTORE also provides an added benefit in terms of data security. We also use PresSTORE to synchronise live data to another Raid device and this serves as our primary backup. But, because it is live data and is physically replicated from one storage device to another, it means if the worse were to happen and we lost our live Raid data, it would be immediately accessible from the secondary Raid device at any point on our network.” said Scott.
|
|
|
“Since the launch of the web publishing system, we've received very high levels of interest from our customers and have in turn gained new business.” |
Datum also use the Cumulus dynamic web publishing solution to publish customer files and images to the Internet. One of Datum's many blue chip customers, Charterhouse, uses Cumulus to search for files and then download as required. The web user interface is customised so that they have a branded, fully managed service. This has proved extremely popular and means they do not waste time. They can access files immediately, anywhere in the world, and at the click of a button download them. The web service is one that is now being extended and offered to other customers.
With success came problems - again!
Finally, Scott mentioned, "We only have one issue with the solution and that is it's continued success. Since the launch of the web publishing system, we've received very high levels of interest from our customers and have in turn gained new business. As a result, we've already planned to add more storage and a new more powerful server, along with higher bandwidth Internet connection to cope with the increased levels of work."
What a nice problem to have!
www.datumpress.com |
