Post NAB Show, customers have been requesting Marquis’ assistance with their varied use cases of Avid on AWS. Two primary use examples include migration or syncing:

• Unidirectional migration: moving your entire on-prem Avid NEXIS to Avid on AWS
  • Workspace Sync enables workspaces to be migrated either sequentially or in parallel. For additional speed, Workspace Sync has the benefit that the source workspace can still be in production during the migration. Once the checksum validated migration is completed, the production can continue on Avid on AWS. 
    
    
• Bidirectional production: keep on-prem Avid NEXIS projects in sync with Avid on AWS
  • Operating a hybrid on-prem Avid NEXIS with the ability to add additional AWS capacity for burst production requirements. A scenario includes: ingesting to the on-prem Avid NEXIS, Workspace Sync replicates media to Avid on AWS. The production then continues in AWS. Workspace Sync syncs the project files and any renders or effects in the reverse direction (say every 15 minutes) back to the on-prem Avid NEXIS for local user collaboration.
    
    

Avid’s Chief Solutions Architect, Richard Duke, uses Marquis Workspace Sync: “We have found Workspace Sync to be one of the most reliable, practical and secure solutions to use as we help our customers leverage the advantages of the new Avid on AWS production framework.”

Why use Marquis’ Workspace Sync (WS) as opposed to a file transfer solution

Speed  

• WS automatically optimises throughput depending on the available network. It can optimise the number of concurrent threads as well as the transferring block size. This means it offers best performance for both poor networks as well as fast networks. How fast? A single system has recently been benchmarked by a major studio at a sustained 40GB/s. Too fast? WS also has jobwise network throttling.

Syncing deltas  

• After the first synchronisation WS will only sync changes, perhaps just in Media Composer project folders. This means source data (however nuanced) is never sent twice. This maximises storage efficiency while minimising data transfers. 

Logging  

• Comprehensive logging is provided such that any failed transfers are logged (a potential network outage). The system will automatically retry failed transfers during the next synchronisation. 

Avid-certified 

• This is the highest level of certification for any Avid partner.

Agile  

• WS comes with a disk cloud storage connector library built in. There are no extra charges for using any of the supported disk cloud connector types. This provides jobwise flexibility for example new client or projects bringing their own storage, no problem. Licenses may be configured in both single and multi-tenant configurations to provide extra bandwidth or additional client wise security.

Automated  

• Set and forget, schedule multiple jobs across multiple productions.

Scalable  

• WS is licensed on 40TB NEXIS usable, extra capacity can be simply added in 20TB chunks. The only requirement is that licensed capacity must exceed the size of the workspace to be synchronised. 

Secure  

• Unlike other solutions WS data is never at rest, for example never cached to disk. As the transfers are both encrypted and multithreaded, it’s impossible to intercept and recreate any files. Every transfer is checksum validated irrespective of the target storage technology. 

User error  

• A sync will automatically sync new data as well as a deletion of source files. In the case of an erroneously deleted file this could have serious consequences as the file will be deleted on both the source and destination, following the next synchronisation.WS can operate in a no destination deletions mode to protect against erroneous deletions. 

Bi-directional and point to multipoint 

• Complex fixed and ad hoc synchronisations can be easily deployed to meet production needs, for example shooting in London, post in New York and Audio in LA. 

Avid NEXIS to NEXIS Latency  

• The standard Avid NEXIS client requires the remote Avid NEXIS to be within a certain latency, longer latency distances aren’t easily supported. WS has no practical limitation regarding latency or distance between Avid NEXIS systems. For example, WS could support one Avid NEXIS in Spain and the another in New Zealand.

Remote monitoring and management 

• Irrespective of where the Avid NEXIS system is e.g on prem or in AWS or both. WS presents a secure web page to easily monitor and manage the systems. 

If you are looking to leverage Avid NEXIS on AWS, talk to us at Marquis about the most reliable, efficient, secure and cost-effective way to migrate or sync your on-prem Avid NEXIS with Avid on AWS.