Cloud workflows are rapidly becoming a driver of every modern media team’s day-to-day creative output. Whether it’s enabling remote shoots, distributed teams, or leveraging budgets more effectively, the cloud can deliver a ton of value to any team. But workflows, by their nature, are complex—and plenty of legacy cloud solutions only add to that complexity with tangled pricing models and limits to egress and collaboration.
ELEMENTS has been simplifying media workflows for more than a decade. Cloud storage has always been part of the ELEMENTS DNA, but they’ll be presenting revolutionary platform updates for cloud workflows in 2023 and beyond at IBC 2022. Part of this new focus on cloud solutions is their addition of an easy, transparent cloud storage option to their platform in Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. Nimble post-production teams are always on the lookout for more straightforward and easy-to-understand cloud plans with transparent costs—this is a market that Backblaze serves more effectively than the other legacy providers accessible through the platform.
Learn More About This Solution Live in Amsterdam
If you’re attending the 2022 IBC Conference in Amsterdam, join us at stand 7.B06 to learn about integrating B2 Cloud Storage into your workflow. You can schedule a meeting here.
The Backblaze + ELEMENTS Integration
The ELEMENTS platform makes it simple to upload and download files straight from on-premises storage while also offering smart and fully customisable archiving workflows, cloud-based media asset management (MAM), and a number of other tools and features that remove the borders between cloud and on-premises storage. Once connected, ELEMENTS enables users to search, edit, or automate changes to media assets. This extends to team collaboration and setting rights to folders and data across the connected networks. ELEMENTS has provided an intuitive interface making this an easy-to-use solution that is designed for the M&E industry.
Connecting your Backblaze account with ELEMENTS is easy. Simply navigate to the System > Integrations menu and enter your Backblaze login credentials. After this, Backblaze B2 Buckets of the connected account can be mounted as a volume on ELEMENTS.
If you’d like to run a proof of concept with Backblaze, the first 10 GB is free and setting up a Backblaze account only takes a few clicks. Or you can contact sales for more information.
If you’re already a Backblaze B2 customer and would like to check out the ELEMENTS platform, see our Quickstart Guide here or contact ELEMENTS directly here.
Simplifying Your Workflow AND Your Budget
Backblaze focuses on end-to-end ease, including how it works in your budget. Businesses can select a pay-as-you go option or work with a reseller to access capacity plans.
B2 Cloud Storage – This is a general cloud plan for applications, backups and almost all of your business needs. The pricing is simple: $5 per TB per month + $0.01 per GB download fee. As with all plans, the files are located on one storage tier and can always be easily accessed.
B2 Reserve – This is the sweet spot for most media use cases. B2 Reserve is a cloud package starting from 20TB per month. This plan comes at a slightly higher cost than the standard B2 Cloud Storage plan but is free from egress fees up to the amount of storage purchased per month. B2 Reserve will quickly work in your favor if you plan on accessing your files regularly. NOTE: B2 Reserve is only available through resellers.
Top Benefits for Teams Using Backblaze and ELEMENTS Together
The ELEMENTS platform offers a set of robust tools that unlock time and budgets for creative teams to do more. We’ll underline how these different features can work with Backblaze B2.
Automation Engine
The ELEMENTS Automation Engine allows users to create workflows with any number of steps. This tool has a growing list of templates, two of which are Archive and Restore automations. These can be used to archive footage to Backblaze and delete it from the on-premises storage while keeping a lightweight preview proxy. If you need the original footage after previewing the proxy, triggering the Restore automation is all you need to do. The hi-res footage will automatically be downloaded from the Backblaze B2 bucket and placed onto the original location.
A huge benefit of using cloud storage through the ELEMENTS platform is that the individual users do not need to have cloud accounts or direct cloud access. Users will only be able to use the cloud features through the preset automation jobs and according to their permissions.
Media Library
Cloud technologies open up a number of new possibilities within the Media Library, our powerful, browser-based media asset management (MAM) platform.
For example, if your post-production facility has a locally-deployed media library which is running on your ELEMENTS storage and is connected to your Backblaze account, users can playback all of your footage at any time, no matter where it is stored—on-premises, in the cloud, or even in your LTO archive.
The Media Library adds a layer of functionality to the cloud and allows you to easily build a true cloud archive—one that can be accessed from anywhere, in which footage can easily be previewed and just as easily restored with a click of a button.
File Manager
The File Manager is a functionality of the ELEMENTS Web UI that allows you to browse and manage content on your storage on-premises and, very soon, in the cloud. It provides you with a clear overview of all your files, no matter how many file systems and cloud buckets you have. File Managers’ support for cloud storage means users will be able to manage all of their files in one place, without having to navigate through a host of different cloud providers’ interfaces.
ELEMENTS Client
The ELEMENTS Client is an intuitive connection manager that allows admins to decide who gets to mount what—providing a secure gatekeeper to your footage.
The latest function, coming soon to the ELEMENTS Client, will allow users to mount cloud workspaces. This means that users will be able to access the contents of the Backblaze B2 Bucket as if it were a local drive. With optional access logging, users will have the ability to access the cloud-stored content while admins can maintain a high level of security.
Bringing Independent Cloud Storage to the ELEMENTS Platform
Offering B2 Cloud Storage as a native option within the ELEMENTS platform brings a whole new type of cloud offering to Elements’ users. We’re eager to see how creatives use an easier, more affordable, independent option in their workflows.
Learn More About this Solution Live in Amsterdam
If you’re attending the 2022 IBC Conference in Amsterdam, join us at stand 7.B06 to learn about integrating B2 Cloud Storage into your workflow. You can schedule a meeting here.
