JarPost Production, a UK-based media company, faced challenges in streamlining its creative workflows. With a growing team working across various locations, the company struggled with inefficiencies in accessing large media files, rendering delays, and collaborative bottlenecks. These issues hindered productivity and impacted the quality of their work.
The Challenge
JarPost’s operational inefficiencies stemmed from fragmented workflows and an outdated infrastructure. The team faced significant delays in rendering high-definition media, lacked a unified file-sharing system, and encountered challenges in managing 3D rendering tasks for large-scale projects. Concerns about infrastructure resilience and the inability to collaborate in real-time further exacerbated their challenges. JarPost needed a scalable, secure solution to meet the demands of modern media production.
The Solution
Smile IT Solutions partnered with JarPost to implement a comprehensive cloud-based solution using AWS. The solution included:
- Virtual Workstations: Powered by NICE DCV and hosted on GPU-optimised AWS EC2 instances, enabling seamless real-time collaboration and high-performance rendering.
- AWS Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Spanning multiple Availability Zones for high availability and fault tolerance.
- Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP: A robust shared storage system for efficient file management and collaboration.
- Enhanced Security: Centralised authentication via Active Directory and secure access through an Internet Gateway.
The deployment allowed JarPost to continue using their preferred creative tools while benefiting from AWS’s scalability, performance, and security.
The Results
- Faster Time-to-Market: Reduced production lead times by eliminating bottlenecks.
- Optimised Resource Utilisation: Efficiently allocated GPU and CPU workloads, reducing operational costs.
- Increased Team Flexibility: Enabled remote work, enhancing job satisfaction and creative output.
- Reduced Downtime: Multi-AZ architecture ensured smooth operations even during infrastructure issues.
Lessons Learned
- Centralising workflows on AWS eliminated delays and improved collaboration.
- Ensuring cross-platform compatibility allowed the use of preferred creative tools.
JarPost now operates a scalable, resilient production environment, delivering high-quality projects on time.
