For retail display consultants DisplayPlan, Xserve has revolutionised the management of their ever-expanding archive of digital visual assets. Time and process efficiencies have been gained by the company’s design team, and Apple’s flexible and easy-to-use server provides a rigorous backup system for their work.
Using Adobe’s Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Acrobat — as well as several 3D modelling applications — across seven desktop Macs, the company’s designers generate a daunting volume of visual data files, depicting display images and models for high-profile clients such as Britvic, Walkers and Dyson, all of which need to be archived and managed.
 Daniel St John Smith, Senior Designer with DisplayPlan, explains that the company has faced significant increases, both in individual file size and in the number of files created for each client. “For the past six years we’ve been using a CD-based backup system”, he says. “But each project is now at least 200 megabytes in size, and we have a catalogue of around 200 CDs for each client”.
In order to archive or share files, designers had to spend valuable time burning CDs and printing labels, and despite using a catalogue database to manage their CD library, it became a real challenge to find the right CD. File management was also an issue, as it was tricky to determine if any given file had been superseded by a more recent version, archived on another CD or stored on another designer’s computer. CDs were also the only effective source of backup; the designer’s computers were linked using a basic server, but the storage capacity of the desktop Macs often exceeded that of the server itself.
A powerful Mac-based asset management solution, purchased from Apple Authorised Reseller Jigsaw Systems, has since solved all of these problems. At the heart of the system is a 1GHz Xserve with 500MB of RAM, a 60GB system drive and two mirrored 180GB drives. Extensis Portfolio Server software provides the interface between the designers and the files, efficiently managing the digital visual assets of the entire company.
The designers have found the system integrates smoothly with their existing workflow, and archiving now takes only a fraction of the time spent previously. With the Xserve, they can search for files using key words or part words, and can immediately verify that they’ve found the latest version. With projects sometimes undergoing five or six revisions in rapid succession, having such information immediately to hand is invaluable. Once they have finished working on a file, the designers can synchronise their work with the archive, thereby transferring all relevant files from their workstations to the Xserve.
“The overhead of time spent on this is minimal compared to what we used to do”, notes Daniel St John Smith. Not only that, but instant access to the appropriate folder means DisplayPlan’s sales team can quickly locate the correct image for promotional and presentation purposes.
While the designers usually access the server in a read-only capacity, logging on as administrator allows staff to delete files and carry out other administrative tasks. Daniel St John Smith is positive that such “company housekeeping” is more than worth the time spent in setup and operation, especially as this approach provides a vital fail-safe against inadvertent file deletion by those accessing the server for other purposes.
This hardware/software combination has already made an impression in the enterprise server space. “Xserve and Extensis Portfolio Server is the perfect solution for design and publishing workgroups”, says Bob Campbell, Extensis’ European Business Director. “Portfolio is easy to install and implement on the Xserve, and the delivery of crucial, high-resolution versions of images is far faster than any other server on the market”. Daniel St John Smith agrees that the system is refreshingly straightforward to configure and use, given the advanced functionality it offers: “In terms of implementation it’s simple, to the point where you think you must have done something wrong”, he says.
The current implementation is only the first stage of DisplayPlan’s investment in Apple technology. Daniel predicts that in the near future, Xserve will become the bedrock of many of the company’s other systems — whether Mac- or PC-based. “Once the designers are completely familiar with the system as it is now, we’ll consider using it to serve other departments”, he says. “The Xserve will act as the central hub for the entire company”.
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Suggested Bundles
Asset Management Server Xserve Bundle
- Dual 2.3GHz Xserve G5 with 1GB ECC Memory and 800GB of built-in storage (2x 400GB Apple Drive Modules)
- Xserve RAID with 2.8TB storage (7x 400GB Apple Drive Modules)
- Battery Backup Module
- Fibre Channel PCI Card
- Mac OS X Server v10.4 (unlimited clients)
- Extensis Portfolio Server 6
Font Management Server Xserve Bundle
- Dual 2.3GHz Xserve G5 with 1GB ECC Memory and 800GB of built-in storage (2x 400GB Apple Drive Modules)
- Mac OS X Server v10.4 (unlimited clients)
- Extensis Suitcase Server 6
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