Securing Our Footage

Clients don’t think about footage. They think about deliverables, ROI, and if the video we’re creating will make them and their company look good. How do we make an incredible deliverable, however? Great footage, stored safely. This last part is something clients might not be thinking about but is a definite differentiator for us at Massive Mission Media.

Is your footage safe? This is a multi-part question because it begs the question - from who or what? The two things to consider are:

1. Hackers who might hold your data ransom 
2. Drive failures or data corruption

To mitigate the first issue we use both built-in firewall tools from the manufacturer and industry-standard VPN tools. On top of that, we automate rotating unique passwords and limit access only to specific people who need it. No one gets in our server that’s not on the pre-approved list.

To safeguard against the second issue we use a 364 terabyte RAID server system that has dual redundancy. First, if any drive in the server fails it notifies us and we can rebuild the data from the other drives by swapping in a new drive in minutes. Multiple drives would need to fail simultaneously for anything to be lost. HOWEVER - in that instance, we also have a BACKUP server which is ALSO a RAID server that backs up everything we’re doing on the primary server in case of catastrophic failure. Both of those servers are also on a power surge protection system that powers them down properly using backup energy in case the power goes out. 

Long story short, your data is safe with us.

Before the footage is safely on the server however it’s also important to prioritize on-set accountability of our data. Once filming wraps on a memory card, it's promptly separated from the unused ones. We use dual card cases to sort our used and unused cards so we can safely transport the data back to our office and upload it to our server. Internally we say, "The shoot ‘s not done until the footage is on the server.”

Data management isn’t sexy but it’s extraordinarily important. Establishing protocols and investing in industrial hard drives that run 24/7 help us keep your data safe and secure for years after we’ve wrapped production. At Massive Mission, storytelling is what we’re passionate about and we say “Your Story is our Mission.” Safely storing your data is just one crucial part, of that mission.