A Is For Archive
All files and projects that have been completed should migrate to the long-term archive, where they are catalogued and preserved. For returning customers, for reference and re-use of any kind, the archive provides the "Single Source of Truth“ because it is the one and only place to look for files. The Archive catalog provides browsing and visual presentation of media files with thumbnails and proxy clips. Finding files is made easy by providing metadata fields and menus for searching and combined searching. The metadata schema can and should be customised to fit the needs of the company and the workflow.

B Is For Backup
For less time-critical, an automated Backup is the way to go. Depending on the requirements, that backup can go to disk, cloud or tape storage. In case a file is deleted or corrupted, it can be found in the Backup index and a restore triggered. Depending on requirements, all users can be granted access to a backup so they may restore whenever need be.

The backup always replicates the present production storage, i.e. files needed for day-to-day work. All files that have been finalized or delivered can and should migrate to the archive in order to keep the main production storage and the files residing on it at a reasonable number.

C Is For Cloning
Time critical production storage needs to be cloned to a secondary volume. This serves as fail-over replacement for the primary production storage in case something goes wrong. Cloning is needed where there is no tolerance for the runtime of a restore. Cloning provides an identical copy or replication of a complete storage on a secondary storage device, which can then be used as fail-over for immediate data availability so production can continue within minutes. A cloning strategy requires a secondary storage that can at least to some degree replace the speed and performance of the primary production storage.

3-2-1 To Protect Your Data
The 3-2-1 rule is the most basic rule of data protection and should be observed in any professional IT environment where (media) files play an essential role. The rule states that at least three copies of each file should exist. They should be stored on two different types of media (LTO tape, HDD, SSD, Cloud). One of the copies must be stored off-site for maximum security.