3.4. Bonus Step: File Archiving
I am one of the guilty parties. Early in the process of establishing my digital workflow, I remember having to back up files on CDs at the end of the day so that there would be room on the hard drive to continue the next day's work. This was a very time-consuming, frustrating, and costly method of file management. Eventually, working with a server and/or additional hard drives allowed for a much smoother workflow. This chart shows how a portrait studio's file management, storage, and backup might require 1.5 terabytes of manageable space for one year. Conservatively speaking, the daily file management would take place on a server, and given a six-week (five-day week) cycle, an 80-gig server would handle this workflow. After the six-week cycle, the files would be moved to a more permanent backup and storage system. When designing your network, including a server to manage your files can allow for a more productive workflow because you can have multiple workstations open while processing and saving files back to the server.
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