Let’s talk speed. With the amount of files being shared and transferred globally to run an organization today, speed is of the utmost importance.
Any organization involved in creating content, publishing articles or generating reports understands the frustrations and high costs involved with wasting time on uploading and downloading files, checking files in and out, and slow connection speeds.
We have found a way to speed things up!
Amazon CloudFront Acceleration is one of the various Content Delivery Network (CDN) solutions available on the market. Amazon’s out-of-the-box solution easily connects to WoodWing Assets and WoodWing Studio servers to increase the connection speed by more than four times in some locations. With CloudFront Acceleration every action is sped up. From adding metadata to files in Studio, to searching for files in Assets, and even working on layouts in Adobe InDesign, every action is faster.
How does it work?
With the amount of globalized organizations and remote users in today’s digital world, servers and users can be based in any geographic location. For a user based in Amsterdam, for example, to open a file from an Enterprise server in Singapore using a regular internet connection, the file’s route might go from Singapore, to China, to India, to Russia, through Sweden, before finally reaching its destination in Amsterdam.
The route using a regular file connection
Whereas taking advantage of Amazon’s optimized network with CloudFront Acceleration, the file travels directly using the two closest Amazon server locations (the one closest to the user and the one closest to the server). Travelling, almost, directly to your door without the unnecessary journey stops along the way.
The route using Amazon’s CloudFront Acceleration
The test
We decided to test this out ourselves by checking out real customer files using WoodWing Studio, as we wanted to make sure of the results.
The test we conducted involved a regular photoshop .psd file of 254 Mb being sent from a server in Singapore to Amsterdam.
On a regular consumer internet connection (with an upload speed of 20 Mbit and a download speed of 60 Mbit) the file took 2 minutes and 49 seconds to checkout. With CloudFront Acceleration this time was drastically reduced to only 54 seconds.
For today’s modern working group, this time cannot afford to be wasted on slow uploads, downloads and transfers.
Time savings
To put this into perspective, for an average visual magazine that has 70 layouts and 750 images in one issue per month, the total traffic will include around 4 Tb of data.
Based on the calculations, the time saving equates to 400 hours. That’s equal to 50, eight-hour working days in time wasted each month.
Working with WoodWing Assets
The trials completed with WoodWing Assets, our digital asset management system, were even more spectacular. Uploading five images using Assets with CloudFront Acceleration took the same time as one using a regular internet service connection.
What else can it speed up
Every action in WoodWing Studio, WoodWing Assets, InDesign and InCopy is faster with CloudFront Acceleration. Checking files out and in, searching, browsing, adding metadata, uploading and downloading, all see an increase in efficiency.
Compatibility
As CloudFront Acceleration is compatible with both on-premise and cloud versions of Elvis, and all versions of Enterprise and its client applications, any user of WoodWing software has the ability to benefit from CloudFront Acceleration. No software changes are required in all cases as the performance improvement is provided by Amazon.
Let’s go
If you are a global company with remote users who would benefit from faster interaction with your current WoodWing system, reduced waiting times and an increase in productivity for your team, Amazon’s CloudFront Acceleration could be the solution you have been looking for.
To find out more about how to connect your current WoodWing system to Amazon’s CloudFront Acceleration, click here for information regarding Studio or Assets, or simply get in touch.
*Please note that as CloudFront Acceleration is an Amazon service, for a detailed calculation of the monthly costs please use the Amazon Calculator.
**Not all locations will see a performance improvement when using CloudFront Acceleration. Typically, the speed improvement will be most noticeable for those users that are furthest away from the server location.
