7 Wonders Cinema Turns To Wasabi for Cost-effective Active Archive

Philadelphia-based 7 Wonders Cinema is changing how brands utilize video. While traditional production companies simply execute a separate agency’s vision, 7 Wonders Cinema strikes a balance between a production company and an agency. They strategize and execute video campaigns that breathe new life into brands nationwide.

To accommodate their rapid growth, they needed more storage capacity for increased client demand. They were looking for a cost-effective solution for archiving footage from the hard drives they used daily—without losing the ability to instantly access those files for future projects. After extensive research, it was clear that Wasabi hot cloud storage was the only cloud storage solution with the price-performance capable of meeting their needs.

Challenge

7 Wonders Cinema began in 2015 while founders Michael Ayjian and Stephen Skeel were attending New York University. The dynamic new company quickly landed a roster of impressive clients because they identified a need in the market for more video content telling human-oriented stories. Their videos have achieved recognition at Oscar-qualifying festivals and viral status online, and have dramatically improved their clients’ marketing success. As the company expanded, they gradually maxed out every hard drive they owned plus multiple Google Drive accounts. By the summer of 2017, the search was on for a better long-term storage solution.

They considered going to a higher tier of service with Google or trying Amazon, but the need to occasionally access their stored footage made those choices “astronomically expensive,” according to Ayjian. “We often pull archived video for new projects. This made cold storage time intensive and pricier cloud storage tiers from Google and Amazon economically out of reach.”

Solution

“Storing something like 100 GB on Google cost the same as storing a terabyte on Wasabi,” says Ayjian.

HIPAA compliance was also a major concern for 7 Wonders Cinema, as the company supports several healthcare-industry clients. HIPAA’s strict regulations for protecting and encrypting data were often cumbersome, requiring them to keep hard drives with them at all times, even on location. “With Wasabi, we simply upload all the footage to their secure HIPAA-compliant cloud,” says Ayjian’s business partner, Stephen Skeel.

Results

With Wasabi, 7 Wonders Cinema gets the best of both worlds: low-cost, long-term cloud storage and the ability to instantly access files whenever they need them. Typical archive storage can take hours before you can download a single byte, and expedited service quickly becomes cost prohibitive. “We were working on a new project for Mercedes-Benz when the client suddenly asked for a scene from an earlier video project,” says Skeel. "It was no problem. Wasabi is so fast, it's like an active archive."

While 7 Wonders Cinema is highly satisfied with the price and performance of Wasabi hot cloud storage, they are also pleased with the high level of customer care and service. They appreciate being able to ask questions, discuss matters with Wasabi staff, and get swift resolution and responses when they have an issue. “The low price point is what originally drew us in, but the customer service is what is convincing us to stay,” says Ayjian.

What’s Next for 7 Wonders Cinema?

7 Wonders Cinema is gradually discovering all the benefits of Wasabi hot cloud storage and its features. Skeel says, “Switching to Wasabi allows us to store considerably more data than any other cloud storage platform. We plan to store all of our final videos and relevant files on Wasabi.” The company is also looking into Wasabi partner solutions for enhancing their video search and retrieval capabilities as their Wasabi active archive grows.

The name “7 Wonders Cinema” is a nod to the ancient seven wonders of the world—the quintessential idea of timeless permanence. “We create content that will stand the test of time, that will continue to resonate and impact future generations because we focus on stories with universal messages,” says Ayjian. It’s fitting, then, that Wasabi’s universal hot cloud storage enables companies like 7 Wonders Cinema to affordably store all of their data for as long as they want.