HITS

Several components of Aspera Files Software as a Service (SaaS) offering have been upgraded, and the IBM-owned company has announced a handful of new customers for the cloud-based service.

New to Aspera Files is an Express mode, which promises to simplify large file sharing, with both sending and receiving done using a more-simple user interface, with users able to switch between the full Files and Files Express modes with a click of a toggle switch in the app. Also new for Aspera Files is built-in support for the new hosted multi-cloud IBM Aspera High-Speed Transfer Service (ATS), the company’s hybrid multi-tenant service for big data transfers to and from cloud object storage systems.

IBM also announced a series of new partners using Aspera Files, including post-production house Syncro Services, geo-intelligence and asset integrity solutions Fugro, video technology company Synacor and ReelzChannel.

“Transfer performance and reliability are exactly as they were before we migrated” said Penn Boon, VP of media services architecture for Synacor. “From our clients point of view, nothing has changed. From our point of view, we have lower overhead and a smaller operational burden. With ATS, our organization now has the full benefits of a highly available Aspera service with no additional operational overhead, and we only pay for what we actually use.”

Rob Macaulay, director of digital syndication for ReelzChannel, added: “ATS provided us an instantly available, high speed transfer service allowing us to deliver content with no workflow changes directly to our partners’ cloud storage. We simply configured our ATS credentials to land video content in their target cloud storage location and use our existing Aspera workflow to upload automatically.”

Lastly, IBM announced that digital media management and post-production services provider TVT has adopted Aspera technology to handle new cloud-based workflows, specifically around TVT’s breaking news media management platform ContentSelect. TVT is using Aspera On Demand to move footage into ContentSelect’s cloud-based storage, and is also using Aspera Mobile Apps and the Aspera SDK for integration with ContentSelect.

“To support our customers with fast turnaround news and other time critical content, we need a file transfer software solution which gives us speed and reliability,” said Ian Brotherston, CEO of TVT. “IBM Aspera delivered reliable data transfer over unreliable networks, which was key to the success of this project. Embedding the Aspera SDK into our ContentSelect platform has enabled us to deliver a fast, seamless user experience where field-based agents don’t need to worry about how files are transferred back to base.”

Michelle Munson, CEO and co-founder of Aspera, added: “Fast turnaround times and reliability are critical for breaking news workflows, where network conditions are often very challenging. Aspera On Demand enables TVT’s clients to use its cloud-based infrastructure for these kinds of workflows, and gives users a fast, seamless experience, regardless of where they are in the world.”