Phoenix Printing Plates Increases Productivity With Acronis Files Connect

By Author: Maria Kurganova
Total Articles: 28
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Phoenix Printing Plates Ltd. is one of the UK's leading flexo plate suppliers. The company specializes in the manufacturing of high quality digital HD flexo plates for key players in the industry. The busy origination and repro studio utilizes the latest technology and four ArtPro seats along with Adobe Creative Cloud.
Kristian Wells, Repro Account Manager, explained that when purchasing a new Windows server for the business, he didn't initially look at Acronis Files Connect as a requirement. Despite having used it in the past on a much older Windows 2003 Server, he assumed that Macs and Windows would be able to connect seamlessly using SMB.
Although they could get all the Macs in the studio to connect to the new server, their users experienced many frustrating issues such as:
Long delays when viewing folder contents
Inability to rename or move files for a long time after they had been opened due to permissions issues
Inaccurate, time consuming search results
Overall slow performance affecting productivity
These issues were very disappointing for the team. "Even though we centralized ...
... all of our job data, operators still preferred to work directly on their Macs, as the server had so many performance issues," said Wells. "We initially tried to resolve this by upgrading a couple of the studio Macs to run OS X Mavericks (which uses SMB2 as its default network connection). Although this was better, it was far from perfect. Even still, some Macs were too old to upgrade so this would have eventually forced us down the route of costly replacement."
"In addition to providing a high performance AFP connection, Acronis Files Connect also enables us to set up other useful features such as file name policies and limitation to stop operators from using certain characteristics that may cause issues with another machine further down the line. Another feature which we had not used before was the ShadowConnect. It is easily installed on each machine and enables everyone to restore a previous version of a file, or even a deleted file. This is a real life-saving feature."
"Everyone in the studio now works directly from the server, giving us a central repository for all work. We don't even realize that Files Connect is running, as once it's installed on the server you don't ever need to touch it. All operators get seamless connection and everyone is happy. We just wish we had installed it from day one as it would have saved a lot of headaches," said Wells.
WHY ACRONIS
With constantly tight deadlines, each of the company's 10 repro operators need to be able to use their Macs as efficiently as possible. Connectivity issues waste time and reduce efficiency. Within 30 minutes of installing Acronis Files Connect, the entire studio was connected to the Windows Server using the Acronis Files Connect AFP Connection. This has resulted in a happier workplace for their Mac users, improves productivity, and save hours each day.
The addition of ShadowConnect, included for free, also proved extremely useful as it can save the day if a file is accidentally overwritten or even deleted. Thanks to ShadowConnect, Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy (VSS) versions of these files could be immediately browsed and restored by Mac users.
ACRONIS FILES CONNECT
Acronis Files Connect has been the leader in solving Mac/Windows integration issues for over 15 years. It addresses file corruptions, slow searches, and incompatibilities in accessing Windows file and print servers and NAS devices. At its core, Acronis Files Connect is a Windows-based AFP service that enables Macs to connect to files residing on a Windows server using their native Apple Filing Protocol. Additionally, using optional Network Reshare features, all Macs (regardless of operating system age) can use AFP to access files on other Windows servers and NAS devices, through a single Acronis Files Connect server.
KEY BENEFITS
Seamless integration of Macs with Windows file servers
Resolved renaming, moving, and file permissions issues
Fast and accurate search results
Overall performance and productivity improved
ABOUT ACRONIS
Acronis sets the standard for cyber protection and hybrid cloud storage through its innovative backup, anti-ransomware, disaster recovery, storage, and enterprise file sync and share solutions. Enhanced by AI-based Active Protection technology, blockchain-based authentication and a unique hybrid-cloud architecture, Acronis protects all data in any environment, including physical, virtual, cloud, mobile workloads and applications. Founded in Singapore in 2003, today the company is trusted by more than 5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses worldwide, including 79 of the top 100 most valuable brands