Enabling Massive-File Collaboration in the Cloud With Adaptive Block Caching

When it comes to massive files, many organizations still rely on old-fashioned, on-premises file servers and filers. They’re hesitant to work on these projects in the cloud because the inherent network latency makes working with massive files difficult. So they stick to an on-premises approach—even though it typically requires wired access and stable VPN connections, which makes sharing and collaborating especially challenging for people working from home, in the field, or on the road. On-premises file servers simply can’t be scaled for distributed teams. They also actively stall productivity.  

Organizations that rely on on-premises file servers leave themselves open to significant risks— broken files, overlapping versions, network latency concerns, device storage constraints, and  the ripple effect of device freezes and crashes. The good news is, Adaptive Block Caching (ABC) provides an efficient solution for collaborating on massive files. 

Collaborating on Massive, Desktop-Based Files Shouldn’t Be Stuck in the Past

Whether your teams are building slides and spreadsheets or more industry-specific content such as CAD designs, BIM models, or Adobe creatives, secure collaboration is essential for productivity. While the desktop-bound nature, complexity, and size of these files keeps some organizations from bridging desktop-based applications with cloud collaboration, the benefits are worth serious consideration. 

Staying away from cloud-based sharing can lead to:

• Wasted time waiting for files to upload, download, open, and cache since the entire file needs to be handled all the time.
• Poor user experiences on large creative projects from buffers, freezes, and content misalignments.
• Inefficient file version keeping.

To overcome these challenges, ABC enables and streamlines cloud-based collaboration for files typically considered too cumbersome for it. Many Egnyte customers frequently handle files that are in the gigabyte range, requiring pointed functionality to optimize how these complex files are handled. Let’s take a look at how ABC solves the biggest challenges for massive-file collaboration.

Block-Level Handling of Massive Files

🛑 The heft and complexity of massive files leave teams waiting for files to upload, download, open, render, and re-open since they’re forced to wait for the entire file to execute any operation.

✔️ With block-level handling, files get uploaded, downloaded, opened, and cached in blocks, rather than in their entirety. This approach enables collaboration on massive files that tend to be handled in siloes, providing a persistent and up-to-date cache.

Predictive File Streaming

🛑 Visual designers, creative editors, graphics professionals, etc. all know how frustrating it can get to work on large video and audio projects. Buffers, freezes, misaligned content, catch-up and readjusting work, and wait times all make for incredibly frustrating experiences that don’t have to last.  

✔️ Leveraging ABC makes work on these large creative files so much smoother. Predictive file streaming ensures all loaded and rendered content comes in as intended, with subsequent blocks brought in as the user works in the file. 

Optimized Version Keeping

🛑 Stop leveraging inefficient versioning that consumes huge amounts of storage with each version of a massive file.

✔️ ABC stores changed block versions rather than files in their entirety. Need to restore a previous version? No problem—the system will simply load the relevant blocks and build the version to be accessed. 

Adaptive Block Caching Benefits

ABC doesn’t just speed things up—it optimizes how teams collaborate on massive files, taking into account their complexity and application-defined nuances. 

Benefits include: 

• Crucial time savings when uploading, downloading, opening, and caching massive files in the cloud with block-level file handling.
• A better user experience on large creative projects with predictive file streaming.
• Optimized version keeping for massive files.

With ABC, your organization can overcome the cumbersome nature of massive files and the disjointed processes used to handle them, so you can collaborate and ship mission-critical content faster. 

Learn more about Adaptive Block Caching Today →