The Problem
On March 18, 2020, as Covid-19 ravaged Asia and Europe and started to spike in North America, Joel Sevilla and Jarrod Avalos - the founders of Track VFX - realized they needed to take drastic and immediate action. Their company, a visual effects firm in Vancouver and Los Angeles, was not yet subject to shelter-in-place orders but they suspected that time would be right around the corner. Track wanted to proactively move their employees to the safety of their homes, keep their clients' projects on schedule and ensure the security of the data they had been entrusted with.
The Solution
On March 19, 2020, they pulled the trigger on going 100% remote. They had been using the Arch Platform for cloud-based workstations, software licensing and storage. They knew the technology piece was going to be easy, as Arch’s secure data model has met countless studio security audits. And the client data would remain where it always was -- secure in the cloud and never downloaded locally.
But Track needed to solve the physical security issues for remote work. After reviewing a detailed best practices for remote work security protocol with the artists, the artists were reminded of both company and individual confidentiality NDAs they had agreed to and signed. Anyone sharing living space with the artists would also be required to sign an NDA to extend confidentiality terms to cover the entire dwelling.
With the artists' compliance to enhanced security measures in place, they then worked with their clients - studios, TV, film and commercial productions and other VFX houses - to get approval to move the artists to remote locations.
On the morning of March 20, 2020, Track went remote. Employees started their day working at home in Vancouver and Los Angeles instead of working side by side in the VFX studio. This move happened seamlessly with zero downtime.
With the Arch Platform, Track had everything it needed to move their two locations remote in a day, keeping their employees safe and their client’s project on track.
The Customer
Track VFX has been in the cloud with Arch Platform Technologies since their inception. In December 2018 they launched their facility with Arch for the key reasons any new company would - they wanted to mitigate risk and minimize startup costs by paying for resources as they were used and not up front. Track had limited capital to bring on a technical employee and their accomplished VFX artists had no IT background, yet Arch had them up and running with minimal setup time.