The Challenge of File Management
It happens all the time, you are working on a document, and you want to keep a record of the changes you made so you create another version of the file. Every company has a different policy or mechanism, but whether you call it draft 1, draft 2, draft 3 or add characters to the end of the file path, the outcome is always the same – you create another copy of the file in whatever drive your working on and add to the 6.1 Zettabytes of data stored around the world (a Zettabyte is 10 to the 21st power of bytes). This habit of creating copies is burned into our collective conscious, in some cases to preserve a record of an important document, in other cases, the individual working on the file just wants their own copy – usually by saving to their hard drive. The reality is at as much as 50% of that information is copies of copies and is unnecessary to keep.
For every business or business leader, this process is both a benefit and a curse. Finding the right version for what you need can be daunting. Using the wrong version is more common than most businesses will admit. While naming and versioning standards are spelled out in every company, staff only follow them if it is convenient or heavily policed. It is more likely they will create their own version of the system making it difficult to find the correct file when needed.
All this cost’s money; millions of dollars are spent each month in storage, unproductive searching, and file interrogation as businesses try to find the information they need.
Concert has a novel solution to this problem – register newer versions of the same file with an encrypted hash that uniquely and permanently records that version without dependence on complicated systems of file naming or versioning. The process is simple, and the Concert exchange does it automatically each time you register the file. It creates an easily searchable chronological record of every version, and, with the archive function, you can easily see the history of changes made. You don’t have to worry about overwriting a file in Concert, if anything has changed, the system prompts you that the file is different than the last version registered and asks you if you want to register this version.
Every business has reasons to control and store their own data. However, the mechanisms used by almost everyone can create logistical nightmares for IT and senior leaders of any company. In the 40 years since the PC took hold in the business world, storage needs for the average business have grown from megabytes to petabytes. Data centers now represent one of the largest markets in design and construction as cloud based, and secure offsite storage needs continue to grow exponentially. Projections show that based on the current creation and storage of data, global storage will add another 180 Zettabytes by 2025, a 3000% growth in less than 5 years
Concert is designed to reduce these complicated systems and supply a clear chain of custody for every file on the exchange. It allows for reverse search of a file by simply dragging it into the Concert interface, where it will check the data and tell you which version it is, when it was registered on the exchange, and who registered it. If it’s not the most current version, you can see which version is and you can access an archive version to compare against the version you have. It’s simple, intuitive, fast, and secure. Earlier versions cannot be overwritten or cut, and the record is complete for each change recorded.
Why will this be important to your business? Because for true collaboration to occur, there must be confidence that you own the most current information. For productivity to improve, we must reduce the amount of wasted time and resources spent on creating, saving, and trying to find outdated version of important files. For business to grow in the coming years, they need to know that their data is always safe and secure. Concert is the exchange where all of this can happen.
