Cold Storage is an alternate form of “archival” storage, which allows storing large amounts of data in a secure and ultra-durable way at a fraction of the the price of Active Storage. Because files stored in Cold Storage are not immediately accessible, Cold Storage is most appropriate for files that are accessed infrequently and where a few hours of wait time before use is acceptable. A common use case would be to store large RAW or high-resolution tiff images in Cold Storage.

All project information and edits are still available for files in Cold Storage. Messengers may be sent for proofing or approval purposes while files are in Cold Storage, and previews can be downloaded, including the large preview.

For more information about the preview files generated by DF Studio, see Dimensions of DF Studio Preview Files.

Cooling Storage

When files are transferred from Active Storage to Cold Storage, they spend 14 days in Cooling Storage, also known as “Pending Cold Storage”, which is billed at a reduced rate, but permits files to be restored to Active Storage instantaneously. (The Cooling Storage duration is configurable on enterprise accounts.)

Restoring Files from Cold Storage

A single restore request should complete within 4-6 hours, independent of the number of files in the request or the size of the files.

Messengers can be created which offer the download of original files currently in Cold Storage. Files will begin restoring to Active Storage immediately, and the Messenger will be sent automatically as soon as the restore is complete.

For more information about restoring files from Cold Storage, see Manage Files in Cold Storage.

Fees

DF Studio does not charge a restoral fee when moving files from Cold Storage to Active Storage. Once the files are in Active Storage again, they are billed at the Active Storage rate. For more information, see Storage and Billing.

File Security

All data is encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) 256, a secure symmetric-key encryption standard using 256-bit encryption keys. Data is redundantly stored in multiple facilities and on multiple devices within each facility. Additionally, all data undergoes systematic data integrity checks, providing an average annual durability of 99.999999999%.