People in, machines out: Reclaim your studio’s potential

Server noise, heat, and the ever-present worry about power, cooling, and physical space – this is the reality for many creative studios managing on-prem infrastructure. As your projects grow more ambitious and deadlines get tighter, your hardware can become a bottleneck rather than an asset. It consumes valuable real estate, demands constant maintenance, and struggles to keep up with fluctuating workloads.

What if you could reclaim that space and time for creative output? Escape Technology’s private cloud and data centre solutions enable a paradigm shift. By moving your infrastructure to a purpose-built, high-performance environment, you empower your studio to focus on what matters most: creativity.  

The Modern Studio Dilemma: growth vs. infrastructure

Creative studios are under constant pressure to deliver stunning visuals faster than ever. As projects grow in complexity, moving from HD to 4K and 8K resolutions, the demands on your infrastructure multiply. How do you grow artist teams and provision workstations immediately, or scale render workloads to meet changes in deadlines?

Buy more hardware or migrate to the public cloud. But both approaches have drawbacks:

• High upfront costs: Purchasing high-end workstations and render nodes requires a major capital investment.

• Physical space limitations: Server racks take up valuable studio real estate that could be used for creative teams.

• Power and cooling demands: High-performance hardware consumes enormous amounts of electricity and requires specialised cooling, leading to high operational costs.

• Lack of flexibility: On-prem setups are difficult to scale up or down quickly, leaving you with idle hardware during quiet periods or insufficient power during peak workloads.

• Increased TCO: higher costs in AWS, GCP or Azure, with the additional complexity hybrid set-ups entail.

This is the exact challenge that a growing number of studios face. Take We Are Covert, a remote-first creative studio that was named one of Televisual’s Top 10 Highest Rated Post Houses. As their projects grew from hundreds of gigabytes to terabytes of data, their initial Dropbox-based workflow couldn’t keep up. They needed more power, speed, and flexibility.

Read the We Are Covert case study.

A better way to work: Escape’s private cloud and data centre

Escape Technology enables expansion without growing your on-premise footprint. Our private cloud and data centre services provide a secure, scalable, and cost-effective alternative to managing on-prem infrastructure.

Scale instantly and pay for what you use

One of the biggest advantages of our solution is the ability to scale on demand. With our Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), you can instantly spin up high-performance workstations or expand your render farm to meet project demands.

With Escape Technology’s private cloud and data centre solutions, studios can deploy powerful virtual workstations on demand. "If we bring on 10 people on Monday morning, I can spin up 10 Nuke machines with zero drama. It’s simple, scalable, and fast," says Simon Dewey, Co-Founder of We Are Covert.

This flexibility eliminates the need for large upfront hardware investments. You pay only for the resources you use, transforming a capital expenditure into a predictable operating expense. Whether you need a short-term rental for a specific project or a long-term set-up for your core team, our model adapts to your needs.

Powering complex workflows and global collaboration

Modern VFX and post-production workflows demand immense computing power. Tools like Flame and Nuke require heavy-duty hardware that is often impractical for remote artists to maintain. By hosting these systems in Escape’s private cloud, artists from anywhere in the world can connect to high-performance machines.

UNIT, a leading independent studio, faced this exact scenario. With artists in New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, and across the UK, they needed a way to centralise their data and provide seamless access to their tools. After moving their infrastructure to Escape’s data centre, the results were transformative.

“Flame machines, artist workstations, our entire GPU render farm, CPU renders – everything is now sent to the data centre,” confirms Nuno Pereira, Head of 3D and VFX Supervisor at UNIT. “It’s working flawlessly and incredibly fast. I don’t think our artists even know the render farm isn’t in the building any more!”

Read the case study – New home, new data centre solution. UNIT starts its next chapter in style

This centralised approach makes global collaboration a reality. As Simon Dewey from We Are Covert notes, "If you're shifting two terabytes of data to seven artists, that’s seven different connections. But if everyone dials into one central location, it's way easier – and faster.”

Enterprise-grade security and expert support

Moving your studio’s core assets to a data centre requires trust. Our facilities are built with enterprise-grade security, featuring 24/7 monitoring and controlled access to ensure your data is always protected. Advanced cooling systems keep the hardware running efficiently and reliably, maximising the longevity of your investment.

Beyond the physical infrastructure, our team of specialists becomes an extension of yours. Many of our engineers come from the VFX and gaming industries, bringing practical, real-world expertise to every project. We handle everything from the initial migration and configuration to ongoing technical support, freeing up your team to focus on their creative work.

"Escape gave us access to knowledge we didn’t have and helped steer us where we needed to go," says Simon Dewey. This partnership approach ensures your technology strategy evolves with your business goals.

Key benefits of Escape’s private cloud & data centre solutions

• Cost efficiency: Avoid large upfront hardware costs and pay only for the resources you need.

• Agility and scalability: Instantly scale your compute power and workstations up or down as projects demand.

• Optimised performance: Our data centres provide advanced cooling and stable power for maximum hardware efficiency and longevity.

• Enterprise security: Benefit from secure facilities with 24/7 monitoring and controlled access.

• Expert setup and support: Our specialists handle deployment, migration, and ongoing support, letting you focus on creativity.

• Flexible rentals: Access high-performance workstations, including Flame, for short-term projects without long-term commitments.

• Rapid deployment: Get new machines up and running at short notice to meet tight deadlines.

Download the infographic

Reclaim your studio’s potential today

On-prem infrastructure shouldn’t dictate your studio’s creative potential. By moving your hardware to Escape Technology’s private cloud and data centre, you can free up space, reduce operational overheads, and empower your team with the flexibility to tackle any project, anywhere.

Studios like We Are Covert and UNIT have already made the switch, enabling them to scale seamlessly, enhance collaboration, and focus on what they do best: creating incredible work. It’s time to stop worrying about hardware limitations and start exploring what’s possible.

Ready to reclaim your space, power, and time? Let’s talk about how Escape Technology can transform your studio’s workflow.

Book a call with our specialists today!

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