ERA, the leading IT workflow systems provider for the broadcast, post-production and media sectors, has had its partner status with Seagate Technology plc (NASDAQ: STX) upgraded to Platinum. The data storage giant made the UK company a Gold Partner in September 2020 but has now moved into the highest level of partnership, which offers a great many benefits and brings ERA even closer to the Seagate organisation.
ERA provides workflow infrastructures and storage systems from its data centres and at clients' premises. It offers managed services, remote editing, cloud connectivity and storage, IAAS (infrastructure as a service), system maintenance, disaster recovery (DR) and consultancy to leading broadcasters, facilities and educational institutions. These include Absolute Post, Evolutions Post, Rapid Pictures, Jellyfish Pictures, STV and Warner Brothers.
Many of these systems feature Seagate data storage, which has become the primary data storage technology offered by ERA over the approximately two-year period the companies have been working together. Gold Partner status enabled ERA to work directly with Seagate's enterprise division, allowing it to operate on a larger scale and build low density, high-capacity SSD or SAS storage into its systems.
As a Platinum Partner, ERA now has full access to new developments coming out of Seagate, as well as planning, marketing and training support. Andrew Palmer of the Enterprise Data Solutions Group at Seagate Technology said, "We consider our Platinum Partners to be an extension of Seagate. There are fewer than ten Platinum Partners in the EMEA region and we have a closer collaboration with these companies, which makes it easier to do business."
Palmer adds that ERA's core market of broadcasting is one that continues to grow and develop, with a wide range of projects in the UK, Ireland and mainland Europe. "The areas of pre-production and post-production are very rich and buoyant for Seagate products and ones in which ERA has a great deal of expertise," he says. "In the time we have worked together we have become ERA's hardware vendor. The working relationship is about this commitment to each other, which is reflected in the earning of Platinum Partner status."
Sean Baker, commercial director at ERA, comments, "We are delighted to have become a Platinum Partner of Seagate. We have had a vendor-partner relationship with them for some time but this new status cements that and gives us greater support and opportunities to take their storage systems further into our key broadcast and facilities markets."
