The Mammoth Site needed a secure and scalable way to share large research and operational files across distributed teams, visiting scholars, and external collaborators. ASCENDING migrated core data workflows from on-premises storage to Amazon WorkDocs, enabling faster collaboration with lower infrastructure burden.
Background
The Mammoth Site is a non-profit museum and active paleontological research site that collaborates with scientists and academic stakeholders around the world. Its teams manage extensive fossil, research, and program data while supporting day-to-day operations for staff, students, and researchers.
As data volume increased, the organization relied on a local server and network-attached storage to manage thousands of files. This model created growing operational pressure and limited access flexibility for distributed users.
The Challenge
Mammoth Site needed to modernize document collaboration and data access without disrupting daily work. The organization had to maintain secure sharing across geographies while handling rapid data growth and limited in-house IT administration.
- Data growth required frequent on-premises server expansion, increasing cost and maintenance overhead.
- Server incidents required third-party support, creating delays and unplanned operational expense.
- External researchers depended on VPN-based access to on-premises files, reducing collaboration speed and usability.
- Migration complexity increased due to non-standard file names, long path structures, and large-file upload constraints.
- Internet bandwidth at the client site limited direct large-scale cloud transfer speed.
Why ASCENDING
ASCENDING brought practical AWS migration experience and an execution model tailored to constrained environments. The team combined cloud architecture expertise with pragmatic file-transfer operations to complete a high-volume migration under real-world limitations.
As an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner and Public Sector Partner, ASCENDING designed a secure collaboration approach that improved accessibility while preserving control over sensitive research and operational content.
The Solution
ASCENDING implemented Amazon WorkDocs as the centralized content platform and designed a multi-path migration strategy to move data safely and efficiently from on-premises storage.
- Assessed source storage footprint (3.55 TB across 58 folders) and mapped folder-level migration sequencing based on file type and size.
- Addressed limited site bandwidth by shipping a 5 TB portable drive for bulk transfer, then uploading through ASCENDING's internal network.
- Used a blended upload method: WorkDocs web uploads for path-sensitive files and WorkDocs Drive synchronization for large-folder throughput.
- Enabled secure role-based access patterns for core staff, scholars, and students, reducing manual access management overhead.
- Preserved familiar desktop workflows while introducing WorkDocs search, synchronization, and collaboration features.
The Outcome
The Mammoth Site established a more scalable and user-friendly collaboration foundation for global research and operations.
- Eliminated dependence on frequent on-premises storage expansion for day-to-day document collaboration.
- Improved file availability across devices and locations for staff and external collaborators.
- Reduced administrative burden tied to manual permission management and VPN-dependent access.
- Created a resilient operating model for continued data growth in museum, excavation, and education programs.
