Frequently Asked Questions
General FAQs
What is PMC?
MelroseINC’s PMC (Private Media Cloud) is a managed technology infrastructure service built specifically for media and entertainment companies, agencies, content creators and influencers. We provide enterprise-grade computing, storage, networking, and support — hosted in a world-class Los Angeles datacenter — at prices accessible to companies of any size. Think of it as having a full IT department and a top-tier server room, without the overhead of either.
Who is PMC built for?
PMC serves media and entertainment customers of all sizes — from individuals and six-person boutique agencies to multi-hundred-person studios. Our clients include digital marketing firms, post-production houses, visual effects companies, content creators, and influencers. If your work involves large media files, collaborative workflows, or remote teams, our private media cloud was built for you.
Where is MelroseINC's PMC located?
PMC Is hosted at an Equinix Los Angeles Data Center – one of the world’s premier media and entertainment data centers. Equinix is the largest data center operator globally, and our location is purpose-bulit for the content creation and distribution ecosystem. MelroseINC clients access PMC from anywhere in the continental US and beyond via secure, high-speed connections.
Do I have to be in Los Angeles to use PMC?
No. We have clients across the continental United States – and occasionally internationally – who use PMC every day. Location is irrelevant. All you need is an internet connection; our team handles the rest.
Who is PMC built for?
PMC serves media and entertainment customers of all sizes — from individuals and six-person boutique agencies to multi-hundred-person studios. Our clients include digital marketing firms, post-production houses, visual effects companies, content creators, and influencers. If your work involves large media files, collaborative workflows, or remote teams, our private media cloud was built for you.
Services & How It Works
What private media cloud services does MelroseINC offer?
There are three core service categories that can be used individually or combined:
- Hosting – bring your existing equipment (servers, storage, workstations) to our facility. We provide the rack space, power, cooling, connectivity, and security. Your gear, our infrastructure
- On-Demand Technology – access enterprise-grade workstations, storage, networking, and file transfer services on a monthly basis. No capital purchase required. Pay for what you use
- Hybrid Integration – a blend of both. Host some of your own equipment, add on-demand services where they make sense, and scale each side up or down as your business evolves. Most clients use some combination of all three
What does "hybrid" mean in practice?
It means you’re never forced into a one-size-fits-all model. You might host your existing edit workstations with us, add on-demand storage for a large project, and integrate a cloud archive solution – all managed as a single unified environment. As your needs change, so does your configuration. Unlike most providers, MelroseINC can recommend purchasing equipment when it makes financial sense or renting when it doesn’t. We have no incentive to push you toward a model that doesn’t fit your needs.
What technology does MelroseINC use for its PMC?
Our Private Media Cloud is built on industry-leading enterprise platforms:
- Storage: Qumulo NAS (clustered filesystem, enterprise-grade)
- Networking: Arista Networks switches (7050TX3, 7060CX3)
- Security: SonicWall Next-Generation Firewall (NGFW), managed
- Power & Physical Infrastructure: Equinix Data Center (N+1 redundancy, 11 backup generators)
- Cloud Integration: Wasabi, Backblaze, LucidLink, Iconik, Signiant and others
All hardware is current, fully supported, and under active vendor maintenance.
Security & Reliability
Is it secure?
Yes — and security is the foundation of the platform, not something bolted on afterward. Protection is layered:
- Physical. Biometric entry, mantrap access, 24/7 on-site security officers, and video surveillance with 90-day retention.
- Access. Multi-factor authentication on every login, role-based least-privilege access, and full access logging and periodic review.
- Network. Every client environment is isolated from every other tenant using dedicated VLANs and VRF segmentation, protected by an enterprise-grade managed firewall and AES-256 encrypted VPN connections. For clients who require it, we also offer a Zero Trust access model.
- Data. Data stored on PMC-provided storage is encrypted at rest. If you host your own storage with us, encryption remains under your control and we’ll advise on the right approach for your workflow.
- Operations. Systems are continuously monitored, patched, and logged, backed by 24/7 security operations center monitoring and threat detection, and by regular vulnerability assessment and penetration testing.
Our controls are architected to the MPA Content Security Best Practices (v5.3.1) — the framework major studios and the Trusted Partner Network use to evaluate their partners — and we support clients through TPN Shield assessments at Blue, Silver, Gold, and Gold Star levels. Multiple MelroseINC PMC clients have successfully completed studio and TPN security audits with our engineering team alongside them.
Certifications
MelroseINC’s PMC operates inside an Equinix Los Angeles data center, which is independently audited every year against ISO/IEC 27001:2022 (information security), ISO 22301:2019 (business continuity), ISO 9001:2015 (quality management), and SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 (security and availability).
Those facility certifications are held by Equinix as the data center provider. MelroseINC layers its own physical, network, and operational controls on top of that certified foundation. Attestation reports and our own security documentation — including our Information Security Policy and responsibility matrix — are available to you and your auditors under NDA.
Who is responsible for what?
Responsibilities are divided clearly and documented, so there’s never a question about who handles what:
- Equinix owns the building. Physical perimeter, power and redundancy, cooling, fire detection and suppression, environmental monitoring.
- MelroseINC owns the managed infrastructure. Firewalls, network segmentation, tenant isolation, encrypted VPN, and the compute, storage, and connectivity underneath your environment — plus patching, hardening, monitoring, and incident response for everything we manage.
- You own your applications, data, and users. How they are configured, who has access, and how your data is classified and retained.
If you host your own equipment with us, you keep full control of it — we provide secured space, power, connectivity, and hands-on hardware support, and we do not hold administrative credentials to your gear. MelroseINC’s Private Media Cloud is designed to strengthen your existing IT team, not replace it.
What happens if something goes wrong?
We maintain a documented incident response process built to MPA and TPN framework guidelines. We commit to notifying you of any confirmed or reasonably suspected security incident affecting your data or equipment within 72 hours, and to cooperating fully with your own investigation. MelroseINC also carries cyber liability and technology errors & omissions insurance with limits of $2 million per occurrence. The point is simple: issues get surfaced quickly and handled transparently, so you can answer to your own clients with confidence.
What is your uptime guarantee?
99.999% — the industry-leading standard maintained by Equinix globally. To put that in practical terms: when a major AWS outage took thousands of companies offline earlier this year, every MelroseINC PMC client experienced zero downtime. Private infrastructure, dedicated to you, doesn’t have the systemic failure points that come with public cloud dependency.
What does "private" mean — aren't all clouds secure?
“Private” in our Private Media Cloud means several things public cloud providers simply cannot offer. First, the infrastructure is dedicated to our platform — not shared with millions of other tenants on platforms like AWS or Azure. Second, your data is logically isolated from other MelroseINC PMC clients. Third, and most importantly: we make the rules. There are no surprise egress fees, no overage charges, no bandwidth throttling based on a platform’s commercial decisions. Think of it like the difference between a private road and a public highway — same destination, completely different level of control.
Pricing & Commitment
How is MelroseINC PMC priced?
Our pricing is straightforward and transparent — no hidden fees, no overage charges, no data egress costs. Hosting is priced based on rack space, power, and bandwidth. On-Demand is priced per service (per workstation, per terabyte of storage, per network port). A typical entry point for Hosting starts around $1,000/month. On-Demand starts around $1,500/month. Most clients find that our costs come in significantly below maintaining their own office infrastructure — or comparable public cloud services — while providing substantially more capability and support.
What is the minimum commitment?
For Hosting, we require a 3-month minimum commitment, given the time and care involved in properly onboarding and configuring a client’s physical equipment. After that, the agreement renews monthly with no long-term lock-in. For On-Demand services, the minimum is 30 days. We’ve also accommodated shorter-term project needs on a case-by-case basis.
Can I scale up or down over time?
Yes — that’s a core part of our private media cloud model. You can add On-Demand services when a large project comes in, scale back when it ends, convert rentals to purchases when ongoing use makes a capital investment sensible, or migrate additional equipment into our facility as your team grows. There’s no penalty for changing your configuration.
Support
What support is included?
Coverage follows the service, and support comes in three levels:
- Standard (On-Demand services and PMC infrastructure) — covered 24x7x365 under a 99.999% uptime SLA with service credits. This includes ISP connectivity, our firewalls and switches, and every service PMC provides.
- Standard Hosting (equipment you host with us) — white-glove hardware support Monday through Friday, 9:00am to 6:00pm: troubleshooting, maintenance, parts swaps, LTO tape handling, and third-party vendor coordination, with our engineers dispatched to the facility as needed.
Comprehensive Support (optional) — 24x7x365 coverage with 4-hour response across all workstations and users, including remote and external users, plus workflow and desktop software support. Comprehensive Support is purchased for a full workgroup rather than individual users; pricing starts at $500 per user per month, with custom volume pricing for larger workgroups (20+ users).
When is support available?
Our call center takes intake 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Within your coverage window you can expect a scheduling response within 2 hours and engineer contact within 4 hours of triage. Routine maintenance occurs on the 1st and 3rd Monday of each month, 6–9am, with one-week advance notice provided.
Who are your engineers?
MelroseINC engineers bring over 100 years of combined, vendor-certified media industry experience. They’re factory-trained on the specific platforms PMC uses — Qumulo, Avid, Arista, SonicWall — and deeply familiar with the production workflows our clients depend on. When you call with a problem, you’re talking to someone who understands your business, not just your ticket.
Getting Started
How do I know if MelroseINC PMC is right for my company?
The best starting point is a discovery conversation and a complimentary infrastructure assessment. We take a requirements-first approach — we’ll learn about your current setup, listen to your pain points, and understand your goals before recommending anything. If our private media cloud isn’t the right fit, we’ll tell you. If it is, we’ll show you exactly what that looks like with real numbers.
What does the PMC onboarding process look like?
We’ve designed the process to be low-friction:
- Assessment call to understand your workflow, team size, and current infrastructure
- Custom proposal with transparent pricing based on your actual requirements
- Optional 2-week Proof of Concept to validate performance in your environment
- Onboarding with expert-guided implementation and full technical support throughout
Most clients are fully operational within a few weeks of signing.
What companies are already using MelroseINC PMC?
Our clients include Skipper Creative, a six-person digital marketing agency that eliminated over $30,000 in annual infrastructure costs while gaining access to enterprise-grade technology they couldn’t previously afford. Ignition Creative, a mid-sized post-production company, broke their lease at LA Center Studios 18 months early after calculating the savings our Private Media Cloud would deliver —combining reduced physical overhead with the elimination of a $40,000/year firewall support renewal. We also serve Pantheon Media Group and a growing roster of production companies, studios, and creative agencies across the US.
MelroseINC is Ready to Serve
Contact us for a discovery call or a complimentary infrastructure assessment. No pressure, no long-term commitment — just a clear picture of what’s possible.
