4 min
Customer Overview
This global media and entertainment company operates across more than 150 locations worldwide, including studio lots, broadcast centers, archives, and corporate offices. With a universe of stories that stretches from superhero strongholds to wizarding worlds and classic animated universes, its spaces support some of the most recognizable characters and worlds in popular culture. Its vast and varied operational landscape, combined with the movement of thousands of people each day, makes managing secure access both a logistical challenge and a strategic priority. To meet these demands, they turned to Acre to deploy a cloud-based access control system that could support global scale, regulatory compliance, and future integrations.
The Challenge
With a global footprint shaped by decades of creative and commercial growth, the company had developed a variety of access control systems tailored to individual regions, facilities, and business units. Over time, more than 20 distinct platforms were in use across its sites – some partially integrated, others operating entirely independently
- This outcome:
- Inconsistent security standards across sites
- Slower scaling for new projects
- Difficulty meeting evolving data privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA
It became clear that modernizing access control wasn’t just a technical need – it was a strategic opportunity to reduce risk, unify identity management, and lay the foundation for a more agile and secure enterprise.
The Solution
Recognizing the need to modernize, the company began evaluating enterprise access control providers capable of supporting a multi-site, cloud-native architecture. Acre stood out early in the process – not only for its cloud-native foundation, but for its clear vision, published roadmap, and collaborative approach. The team saw alignment in a partner that wasn’t just building for today, but actively shaping the future of enterprise access control.
“What really stood out about Acre was that the platform was cloud-native from the start,” said Rob Sibley, who leads the company’s global access transformation. “[Acre] had a roadmap we could see – and a direction that matched where we were headed. That gave us confidence.”
With Acre selected, the company began a phased access control migration. The first phase focused on 20 high priority sites – including studio campuses, offices, and high-traffic facilities. Acre worked closely with the customer’s internal teams and regional integration partners, providing implementation guidance to bring consistency across every deployment.
The platform’s centralized cardholder database enabled better control over identity management across business units. Acre’s upcoming Dot Global capabilities were a key driver, offering the ability to localize cardholder data based on jurisdiction helping the company stay ahead of international privacy requirements.
The Results
With 20 key sites already live on Acre’s platform, the company has:
- One global access management system across regions and business units
- Simplified identity lifecycle management with a single cardholder database
- Faster, more predictable deployments through standardized implementation
- Greater readiness for compliance with privacy laws across North America and Europe
“This isn’t just about replacing old systems – it’s about building smarter environments. Acre is helping us move faster, with structure and purpose.” — Rob Sibley
Legacy systems are being retired, deployment timelines have accelerated, and regional compliance is easier to maintain. What began as a technology shift is now a strategic foundation for secure, scalable growth.
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