NEW FRONTIER Cloud may be the future, but how you use it is key to development
t’s all about the public cloud now, right? Time to throw all that hardware into the bin. Get those servers out of the basement and put in a pool table. Using on-premises data storage is not only limiting, it’s downright dangerous, right? One plumbing problem in the office upstairs and you’re calling the post-production supervisor, explaining how the edit will have to be a bit creative because your hard drive is soaked. You get the point. Offloading storage to public cloud services can relieve a lot of worry. And it is true that asset storing in the cloud looks like it will eventually become the norm. But it’s a mistake to let cloud-mania blind companies to the value – in some cases, the necessity – of on-site, hardware-based solutions. A lean media start-up might be able to get away with doing everything in the cloud, using a few small drives around the office. But when you start getting to a certain scale or maturity as a company, you have to manage content in a more sophisticated way. Big broadcasters can quickly build up massive libraries. In the case of large firms, these might be in legacy formats – old hard drives, videotapes, even film or magnetic audio tape. Most of these organisations have large-scale digitisation projects
PEOPLE ARE BEGINNING TO REALISE THEIR DATA HAS INCREDIBLE VALUE – ACCESSINGMATERIAL IS KEY
under way. As assets become digitised, with valuable metadata attached, they need to be made accessible. When these old content libraries again see the light of day, it starts to become clear there is a lot of untapped value. Material that was destined for a lifetime of deep storage is suddenly available for reuse or licensing. “Data has been growing exponentially. It’s not linear growth any more, it really is exponential – especially in the media and entertainment industry,” says Alan Sweeney, CEO of broadcast services platform MediaHub Australia. “People are beginning to realise their data has incredible value. So, being able to access your material is key – not just storing it and having warm, fuzzy feelings that it’s finally safely put away.”
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