Guest blog by Ben Foakes, Founder and Managing Director, BASE Media Cloud
We began this 3-part-series by discussing the rapidly evolving state of media production, post production and distribution, and continued to part 2 by discussing the challenges that accompany this blossoming industry.
Part III: Solving the problem: where the media and IT industries collide
So, where does it all get stored? Safely, securely and in a way that makes sense in the hustle and bustle of media production, post production and distribution?
The answer is: in a variety of ways. Some good, some bad, some terrifying!
Typically our customers are well aware of the need to safely and securely store their business critical file content, and there has certainly been a culture shift over the last few years where the recognition of file-based workflows has led to more sensible budgeting for on location portable hard drives, post production storage and longer-term archive tiers etc. There is still a way to go to get the media industry in line with other more mature big data businesses, but we’re in a far better place than just a few years ago. Admittedly, larger organisations with deeper pockets often have well-designed, carefully administered work flow and storage systems in place, but this is a luxury enjoyed by those with the cash to spend and the in-house resources to run the required infrastructure. Not by most smaller businesses. Even those large enough to justify the capital outlay, expensive support contracts and engineering resources are beginning to look outside of their own firewalls to what is now available from 3rd-party specialists.
The most common challenges we see our clients experiencing right now are in the disparate nature of the multiple (often unreliable) storage devices being used, and the lack of simple file visibility, file management and media-focused work flow integrations available. As the amount of data keeps growing, companies are regularly hitting the ceilings of their in-house capacity and need to find more agile, sensible ways to deal with the problem, without simply throwing cash at new kit for a short-term fix.
There are a raft of media businesses right now from sole traders, small production companies and media groups, to larger scale broadcast enterprises, across all areas of media production that we know are sharing the exact same experiences:
- More content coming in.
- More going out.
- Less cash to spend.
- Less time to manage it.
The cost and logistical challenges of purchasing, managing and maintaining up to Petascale storage environments, file transfer and media asset management systems is not something that all creative companies, facilities or content distributors really want to worry about. It’s a niche area, where the technology accelerates faster than most can keep up with, and is not cheap to implement, manage, and crucially – keep up to date. A factor that many businesses are becoming acutely aware of is that the rate of technological evolution is now outstripping traditional write-down periods for equipment, which has a tangible impact on a company’s books.
This is where I believe that tailored Cloud solutions hold the answers for the Media & Entertainment sector.
Never before have so many cutting edge, constantly improving tools been available, at our finger-tips from so many specialist providers, each with their own individual strengths and expertise. The IT sector is enjoying a renaissance, triggered by the huge investment in cloud-based technologies, network services and Software as a Service by leading manufacturers and service providers.
We see a unique opportunity for new business models like BASE Media Cloud to present better ways of working, where CapEx becomes a thing of the past and our media clients can focus on their core business of creating great content and intellectual property, rather than worrying about managing technology.
Welcome to the future!
BASE Media Cloud is our direct answer to the challenges our clients are facing now and tomorrow. Our company ethos has been built around taking a tailored approach to every company we work with. We are from the media industry and therefore bridge the gap between the world of producing content and the backend technology required to make it happen.
It’s going to be an exciting journey as we scale out our platform and join the wide array of innovative cloud companies disrupting markets and leading the charge in 21st century work practices.
Today we are focused on Storage as a Service, because we believe this is not only one of the most burgeoning issues facing our clients today, but it will also form the foundation upon which to build a range of other value-added work flow services to help media companies produce and share great content, anywhere, at anytime.
We have a clear vision of where we, our industry and our clients are heading and the support of some fantastic technology partners, not least including Zadara Storage and Vodafone.
Watch this space!
You can learn more about BASE Media Cloud, powered by Zadara Storage, here: http://www.base-mc.com
In case you missed the first sections of this post series, don’t miss my blogs – Part I: Media State Of Play, discussing the rapidly evolving state of media production, post production and distribution, and also make sure to read Part II: Media File Flood Gates, discussing the challenges that accompany this blossoming industry.
