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The global Media and Entertainment industry was valued at $2.1 trillion in 2018, and by 2023 the market is expected to reach $2.6 trillion. This is not just the result driven by big name media houses, but thousands of small-to-medium enterprises as well. Media and entertainment companies in diverse fields like publishing, broadcasting, sports and music have now started to make use of cloud computing to improve their operational workflows. Cloud Direct Connects is a great resource for media enterprises looking to migrate to the cloud.
Recent figures indicate that nearly 73% of the companies run some form of cloud-based application. This is because Media and Entertainment companies are starting to realize that to survive in the increasingly competitive marketplace, they need to focus more of their energy and resources on creating and monetizing content, not on continually managing infrastructure. For media enterprises, cloud architectures offer the promise of infrastructure that is more flexible, agile, and self-managing. However, the broader industry is yet to realize the full potential of cloud solutions and what they can do for media production. Even though workflows are more streamlined now than ever, the global hunger for an ever-expanding oeuvre of content is creating demands for an even higher degree of efficiency presenting both new challenges and opportunities for content creators.
Leading M&E companies use cloud for strategic benefits like
Simpler and faster is always better. The cloud enables this for all operational processes to drive internal efficiency and eliminate unnecessary complexity. This results in better ability to govern the infrastructure, better capacity to handle peaks in demand, and provides increased access to more data for risk mitigation.
With access to broader data and more streamlined workflows, it becomes possible for organizations to innovate revenue models by leveraging and monetizing customer relationships, data and other assets more easily. Companies can also reap the benefits from improved time-to-market and easier implementation of relevant partner services.
- Business model innovation
Similar benefits of cloud computing also allow for easier integration of third-party services, encourages open collaboration and sharing and even opens the doorway for new types of business and new innovations.
Benefits of Cloud Computing in Media and Entertainment Industry
- Demanding Consumers; Unpredictable Demand
Today’s media consumers are literally spoilt for choice. They expect seamless flexibility as that has become the norm in the industry. Also, consumer demand has become highly unpredictable, and you need an infrastructure that is capable of dealing with spikes and surges in viewership in real time. Cloud computing provides scalability and flexibility on-demand that is required to meet volatile demand cost-effectively.
Cloud offers the potential to seamlessly collaborate within media and entertainment companies or with creative talent anywhere in the world. With cloud-enabled computing, creators can even hand off projects to other creators anywhere in the world to both expand collaborative efforts and meet the growing demands of a diverse global audience. Just imagine the potential of real-time collaboration between global counterparts working on a frame-by-frame project with full compositing and visual integration.
- Agility; Faster Time to Market; Continuous Expansion of Content
In order to effectively serve a global diverse set of audience, media and entertainment companies need technologies that support agile, and evolving business models. Cloud services offer unmatched benefits in flexibility, scalability, and speed-to-market when compared to more traditional workflows facilitated by in-house infrastructure. With virtualized applications and servers, businesses have the ability to dynamically reconfigure their IT infrastructure to serve any workload and scale services as per market demand. The use of virtual machines, docker, or kubernetes allows modern cloud systems nearly infinite scalability in operations and infrastructure which effectively allows for even minor adjustments in resource allocation on-demand and allows for the best possible time-to-market capabilities.
Among the variety of challenges that media and entertainment companies face are also the rising costs of content licensing, and increasingly shorter technology lifecycles. Cloud computing offers the ability for the media and entertainment industry to effectively manage and reduce technology and storage costs in order to address the rising costs in other areas. Cloud cost management essentially allows for a shift from the traditional CAPEX model to the cloud’s OPEX model. For one thing, media and entertainment companies can now get rid of the large sunk costs in infrastructure, such as, storage and delivery technologies and infrastructures. Organizations also have the ability to reduce storage costs by using different tiers of cloud storage SLAs. These can be used as needed for their hot vs. cold digital assets and can significantly reduce storage costs.
- Improved performance with minimal downtime & delays
Customers expect the best in high streaming performance, and companies need to find a way to deliver it round-the-clock without tipping the scales on cost and upkeep of infrastructure. With cloud computing, you can ensure high streaming performance with minimal delays and downtime – a necessity these days to meet both user expectations and to attract advertisers to your service/ offering. A mere delay of seconds in showing an ad to viewers of a chart-topping show can end up costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that advertisers can rightfully claim back. This is why media companies need the assurance of cloud which enables them to utilize dispersed and redundant architectures. These are capable of supporting high availability and high-performance SLAs, that may include servicing multi-region, multi-cloud, and hybrid deployments. Cloud Migration Solutions can be a great place to start your company’s digital transformation to reap the benefits of cloud solutions.
The cloud enables enterprises to make use of distributed teams, and empowers their workforces with the ability to work remotely. However, a mobile or remote workforce using potentially unsafe endpoints to access your network also increases your security risks manifold. To counter this, the cloud comes integrated with a Cloud security solution that provides some much-needed insurance for companies against the inability to access physical infrastructure. This potential for risk mitigation is a boon for forward-thinking media enterprises that look to proactively manage security risks to ensure business continuity.
These are just some of the benefits cloud computing offers to the media and entertainment industry. If you’re planning to jump on the bandwagon, you can always hire a professional with a certification in cloud computing.
About Ben Ferguson:
Ben Ferguson is the Vice President and Senior Network Architect for Shamrock Consulting Group, an industry leader in digital transformation solutions. Since his departure from Biochemical research in 2004, Ben has built core competencies around cloud direct connects and cloud cost reduction, SD WAN providers, enterprise wide area network architecture, high density data center deployments, cybersecurity and VOIP telephony. Ben has designed hundreds of complex networks for some of the largest companies in the world and he’s helped Shamrock become a top partner of the 3 largest public cloud platforms for AWS, Azure and GCP consulting. Stay connected at LinkedIn.
