Exploring the Potential of Hybrid Cloud Storage in Media Workflows

The media industry has been transformed by a digital revolution, and as a result, cloud storage has become an increasingly popular solution for handling vast amounts of media content. The shift to cloud-based storage has allowed media companies to access their content from anywhere, enabling them to collaborate in real-time with team members in different locations. Additionally, with the option to easily expand storage capacity as needs grow, it offers media organisations greater flexibility and increased scalability. However, a cloud workflow isn't right for every use case. Especially when working with nearline assets that need to be accessed on a regular basis, as egress fees can quickly add up. Likewise, a fully on-prem workflow presents barriers to continuity, especially in the current remote working era.

As media workflows have become increasingly complex, hybrid cloud storage platforms have stepped into the spotlight. Hybrid cloud storage combines on-prem storage and public or private cloud storage, to create a unified storage platform. Data can be distributed between the locations based on the workload or application requirements, keeping assets secure but in the location that makes the most sense. A hybrid-cloud approach offers significant benefits to media organisations looking to optimise their storage and infrastructure costs, while meeting their specific data security and compliance requirements.

In addition to the above, here are some of the key benefits of hybrid cloud storage in media workflows:

1. Collaboration Media workflows often require collaboration between multiple teams or organisations, which can be challenging when data (and team members) are stored in different locations. Hybrid cloud storage enables seamless collaboration by enabling teams to access the same data from different locations, whether that's on-prem or in the cloud. When teams can cooperate faultlessly on tasks, efficiency and productivity improves.

2. Monetisation Not only can hybrid storage be more cost-effective than pure cloud or on-prem solutions, but it can also increase the potential for monetisation. The instant and predictable access that hybrid cloud offers means organisations can fully exploit their content archives, rapidly turning their existing assets into revenue generating content.

3. Protection Media content is often high-value and irreplaceable, making disaster recovery a crucial consideration for media organisations. Hybrid storage can provide an effective disaster recovery solution by replicating data between on-prem and cloud storage, ensuring that media content remains available even in the event of an outage or disaster. Think of it as an insurance copy.

With the benefits above, a hybrid approach can work for numerous use cases. Let's look at three of the most common ones:

A. Production & post-production Media production and post-production workflows are often complex, time-consuming, and require large amounts of storage capacity. In addition, they require consistent collaboration between multiple teams, including producers, editors, and more, to work on various tasks rapidly, and often simultaneously.

Hybrid storage removes the need for teams to be present in the same location to work on files. It allows multiple stakeholders to carry out different production and post-production processes in real-time, regardless of being situated in the office or out in the field.

Example: Company A, a production company, implements a hybrid cloud solution to support a high-profile sports team with post-production and global collaboration needs. Hybrid cloud enabled production and post-production teams to work on files simultaneously, in real-time, to prepare content for consumption. The hybrid approach meant the required files were accessible immediately, while all other files could be cached for later usage.

B. Media distribution Media distribution workflows require fast and reliable access to content, as well as the ability to distribute content across different geographies and platforms. Hybrid cloud storage enables media organisations to distribute content from the cloud, while also providing the ability to cache recently captured content on-prem for faster access. On-prem files can automatically back-up to the cloud for additional digital content governance.

Example: Company B, a global media company, adopts hybrid cloud storage solution to manage the distribution of its content. Needing to distribute a new TV show to a global audience, Company B leverages the benefits of the hybrid cloud to scale up capacity and move the show's on-prem assets to the cloud for rapid distribution to various platforms and devices.

C. Media archiving Organisations often need to store and manage vast archives of content, which can be costly, challenging to maintain, and difficult to protect. Hybrid cloud storage enables organisations to archive content in the cloud, while also providing the ability to keep a copy of the archive on-prem for added redundancy and security.

Example: Company C, a government agency, adopts hybrid cloud storage solution to manage a growing cache of high-profile archive documents. The hybrid cloud provides a cost-efficient, scalable, and secure storage solution, giving Company C the confidence to archive a rising number of assets.

Compared to an on-prem or a cloud-only solution, a hybrid cloud approach offers the ideal balance of security, control, and flexibility, making it an attractive alternative for many organisations and use cases.

Designed to meet the challenges faced by organisations creating, ingesting, logging, editing, sharing, distributing, and archiving media content, MatrixStore Hybrid allows content to move between on-prem, private and public clouds, giving organisations greater flexibility, content protection (disaster recovery),

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