COVID-19's Impact on Media Evolution and Cloud Adoption

This article was originally published on our partner Wasabi's blog.

A year ago our technology alliance partner Imagen published a blog post by Tom Blake addressing how the impact Covid-19 had on the workforce drove many media and entertainment organizations to migrate to the cloud. As both Imagen and Wasabi are cloud-based companies (Wasabi for cloud storage and Imagen for cloud-based media asset management), we wanted to see if the content from this blog post still reigns true and reflect on how Covid-19’s impact has accelerated the Media & Entertainment industry towards cloud solutions.

The Disappearing Objections to Cloud Solutions

For years there were objections regarding migration to the cloud, especially in the media and entertainment industry. Many companies favored their ‘ol’ reliable’ on-premise storage and Media Asset Management (MAM) solutions because they worried about the “unknowns” of the cloud. In Tom’s original post, here is what he wrote about previous objections to the cloud:

“As with anything new, the immediate response was “is it safe, does it work and how much does it cost?”

Safe started off by meaning “will my data be secure”. Advocates would say, “well you put your money in a bank, why not put your content in a cloud?”

Connectivity and cost were legitimate constraints, especially for broadcast file types and large libraries.”

The COVID pandemic caused companies to look ahead at cloud alternatives due to work from home’s lack of accessibility to on-premise storage, and therefore increased the need for remote collaboration. For those who chose to take a second look at cloud storage, some of these original misconceptions began to dissipate.

Objection 1: Will my data be safe?

Blake’s blog post mentions assuring your suppliers meet data security standards such as DPP Committed to Security or ISO-27001 and suggests ‘looking under the hood’ to make sure data replications and back-ups observe best practices for data integrity.

While these are still great benchmarks, there are additional measures in place for cloud security. One example is Wasabi’s S3 Object Lock feature for data immutability, which enables users to designate files or “objects” that cannot be altered or deleted by anyone until the desired retention period has expired. This free feature allows companies to protect their most precious assets from ransomware threats, accidental deletion, or even disaster file loss. Alongside immutable buckets, there are many additional best practices users can take into account to maintain state-of-the-art data protection.

Objection 2: How much does cloud cost?

Cloud hyperscalers have led the industry to believe cloud storage solutions must be expensive, tiered, and abundant with fees for data egress or retrieval. Companies like Wasabi and Imagen are proving this doesn’t have to be the case. In Imagen’s original blog post, they provided a real cost comparison of the cloud:

“Looking at cloud costs in 2021, a TB of Microsoft Azure geo-redundant storage (GRS) is $36.80 per TB per month…

However, a major advance came in the form of tiered storage, AWS Glacier of course, but also the more practical cool storage tiers (which, at the time of writing, Azure Cool is priced at $20.48 per TB per month.)

Cold archive storage is currently quoted at $2.86 per TB per month for AWS Glacier Deep Archive at $1.84; seemingly very attractive, but……

…there are a whole host of unitized costs, bandwidth, and API operations, which vary widely between different storage providers and tiers and are near impossible for any mortal being to predict and model. Simple bandwidth consumption alone could deliver you a real shock at the end-of-month ‘true-up.’ For instance, 1 TB of internet egress from Azure Hot is $89.30, and $100.30 from Cool while Cold cloud, such as Azure Archive and AWS Glacier charge astronomical rehydration fees, depending on when you want your data back.”

With these prices, I don’t blame any company for not wanting to move to the cloud. Though now, with Wasabi’s cost-effective pricing of $5.99 per TB/month without charges for egress or API requests, companies can find an affordable cloud solution without sacrificing performance or data protection.

Objection 3: The Cloud Storage Kitchen Sink

There are a number of additional commonly heard barriers to migrating to the cloud that Wasabi and Imagen have solutions for:

• Sunk costs in existing equipment: There are many solutions where Wasabi can help lower the total cost of ownership. By switching to Wasabi hot cloud storage and a cloud-based MAM, there are endless ways for media companies to utilize their footage more efficiently, allowing them to create more content and revenue and even freeing up that previous existing equipment for a hybrid solution.
• Proprietary lock-ins with incumbent providers inhibiting cloud migration: Wasabi works with cloud migration vendors like CloudFlyer to help resolve this issue by providing a low-cost data migration service that can ultimately lower the total cost of ownership long term.

A year later, the choice is even clearer why choosing Imagen and Wasabi is ideal for a Media Asset Management solution:

• No charges for data egress, ingress, or API requests
• Predictable pricing
• Data immutability with S3 Object Lock
• Increased number of ways to access and maximize the value of your content
• No vendor lock-in: both Wasabi and Imagen do not charge for leaving their platforms. However, once you choose Imagen and Wasabi, you may not want to go back to your old MAM solution!

Watch our joint webinar, Unlock The Full Potential of Video Library in the Cloud with Imagen and Wasabi!

Find out how cloud adoption in Sports, Media and Entertainment has been transformed