The Balancing Act of Cloud and On-Premise Storage

NAB

article here

Hybrid storage setups, combining on-premises and cloud solutions, are becoming more scalable and future-proof, according to a cross-section of media asset management solutions vendors reporting to NewscastStudio’s Industry Insights series. Costs and migration between tiers still need to be carefully managed.

The integration of cloud storage solutions into MAM systems facilitates remote and collaborative workflows and ensures scalability and cost-effectiveness in media production.

Here are some key takeaways from the Industry Insights Roundtable:

Jonathan Morgan, SVP for product and technology at Perifery, says, “While the M&E industry remains full of companies building islands of storage, on-prem or in the cloud, interconnectivity between storage is now more available and more powerful than ever. Storage hasn’t been about hardware for a long time — it’s more about the power of software.”

David Rosen, VP of cloud applications and services at Sony, says, “The integration of cloud storage into MAM systems is critical and part of a broader trend towards cloud-based workflows in the media and entertainment industry, offering flexibility, scalability, and efficiency in managing and distributing media assets.”

The demand for high-resolution content is intensifying storage requirements, with proxy-based workflows and scalable cloud solutions playing a crucial role in managing capacity and bandwidth.

Aaron Kroger, product marketing manager for media workflows at Dalet, says, “The escalating demand for high-resolution content, alongside considerations like bit depth, data rates and HDR, is intensifying storage requirements around capacity, bandwidth, access and collaboration. To accommodate this surge, scalable solutions like cloud storage are essential, yet the hybrid approach strikes a balance, addressing concerns regarding egress and efficiency for optimal workflows.”

With 16K on the horizon, Pixitmedia CTO Barry Evans says there is no end in sight for enhanced media quality — especially with AR and VR. “What’s become clear is that the standard practice of buying more storage boxes (and hiring more people) to accommodate increasing file sizes is too expensive and inefficient to truly scale and smart companies are building storage infrastructure that will scale with them. That means creative uses of data management and optimization of storage tiers to manage storage TCO and keep creative teams on task.”

Media companies must balance on-premise and cloud storage for optimal efficiency, says EditShare CTO Stephen Tallamy. “Every application is different, and every user will find a different balance between ground and the cloud. If production and post are in-house, then there is little point in using the cloud (except for archiving) because it just adds cost and complications. If you are moving to remote production, then collaborative workflows are enhanced through the cloud, including new ways of working like remote editing in place.”

In 2020, the shift to the cloud was a reaction to a dramatic change in workplace structure. Now, according to Duncan Beattie, product manager for storage at Rohde & Schwarz, companies understand the importance of on-premises storage being responsible for the highest bandwidth demands, most sensitive data, and critical work.

“Modern hybrid storage workflows, which incorporate Edge and Cloud solutions, are very powerful when designed well and should align with the company’s demands wherever production takes place.”

Tom Pflaum, VP of product management at Telestream, explains that it’s most efficient to have media reside where the workflow is, meaning that not every organization employs the same mix of cloud and on-prem solutions.

“Some still rely predominantly on on-prem workflows, others have migrated significantly toward full cloud adoption, and the vast majority sit somewhere in the middle and are taking a hybrid approach.”

Going forward though leveraging cloud storage solutions will bring tremendously beneficial cost, resource, and workflow efficiency improvements “that can make-or-break a broadcaster’s bottom line,” Pflaum says.

Vizrt says its customers prefer a tailored solution with multiple on-premises and cloud object storage options in a variety of locations. “This allows content to be held, migrated, and stored most cost-effectively, while ensuring continuity of access and an ability to onboard new storage solutions when required,” shares Jochen Bergdolt, global head of MAM. “Automated rule sets can be applied to determine where content should be held, intelligently balancing the need for access whilst keeping costs under control.”

There are cost implications though — both of staying wedded to on-prem and of moving to cloud. “For new broadcast players, the costs of securing and maintaining on-premise storage mean an exclusively cloud-based model is likely their best bet,” says Bitcentral COO Sam Peterson. “In case of established players with an on-prem setup, the optimal balance may be a gradual transition as they find the right stepping stones to move to the cloud, such as a hybrid solution.”

Abe Abt, senior product consultant at AJA Video Systems, says, “Cloud storage has given broadcasters more scalability, but it comes at a high price. Facilities often use it to supplement their on-prem storage to keep costs manageable. To this end, leveraging a combination of cloud and on-prem storage with the addition of a management layer that allows users to access or at least view data on both has become a popular storage ontology.”

Unfortunately, there is no simple solution for the migration. “For the most part organizations are looking at ‘tiered’ storage models,” says Philip Grossman, VP of solutions architecture at DigitalGlue.

This is where the high-performance, lower-density storage is utilized for editing content, with lower-performance, high-density near line storage being used for longer term retention, and then, finally, either cloud or on-site LTO (tape-based) storage for long-term or archive storage.

“Due to the cost constraints associated with storing an entire archive in the cloud, as well as paying to store hundreds of thousands of hours on physical hardware on-prem, broadcasters tend to use mezzanine file formats,” says James Fraser, VP of US sales at Moments Lab.

“This means that instead of uploading large, multi-terabyte files to the cloud, they use compression technology to create a smaller version of the file in a usable format of 18 Mbps or more. Storing a mezzanine file in the cloud is a lower-cost solution than duplicating storage of the original file, and it makes the content accessible to users worldwide, any time they need it.”

That’s why an efficient data management system is the winning strategy here — according to MAM vendors.

“Maintaining assets on Tier 1 storage is convenient, but wildly expensive,” says Evans. “Having a data management system that can automatically move data to more cost-effective tiers when it’s not in use and can call it back quickly when needed is how companies will get the most out of their storage infrastructure without breaking the bank.”

You can read all these quotes and a whole lot more from NewscastStudio about how AI and automation are becoming integral to MAM solutions.