The cloud has changed everything for the media and entertainment industry when it comes to storage. The economies of scale that cloud-based storage can support has transformed the way that media organizations archive multi-petabyte amounts of media.
Tape-based multi-petabyte archives present a number of challenges, including a host of implementation of maintenance issues. Data stored on tape is not accessible until the specific tape is located, loaded onto a tape drive, and then positioned to the proper location on the tape. Then there is the factor of the physical footprint of the library frame, and real estate required for frame expansions – tape libraries are huge. This becomes all the more problematic in densely populated, major media hubs such as Hollywood, Vancouver and New York.
At first, the public cloud seemed like a good alternative to tape, providing lower storage costs. But while it’s cheaper to store content in the public cloud, you must also factor in the high costs associated with data retrieval, which can be prohibitive given data egress fees. The public cloud also requires moving your entire media archive library to the cloud and giving up the freedom to use the applications of your choice. Suddenly the lower initial costs of the public cloud can be wrapped up in a significantly larger price to pay.
Object storage is emerging as a viable option that offers media companies a number of benefits and efficiencies that the public cloud and tape-based archives simply cannot provide. In fact, object storage is rapidly becoming mandatory for applications that must manage large, constantly growing repositories of media for long-term retention.
Dell Elastic Cloud Storage (ECS) blends next-generation object storage with traditional storage features that offer the media and entertainment world an on-premises cloud storage platform that is cost-competitive with multi-petabyte type libraries. ECS not only simplifies the archive infrastructure, it enables critical new cloud-enabled workflows not possible with a legacy tape library.
Instant Availability of Content
The greatest benefit of object storage for media and entertainment companies is the instant availability of their media content – you can’t access media on tape without a planned and scheduled retrieval from a robotic tape library. For a broadcast company, the delay in data availability could result in a missed air date, advertiser revenue loss, and legal fees.
With instant access to their entire archives, a whole new world of possibilities opens up for content creators. Archives aren’t often considered when it comes to content creation – the process of accessing media content has historically been difficult and the process of obtaining data often takes far too long. However, with instant access to archived media, archives can effectively become monetized, rather than just sitting around on tape in a dark closet gathering dust and being wasted. Being able to access all of your media content at any time allows rapid deployment of new workflows and new revenue opportunities. Further, with object storage, engineering resources that were focused on tape library maintenance can be re-focused on new projects.
Operational Efficiencies
Object storage can also offer increased operational efficiencies – eliminating annual maintenance costs, as one example. One of the biggest – and least predictable – expenses with operating a tape library is maintenance. Errors on a tape library are commonplace, drive failures and downtime to fix issues can impact deadlines and cause data availability issues that can require valuable engineering time and result in lost revenue.
Going Hot and Cold: Consolidation and Prioritization
Public cloud storage services can enable users to move cold or inactive content off of tier 1 storage for archiving, but concerns around security, compliance, vendor-lock and unpredictable costs still remain a concern. Cold content can still deliver value and ESC allows organizations to monetize this data and provide an active-archive with the same scalability and low costs benefits, but without the lack of IT agility and reliability concerns.
ECS allows organizations to consolidate their backup and archive storage requirements into a single platform. It can replace tape archives for long-term retention and near-line purposes, and surpass public cloud service for backup.
In the video below, Dell’s Tom Burns and Manuvir Das offer some additional perspective on how the media and entertainment industry can benefit from object storage: [youtube_sc url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxCejJBLPMw”]
