When it comes to getting huge media rich files from one place to another, cloud file sharing is definitely having a transformative impact on the media industry.
What might have taken days to complete before and needed the involvement of a courier could happen the same day now with fast online file transfer.
The result has been more in-depth real time news animated by picture and video, more time on set or at the cutting table in the movie making process and the development of on-demand internet streaming media like Netflix.
Hollywood studios, national broadcasters, post-production houses, digital cinema and a host of other media businesses have really taken to and been able to use cloud computing to their advantage more than most other industries.
But with so many cloud vendors and products to chose from, what matters most to them when it comes to deciding on the right file sharing platform? The answer can be found in the various ways in which media companies use the technology…
Scalability
Before Netflix, the home movie market was all about trying to sell customers DVDs via the internet. Netflix changed the game by cutting out the middleman and showing you the movie directly on the internet – no DVD needed.
The company was able to do this because of its use of the public cloud, speeding up the delivery time of the film for the customer and allowing the business to grow rapidly, scaling upwards while keeping expenditure at a minimum. Last year the movie-streaming site added 2.3m new US subscribers between October and December alone.
Reliability and security
From a data point of view, design agency JKR had become a victim of its own success two years ago. Growing internationally from a small design studio in London to an international company with 150 employees and presence in Singapore and New York.
They had outgrown their in-house file transfer solution, which was limited by both bandwidth and geographical location, and needed a fast, effective and global data transfer platform, which was adaptable and resilient enough for the team to work on collaborative projects regardless of the many miles between each office.
“It’s good to go with one solid file transfer solution that you know is going to work,” explained head of IT at JKR, Leon Bentham. “People at JKR work very closely with other parts of the business as well as with our clients, so having a global file sharing solution is essential to our growth.”
“Security is another key benefit, with some other services you don’t know where your content is going, who has your files or how long they will stay up there. You need to be confident in the service you work with.”
Speed
From Hollywood movies to the latest addictive TV drama, the teams behind them are often spread out around the globe. The technology process vital to their development can often be a major factor in their drawn out production schedules.
Cloud computing brings the teams together under one virtual roof to improve the efficiency of their services, no more waste physically transporting, storing and optimising huge media files. Collaborators can reach each other with the relevant files immediately wherever they are in the world as long as they have an internet connection.