Is Hybrid Cloud the New Tiered Storage?

During my trip to the HPA Tech Retreat it became abundantly clear that the conversations around cloud workflows, cloud storage and archiving in particular, is becoming more sensible as organisations re-evaluate the best home for their content based on the requirements of their businesses. It made me wonder, is hybrid cloud the new tiered storage? This is not new information though, people have been making this choice in the M&E market for the last decade or so, with content either living on production storage, nearline or LTO, or quite often on a mixture of all three tiers.

What is new is that LTO is being replaced, at quite a rate, by a mixture of private and public cloud platforms as organisations look to hand-off responsibility for preserving their content for the long-term.

So whilst cloud storage is taking its place in tiered media workflow architecture, the requirements to put content on the most appropriate platform has not changed.

So What is the Most Appropriate Storage Platform and How Should We Define the Storage Tiers These Days?

Performance Tier High in bandwidth and IOPS performance with guaranteed QoS on writes and reads. Typical workflows include editing and playout.

Storage Technology: SAN, NAS, DAS, public and private cloud

Cost: $$ to $$$$$

Instant or Nearline Tier TTFB (Time To First Byte) is still sub-second, but designed for digital content governance, security, resilience and scalability. Enables media-focused workflows through API integrations and metadata management. Ideal as a primary copy in archive workflows.

Storage Technology: On-prem object storage, public and private cloud

Cost: $$ to ?????

Cold Tier Data is available when it can be found and loaded (If not in the LTO Library) or via agreed times and costs on public cloud (and some private clouds)

Storage Technology: LTO, public and private cloud

Cost: $$ to ?????

Frozen Tier Data is available when loaded into the library for LTO or via agreed times and costs on public cloud (and some private clouds)

Storage Technology: LTO, public and private cloud

Cost: $$ to ?????

Note: ????? accounts for egress fees on public cloud

So what is the most appropriate tier or mix of tiers for media workflows?

Self-Serve Archive Access and Global Collaboration Internal and external teams need instant access to content from anywhere with no gatekeepers or blockers. For organisations requiring frequent access to archive content (news, sports, agencies etc.).

Proposed Platform: Hybrid Instant / Nearline Tier On-prem object storage and cloud storage platforms with no-egress fees (MatrixStore Cloud). The on-prem copy in some instances is in JGE format.. as in Just Good Enough to put out on digital channels etc.

Frozen Tier LTO or Cloud

Pros:

Keeping a copy on an instant-access tier ensures content is available to all, increasing productivity

If the instant-access tier is on-prem, then access to content will be instant and fast

Keeping an insurance copy in the deep freeze ensures you have an SLA so that your data is available in the rare event you need it back

Multi-cloud workflows ensure content is more likely to be available and you avoid vendor lock-in

Cons:

Some like to avoid working with more than one vendor and prefer to keep all their eggs in that one basket they will not like this approach

Could You Use Other Platforms? Yes:

On-prem object storage in two locations can match or better the economics of deep archive cloud storage.

No:

If you do not want to manage and maintain data centres or machine rooms then a hybrid approach using private and public cloud is the way to go.

Fire and Forget Workflows Content that rarely, if ever, needs to be accessed, or an insurance/oopsie copy of content that is used elsewhere.

Proposed Platform: Public Cloud Storage/LTO Pros:

Pricing is ridiculously low to archive

You have an SLA to ensure your data is available in the rare event you need it back

Paying the egress fees might be worth it at the time if this is your insurance copy

Cons:

Someone else, often your competitor, has control of your content

Often called the ultimate in ransomware, as you have to pay to get the data back that you own

Could You Use Other Platforms? Yes:

On-prem object storage in two locations can match or better the economics of deep archive cloud storage.

No:

If you do not want to manage and maintain data centres or machine rooms then cloud storage is the way to go.

Hybrid Storage Conclusion Hybrid storage workflows are with us for the foreseeable future, as companies like us here at Object Matrix can provide an on-prem copy of content (high-res or mezzanine) on MatrixStore On-Prem object storage (actually on-prem or in a co-lo), whilst managing having a 2nd copy of the content in their deep cloud archive bucket, for an extremely compelling price.

Implementing 20PB of MatrixStore On-Prem, with all the media and cloud sync tools, works out at approx $0.0018 / GB per month if you break it down to the capex costs (including 5 years support and application subscriptions). 5PB works out to about $0.0024 GB/Month. And that includes everything.

A platform that is simple to deploy, manage and use with all content (and metadata) synchronised by Object Matrix into your cloud bucket in a non-proprietary way. This means our customers have instant 10G access to everything from anywhere, coupled with an insurance or air-gapped copy in their public cloud bucket.

A Complete Solution! If you would like to receive more information about MatrixStore Hybrid, please let us know.

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