Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Snowballs, buckets and bill shock

30/04/2020

If your content catalogue isn't already in the cloud, you're probably wishing it was right now. Despite the dramatic growth in the media industry's use of cloud-based storage in recent years and the escalating take-up of cloud operations in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, there is still some reluctance to place high-value material on 3rd party storage.

Here are three simple steps distilled from some recent projects which should ally any fears and enable a controlled migration to the cloud'.

1. Let Snowballs do the heavy lifting One of the perceived barriers to migrating a content catalogue to the cloud is the size of the data and therefore the time it will take to upload the material. We've recently supported the migration of significant media catalogues to AWS S3 storage and the process is really straightforward, thanks to the AWS Snowball service.

To facilitate the movement of media from your facility to the AWS S3 Bucket, AWS send a large (up to 100TB) storage device called a Snowball to your facility. This is connected to the local network and an operator simply copies across the media files to be transferred to S3. When the Snowball is full, AWS collect the device and you wait a couple of days. As the Snowball thaws (not an AWS term!) the files begin to arrive in your nominated S3 Bucket.

So far so easy. At this point your media operations management platform should pick up the workflow and bring the content under management. This should be equally as simple and will likely include:

registering new files, carrying out some basic integrity checks as well as creation of a checksum if necessary;

inspecting media files for technical data such as resolution, frame rate or audio track layout and store this as technical metadata against the asset file;

quality control checks via a suitable cloud-based service;

creation of a browse proxy version for easy visualisation, and

quickly archiving the file to an appropriate storage class based on the short-term usage needs. There is no need to keep a file at Standard class if it will not be used for some time and equally there is no value in sending media to Deep Archive which will soon be need for distribution.

2. Hold your own keys to the bucket While cloud-based material is stored on infrastructure owned by another party, concerns about loss or unauthorised access (theft) should be negligible. AWS S3 and similar cloud-based storage is secure as long as it's properly configured, account management is carefully controlled and a formal infosec policy is developed and adhered to.

At Blue Lucy we recommend a bring your own bucket model. Our BLAM platform manages content and orchestrates and automates operational processes using a variety of services. BLAM manages access to these 3rd party services and tracks the utilisation costs, but the commercial relationship is directly between the content owner and the service provider.

This model provides operators with maximum control in terms of security and cost. Content owners may negotiate favourable rates with storage and other service providers without any unnecessary, margin stacking intermediaries. There are also operational benefits to controlling your own bucket. One of the simplest and most cost-effective ways to deliver' content to direct-to-consumer providers is to provide managed access at the bucket level, which may not be possible if the bucket belongs to the intermediary service provider or if your content is in a bucket along with other another company's material.

3. Track your Costs - as you go Tracking costs, ideally in real time, is an increasingly important consideration for operators in the era of software-as-a-service. While the ability to use high-end software tools on a pay-per-use basis is transforming the media industry in terms of accessibility and autonomy, the accompanying flexible payment model is very different from the traditional model of amortising a large initial spend over a given period. Anecdotes of bill-shock' from unexpected egress costs abound as content producers struggle to untangle the openly published but often complex cost models of cloud services.

Although operators cite aggregate storage and media processing as the most important cloud service costs to track, operations management platforms should provide the ability to configure the tracking enabling:

reporting cost against single assets

aggregation by cost centre, campaign or tracked service, and

importantly forecasting costs based on required operations.

The Covid19 crisis means that 2020 is likely to be the year that sees the most rapid growth in the migration to cloud based operations. I hope these simple steps will mean the process is painless and that the new operating models that go with it are as cost effective as they are flexible.

This article was first published in the May edition of TVBEurope:

By Blue Lucy - May 6, 2020

Share this Twitter Migrating a content catalogue to the cloud without suffering a meltdown

&source=BlueLucyMedia rel=noopener noreferrer target=_blank class=social-share-btn btn-linkedin mr-15 mb-15>Linkedin
LINK: https://bluelucy.com/snowballs-buckets-and-bill-shock/...
See more stories from bluelucy

More from Blue Lucy Media

25/11/2024

Blue Lucy takes on The Americas

CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES London-based media technology business, Blue Lucy, has set up a US division of the company and appointed Dina Behar Hevert as VP Ame...

17/10/2024

BLAM vs BOLT: what's in a name?

Since its launch in 2020, Blue Lucy's flagship product, BLAM, has also been the company's only product. BLAM is a sophisticated workflow orchestration, ...

09/10/2024

Introducing Lucia

Everything you need to know about Lucia, BLAM's new AI assistant. The Blue Lucy team introduced BLAM's new AI assistant, Lucia to the media and enterta...

25/09/2024

Reasons to be cheerful post-IBC

We've been mulling over our experiences at IBC last week and digesting some of the excellent reports and engaging sessions from the likes of Caretta Researc...

24/09/2024

MIPCOM CANNES

Join us at MIPCOM CANNES this October to discover how Blue Lucy can give you effortless access to your content. We'll be showcasing BOLT, the new super simp...

19/09/2024

Blue Lucy to demo asset portal and host FAST roundtable at MIPCOM 2024

Blue Lucy is bringing its new media portal, BOLT to MIPCOM 2024, Cannes, October 21-24th. On stand P-1.C50A at the MIPCOM Innovation Lab 2024, the team will de...

09/09/2024

Strategies to Value

How easy is it for large, broad scope projects to deliver actual business value? It's a fact that our industry is littered with quietly, and not so quietly...

01/08/2024

IBC 2024

Join us at IBC this September and discover what's new at Blue Lucy We'll be showcasing BOLT, our new super simple media portal which gives media execu...

01/08/2024

Blue Lucy to launch asset portal and introduce AI assistant at IBC 2024

Blue Lucy has announced plans today to launch BOLT on stand 6.C29 at IBC 2024, Amsterdam, September 13-16th. Described as an asset portal, BOLT provides effort...

16/07/2024

BBC Studios picks Blue Lucy's BLAM for agile media operations, collaboration and delivery

Blue Lucy has signed a multi-year contract with BBC Studios, who will continue u...

16/07/2024

An agile media operations solution for BBC Studios' asset management and media transformation needs

In the early 2020's the BBC Studios team recognised that the cloud provided ...

04/07/2024

Next-Gen Tech Leader Insights: Rob O'Brien

As head of international technology at ITV Studios, Rob O'Brien is always on the lookout for new technology that can allow the company to work more flexibly...

04/07/2024

AWS hosted BLAM scores goals for national Australian sporting body

The following case study was created by Blue Lucy partner Amber Technology and first published on their website. A major national sporting body overseeing mult...

04/07/2024

Post NAB Thoughts

April 2024: It's been a week, and we've all now seen everyone's takeaways on the trends that emerged at NAB. Here at Blue Lucy Towers we like to do ...

04/07/2024

Blue Lucy wins Blue Ant Media contract for media supply chain automation

International production studio, rights business and channel operator, Blue Ant Media, has chosen Blue Lucy's BLAM platform for media supply chain automatio...

04/07/2024

Voting for (technical) independence

According to Time Magazine, more than half the world's population will go to the polls in 2024. The fact that the UK's election also coincides with Inde...

08/05/2024

It's time to hit refresh on the product roadmap

We're always being asked about our roadmap, when really what most people want to know is what features or integrations we've got planned. And if you thi...

11/04/2024

BLUE LUCY EXPANDS SENIOR MANAGEMENT TEAM

Blue Lucy, has hired accomplished industry expert Alison Pavitt as chief marketing officer. Pavitt's appointment into the newly created role concludes a per...

06/08/2023

Cloud Ground Canal: Blue Lucy at IBC 2023 6.C29

I was quite pleased to be asked recently by a Canadian colleague what our theme would be for the upcoming IBC. For me, theme reflects the ethos of the Blue Lu...

06/08/2023

Cloud Ground Canal: Blue Lucy at IBC 2023

I was quite pleased to be asked recently by a Canadian colleague what our theme would be for the upcoming IBC. For me, theme reflects the ethos of the Blue Lu...

13/06/2023

Media Companies are now paying for RFP's

Media technology suppliers have been complaining about the tendering and Request for Proposal (RFP) process for a long time. Many of their grievances have been ...

17/03/2023

BLUE LUCY LAUNCHES NOTHING NEW AT NAB 2023

Blue Lucy announced today that they will not be launching any new products at NAB 2023, April 16-19, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. The company will, howe...

17/03/2023

BLUE LUCY LAUNCHES..NOTHING NEW AT NAB 2023

Blue Lucy announced today that they will not be launching any new products at NAB 2023, April 16-19, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. The company will, howe...

17/03/2023

BLUE LUCY LAUNCHES NOTHING AT NAB 2023

Blue Lucy announced today that they will not be launching any new products at NAB 2023, April 16-19, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. The company will, howe...

24/08/2022

IBC '22

The balloon cloud installation at IBC 2018, the cloud in the Rai, as it was known at Blue Lucy Towers, was intended to mark the end of Blue Lucy's participa...

20/07/2022

Six Steps to Successful Service Delivery

On reading our recent article on the Blue Lucy implementation at A E Networks UK, available here, I was reminded that the project was extremely well received by...

06/04/2022

The Media Supply Chain is not enough

Here at Blue Lucy towers, we are constantly intrigued by industry buzz phrases, particularly how even the helpful ones are devalued by overuse and misappropriat...

15/01/2022

The cloud is not enough

Cloud native, software defined, the metaverse; the media technology sector is awash with buzz phrases. And, as with all popular terms which are used too libera...

06/12/2021

The Case Against Consumption Based Pricing

Imagine if TV companies charged consumers by the minute to watch a football match. Or if your office rent increased when you had a particularly busy month. S...

06/12/2021

The case against consumption-based pricing models

Imagine if TV companies charged consumers by the minute to watch a football match. Or if your office rent increased when you had a particularly busy month at w...

09/03/2021

Delivering Efficiency and Precision through Automation

There has been widespread discussion of new, fully digital and cloud based content supply chains, in the media industry since about 2016. Some innovators have p...

27/11/2020

Orchestrating the Cloud

There are probably more cloud-based services providing functional capability for media operations than for any other commercial sector. These services range fr...

24/11/2020

Transform Your Media Supply Chain with Ateme & Blue Lucy

As the complexity of media supply chain operations increases, the requirement for an integrated, business focused approach is vital. ATEME and Blue Lucy expert...

19/10/2020

The Automation Paradox Part 1

The need for content distributors and broadcasters to deliver media to an ever-growing range of consumer platforms has led to a significant rise in the number o...

19/10/2020

The Automation Paradox Part 2

In my recent post The Automation Paradox I highlighted the risks associated with developing a workflow orchestration platform in-house'. Cloud based servi...

15/10/2020

The Automation Paradox

The need for content distributors and broadcasters to deliver media to an ever-growing range of consumer platforms has led to an exponential rise in the number ...

07/09/2020

Automated Content Supply Chain Management in the cloud. Completely in the cloud

Off the Fence (OTF), an award-winning producer and distributor of factual television and feature-length theatrical documentaries, has recently migrated their co...

04/09/2020

Automated Content Supply Chain Management In the cloud, completely in the cloud

Off the Fence (OTF), an award-winning producer and distributor of factual television and feature-length theatrical documentaries, has recently migrated their co...

07/05/2020

Life in the Fast Lane

One of the key requests from our operational focus groups during the early design phase of BLAM-3 was the ability to prioritise workflows, particularly delivery...

30/04/2020

Snowballs, buckets and bill shock

If your content catalogue isn't already in the cloud, you're probably wishing it was right now. Despite the dramatic growth in the media industry's...

07/04/2020

Bring Your Own Bucket

The use of cloud-based storage in the media industry has seen dramatic growth in recent years; more recently the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is driving the ...

07/04/2020

HOW MUCH??? Controlling Budgets in the SaaS Age

Tracking costs, ideally in real time, is an increasingly important consideration for operators in the era of software-as-a-service. While the ability to use hi...

25/03/2020

Snowballing

Content Catalogue too Big to Migrate to Cloud? Try Snowballs, Really One of the principal perceived barriers to migrating a content catalogue to the cloud...

06/12/2019

Outsource Insource

The changing face of service provision in the broadcast & media business. As another production and media content supply chain operator files for bankruptcy and...

06/12/2019

Outsource to Insource

The changing face of service provision in the broadcast & media business. As another production and media content supply chain operator files for bankruptcy and...

06/12/2019

Outsource - Insource:

The changing face of service provision in the broadcast & media business. As another production and media content supply chain operator files for bankruptcy and...

06/11/2019

Technology Special: BLAM Behind the (Beautiful) UI

As an organisation Blue Lucy tends to focus on the business of media operations. The BLAM platform is operationally focused and every function of the platform ...

06/10/2019

IBC 2019 : A visiting vendor's perspective

As we covered in our pre-show blog, this year we decided against taking up our usual spot in Hall 7 of the RAI in favour of attending IBC 2019 as a visiting ven...

28/08/2019

Taking a stand at IBC 2019

It's that time of year again, the late bank holiday is just behind us and thoughts turn to the city of Amsterdam, particularly beautiful in the early autumn...

06/12/2018

TVT & Blue Lucy integrate to create efficient content supply chain workflows

Global content services provider, TVT Media, has integrated Blue Lucy's BLAM Adobe Premiere plug-in into their media management service and software platfor...