Macro-Economics, M&E Workflows and…Object Storage?

We are less than two weeks away from the JB&A Pre-NAB Technology Event and the NAB Show, where Caringo will be focusing on workflow integration and optimization, specifically with asset managers, storage managers and media-moving solutions from Pixit, CatDV, Levels Beyond, Marquis Broadcast, FileCatalyst and others. Some of our technology partners have storage as part of their solution, many partner with other object storage vendors as well as with Caringo. With so many storage options on the market, it’s beneficial to take a step back every now and then, put the information in context, and think about how your requirements have evolved and will continue to evolve in the future. So what does any of this have to do with macro-economics? Read on.

Historically, M&E storage has been focused on ‘creating and sharing’ where SAN and NAS devices are needed to provide high performance and features like file-locking to enable collaboration. The goal is enabling a quick turn-around, handing files off between editors, VFX, colorists, composers etc. Then, everything is rendered, encoded, transcoded and packaged. You need a lot of horsepower for these tasks and they are, generally, driven by specific applications. Performance is often measured in IOPS, with capacities range from TBs to single digit PBs. File counts may reach a few million and features are measured through a file system lens. As file sizes grow, the need for SSDs and faster network technologies like NVMe increases. Because of this, for the foreseeable future, you will continue to need NAS and SAN and (possibly) tape. But if you look down the road 5 years, how will your requirements evolve? It all depends on where the growth is and where the viewers and resulting advertising and subscription dollars are.

We are in the midst of a macro-economic shift that is upending many social-structures, economic models and, interestingly enough, traditional M&E workflows. We now live in a mobile economy where you can go direct to the source for any product or service, instantly check prices, and find any song you want instantly. Everyone has a platform. Tech companies are pushing into the content creation space and bringing with them web-scale approaches (like object storage) and architectures developed during the time of the Internet. These new workflows are all about delivery, analysis and “active” archive (i.e., video on demand, direct-to-consumer streaming, frame analysis, metadata extraction, etc.). Performance is measured in throughput (i.e., how many concurrent files can you deliver), capacities range from TBs to hundreds of PBs, file counts reach to the billions and features are often measured through interface support. In this new mobile economy, nothing is ever deleted and new methods of accessing and finding content are being developed every day. Content is compounding. Now, with this in mind, take another look down the road 5 years from now. Where are the advertising and subscription dollars going and how are your requirements going to evolve?

How will your organization keep up with the new mobile economy so that you can focus on developing new methods and approaches for end-users to consume content? And, will you be able to bolt on to existing workflows while enabling new workflows, or is there a way to grow your storage and data management capabilities seamlessly while keeping your data secure and instantly accessible? Of course, this leads me to invite you to come visit with our object storage experts at the JB&A Pre-NAB Technology Event and the NAB Show (booth #SL11807), so you can learn just how Caringo Swarm can provide you with a hassle-free, limitless, secure object storage platform that will evolve with your needs. You can schedule a meeting with us at NAB or email us at info@caringo.com. And don’t forget to join us for our happy hours at the NAB expo Monday and Tuesday at 1:30 pm.

The post Macro-Economics, M&E Workflows and…Object Storage? appeared first on Caringo.