5 Gotchas for Moving to Public Cloud

With the rush to provide remote working, business continuity and the ability for creative professionals to self-serve content from the archive, the second wave of cloud mania is in full swing.

There are a number of different cloud options out there:

• Local cloud: Object storage in your own data centres (MatrixStore).
• Private Cloud: A managed storage service not using public cloud platforms. Typically built on object storage (MatrixStore Cloud).
• Hybrid Cloud: The best of all worlds for many. A mix of on-prem for power, private cloud for business continuity and deep public cloud archive for the ‘uh oh’ moments.
• Public Cloud: Super elastic and fantastic for collaboration and data services

For the purposes of this article, think of “cloud” as public cloud storage. If you are planning on moving to public cloud fully, there are some gotchas to look out for:

Number one in our list of gotchas is the topic we talk about most within the creative community. Public cloud in creative workflows is far too unpredictable in both cost and performance.

You’ve either got it or you haven’t and without it, well… it is evident that while some media organizations have fantastic connectivity both internally and externally the vast majority do not.

Let’s get one thing straight. Customer content belongs to the customer. Yet even today there are storage vendors, MAM, DAM and PAM vendors and also cloud providers who force you to always use their tools or protocols to retrieve the content you own. In the worst cases, they put the data into proprietary formats that ensure you are locked into them for data access and workflows. Be aware! Read the small print!

In many ways, metadata is as important as the content. If you cannot find it, you do not have it. Metadata, where possible, should be stored in an open format, available via open APIs and portable throughout the supply chain.

To make public cloud platforms affordable, they have to be generic across all verticals. Many offer just another ‘me-too service’. Specialization needs people and expertise, which costs. Some of the bigger players have media services they provide themselves, but there is an associated cost per play and the main third party applications are needed to make media work in that environment.