The concept of digital files is nothing new to the media and entrainment industry. It is, after all, the primary format of almost every files type they use. However, just because organizations within the industry are comfortable working in the digital world doesn’t mean they avoid the impact of a seemingly ever-evolving landscape.

For instance, storage is a thorn in the side of post-production professionals. Rarely, if ever do the customers of media production houses, let alone the consumers, ever contemplate the results of “high-definition.” Whether it’s audio, video, effects—the sheer space that these files now consume is borderline unfathomable. More so, throwing drives at the problem is not a solution. On the contrary, it exacerbates the problem creating a virtually unmanageable, untenable situation.

Imagine, if you will, an environment that continually consumes and manages petabytes of data. The infrastructure and workflow capabilities alone are enormous in scale. Now consider that data must, in turn, be shared flawlessly by countless team members—from production to post-production, to release and subsequently to archive. And that is just an average Tuesday.

It’s this ecosystem of on-prem, hybrid, and pure cloud storage that professionals must manage continuously—ensuring accessibility from anywhere, anytime. More so, the storage represents multiple tiers—primary production through to archival—every file must be accounted for, stored and recoverable.

The fly in the proverbial ointment is that the cloud doesn’t meet the requirements of post-production workflows. The cloud often represents costs too high to accept—from data transfer costs to elastic storage that can be cumbersome at best.

Oh, have I mentioned on-prem and remote editing simultaneously? Yeah, and it’s still only a Tuesday.

Taking a step back to look at the enormity of the ecosystem that post-production organizations must live within and manage, it’s no wonder that the impacts are stressful. But, unfortunately, it’s not where the stress ends.

As most people know, the cloud has also introduced many security challenges through all its wonderment and promises. Gone are the days of the office and four walls to secure from the outside world. Subsequently, gone are the days of appliance-based, perimeter-enabled cyber security devices.

Now, there is no “perimeter.” Instead, individuals connect from various locations, networks, and devices, all posing new security risks. The result is a scramble to ensure modernized security protocols are locked down—including level-based access. More so, there is the need for backup and recovery plans to be rock solid, along with the technology that literately manages the backups.

For all the storage and connectivity options to backup and recover practices, what’s left? Well, there is the actual management of the business to take into consideration.

The more technology evolves, so do the potential benefits afforded to business operators. Digital files and storage, regardless of locations, lend themselves well to the new world of Business Intelligence (BI) and analytics. The insight that BI delivers ensures that business decisions are with confidence—knowing what is being worked on and by whom, where files reside, and what storage is costing.

But here’s where the most significant impact still resides—how does anyone figure all of this out? Post-production professionals are exactly that—people who know their job inside and out. What they are not, nor should they be, are media workflow professionals able to assess, architect, test, and build leading-edge media workflow solutions. That should be left to the professionals (like us) to help create the perfect turn-key environment that encompasses every aspect, including shared storage, remote editing, application integration, interoperability and more. Ten and only then will you be able to take a deep breath and get back to the work you love.