Imperative to transit lift-and-shift to true cloud-native production

January 26, 2023

1 minute read

While the broadcast and media industry is poised for the transition to cloud-native production, the rapid adoption of cloud-based media production workflows for remote working and collaboration during the pandemic has led to the proliferation of higher costs and inefficient workflows.

A new study by Caretta Research and Blackbird, titled Going Native: Production in The Cloud, also finds that the rush to cloud and remote work has too often been tactical, involving the lift-and-shift of legacy tools and workflows.

While this is enabling short-term operational benefits and kept the industry working during the pandemic, it has frequently led to media operations missing out on the true potential of cloud-enabled live and post-production.

Ian McDonough, CEO of Blackbird, said, “We believe the clear direction of travel for media supply chains is from on premise to cloud. However, the pace of change is sometimes hindered by industry perceptions of latency, limited functionality, and high cost … as the future looks to be cloud, it needs to be cloud native.”

In the next step of transformation, a new generation of flexible and collaborative cloud-native technology is being deployed, the report adds. Camera-to-cloud workflows are bringing tools and creative users to the content rather than requiring the content to be moved around to the users. Live and post-production for TV, streaming and multiple digital endpoints are delivered by internal and external users able to access a single source of content and shared tools.

Robert Ambrose, Caretta Research’s Co-Founder & Managing Director, said, “It’s clear from our extensive conversations with production operations and technology leaders that we’re at the start of the next big transition: from remote lift-and-shift cloud production to cloud-native production.

“We expect to see more and more content going directly from cameras to the cloud, and both live and post-production happening there. That not only creates efficiencies, but it’s an imperative for handling fast-turnaround content efficiently for multiple platforms.”